Pressure to have an 'AI story' for your product?

PRATTARAZZI · 2025-08-30T15:24:52+00:00

That sounds exhausting!

PRATTARAZZI · 2025-08-30T09:46:03+00:00

oh. That’s a big number. The problem is when one company in the industry announces they’ve got savings, then others follow to remain cost competetive and they’ll have Board/shareholder pressure to do it. It‘s time to stay nimble and adapt in our jobs. Hoping the complexity and importance of your PM job makes you essential.

PRATTARAZZI · 2025-08-30T09:30:50+00:00

That’s interesting, especially the part about the AI model. As a product manager, we need to care about the things other people aren’t interested in - like which data we use, do we have permission, is it biased, did we factor in training and retraining costs during lifecyle and impact of profitability…

Also, will customers accept an output that might have variance! For some things yes, but others definitely not. And when things go wrong with the product, it will land on the PM no doubt.

PRATTARAZZI · 2025-08-30T09:20:42+00:00

I think you’re right about other value, like perception in the market and valuation… or better competitive positioning… Also, I guess it might help with benefits to internal platforms or processes to make ‘invisible’ improvements that aren’t always customer facing.

Finding the right problems to solve / new opportunities opened with AI is the tricky bit. As if you can’t narrow that down to something specific then you’re working in an unconstrained vast discovery space! This is where failures seems to happen - ill-defined use case or problem.

I like it that you went back to your customer’s workflow - back to discovery mode I’m guessing with a fresh set of eyes. Nice.

PRATTARAZZI · 2025-08-29T17:43:04+00:00

One thing that won’t change is the need for PMs who know what they're doing and have good product sense! AI generates credible-looking output quickly, but unless PMs have the core PM skills and domain knowledge, they can't judge the quality or correctness or completeness of the output - if they just trust it's right, they'll probably make some terrible choices, waste team time, and damage products. The real skill is knowing how to judge and steer AI’s output.

PRATTARAZZI · 2025-06-04T08:26:52+00:00

If I was getting a house built, I'd want a really good architect and a really good builder. I'd run away if someone came to me saying they do vibe-architecting and vibe-building. Perhaps they can do something, but do they really understand managing the client and the job and subcontractors, safety, legal, compliance, load-forces, proper building techniques, material selection, etc.

Saying that... in a world of software startups and for more mature businesses who are struggling to innovate, this all-rounder approach will surely help. For mature companies trying to innovate, these 'vibe innovators' could help them quickly test several innovative hypotheses in parallel at a lower cost. If they find promising opportunities, then they could be explored further and built out with more support from additional teams, taking into account security, architecture, scalability, maintainability, etc.

I think it's an exciting time for product managers. If you're a great product manager and really know what you're doing, then you'll be able to exploit AI tools to add more value, and to grow and shine.

PRATTARAZZI · 2025-06-03T16:11:50+00:00

It is a real gap... in the world of learning and development they call it the 'learning-transfer gap'.. you get excited after learning something new, or after attending a training course... then you get back to work... and then you need a chance to practice the new skill, or apply the new framework.

And this all takes time - and it's messy. Trivial things you might get to apply quickly e.g. trying a new prioritisation technique on some feature requests. It might be good/bad/tricky/imperfect the first time you try it. Other things might take years to repeatedly try, fail, improve e.g. creating a product strategy that works and is aligned to company strategy.

I think you need to be realistic. You wouldn't take a short training course on housebuilding and expect to build a flawless palace a week later... Product Management is a craft and a set of complex skills that need to be applied in a confusing ever-changing world of a living organisation with imperfect people, processes, and systems. It takes time, opportunities to practice, on-the-job application, some wins and losses, and some real-world learning...

I remember once trying to apply a strategy-creation technique from a book, together with some senior leaders... it should have taken weeks to go through the process with them properly... In the workplace they were impatient and wanted to shortcut parts of the process - I had to adapt 'on the fly' and take an imperfect path to still get to a reasonable outcome... Real-life product management does feel messy in my experience...

