Inside Secrets of AI Product Management: A Journey with Nikhil from Meta

00:26:02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBgwbisikGY

Resumo

TLDRThe video features a conversation with Nikel, an experienced AI product manager at Meta, who shares insights on growing a career in AI product management. Nikel discusses his journey from management consulting to AI product management, highlighting the role of his MBA and practical experience in machine learning. He explains the types of AI projects he's involved in, like Adobe's customer data platform and Meta's ad personalization. Nikel emphasizes the importance of using AI in daily tasks for career progression and productivity. He advises aspiring AI product managers to leverage AI tools to automate repetitive tasks and demonstrates passion through project work. Nikel also runs a podcast, "The Art and Science of AI," providing further insights into AI applications.

ConclusΓ΅es

  • πŸ”₯ Transitioning into AI product management involves leveraging domain expertise and education.
  • πŸ€– Start using AI in daily tasks to improve efficiency and demonstrate expertise.
  • πŸ”— Networking and leveraging MBA resources are crucial for career transitions.
  • πŸ›  Hands-on projects and continuous learning help stand out in AI roles.
  • πŸ“š Nikel's podcast offers valuable insights into AI application strategies.
  • πŸ” AI improves personalized customer experiences in roles at Adobe and Meta.
  • 🎯 Focus on solving real-world problems with AI technology.
  • 🌱 Continuous skill development in AI is key to career advancement.
  • πŸ“ˆ The importance of understanding industry trends in AI product management.
  • πŸš€ Personal projects can showcase your skills and passion for AI.

Linha do tempo

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    The video begins with an introduction to Niko, an experienced AI product manager currently working at Meta, with a past role at Adobe. Niko shares insights into his career journey, emphasizing his extensive experience in AI product management and his involvement as an AI educator and mentor.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Niko describes his early career in management consulting and big data strategy, eventually transitioning to AI product management through an MBA program at Yale. He highlights his early encounter with OpenAI's GPT-2, which sparked his interest in focusing his career on AI, leading him to roles where he could explore this technology further.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    Despite a background in management consulting, Niko managed to transition to AI product management, leveraging his AI domain expertise. He highlights the importance of having a supportive peer group and resources to facilitate career transitions, as well as showing enthusiasm for machine learning during interviews.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    At Adobe, Niko worked on products like Adobe Experience Platform and Adobe Acrobat AI, focusing on using AI to enhance customer experiences through personalized data and mobile-responsive PDFs. Currently, at Meta, he is involved in improving AI for ad personalization, addressing challenges like data handling and regulatory issues.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:26:02

    Niko offers career advice for product managers aiming to transition into AI roles, emphasizing the need for individuals to integrate AI into their current roles and leverage AI for personal productivity. He advises learning about AI tools and pursuing roles that naturally incorporate AI, underscoring the inevitability of AI integration across industries.

Mostrar mais

Mapa mental

VΓ­deo de perguntas e respostas

  • Who is Nikel and what is his background?

    Nikel is an AI product manager at Meta with over five years of experience. He previously worked at Adobe and provides AI education through his podcast. He began in management consulting focusing on big data strategies.

  • How did Nikel transition into AI product management?

    Nikel transitioned through a combination of an MBA program that included electives in machine learning, hands-on projects, and leveraging his AI domain expertise during job interviews.

  • What products has Nikel worked on?

    At Adobe, Nikel worked on the Adobe Experience Platform and Acrobat AI's Liquid Mode. At Meta, he focuses on AI for ads personalization.

  • What advice does Nikel give for transitioning to AI product management?

    Nikel suggests using AI in everyday tasks for productivity, gaining experience through hands-on projects, and considering smaller career transitions before aiming for roles in big tech companies like Meta.

  • What role did Nikel's education play in his career transition?

    Nikel's MBA program at Yale played a significant role by providing courses in machine learning and supporting career transitions.

  • Why does Nikel recommend using AI in personal tasks?

    Using AI for personal tasks helps improve productivity and allows individuals to focus on high-value activities, demonstrating proficiency and innovation.

  • What challenges did Nikel face in his career journey?

    Nikel faced challenges like transitioning from management consulting to product management and dealing with industry rejections.

  • How does Nikel use AI in his current role?

    In Meta, Nikel uses AI for improving ad personalization systems, focusing on matching algorithms between users and ads.

  • What is the podcast Nikel runs about?

    Nikel runs "The Art and Science of AI," where he shares knowledge about AI technologies and creative uses in business and daily life.

  • What are some key challenges in AI product management at Meta?

    Challenges include handling vast amounts of user and ad data, ensuring algorithms are effective, and addressing privacy and regulatory concerns.

