Chris and Justin chat about the latest Aha! software enhancements. | Photo by Jodi B Photography
5 ways product managers can use AI — right now
Last updated: February 2024
Editor's note: Aha! Notebooks has been split into Aha! Knowledge and Aha! Whiteboards.
"FOMO with AI?" I recently came across a Reddit post that posed this question to fellow product managers. The individual expressed concern over missing out on career opportunities because they do not have a deep understanding of AI. I bet others are mulling over these types of questions too. But as I read through the responses, most echoed a common theme: AI is valuable to learn about. And you can do so incrementally.
Embracing AI in your work, even in small ways, can lead to new and exciting possibilities — right where you are at.
Traditional and generative AI promise a bright future for product development, including less busywork, easier decision-making, and faster content production. Many tech companies have added AI features to their products. Engineering teams now use it to accelerate tasks such as code updates and documentation. And UX designers have made AI an ideation partner for exploring solutions to user problems.
For product managers, AI introduces equally exciting possibilities. It has the potential to help preserve time and energy — your scarcest resources. For example, AI can generate first drafts of customer personas and analyze large amounts of product data in a few seconds. That frees you up to fine-tune the results, draw important conclusions, and focus on strategy.
Being a successful product manager requires a great deal of empathy and nuanced decision-making. It also relies on continuous collaboration. All of these things are indispensable to building lovable products and things AI cannot replicate (nor is it designed to).
Think of all the tedious or distracting tasks that take time away from what you do best. This is where AI shines.
The best AI tools help to assist and expedite your work. And the better you get at using them, the more efficient you will become. This is something you can practice in small, but powerful ways.
Here are five ways you can use AI right now if you have Aha! software:
Write
You might not think of yourself as a writer. But between defining features, replying to team comments, and drafting launch announcements, writing is something product managers spend a lot of time on. Our built-in AI assistant speeds things up. Feed it a few key points and parameters to generate the content you need. Then, you can edit for accuracy, style, and a human touch.
Draft product updates in seconds with the AI assistant.
Summarize
Not starting from scratch? No problem — AI can help you edit what you have already written. Let's say you just finished up a lively product meeting, jotting down notes without much regard for structure. To organize your thoughts, simply highlight your text, then ask the AI assistant to create a summary with concise takeaways or bullet points. Bonus: You can even ask it to generate action items for you.
Transform lengthy or disorganized content into a digestible summary with AI.
Analyze
How many customer ideas have you gathered? Hundreds? Thousands? When you have a constant stream of requests, it can be tiresome to sort and review them all (even if you have a good idea management process.) AI makes quick work of analyzing qualitative data like this. Use the Ideas Exploration tool to analyze groups of related ideas, observe high-level themes across feedback, and even consolidate ideas that are similar in just a couple of clicks.
Uncover insights and analyze customer feedback with the AI-powered Ideas Exploration tool.
Release
It is exciting to debut new features to customers. But it can take hours to pull together your launches, improvements, and bug fixes. If you release often, you might not feel like you have that kind of time — but with AI, you do. Showcase your updates in a flash with AI-powered release notes that generate brief summaries based on what was recently shipped in Aha! software.
Generate instant release notes with AI based on work that was recently completed.
Repeat
Go from doer to reviewer. Iterating on an AI prompt helps to improve the quality of your results. And when you find one that is really effective, you will want to keep it handy — right in Aha! software. It is easy to reuse your past AI prompts to build on what worked well before. You only need to adjust the key points to optimize them for another use.
Streamline recurring content with saved AI prompts.
AI will not replace the core work that you do as a product manager, but it can change what is possible for you to achieve each day.
It is worth remembering that we are still in the early stages of AI in product development. Hiccups will happen, and not every result will be accurate or elegant. But keep at it. As we learn together, the technology will get better and easier to use. And you will feel more prepared for whatever comes next.
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