AI/ML & Product Management

By Caleb Onigbogi

What is Product Management?

Product Management is the business process of planning, developing, launching, and managing the development of a new or existing product or service which includes the entire lifecycle (introduction, growth, maturity, and decline) of a product, from ideation to development to go-to-market strategy.

Who is a Product Manager?

A Product Manager is a product expert that manages a product or products at all phases of the product life cycle and is in charge of making sure that a product satisfies the needs of its target market and contributes to the business plan.

A product manager's daily responsibilities span a wide range of strategic and tactical tasks. Most product managers don't take on all of these duties; instead, other teams or departments in most organizations are responsible for parts of them.

But most product professionals spend the majority of their time focused on the following:

• Conducting Research: Gaining knowledge about the market, user personas, and rivals of the organization through research.
• Developing Strategy: Transforming the knowledge they have gained about the business into a high-level strategic plan for their product that contains goals and objectives, a general description of the product, and perhaps a rough timeline.
• Communicating Plans: Putting together a practical strategic plan based on a product roadmap and presenting it to important stakeholders which include executives, investors, development teams, etc. continuous contact between their cross-functional teams during and after the development process.
• Coordinating Development: Assuming they have been given the all-clear to proceed with their product's strategic plan, they should communicate with the pertinent team, such as product development, marketing, etc. to start putting the strategy into action.
• Acting on Feedback and Data Analysis: After developing, testing, and launching the product, learn through data analysis and direct user input what functions well, what doesn't, and what should be added. Integrating this input into upcoming product revisions by working with the appropriate teams.

What is Artificial Intelligence/Machine learning?

The science of creating computers and robots with intelligence that both mimics and exceeds that of humans is known as Artificial Intelligence. AI-enabled systems can analyze and contextualize data to deliver information and automatically initiate operations without human intervention.

Modern technologies, such as smart devices, voice assistants like Siri on Apple devices, and chat boxes, most notably OpenAI ChatGPT, all include artificial intelligence at their core and continue to do so. Businesses are using methods like natural language processing and computer vision, which allow machines to understand images and understand human language to automate jobs, speed up decision-making, and enable consumer conversations with chatbots.

Artificial intelligence can be attained through machine learning. This branch of AI applies to learning to make ever-better judgments by using algorithms to automatically discover patterns and acquire insights from data. Programmers explore the limitations of how much they can enhance a computer system's perception, cognition, and behavior by researching and experimenting with machine learning.

The main distinction between machine learning and artificial intelligence is that machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that enables machines to learn from prior data or experiences without explicit programming. Artificial intelligence is a technology that allows us to build intelligent systems that can simulate human intelligence.

What is AI Product Management?

In a nutshell, AI product management is concerned with applying machine learning, deep learning, or artificial intelligence to improve, create, and shape goods. Finding the correct data and figuring out how to use it to develop an innovative product that thrills customers and keeps them coming back for more are key components of successful AI product management. “Your competitive advantage comes from applying AI to your data and innovating on your business model.” - Kevin Dewalt.

According to a recent poll, 70% of all firms worldwide have begun implementing AI projects. As a result, B2B and B2C products and services such as Tesla Autopilot, Alexa, ChatGPT, Google Search, Pictures, and Translate are already benefiting from AI. The link between all of these is machine learning (and data). With all of that stated, we can say that AI is still very much a work in progress for many businesses around the world that are still attempting to understand it, use it correctly, and succeed commercially.

Who is an AI Product Manager?

An AI product manager is a person who combines the knowledge and expertise of an AI expert with all the functions and responsibilities of a regular product manager. Deep knowledge in artificial intelligence, data science, and computer science, as well as other ideas like deep learning and machine learning, is required of AI product managers. Artificial intelligence and Machine learning models are primarily used in the creation, improvement, and enhancement of products by AI product managers. Product leaders, senior product managers, data scientists, and machine learning engineers are frequent collaborators of an AI product manager. AI PMs are primarily concerned with applying AI initiatives to product management to ensure increased effectiveness, productivity, and quality.

Role of an AI Product Manager

Although AI product management has similar duties and requirements to conventional product management, its scope is expanded to cover the following areas:

• Additional input: Together with the standard product team and stakeholders, AI PMs also collaborate with data scientists and data engineers. Effective delivery of AI-powered specs to data science teams is a need for AI project managers.
• Problem mapping: This plays a significant role in conventional product management as well. Yet AI PMs must keep in mind to stay customer-centric in the face of AI. Although AI has exciting potential, an AI PM's main focus is still on finding a solution for the customer's issue. AI PMs must have a strong customer focus because AI is not a panacea.
• Data literacy: A completely new set of PM abilities is knowing the correct questions to ask regarding customer data. As an AI PM, having practical expertise with a working knowledge of data and models is regarded as crucial.
• Communication: This is an ability that is not specific to an AI PM, like problem mapping. All product managers need to be effective communicators to succeed. Good communication is still a crucial aspect of product management for AI. Because they must translate between the languages of product development and data science, some AI professionals refer to AI PMs as translators.?

Essential Skills for an AI Product Manager

There are certain essential skills that you must acquire to succeed as an AI product manager because they will aid you in developing effective AI products. They include:

1. Technical Skills:

An AI product manager cannot manage a product without having a firm grasp of the technical components of product development. Every product manager must have a thorough awareness of the products they are in charge of. Thus, having a thorough understanding of artificial intelligence and machine learning models is essential for becoming a successful AI product manager. You also need to have a solid understanding of the technologies that are used by developers to create AI solutions.