Ver mais resumos de vΓ­deos

Obtenha acesso instantΓ’neo a resumos gratuitos de vΓ­deos do YouTube com tecnologia de IA!
Legendas
en
Rolagem automΓ‘tica:
  • 00:00:00
    ready to move to the next level in your
  • 00:00:02
    product career I'm from intentional
  • 00:00:05
    product manager join me as we discuss
  • 00:00:08
    ways to help you stand out in your job
  • 00:00:10
    search and your career so you can have
  • 00:00:12
    more impact and make more money nikel
  • 00:00:15
    thank you so much for being here as a
  • 00:00:17
    guest speaker on this video yeah I'm
  • 00:00:20
    happy to be here uh thank you for having
  • 00:00:22
    me awesome so as we dig into you know
  • 00:00:25
    AIML product management something that a
  • 00:00:28
    lot of people are very keen to move into
  • 00:00:30
    and learn about take us through your
  • 00:00:32
    journey in both your career and then
  • 00:00:34
    getting into this field yeah sure uh I
  • 00:00:37
    can start with a brief intro about
  • 00:00:38
    myself um so I'm Niko I've been in AI
  • 00:00:42
    product management for over five years
  • 00:00:44
    now I'm currently in AI product manager
  • 00:00:47
    at meta where I work on AI for ads uh
  • 00:00:51
    prior to that I was an AI product
  • 00:00:53
    manager at Adobe both on consumer and
  • 00:00:56
    Enterprise Products um in my rool is at
  • 00:01:00
    and Adobe I've built and scaled uh
  • 00:01:03
    multiple AI products uh serving you know
  • 00:01:06
    billions of individuals and millions of
  • 00:01:08
    of
  • 00:01:09
    businesses and in addition to that I'm
  • 00:01:12
    also a part-time AI educator and Mentor
  • 00:01:15
    I run a podcast called Art and Science
  • 00:01:18
    of AI where I share like my passion and
  • 00:01:21
    learnings um around AI with people who
  • 00:01:24
    are curious prior to AI product
  • 00:01:26
    management um I also used to advise like
  • 00:01:30
    Fortune 500 companies on uh Big Data
  • 00:01:33
    strategy and implementation like the
  • 00:01:35
    early days of AI as a consultant at deoe
  • 00:01:39
    uh that's where I started my career and
  • 00:01:42
    I live in the San Francisco Bay Area um
  • 00:01:45
    outside of work and AI uh some of my
  • 00:01:48
    hobbies include uh reading Science
  • 00:01:50
    Fiction and Fantasy and
  • 00:01:53
    weightlifting we lifting
  • 00:01:55
    amazing uh really really great to hear
  • 00:01:58
    about your your journey into the space
  • 00:02:00
    so I'm I'm going to like it seems that
  • 00:02:02
    you had uh Ai and big data background
  • 00:02:06
    byi prior to your first role as a AI
  • 00:02:09
    product manager is that actually yeah
  • 00:02:11
    that's right so I've been involved with
  • 00:02:13
    AI for over 10 years now like I wrote my
  • 00:02:17
    first Master's thesis back in 2014 on
  • 00:02:21
    comparing two different approaches to
  • 00:02:23
    language understanding there was the
  • 00:02:25
    rule-based systems approach which was
  • 00:02:27
    called formal semantics and then there's
  • 00:02:28
    the machine learning approach which was
  • 00:02:30
    called natural language
  • 00:02:32
    processing and then like I said I got
  • 00:02:36
    into um management consulting and worked
  • 00:02:39
    on strategy and analytics projects there
  • 00:02:42
    uh a lot of like big data strategy um I
  • 00:02:45
    think where I really made the transition
  • 00:02:47
    to Ai and product management was when I
  • 00:02:50
    went um to business school so um I I
  • 00:02:55
    went to a business school at Yale from
  • 00:02:57
    2017 to 2019 and and at that time in
  • 00:03:01
    addition to the business coursework that
  • 00:03:04
    we were required to take I took a lot of
  • 00:03:06
    elective cours work in uh computer
  • 00:03:09
    science and machine learning and I was
  • 00:03:11
    learning about topics like uh language
  • 00:03:13
    modeling and natural language processing
  • 00:03:16
    and coincidentally this was the time
  • 00:03:17
    when open AI had just launched gpt2 at
  • 00:03:21
    the time and I was like totally Blown
  • 00:03:24
    Away by the possibilities and
  • 00:03:27
    implications for um you know for
  • 00:03:30
    business and society and and the impact
  • 00:03:32
    that that AI was going to have and
  • 00:03:33
    that's kind of was a transformative
  • 00:03:36
    moment for me when I realized that I
  • 00:03:38
    wanted to Pivot my career to focus more
  • 00:03:42
    on this direction because I thought this
  • 00:03:44
    is the thing that's going to be really
  • 00:03:45
    impacting the world in the next decade
