Microsoft Fmr Product Director on Empowering Product Managers With AI

How can AI empower product managers? In this episode of Product Talk hosted by Jonathan Ozeran, Microsoft Fmr Product Director and Chisel Founder Praful Chavda shares insights on the intersection of AI and product management, discussing how AI can automate repetitive tasks and free up product managers to focus on strategic, customer-centric work. He delves into the principles of good product management, the differences between working at large companies and startups, and the evolution of his startup, Chisel, and their roadmap to empowering product managers with AI. Listeners will gain valuable perspectives on leveraging technology to enhance the product management discipline and build products that truly resonate with customers.

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Show Notes

1. The intersection of AI and product management presents an opportunity to automate repetitive “busy work” and free up product managers to focus on strategic, customer-centric initiatives.
2. The core principles of good product management, such as customer discovery, prioritization, and team alignment, have not changed, but the use of technology can make these tasks faster and more effective.
3. Chavda’s startup, Chisel, aims to reduce the mechanical nature of existing product management tools and provide more traceability between customer feedback and roadmap decisions.
4. A remote-first approach focuses on attracting top talent regardless of location.
5. Chavda’s experience working on established products at Microsoft versus new product teams highlights the different cultural and process considerations in large companies versus startups.
6. Gaining “battle wounds” from diverse product management experiences helps develop better judgment for applying principles in different contexts.
7. Aligning the entire organization, including sales, marketing, and executives, on product priorities is critical for successful execution.
8. Chisel’s roadmap prioritizes using AI to automate more tasks and enable product managers to focus on strategic work.
9. Chisel customers are at varying stages of AI adoption and have different priorities. This requires tailored approaches to feature development and rollout.
10. Chavda’s motivation is to help product managers spend more time building amazing products by reducing administrative busy work.
11. Chisel’s vision is to leverage AI to make product managers 10x more effective.
12. Automating customer discovery, roadmap management, and status reporting are key areas of focus for Chisel’s AI-powered capabilities.
13. Chisel aims to move from a “permission-based” model to an “action-based” model. The AI assistant can take more autonomous steps to support product managers.
14. Enabling product managers to do “what-if” analysis on their roadmap options is a future capability Chisel is exploring.
15. Chavda emphasizes the importance of understanding customer maturity, compliance requirements, and organizational priorities when rolling out AI-powered product management tools.
16. Chisel’s remote-first approach allows the company to access top talent globally, while maintaining a customer-centric focus in North America.
17. Chavda’s experience at Microsoft, both on established products and new initiatives, provided valuable learnings about navigating large-company dynamics.
18. Chisel’s roadmap aims to progressively automate more tasks, moving from providing information to taking actions on behalf of product managers.
19. Chavda’s passion for empowering product managers with AI is a key driver behind Chisel’s development.
20. Connecting with Chavda on LinkedIn and staying up-to-date on Chisel’s progress is recommended.