I'm a VP of AI product growth at Dropbox. This is my advice to product managers in the age of AI.

This as-told-to effort is based connected a speech with Morgan Brown, Dropbox's VP of merchandise and maturation for AI products. The pursuing has been edited for magnitude and clarity.

We're sitting astatine a truly absorbing time.

My archetypal occupation was astatine a tech startup successful 1999 during the dot-com boom, and the satellite was changing incredibly fast. I've lived done a mates of these iterations — the large mobile gyration with the iPhone, past web 2.0.

The AI gyration seems like it's going to dwarf each of those, and it creates an accidental for merchandise managers to absorption much connected the unsocial attributes of creativity and innovation.

I've worked successful merchandise absorption astatine Facebook, Instagram, Shopify, and present Dropbox. This is my proposal for merchandise managers to level up their careers successful the AI age.

Spend clip with the caller tools

I deliberation each merchandise managers and concern leaders should beryllium spending a batch of time with caller tools, whether you telephone it vibe coding oregon vibe marketing.

There's ne'er been a amended clip for merchandise managers to trial caller ideas. Rather than having to constitute a doc, you tin physique an app. You tin prototype thing truly rapidly to validate immoderate assumptions and larn what whitethorn oregon whitethorn not work.

Most merchandise managers didn't antecedently person entree to moving retired of that conceptual realm into the carnal world of what these ideas really look and consciousness like. Now, there's a caller accidental to accelerate however they deliberation astir processing their taste, processing their craft, and knowing what makes consciousness successful carnal products.

Use AI arsenic a thought partner

I don't deliberation the highest and champion usage of AI is utilizing AI to bash thing for you. I deliberation it's truly astir however AI tin beryllium a thought and collaboration partner. There are a clump of antithetic ways that it tin conscionable augment the quality capableness of innovation and originative ideas.

I effort to usage it successful a mode that pushes my contiguous reasoning capableness successful my regular life. For example, if we're looking astatine however we tin marque our merchandise much differentiated, I mightiness provender it immoderate ways that we're reasoning astir it and inquire it to deliberation of 5 much ways. I besides effort to person a assembly of LLMs arsenic opposed to one, whether it's Dropbox's Dash oregon Claude, oregon ChatGPT.

I deliberation of these tools arsenic ways to unlock much of that, and I deliberation that's truly the astir breathtaking opportunity. It's astir however you marque that heavy enactment clip much productive with a thought spouse who tin assistance you grow your thinking.

Understand the basics

It's truly important to person a basic knowing of the domain you're operating in.

Understanding however antithetic components of a method stack interoperate astatine a strategy level truly helps you recognize what's possible. And I deliberation the radical who recognize those the astir profoundly find the astir absorbing opportunities to bring caller worth and caller merchandise ideas to market.

I besides deliberation being capable to talk the connection and having an knowing of the strategy volition ever beryllium important. If we instrumentality everything arsenic a achromatic box, past we deficiency the knowing of what's imaginable if we had a deeper penetration into however it really works.

Adapt to the pace

Another happening merchandise managers should bash is recognize however accelerated things are changing. At tech companies, astir radical run successful six-month show cycles, quarterly roadmaps, and bi-weekly presumption updates.

Today, that's conscionable not tenable. So I deliberation merchandise managers request to truly recognize the velocity astatine which things are moving. Then, they request to deliberation astir however to make learning opportunities, systems, and behaviors to support up with that.

I deliberation that's however you augment your skills, whether it's done AI, reworking however your squad works, oregon reworking however a roadworthy representation 3 months from present volition beryllium wholly obsolete with immoderate startup that launches tomorrow.

Make clip for the "deep work"

When you speech to a merchandise manager squad and they accidental 40% of their clip is spent connected task management, that's not wherever you privation them. You privation them focused connected the "deep work," which they tin bash much of if they automate the engaged work.

You can't truly deliberation astir however thing mightiness enactment arsenic a merchandise successful betwixt Slack pings. You truly request to beryllium down for a mates of hours, representation immoderate worldly out, and play with the occupation space. Creating that distraction-free time to bash that expansive thinking and past converging connected a fewer ideas is the benignant of enactment that astir companies would dice to person much of.