  • 00:03:48
    or two awesome so at that point you like
  • 00:03:52
    you you just realized this curious like
  • 00:03:55
    what was the journey from that
  • 00:03:56
    realization to actually getting your
  • 00:03:58
    first AI product man control what did
  • 00:04:00
    you do how did you prepare a lot of
  • 00:04:02
    people are are interested in in that
  • 00:04:04
    that aspect of it yeah um so this so
  • 00:04:10
    like I said I was at business school I
  • 00:04:12
    was doing an NBA program and uh MBA
  • 00:04:16
    programs are typically set up to help
  • 00:04:20
    people make career transitions so most U
  • 00:04:23
    of my peer group including myself is
  • 00:04:25
    there trying to transition from one
  • 00:04:28
    thing to another people are trying to
  • 00:04:30
    transition functions Industries
  • 00:04:33
    geographies different kinds of things so
  • 00:04:35
    it's it's a time it's an environment
  • 00:04:37
    that is good for it's conducive to
  • 00:04:40
    helping people figure out how to
  • 00:04:42
    navigate this journey so I that was I
  • 00:04:45
    had a lot of resources to to help me
  • 00:04:47
    with this that that's one thing I I
  • 00:04:49
    think I I want to call out so the MBA
  • 00:04:51
    program really helped and I like I said
  • 00:04:54
    in addition to that I was also taking
  • 00:04:56
    some coursework in U machine learning
  • 00:05:00
    and computer science so that's something
  • 00:05:02
    that that certainly helped me a lot like
  • 00:05:04
    I was tinkering with projects on my own
  • 00:05:07
    just like learning how to build um
  • 00:05:09
    simple applications like how to um build
  • 00:05:13
    machine learning models and things like
  • 00:05:15
    that and that really was something that
  • 00:05:18
    helped me stand out I was able to um
  • 00:05:21
    bring my like passion and enthusiasm for
  • 00:05:24
    machine learning and AI to the
  • 00:05:26
    interviews when I started talking to to
  • 00:05:29
    company and that's something that that
  • 00:05:31
    helped me stand out but yeah the reality
  • 00:05:34
    of it is that I did not have any
  • 00:05:37
    experience in product management at that
  • 00:05:39
    time I was uh my background was in
  • 00:05:41
    management consulting and so I had some
  • 00:05:43
    domain expertise in AI I was trying to
  • 00:05:46
    leverage that and transition to product
  • 00:05:48
    management at tech companies so I think
  • 00:05:53
    U yeah I would say the things that
  • 00:05:54
    helped me were one is like having
  • 00:05:58
    resources and peer group that like
  • 00:06:00
    helped me navigate this transition
  • 00:06:02
    through theba program second is my
  • 00:06:05
    domain expertise and like passion for um
  • 00:06:09
    machine learning and AI which helped me
  • 00:06:11
    stand out that's the second thing and
  • 00:06:13
    maybe the third thing is like I was very
  • 00:06:15
    fortunate in that companies like so the
  • 00:06:18
    first job I got out of business school
  • 00:06:20
    was as a product manager at Adobe on a
  • 00:06:24
    product called Adobe experience platform
  • 00:06:27
    which is a uh consumer dat plat a
  • 00:06:30
    customer data platform that's used by
  • 00:06:31
    like Enterprise marketing teams and
  • 00:06:33
    within that we were building some
  • 00:06:35
    machine learning and and data science
  • 00:06:37
    capabilities um
  • 00:06:40
    Adobe was helpful in that they have um
  • 00:06:43
    NBA recruiting programs um so where the
  • 00:06:47
    goal of that is often they're not trying
  • 00:06:49
    to find the best candidate for a given
  • 00:06:53
    role but they're trying to get talent
  • 00:06:56
    that they think will grow with the
  • 00:06:58
    company and possibly stay in in like
  • 00:07:00
    multiple roles so that's another thing
  • 00:07:03
    that helped me um yeah so I I would say
  • 00:07:07
    and then of course there's the standard
  • 00:07:09
    um you know interview process stuff that
  • 00:07:12
    you have to go through like you have to
  • 00:07:14
    develop a pipeline of applications like
  • 00:07:16
    be ready to face tons of rejection um
  • 00:07:20
    apply to hundreds of roles get hundreds
  • 00:07:23
    of rejections just keep pushing through
  • 00:07:25
    that and uh you have to be willing to
  • 00:07:28
    proactively go out and and network with
  • 00:07:30
    people um constantly like having
  • 00:07:33
    conversations with new people trying to
  • 00:07:36
    um learn more about uh different roles
  • 00:07:39
    and companies and what's available and
  • 00:07:41