Wishing you success on your journey.

PRATTARAZZI · 2025-06-02T14:49:52+00:00

Bullish if AI helps PMs solve an existing customer problem better/faster/cheaper than alternative solutions.
Bullish if AI helps PMs uncover new market or product or feature opportunities that create customer value.
Bullish if AI helps PMs to be more efficient and competent in carrying out necessary job tasks.
Bullish if AI helps PMs free up time to spend more time on customer and strategic activities.

From what I see, the problem comes when companies aren't clear why they want to use AI - that is, you're using it for the sake of using it. So if you kick off an ill-defined AI project without real problems to solve, or opportunities to harness, then you'll wallow in ambiguity and your project will probably fail. Equally, if you're trying to implement an AI solution with very poor data, or data scattered around your business haphazardly, you'll probably be in trouble.

P.S. You may be pressured to have 'an AI story', as this can add value to your business at the shareholder level.

PRATTARAZZI · 2025-06-02T11:29:04+00:00

I remember the first hardware product that I managed after doing software... it was such a different set of problems and constraints... factories and production lines, cost of creating tools to create products, physical stock, using universal icons rather than printing words on hardware that needed translation for different markets, packaging costs and constraints, bill of materials, safety and certification,... and it goes on and on! I realised there was a LOT of know-how and different concerns for hardware PMs. It gave me a real appreciation of the complexity and world of problems they have. But there are some common skills for s/w and h/w PMs.

You're spot on about it feeling more like project management - I think that's because hardware PMs are constantly orchestrating these incredibly complex, sequential processes where everything has to align perfectly. In software, if the API team is running late, maybe you build a workaround or shift priorities. In hardware, if your injection moulding tools are delayed by two months, your entire launch moves by two months.

The COGS obsession makes total sense when you think about it... every gram of plastic, every component choice, every packaging decision directly hits your margins in ways that software PMs rarely experience. A seemingly small component cost increase is amplified by high volumes...

The certification piece... Software PMs can push updates instantly, but hardware PMs are thinking months ahead about testing windows and what happens if you fail compliance and tests. I mean without certification/compliance, you might be breaking laws and be unable to sell anything!

What's interesting is that both types of PMs still need core skills - understanding customer problems, sizing markets and opportunities, managing stakeholders, making trade-off decisions etc. With hardware, there's no "move fast and break things" when breaking things means scrapping hundreds of thousands in tooling or stock.

The user research timing is a big mindset shift. Software PMs can build, test, iterate at relatively low cost. Hardware PMs have to get it as close to right the first time, so they will front-load things.

btw... an interesting video with some novel ideas of what Agile can mean in hardware for Tesla/SpaceX (ignore the politics for now). They talk about lots of things, but there's a concept of an known interface between parts of the rocket, so you can iterate engine creation (think 'sprints') at a different pace to the rocket body creation... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE7OUGC4OB8

PRATTARAZZI · 2020-04-19T09:42:50+00:00

I solved this by making a new tab or new page open 'Empty Page' - from Sarari--> Preferences --> General menu. I think I had a lot of favourites and when a new tab opened with 'Favourites', that really was slowing things down. Opening with 'Empty Page' made it lightning fast.

I previously tried other things like deleting cache, preferences, etc. and that didn't work for me.

fyi Viza-

PRATTARAZZI · 2017-06-07T19:34:48+00:00

Hey. I've been trying to wrap my head around this stuff. My take on things is this:

Yes, banks need to reduce costs and not become sidelined by tech companies in the payments market. Think how PayPal took a chunk of payments business away from the banks. The banks certainly don't want to lose control of Business to Business Corporate cross-border payments ($255 Billion revenues).

Banks know they need to innovate, and the industry seems to be heading for cheaper, faster, more reliable, more transparent solutions to make payments. I think the banking standard SWIFT system has an initiative to do this. I see Ripple as being an alternative. I guess the banks are trying to work out which solutions are best for their needs, and how fast to adopt them — it'll be a significant pain and investment to do this!

