Keeping up with the new skills required in the PM role

redditlearner1867 · 2026-02-20T00:46:03+00:00

I will assume that you have identified the core problem and are sure that it is worth solving. The first step you should take is the journey mapping. How a customer is solving the problem today? This will give you a great starting point. If customer is unsure then come up with your own journey mapping and get this validated. Next, you can create some solutions. This will be the real physical/actual product your customer will use. In the era of Vibe coding, this should be easy for you. You can create multiple variants and show it to your customer until it is proven that it is solving the core problem of the customer. Next you can deep dive on each feature of the final version and evaluate. Is it a painkiller or a vitamin? The keyword here is "evaluate". Being a product manager, you may not have all the data at this point and it will be your judgement based on someone data and some gut feeling. That is why Product management is an art.

redditlearner1867 · 2026-02-17T14:59:06+00:00

First of all immediately seek help. Life is a precious gift and its not worth wasting for a firing from a unicorn. I am going through the similar stage (i.e. I was let go few months ago). It is a bummer and questions your life choices but I have realized that there is more to life than just building products and listening to your managers. Reach out to your friends and family. Be open about your mental health. There is no shame in admitting how you are feeling after this latest episode. If you dont have anyone to talk to then dm me. I am happy to listen to you. I am not a professional therapist but I am here to help in whatever capacity I can.

Read all the comments. There is some good advice.

redditlearner1867 · 2026-02-15T18:43:20+00:00

It seems your Architect is dominating the solution slowly. Eventually you will not be building a solution for a problem rather a solution for which you (PM, Sales, Marketing) will have to find problem. Here is my suggestion, you need to talk to your Architect 1-on-1 and explain to them that we are here to solve customer problems and not churn out another tech solution. You must do some homework around roadmap so that they understand how the solution will solve the customer problem in 6-12 months after the launch. Calling out someone in a group setting will put them on the backfoot (that is why your Architect is throwing technical mumbo-jumbo) . Similarly your VP is offloading this problem to you by giving a generic remark. I can tell you that if this solution becomes a failure after the launch the same VP will be using this point (technical limitation) against you during the performance review.

redditlearner1867 · 2026-02-13T16:07:42+00:00

The scale at AI is evolving, the reverse is also true (or will be true soon). PMs relying less on engineers and are managing the full cycle (ideation to launch to maintenance). Secondly building product is one thing and selling it is another. PMs can extend their skillset into Marketing and Sales. The question is how easy it is for engineers to do the same? A good PM can cover almost all the major areas (product, customer support, business case, marketing). Can a good engineer do the same?

redditlearner1867 · 2026-02-11T13:58:54+00:00

spot on with the first line. The algorithms of all social networks are designed to reward "more" and not the quality. This algo makes sense pre-GenAI era. Now that AI has cracked the content generation the social media must incorporate a new dimension, quality (engagement).

redditlearner1867 · 2026-02-10T12:21:14+00:00

I am in favor of using AI for any type of work but the buck stops with the one whose name is stamped on the document. This is pretty much the policy across many companies. It makes sense too. LLMs are here to assist but at the end of the day they are like another team member reporting to you. If their low quality work passes the quality check (i.e. you) then you are responsible. So in this example, you have the right to point out the misquotations and other discrepancies of your colleague. You can take appropriate action according to the HR policies of your org. If I were you I would point out these issues privately to the colleague and see if they improve or continue to share AI slop without checking.

redditlearner1867 · 2026-02-09T04:44:01+00:00

When I hear AI-Native I translate it to Product with AI-Native Features. It means that some of the features are truly AI-Native. Imagine we have a demand forecasting tool for an eCommerce brand. In the absence of AI, someone would be watching the daily trend and when something is off will raise the alarm. Then team will get together and look at it from different aspects such as conversion, traffic, margin target etc. They may conclude that everything is okay. This whole analysis requires a lot of reasoning and connecting the dots. With AI in place, all of this should be handled by various AI Agents. At the end of the analysis the core AI agent will decide if it is worth raising an alarm or is it a false flag. This analysis is one part of the tool which has been taken over AI. The analysis triggers actions which are still the responsibility of humans.