    then yeah there's the whole like
  • 00:07:43
    interview preparation process you have
  • 00:07:45
    to like practice and do mock interviews
  • 00:07:48
    and make sure you're able to present
  • 00:07:49
    your Knowledge and Skills in a way that
  • 00:07:53
    um you know comes across um as having
  • 00:07:56
    the right kind of expertise so yeah the
  • 00:07:59
    whole G just thinking of when you were
  • 00:08:01
    applying for those product roles did you
  • 00:08:03
    focus it on cool like o AIML product
  • 00:08:06
    management roles I mean at that point
  • 00:08:09
    they were probably like fewer than the
  • 00:08:11
    number that exists right now given the
  • 00:08:13
    interest but was it very focused or were
  • 00:08:15
    you open to any sort of product
  • 00:08:17
    management roles oh at that time I just
  • 00:08:19
    wanted any role related to AI or machine
  • 00:08:23
    learning it I wasn't focused on product
  • 00:08:25
    management per se so I applied to a
  • 00:08:28
    bunch of different roles I
  • 00:08:30
    I applied to many data scientist roles I
  • 00:08:32
    applied to like analytics roles um so
  • 00:08:35
    yeah my lens at that time was less on
  • 00:08:38
    product management it was more on AI
  • 00:08:40
    because I was like hey that's what I
  • 00:08:41
    want to do um it just turns out that
  • 00:08:44
    given my background and experience like
  • 00:08:47
    now I realize it like product management
  • 00:08:49
    is a really good fit for me uh I don't
  • 00:08:52
    know maybe I could have also been a good
  • 00:08:54
    data scientist or machine learning
  • 00:08:56
    engineer but it was harder at that time
  • 00:08:58
    to convince anyone that they should take
  • 00:09:01
    a chance on me for that uh product
  • 00:09:03
    management had a much more clear story
  • 00:09:06
    and yeah since then I've been doing this
  • 00:09:08
    for five years I think I I found the
  • 00:09:10
    right fit um I love uh product
  • 00:09:13
    management it enables me to um have like
  • 00:09:17
    the level of technical exposure to AI
  • 00:09:21
    that I I want to have but also it
  • 00:09:24
    enables me to focus not very narrowly on
  • 00:09:27
    the technology but more on on what are
  • 00:09:30
    the problems that we're solving with
  • 00:09:32
    this what's like the longer term
  • 00:09:33
    strategy uh for developing products with
  • 00:09:36
    with this technology and things like
  • 00:09:38
    that so yes I I found a good fit in this
  • 00:09:41
    function of product management but it
  • 00:09:43
    happened by accident at the time I
  • 00:09:45
    didn't really know what product
  • 00:09:46
    management was um I just wanted to work
  • 00:09:50
    on cool things with AI love it okay so I
  • 00:09:54
    understand all those well so now I'm
  • 00:09:56
    curious about to whatever extent you can
  • 00:09:58
    share you know assume I know there's
  • 00:10:01
    confidential compaign for which you
  • 00:10:02
    won't share but like what are the kinds
  • 00:10:04
    of things you worked on that have this
  • 00:10:06
    intersection of product management and
  • 00:10:08
    AI both at Adobe and meta yeah sure I
  • 00:10:11
    I'd be happy to talk about um what I've
  • 00:10:14
    done so far at these companies so at
  • 00:10:16
    Adobe I had two roles the first role I
  • 00:10:20
    had was um as a product manager on Adobe
  • 00:10:23
    experience platform as I said what the
  • 00:10:25
    product is it's a customer data platform
  • 00:10:28
    that's used by Enterprise marketing
  • 00:10:30
    teams to unify all of their customer
  • 00:10:33
    data in one place and then um use that
  • 00:10:36
    to create personalized uh experiences
  • 00:10:40
    using machine learning and data science
  • 00:10:42
    so for example a company uh has so say
  • 00:10:47
    like a hypothetical example say you're
  • 00:10:50
    like a company like Best Buy um you have
  • 00:10:54
    customer data from many different
  • 00:10:55
    sources there's customers who purchase
  • 00:10:58
    things in store or there's customers
  • 00:11:00
    that purchase things online those are
  • 00:11:02
    two different data sources you have you
  • 00:11:04
    have data about customers who interacted
  • 00:11:06
    with your website uh best buy.com and
  • 00:11:10
    that it gets uh captured through
  • 00:11:12
    analytics data uh adoe actually has a
  • 00:11:16
    analytics product called Adobe analytics
  • 00:11:18
    and you know people who use that like
  • 00:11:20
    this was a good fit for them then you
  • 00:11:22
    also have data like uh there's call
  • 00:11:24