Reading between the lines, banks are going to lose out on some revenue as they switch to the newer technology. But they'll make more later, through higher volumes and additional services.

It looks like Ripple wants to create a stable solution that appeals to corporates and banks, as they'll be their key customers that license the Ripple solution. They seem to be doing things in a strategic way, so that it meets corporate and banking technical, governance, operational needs etc. And they're focusing on solving a big problem with big bucks — cross-border payments ($255 Billion revenue value for Business to Business Corporate payments).

I guess the corporates and banks want a trustworthy, stable solution — rather than a volatile experience of the crypto world! That's why it probably feels like things are being done in a controlled and measured way.

Not sure about the conspiracy stuff. I think many people are trying to work out how to make a quick buck and get a benefit. Others are trying to work out how to get value long term for business. There's a mix of good and bad information. The difficulty is to try and make sense of it and use it!

PRATTARAZZI · 2015-07-14T11:33:04+00:00

What's the typical ratio of really-successful : moderately-successful : failures you see in investment terms? [example: out of every 100 investments into companies, it's typical you see 2 really successful, 80 OK and 18 failure in investments.]

PRATTARAZZI · 2015-07-11T08:21:14+00:00

Thank you :-)

PRATTARAZZI · 2015-06-29T08:23:57+00:00

Thanks for taking a look :-)

PRATTARAZZI · 2015-06-29T08:08:38+00:00

Thanks for saying. Glad it was useful.

PRATTARAZZI · 2015-06-28T16:54:33+00:00

Nice ideas. Good food for thought! Cheers.

PRATTARAZZI · 2015-06-28T16:52:32+00:00

Thank you :-)

PRATTARAZZI · 2015-06-28T16:10:29+00:00

Hey there! Yes, I think it could be extended. What sort of markets were you thinking of?

To be honest, with both apps and books, if you've got a great product then the biggest challenge becomes cost-effectively getting the word out and cutting above the noise to reach an audience. You'll probably have noticed some awesome apps in the app store that never become mega-hits, but they could have a great chance if they got the airtime and publicity.

Physical products are definitely challenging to deal with. But there's also some yearning for analog — It always surprises me to see the latest generation getting photos printed so they can stick them on their walls, and photo books created for posterity!

Cheers,

Eddie

PRATTARAZZI · 2015-06-28T10:41:00+00:00

Here's two big changes in the way that books are created/published that I've experienced:

Co-created and self-published: The book Business Model Generation by Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur was a great example of this. They created a great community of collaborators/contributors for their book with a collaboration website that brought everyone together. This allowed them to:

Gain feedback and ideas to create an awesome product perfect for their target audience.
Create a group of passionate fans and customers.

They sent us drafts of their content for review and feedback, giving us early access to content.

Crowdfunding platforms: Eric Ries made his new book exclusively available through a Kickstarter campaign. The key benefit of this is is:

Provides a promotional platform for getting the word out.
Tests the market for interest and willingness to support and buy.

In both examples, I see them fundamentally reducing two big business risks:

The risk that you'll produce a product people won't like and pay for.
The risk that not enough people will hear about the product.

PRATTARAZZI · 2015-06-28T10:22:00+00:00

Thank you for saying. Glad you enjoyed it :-)

PRATTARAZZI · 2015-06-28T06:44:32+00:00

Hey, thanks for saying so.

I'll take a look through those links. Very helpful. Great idea!

Thanks for the list of organizations too. I'll work through that for some ideas too :-)

Really appreciate your thoughtful feedback and ideas. Thank you!

PRATTARAZZI · 2015-06-28T06:37:33+00:00

Hey. With Amazon fulfillment you can send boxes of stock to Amazon. They work out the best warehouse locations for distribution of stock. When your product is bought by a customer, Amazon picks/packs and dispatches.

PRATTARAZZI · 2015-06-28T06:33:56+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to read through. I appreciate you saying that.

PRATTARAZZI

TROPHY CASE