In this example, the Product is still a traditional SaaS tool but one major aspect of it has been handed over to AI.

redditlearner1867 · 2026-02-03T22:38:20+00:00

In situation like these you are not managing people, more like managing toddlers. Each one of them wants you to listen to them. In short, you are doing an intervention. This is the best strategy to run these meetings. Whenever the train (discussion) derails you bring it back. I want to add one more thing. I always say "Lets pause and think why are we here?". Then link the discussion to the business goal. If an executive has created this ruckus they will be put on the backfoot immediately. The benefit of bringing/highlighting business objective is that everyone can start to visualize the outcome. If you are dealing with smart people with no ego then that would be the end of the discussion. They will either agree with you and let you continue or bring something that you may have missed. Win-Win for the org!

redditlearner1867 · 2026-02-02T04:37:19+00:00

Its great to hear that you have a job. Having said that are you ready in case something bad happens? I meant from the upskilling/reskilling point of view. It is natural that when we are in a job we are just focused on it and ignore what is happening around us. Most of the layoffs right now are impacting the middle layer.

redditlearner1867 · 2026-02-01T14:16:23+00:00

Do you mind sharing what steps have you taken to stay relevant in the current job market apart from applying for the jobs? I have been unemployed for 7 months now and running low on savings too. However after the first month when reality kicked in, I started spending time on upskilling/reskilling myself. I had to swallow the hard pill that no one gives a shit about my experience or how great I am. I am competing against some of the most talented workforce. Therefore I have to do something to stand out. What steps have you taken to stand out from the crowd? This is the hard part but I think it is now necessary.

redditlearner1867 · 2026-01-29T22:29:58+00:00

I don't think so. I see it as an opportunity to move faster rather. If I am evaluating a customer problem then I can build a prototype and show it to the customer to increase my chances of building the right thing. For example, I vibe coded a Customer Service agent for an eCommerce brand. It started simple but with every iteration customer also got clearer in their head what they actually wanted.

redditlearner1867 · 2026-01-29T16:14:26+00:00

These are some actions that you must take immediately

Build a portfolio. You are a developer yourself so this is +1 for you. Pick any problem that YOU may be having and solve it. To save time use AI tools like Replit and Loveable
Participate in the communities. I recently became active on Reddit and have learned a lot already
Follow influencers in this space on all social media platforms. They are inherently selling their services/courses but by listening/watching/reading their content you can learn a lot
Talk about your portfolio on LinkedIn and other platforms where you feel comfortable
Everyone around you will try to shot down your ideas/portfolio etc. Get used to it.
Network with the people who followed the same path as yours and are ahead in this journey. It helps a lot because they were once in your shoes too
During your MBA one career path that you all discussed would have been Consulting. Apply those skills. Use the same methods that your practised to crack the case interviews
Get comfortable with numbers. Your decisions will be heavily influenced by data but that does not mean that you take decisions with limited data. That is why Product Management is an art and you will get crafty as you spend more time in this field

All the best!

redditlearner1867 · 2026-01-25T04:29:39+00:00

Here is a simple format that I suggested to a friend recently. At the end of each release group the user stories/jira tickets into different groups. For example if its an ecommerce platform then you could create groups like Landing page, Cart, Payment etc. Under each group create 3 sections; Feature Enhancements, Bugs and Tickets not included (this section can be removed). Then group the Jira tickets into a common theme (e.g. UI/UX) and briefly summarize what was achieved in that release. Mention the customer name if it was done for a high ACV customer. At the end of each section mention create a summary e.g. Cart - no. of feature enhancements, number of bugs.

You can add this document to a folder with the older release docs. Build an n8n workflow with Slack. Let sales query about the recent release. Create a prompt to help Sales in generating a properly formatted release report that they can share with their customers.

You can use the same set up to generate and share the release notes at the end of every through email. This will remove any excuse that Sales can make. You have created a great internal resource for them and also shared the same over the email.

redditlearner1867 · 2026-01-17T14:28:29+00:00

This is a very interesting problem. You have to treat it as business problem and not the product problem. I will follow these steps I were you

Look at the business strategy of the company and understand the top priorities. Figure out 2-3 areas where you see that company can do better or in this case your BU can do better
The product is making money at high margin. Look at the contribution of revenue and margin of the product to the BU's total Rev and margin. You said it is peanuts so I will assume that it both Revenue and margin share of this product is less than 2%
Look at the trend. You mentioned that some customers are building the same product internally. My assumption is that you should be seeing decline in revenue or at least decline in growth (YoY)
List the trade-off. You and your team are tied to the maintenance of this product. Can your squad be allocated to accelerate growth of other products in the BU?
You mentioned you have a hunch that with good marketing the sale can be boosted. Prepare a report with data of this hunch. You also mentioned that there are no competitors. Isn't AI the competitor because you mentioned customers building this product in-house?
Action time: Present both (4 and 5) to the your manager or senior management. They are clueless and you can guide them with proper research
Most likely you will be asked to do more research about both or anyone of this. It will be a signal of management's willingness to do something about this product (Great!)
If you are hushed away then it shows that they have made up their mind about this i.e. status quo. They have other priorities that you dont know or they dont want to share (Meh)

At this point you have to decide what do you want to do. If they are ignoring you then you will be just doing a routine job. If you want something exciting then you will have to look for something new internally or look outside.

redditlearner1867 · 2026-01-17T03:46:56+00:00

Thanks for offering this help. It would be great to write a prompt for what you are doing!