    center data customers might call you and
  • 00:11:28
    um ask some questions or something so
  • 00:11:29
    the idea is that like we have companies
  • 00:11:32
    like uh Best Buy for example but you can
  • 00:11:35
    generalize that example have a lot of
  • 00:11:37
    customer data from different sources and
  • 00:11:39
    now they want to leverage this all the
  • 00:11:42
    data together to create like
  • 00:11:44
    personalized um experiences so for
  • 00:11:46
    example next time you call Best Buy
  • 00:11:49
    instead of just asking you that hey like
  • 00:11:51
    what are you calling about like um can
  • 00:11:54
    they leverage all of this data to
  • 00:11:55
    predict like what you may be calling
  • 00:11:57
    about and give you a more personalized
  • 00:11:59
    EXP experience or when you go onto the
  • 00:12:01
    storefront um on the website like
  • 00:12:04
    instead of just showing you something
  • 00:12:05
    generic maybe they can show you things
  • 00:12:07
    that are relevant to you so that was the
  • 00:12:09
    the first um product that I worked on um
  • 00:12:13
    then after that so Adobe has multiple
  • 00:12:15
    business units this their their biggest
  • 00:12:18
    business unit is called the Creative
  • 00:12:20
    Cloud where they create um software for
  • 00:12:22
    Creative professionals like video
  • 00:12:24
    editing photos um audio and so on uh the
  • 00:12:27
    other business unit they have is called
  • 00:12:29
    document Cloud where they create uh
  • 00:12:31
    productivity software to work with PDFs
  • 00:12:33
    and documents and the third business
  • 00:12:36
    unit is called the digital experience or
  • 00:12:38
    the marketing Cloud so that role that I
  • 00:12:40
    described and that product that was in
  • 00:12:42
    the uh marketing cloud and then uh I
  • 00:12:45
    moved to a new role at Adobe in uh Adobe
  • 00:12:49
    Acrobat AI so at the time what we were
  • 00:12:52
    trying to the problem we're trying to
  • 00:12:53
    solve is that reading PDFs on your
  • 00:12:56
    mobile device sucks because PDF f s are
  • 00:13:00
    optimized for large screens or like A4
  • 00:13:03
    size paper or letter size paper when you
  • 00:13:05
    read a PDF on your mobile you constantly
  • 00:13:07
    have to pinch and zoom to read it in the
  • 00:13:10
    right way um so we were using AI to
  • 00:13:16
    understand the content and structure of
  • 00:13:18
    documents and then create a mobile
  • 00:13:21
    responsive PDF reading experience uh it
  • 00:13:25
    was called liquid mode and it still is
  • 00:13:27
    and I I think it's awesome it's one of
  • 00:13:29
    the best ways to read a PDF on on your
  • 00:13:32
    mobile device and now of course like
  • 00:13:34
    Adobe Acrobat AI has a lot more than
  • 00:13:36
    that there's with generative AI they're
  • 00:13:39
    also trying to get into helping people
  • 00:13:42
    um understand documents like ask
  • 00:13:44
    questions and answers and then things
  • 00:13:46
    like that so that's one thing I worked
  • 00:13:48
    on uh now in my current role at meta up
  • 00:13:52
    I work in AI for ads and specifically
  • 00:13:56
    focusing on improving the ads personal
  • 00:13:59
    ization system and the algorithms that
  • 00:14:03
    uh determine which ads to show to which
  • 00:14:06
    users so our goal is to make meaningful
  • 00:14:10
    connections between advertisers and
  • 00:14:12
    users so we want to help advertisers
  • 00:14:15
    find uh the right customers who are
  • 00:14:18
    interested in their products we want to
  • 00:14:19
    find help users find the right products
  • 00:14:22
    that that they're interested in and this
  • 00:14:25
    is a problem space that comes with like
  • 00:14:28
    tons of uh data like uh because there's
  • 00:14:32
    at any given time like there are
  • 00:14:33
    billions of users there's like millions
  • 00:14:35
    of ads in the system and how do you
  • 00:14:37
    figure out like this um matching problem
  • 00:14:41
    what kind of data can you leverage for
  • 00:14:43
    that what are the kind of algorithms
  • 00:14:46
    that you want to use for that um and
  • 00:14:49
    yeah that that's kind of the area I
  • 00:14:50
    focus on and this also interesting
  • 00:14:54
    because there's tons of um it intersects
  • 00:14:58
    with not only
  • 00:14:59
    like machine learning but there's also a
  • 00:15:01
    lot of like uh legal regulatory privacy
  • 00:15:04
    concerns that that you have to pay
  • 00:15:06
    attention to so it's a by Nature like a
  • 00:15:09
    very cross functional role and there are
