GenAI: Hype-to-Value with Product Thinking

By Joseph Murray

Generative AI is here to stay, shaping our world irreversibly. As most companies compete in this new technological gold rush, seduced by the promise of revolutionizing products and ways of working, most will fail. The cost of failure surpasses mere millions of dollars, inflicting harm on brand integrity and employee engagement. This statement is not conjecture; it's a foresight built on nearly four decades of monitoring technology trends.

Revisiting the Hype Cycle

The conceptual map known as Gartner Hype Cycle? tracks the lifespan of technology from novelty to mainstream acceptance, traversing five distinct phases: the Innovation Trigger, the Peak of Inflated Expectations, the Trough of Disillusionment, the Slope of Enlightenment and finally, the Plateau of Productivity. These stages have consistently characterized five technological revolutions I've observed:

• Windows-based applications
• The web
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Mobile applications
• Machine Learning / 'Next Best Action'?

Each cycle brought exciting advancements but also pitfalls, particularly at the 'Peak of Inflated Expectations,' resulting in substantial losses. Yet, succumbing to this hype-induced downfall isn't inevitable. It just depends on how you approach it.?

Trading risk for value

How can you mitigate the risk of adopting emerging technologies as disruptive as GenAI? The approach many people take focuses on accelerating time-to-market. While a valuable metric, inherently, it's filled with ambiguity and risk. Shifting the focus from time-to-market to time-to-value in product development is a better metric to follow and a goal worth striving for, as it emphasizes delivering meaningful and impactful solutions that meet customer needs and maximize ROI rather than merely rushing products and services to market without ensuring their long-term value and success. And the way to achieve that goal is through Product Thinking powered by engineering excellence.?

Minimizing risk and maximizing value in GenAI applications necessitates a holistic Product Thinking approach across all areas, considering desirability, viability, feasibility and usability. This approach requires a well-integrated product, design, and engineering team present throughout all product phases.

Key stakeholders must be educated about GenAI, familiarizing them with its limitations, potential solution frameworks, and ethical implications. The discovery process should focus on identifying user tasks and generating candidate concepts via collaboration between traditional product practitioners and AI specialists.

Concepts undergo evaluation for desirability, viability, feasibility, and usability, emphasizing governance, ethics, bias, and trust. Those passing evaluations undergo prototyping and testing for accuracy and product-market fit, mitigating user engagement and value risks before agile development starts.

Where complexity and uncertainty typically pervade around such disruptive and transformative technology, we consistently find they can be mitigated with the right approach.?

Our work with Ford Canopy exemplifies how our approach to Product Thinking evolved an innovative automotive technology platform into a net new product offering, clearly differentiating the customer value proposition for Ford Trucks.?

But how do we know this approach works with GenAI?

Case study: Time-to-value in action

Our collaboration with 亿滋食品 is a powerful validation of our approach with GenAI. Our journey began with the question, “How might we augment cookie development with GenAI to accelerate the product innovation lifecycle?” We began with proofs-of-concept, which then evolved into the powerful Creativity Augmented platform for brands like Oreo company cookies. Through generative AI, this platform helps product developers create delectable snacks much more quickly while meeting various constraints and goals.

With Creativity Augmented, product developers set project specifications, and the AI model generates recipes iteratively. Tasting and feedback from developers serve as training data for improved recipe generation, optimizing for criteria like cost and liking.?

Previously, data needed to be more structured, hindering knowledge sharing and decision-making. We introduced AI-augmented learning to close this gap, empowering developers and collectively enhancing product knowledge. The solution offers faster experimentation, quick iterations, a deeper understanding of interdependencies, and an expanded scope of factors. Creativity Augmented goes beyond AI models, delivering unprecedented results and elevating product development to new heights.

Predictable yet nuanced

The hype cycle is real and predictable. But the reality is each technological leap, while building off the last, is very much unique, requiring careful assessment and consideration of their nuances. GenAI stands out in that many leaders are announcing the arrival of “the next industrial revolution.”?

GenAI requires new tactics for the Product Thinking playbook, including prompt engineering, allowing us to fine-tune AI models to understand the context and the user agenda better, enhancing the overall user experience and business outcomes. Another is addressing accuracy and bias in data, ensuring the delivery of more reliable and equitable solutions. Embracing diversity in the user base allows for inclusive product development, catering to a broader audience. Lastly, understanding the generational landscape enables us to cater products that resonate with different age groups' unique preferences and behaviors.?

In the dynamic world of GenAI, every enterprise embarks on a unique journey brimming with possibilities. Amidst this diversity, a consistent roadmap to success emerges Product Thinking powered by engineering excellence. By embracing these principles, you can deliver robust solutions today and build for a future teeming with untapped opportunities. The accelerated pace of change, driven by the maturing AI technology, is inevitable, and our forward-looking approach positions you to make the most of it.?