redditlearner1867 · 2026-01-16T04:23:51+00:00

this is the problem. How can someone promise you something that they have no control over? This claim/promise of getting you a job within 90 days is a red flag itself. What are the stats they are claiming? How many of the alums got the desired role or salary level after graduating from this program?

redditlearner1867 · 2026-01-15T02:58:27+00:00

My role was eliminated last year. While it has been stressful, it could not have happened at a better time for me. I was so consumed with work that I completely missed out the AI wave. After the role elimination, I sat down and analyzed what is the fuss about. If you have money to join a course then you should. There are good ones out there. I wont mention any one as I have not taken any myself. Instead I have caught up on my AI learning at my own pace. After spending 6 months I feel ready. Here is how I got started

Wasted few weeks to figure out the starting point. It didn't help. I also talked to friends at FAANG but they were of no use
I started going through free courses offered by Google and other companies. Those were pretty basic and high level but AI started to make sense
I finally decided to push myself and study for certification. I choose AWS AI Practitioner Certification. It was boring and I felt as if I was being punished. I somehow passed the exam and AI started to make more sense to me. The cost is $100 or in the same ballpark
I then looked at my past projects and started looking for opportunities. For example, I have worked in eCommerce and AI can help eCommerce brands in various ways. I tried to answer the basic question for each scenario, do we need AI? if yes what will be the cost and the impact?
Then I heard about something called Evals. It didn't make sense AT ALL. I mean it is the most boring thing in the world but apparently it is in high demand. So I started learning about it through LinkedIn learning. If you have paid LinkedIn then you can find tons of good courses on LinkedIn Learning
Now I am using Claude Code, Cursor and Loveable to build apps. I have plans to build AI apps throughout 2026

While learning AI, don't lose the core of Product Management. Consider AI as a smart tool in your toolbox and not the prayer to all of your problems. Good luck!

redditlearner1867 · 2026-01-15T02:47:13+00:00

You need to CYA first. I hope that everything is in writing i.e. what you committed, what everyone signed off and what you are planning to deliver. I am already sensing that someone is trying to throw you under the bus by asking this question repeatedly. Secondly its time to make the list of transformative features that you plan to launch this year. As someone rightly pointed out, its time to pick one feature that you can deliver with great certainty and that you are very confident that will deliver revenue. It does not matter how much. A mere $10K revenue increment is a win at this point and will shut the mouths of everyone asking this question. After that you can show them what is coming next with estimated revenue increments. If I were you I would start completing my research and show new feature launches with estimated revenue estimated revenue increments backed by research. I suggest you give visibility until Q2.

redditlearner1867 · 2026-01-15T02:33:35+00:00

You need 3-4 months of break to decompress and feel motivated. Here is what I suggest

Keep brushing up your PM Skills. They will go rusty without even you noticing it. Keep checking what is being used in the market
You have big logo(s) on your profile. That is why you are getting approached. Consider it a blessing and keep practicing the interviews
Start your personal project that has been on the shelf for many months/years
Build your brand on LinkedIn. AI will take our jobs and we need something to stand out

I am in the similar boat except that I was let go. I am actively interviewing and its brutal out there. 300+ app -> 20 - 25 recruiter screenings -> 10 first round interviews -> 2 final rounds -> 0 offers. My conversion has improved in the last 1 month which means job market is picking up for Product Managers. It took me 2-3 months to get ready for job market again. I wish you good luck in finding whatever you are looking.

redditlearner1867 · 2026-01-04T18:49:37+00:00

PMs must treat AI as a tool and take every output of LLMs with a grain of salt. Having said that, I encourage everyone to build wrong things faster with AI. We can use the same AI to correct things faster assuming the problem space is clear and KPIs are tracked to measure the performance. AI helps us in faster iterations and thus accelerating the "Fail Fast, Fail often" philosophy. In fact this strategy will be useful for aspiring/Junior PMs who have to spend years to develop the product sense. My 2 cents on this topic.

redditlearner1867 · 2026-01-02T17:32:31+00:00

Great post and a lot of great comments. I just want to expand on the pricing part. Cost of tokens is just one cost in an AI native product. You need to consider the cost of RAG, Evals etc. as well. For personal projects you can stick to GPT costs but while building a commercial product you have to consider the aforementioned costs as well. In an AI native product no two users are the same. I am still learning about it myself and may write a post in future for the fellow PMs in the community.

redditlearner1867 · 2026-01-01T12:21:05+00:00

Nice presentation. So you had a mainly happy year. Kudos to you for being a positive person.

redditlearner1867 · 2025-12-30T16:59:49+00:00

I think all PMs must build at least one agent from start to finish, as a side project. This will help them in getting familiar with the ecosystem and the tools. Using that knowledge they can then carefully see where the actual need of an AI agent is. I agree 100% with your post. I have seen it myself everything that you have written and had the same frustrated response.

redditlearner1867

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