  • 00:15:11
    like many considerations that that you
  • 00:15:13
    have to balance awesome great to hear
  • 00:15:16
    about your work now I'm going to put you
  • 00:15:18
    just like sort of last set of questions
  • 00:15:20
    but given that there's a lot of product
  • 00:15:22
    managers who are let's say somebody with
  • 00:15:25
    you know some experience in product
  • 00:15:26
    management but they're really trying to
  • 00:15:28
    figure out how do they get into AI
  • 00:15:31
    product management to some extent how do
  • 00:15:33
    they future prooof their career like
  • 00:15:35
    that's the term often people use and
  • 00:15:37
    thinking about the impact AI is going to
  • 00:15:39
    have on product management product
  • 00:15:40
    development in general what sort of
  • 00:15:42
    advice would you have for them would you
  • 00:15:44
    suggest any trainings would love to hear
  • 00:15:47
    that from you yeah so I think there are
  • 00:15:49
    multiple ways in which you can think
  • 00:15:51
    about engaging with AI so one is at a
  • 00:15:56
    personal level and one is at the level
  • 00:15:59
    of the product I would say I would
  • 00:16:01
    separate out these two things so SE
  • 00:16:04
    we're talking about a target audience of
  • 00:16:06
    product managers right so regardless of
  • 00:16:09
    what your product is there are certain
  • 00:16:12
    activities that you do on a day-to-day
  • 00:16:14
    basis as a product manager you're trying
  • 00:16:16
    to do some market research industry
  • 00:16:19
    analysis you're trying to develop a
  • 00:16:21
    strategy for your product and a road map
  • 00:16:24
    and trying to come up with requirements
  • 00:16:26
    there's a lot of like communication and
  • 00:16:28
    presentation so all of these things I
  • 00:16:30
    think it's definitely helpful to start
  • 00:16:32
    thinking about how you can use AI to
  • 00:16:36
    help you be better at those things more
  • 00:16:39
    productive more efficient and so that
  • 00:16:41
    you can focus more on high value work
  • 00:16:43
    and this I think is General to almost
  • 00:16:46
    like any profession product management
  • 00:16:48
    is just an example of this so I
  • 00:16:50
    definitely think whatever profession
  • 00:16:52
    you're in um please start using AI uh
  • 00:16:56
    and see where it can add value what are
  • 00:16:58
    the things that it can make you better
  • 00:17:00
    at where are the things that can help
  • 00:17:01
    you scale up where are the things that
  • 00:17:03
    can help you automate um so that's one
  • 00:17:05
    thing and that's advice I would give to
  • 00:17:08
    like anyone um regardless of the
  • 00:17:10
    profession um so yeah within product
  • 00:17:12
    management I would look for things that
  • 00:17:15
    you think could are repetitive things
  • 00:17:17
    that you're doing like frequently um
  • 00:17:20
    things that you could potentially
  • 00:17:22
    automate or augment with with AI and for
  • 00:17:25
    me often it's things like doing research
  • 00:17:29
    like I need to find some information
  • 00:17:32
    across like a whole bunch of documents
  • 00:17:35
    and how do I find the right sources of
  • 00:17:38
    information and so I'm very lucky in
  • 00:17:40
    that I work at meta and we have a bunch
  • 00:17:43
    of pretty like sophisticated internal AI
  • 00:17:46
    tools uh to help people be more
  • 00:17:49
    productive and solve some of these
  • 00:17:50
    challenges uh of course I realized that
  • 00:17:53
    most companies probably don't have like
  • 00:17:54
    specific internal tools for that uh so
  • 00:17:57
    in that case you would have to let
  • 00:17:59
    leverage um existing systems like Chad
  • 00:18:02
    gbt or gemini or whatever um of course
  • 00:18:06
    like pay attention to uh privacy
  • 00:18:08
    policies and what what data you're
  • 00:18:11
    allowed to share or not um so that
  • 00:18:14
    that's a huge like make sure that
  • 00:18:16
    whatever you're doing with your
  • 00:18:17
    company's data that it's appropriate
  • 00:18:19
    that you're U if you're going to go put
  • 00:18:21
    that on chat GPT make sure you're
  • 00:18:23
    actually allowed to do that if you're
  • 00:18:25
    not then try to work with some example
  • 00:18:27
    or dummy like data and use the insights
  • 00:18:30
    from that I think this problem will be
  • 00:18:32
    solved pretty soon most companies are
  • 00:18:33
    probably going to either have their own
  • 00:18:35
    in-house Solutions or make deal like
  • 00:18:37
    chat GPT open Ai and these companies