2. Management Skills:

Being an AI product manager also requires project and team management skills. Product managers frequently find themselves having to deal with a variety of challenging issues that arise in cross-functional teams. The engineering and development teams will go to you as the product manager first when they need help. For this reason, you must exhibit great leadership and organizational skills to oversee a project from beginning to end. Product managers for AI must demonstrate leadership, adaptability, and response. This is because you are trusted by the entire product team to lead the way through AI initiatives.

3. Communication Skills:

No product manager hopes to create AI-based goods and services on their own. Innovative new solutions require the work of a full product team.

To make sure that everyone follows the plan and is in line with the original product vision, the product team's ability to communicate effectively is essential. Several undesirable situations result from inadequate communication. These include:

• Both the product manager and other team members will most likely do a poor job of prioritizing work.
• The inability to meet deadlines on key product design and development milestones.?
• Failed product features and functionalities.
• Unsuccessful product launches?

You develop solid communication skills over time as you participate in more team projects and take on more leadership roles.

4. Research Skills:

Having a thorough understanding of data science and deep learning systems is insufficient for an AI product manager. Product managers for AI must also comprehend their clients and conduct the required research. Making wise selections requires thorough investigation.

Some of the common research tasks that product managers have to carry out include:

• Identifying customer needs and validating the intended product’s value.
• Finding out about new customer behavior and market trends.
• Studying the products of competitors to determine the best way to position your product within its market.

5. Strong Business Skills:

Product managers' responsibilities have evolved to include more strategic duties. Today's AI PMs must also oversee team management and product development. They must also have a thorough awareness of the commercial possibilities, guiding principles, and potential underlying each choice of product. Understanding the product's financial ramifications, hazards, and prospective returns, among other things, is necessary for this. Also, you must possess a solid awareness of the best practices for branding, marketing, and product launch. Because of this, AI PMs must make sure they have a firm understanding of business basics. You must be skilled at using data to make judgments while considering the financial effects of every stage of the product development process.

Why AI is Important in Product Management

A crucial tool in many industries, including product management, is artificial intelligence. Product managers can benefit from AI in several ways, including by speeding the product development process and enhancing customer interaction.

There are many reasons why AI is important in product management, some reasons are:

• With AI, you may automate a variety of product development tasks, including competition and market research. By doing this, product managers may have more time to devote to strategic planning and other elements of their work.
• AI can help businesses increase client engagement. For instance, chatbots powered by AI can offer prompt and effective customer care, increasing customer satisfaction.
• By making specific recommendations based on historical user behavior, AI can be used to tailor the user experience.
• A useful tool for product managers is AI. AI can assist product managers in saving time and enhancing the overall quality of their products by automating numerous tasks and enhancing consumer involvement.

How AI can transform Product Management

Product management may be transformed by AI in a variety of ways, from the automation of procedures and duties to the creation of ideas for new products and services that we can utilize to create excellent products.

Here’s a quick list and the benefits of how AI is transformational for product managers:

• AI Transforms the User Feedback Process: Simply put, a lot of businesses employ AI to manage consumer feedback. It's a creative and effective technique to assist your clients and discover more about them. AI lessens human faults that could obstruct working with user feedback. You will be able to comprehend your users more fully with the aid of machine learning. Product feedback makes up a sizable portion of your user feedback. When you employ AI or AI-based product management systems that assist you with product feedback, your product life cycle improves. With the use of AI-based feedback methods for iterations, the Agile product development process may be made more seamless.
• AI Enhances Your Meetings: If you work for a large organization, sharing information with your coworkers about potential workflow impacts is essential. Only by identifying job overlaps and warning you before you begin something may AI be useful. It would spare you a ton of hassle and time. You may acquire updates and agendas before your Scrum meetings by integrating AI into your system and preparing for them beforehand. AI also makes it possible to avoid the time-consuming practice of holding numerous scrum meetings. It gathers information about your Scrum team and continuously updates you on it in real time so you can work on it without having to wait for your next meeting.?
• AI Improves Usability Testing: AI integration will only make the job of software testers easier. Your team will spend a fraction of the time testing apps manually. They will become more effective and agile as a result. You could still require a human to supervise the testing process, though. With recent breakthroughs in technology, AI has quickly entered the digital sphere. Designers can now include their applications inside websites, enhancing user experience and functionality.
• AI Enhances Your Market Intelligence: A product manager needs to be very familiar with the industry they work in. Without market expertise, there is a very low likelihood of producing anything that customers will want. The natural language processing and sentiment analysis technologies used in modern AI-powered systems process thousands of words in real-time to reveal trends and prevailing sentiment. As part of their research, research, and development teams invest a lot of time in producing reports. On the other hand, artificial intelligence can help in this circumstance. Due to its ability to perform market research more quickly and deliver data more quickly, AI has the potential to revolutionize this industry.
• AI Gives You a Competitive Advantage: AI can completely change how organizations run. Companies can obtain a competitive advantage by harnessing the power of data and using it to develop predictive models. By leveraging data to generate predictive models, AI can assist you in making better decisions. By analyzing information about client purchasing patterns and making predictions about what would sell well, AI, for instance, might assist a business in making better stocking decisions. AI can also assist you in personalizing your products by evaluating client data that helps you better understand their requirements and desires. Then, your product team can utilize this data to further tailor your goods and services to match their needs. Increased client satisfaction and loyalty may result from this.

Conclusion

The use of AI in product management is both current and future. It can aid in process simplification, resource optimization, and data-driven decision-making. Product managers can use AI to enhance everything from ideation to execution as the field of product management uses it.?

The demand for AI-capable PMs to lead the product charge will increase gradually as more businesses study and adopt AI. To get the most out of AI, you should combine it with other techniques; nevertheless, keep in mind that AI is just one tool in your arsenal.