  • 00:18:40
    have Enterprise solutions that have all
  • 00:18:42
    the privacy and data security built in
  • 00:18:44
    so pretty soon I'm sure most like
  • 00:18:47
    companies are going to have um that
  • 00:18:49
    built in so yeah start making use of
  • 00:18:51
    those do it for your own personal life
  • 00:18:54
    as well um in that case then you're not
  • 00:18:57
    restricted by your company's data
  • 00:18:59
    policiy so a simple example that I use
  • 00:19:02
    as you're like a content creator you
  • 00:19:04
    create YouTube videos and things like
  • 00:19:06
    that and you know that it's a lot of
  • 00:19:08
    work every time you create a video you
  • 00:19:12
    have to like edit it um and then you
  • 00:19:14
    have to extract like a title chapters
  • 00:19:17
    descriptions show notes and things like
  • 00:19:19
    that so for myself like I automated that
  • 00:19:23
    I created like a custom GPT where it has
  • 00:19:27
    knowledge about my podcast and then I
  • 00:19:29
    just upload a new podcast transcript to
  • 00:19:32
    it every time and it automatically gives
  • 00:19:34
    me all the info I want in the format
  • 00:19:37
    that I wanted so it'll suggest here are
  • 00:19:38
    the episode titles you can use here's
  • 00:19:41
    some descriptions you can use here are
  • 00:19:42
    the chapters and and so on so anything
  • 00:19:45
    like that like anything you're doing
  • 00:19:47
    repetitively um think about how to
  • 00:19:51
    automate that and I would say yeah both
  • 00:19:52
    in your personal and professional life
  • 00:19:56
    and then there's the other dimension of
  • 00:19:58
    okay like with as a product manager sure
  • 00:20:01
    I'm using AI for my personal
  • 00:20:03
    productivity but you're also like now I
  • 00:20:05
    want to think about um maybe
  • 00:20:08
    transitioning to working on like an AI
  • 00:20:10
    product or like incorporating AI into my
  • 00:20:14
    own product and so yeah that then is
  • 00:20:17
    different that's more of like a career
  • 00:20:19
    transition type thing especially if you
  • 00:20:21
    want to change your uh role to like work
  • 00:20:24
    on a different product that's more AI
  • 00:20:26
    focused um I don't know if that is I I
  • 00:20:30
    do see like a lot of people these days
  • 00:20:33
    want to make that transition but I'm not
  • 00:20:35
    sure if it's super necessary because I
  • 00:20:38
    think like pretty soon like all products
  • 00:20:41
    are going to have ai incorporated into
  • 00:20:43
    it in in some way so you could also just
  • 00:20:46
    think about well how am I incorporating
  • 00:20:48
    AI into my current product um so that's
  • 00:20:52
    something you do but yeah maybe there
  • 00:20:54
    are other arguments you could have like
  • 00:20:55
    you could say like okay for my personal
  • 00:20:57
    growth and learning I want to go work at
  • 00:21:00
    a company that has more established
  • 00:21:03
    understanding of how to use Ai and so I
  • 00:21:05
    I want to work there and then bring the
  • 00:21:07
    learnings back um yeah I mean I I think
  • 00:21:10
    that's it's it's similar reasons why I
  • 00:21:12
    think PMS often want to work at Big tech
  • 00:21:16
    companies um to help accelerate their
  • 00:21:19
    career and then you can kind of go to
  • 00:21:22
    accompanying any other domain and then
  • 00:21:24
    you can transfer your knowledge of best
  • 00:21:26
    practices and and things like that to
  • 00:21:29
    the other domain you're working and so
  • 00:21:31
    yeah I think if that is your goal um it
  • 00:21:34
    does make sense to try and get some
  • 00:21:37
    experience working on AI products that
  • 00:21:41
    are being developed by some of the more
  • 00:21:44
    like sophisticated like AI uh companies
  • 00:21:48
    and I guess if your question is like
  • 00:21:50
    well how do you make that happen um I
  • 00:21:54
    think a lot of it is just general PM
  • 00:21:57
    career guidance will apply here um one
  • 00:22:01
    thing I always advise people is to think
  • 00:22:04
    of your career transition as like a
  • 00:22:08
    multi-step journey and it's often not a
  • 00:22:12
    single step like often people who are
  • 00:22:15
    like not product managers right now
  • 00:22:17
    they're doing something else they might
  • 00:22:19
    want to know like well how can I become
  • 00:22:21
    an AI product manager at meta and I
  • 00:22:25
    think one of the things to recognize is
  • 00:22:27
    that that may not be something that you
  • 00:22:29
    can do directly in one step like think
  • 00:22:31
    about if I were to break this down into
  • 00:22:34
    a multi-step Journey um what would that
  • 00:22:36
    look like so maybe let's say for example
  • 00:22:39
    you are um a product designer at like um
  • 00:22:44
    a fintech company so think about moves
  • 00:22:48
    you can make that minimize degrees of
  • 00:22:51
    transition like so there are many
  • 00:22:53
    dimensions to your role right there's
  • 00:22:55
    the function you're in which is like
  • 00:22:57
    product management product design
  • 00:22:59
    Consulting whatever there's the industry
  • 00:23:01
    you're in there's the type product
  • 00:23:03
    you're working on there's the technical
  • 00:23:05
    domain that you working so for the
  • 00:23:08
    easiest transitions to make are ones
  • 00:23:10
    where you are minimizing the number of
  • 00:23:13
    things that you're trying to change so
  • 00:23:15
    if you're like hey I'm keeping
  • 00:23:16
    everything fixed and I'm just changing
  • 00:23:19
    this one thing I work in um you know B2B
  • 00:23:22
    SAS I want to go work in b2c SAS doing
  • 00:23:26
    everything else the same same industry
  • 00:23:28
    I'm manager so that's the easiest the
  • 00:23:30
    hardest transition is where you're like
  • 00:23:32
    okay I want to change a bunch of things
  • 00:23:33
    I want to change the type of product I'm
  • 00:23:35
    working on I want to change my function
  • 00:23:37
    from product design to product
  • 00:23:38
    management I want to change the type of
  • 00:23:40
    company I'm working at from a startup to
  • 00:23:42
    a big tech company um so I think yeah
  • 00:23:46
    you should balance that if if you notice
  • 00:23:48
    that like transitions you're trying to
  • 00:23:50
    make are like many um try to break that
  • 00:23:53
    down into smaller chunks and see like
  • 00:23:55
    what are more reasonable Transitions and
  • 00:23:58
    specifically I think for the transition
  • 00:24:00
    of like I have no experience in Ai and I
  • 00:24:04
    want to work on a more AI Focus role for
  • 00:24:07
    that part of the transition try to find
  • 00:24:10
    ways to show uh your understanding of
  • 00:24:13
    this domain and it could be as simple as
  • 00:24:16
    the kind of things I mentioned earlier
  • 00:24:18
    which is like find ways to incorporate
  • 00:24:21
    this into your personal and your you
  • 00:24:23
    know workflows and maybe create some
  • 00:24:27
    automations go publish them on like your
  • 00:24:30
    GitHub profile or there are many no code
  • 00:24:32
    platforms now where you can do that and
  • 00:24:34
    that's a really simple way of um being
  • 00:24:37
    able to demonstrate your Um passion and
  • 00:24:40
    expertise in this area and show that
  • 00:24:42
    you're actually able to use this stuff
  • 00:24:44
    to to solve real problems yeah become a
  • 00:24:47
    power user first before you go and try
  • 00:24:49
    to understand the tech yeah yeah I think
  • 00:24:52
    so awesome nichel thank you so much for
  • 00:24:55
    sharing your journey sharing your own
  • 00:24:58
    transition and then also advice for
  • 00:24:59
    others I totally resonate that example
  • 00:25:02
    of automating YouTube stuff I I I follow
  • 00:25:05
    the exact same thing and it's so helpful
  • 00:25:07
    and it's taken so much repetitive work
  • 00:25:09
    off my plate awesome well I I hope uh
  • 00:25:12
    whoever is listening to this like finds
  • 00:25:14
    this helpful oh and also if I may I'd
  • 00:25:17
    love to make a last plug for my podcast
  • 00:25:20
    the Art and Science of AI where we talk
  • 00:25:23
    about various Topics in understanding
  • 00:25:26
    the science of how AI works and and the
  • 00:25:28
    Art of using AI to kind of reimagine
  • 00:25:31
    your life or your business and we have a
  • 00:25:34
    lot of examples we talk about how to
  • 00:25:35
    build like automations and and workflows
  • 00:25:38
    uh for yourself so yeah if you found
  • 00:25:41
    this helpful please check that out and
  • 00:25:43
    and I mean just learning from that would
  • 00:25:45
    be a very logical first step for folks
  • 00:25:47
    who are looking to transition into their
  • 00:25:49
    product meion thanks again n appreciate
  • 00:25:51
    it yeah for talking to you hey be sure
  • 00:25:54
    to check out our website at intentional
  • 00:25:56
    product manager.com to see how you can
  • 00:25:59
    level up in your career
Etiquetas
  • AI Product Management
  • Career Transition
  • Nikel
  • Meta
  • Adobe
  • AI Tools
  • AI Automation
  • Podcast
  • AI Education
  • Career Advice