Notes for AI Product Management

This is the note for course CS-500 AI Product Management (AIPM).

Week 1

In week 1 we mainly learned what is Product Management (PM) and what is AI Product Management (AIPM).

Class Notes

• Attention is required for this course.
• AI is a general-purpose technology.
• Value and needs
• From product to systems of systems
  • Product -> Smart product -> Smart, connected product -> Product System -> System of systems
• Success factors
  • Valuable
  • Feasible
  • Viable

Resources

The nature of product | Marty Cagan, Silicon Valley Product Group

• What is a product manager
  • Product manager: Problem -> Solution (Valuable and viable)
  • Project manager: Jira, Sprint…
• Issues of big companies
  • As company grows, they value more on marketing, finance than product.
  • Value creation (discovery) v.s. value capture (optimization)
• User research
  • Find reasons why users won’t use your product.
  • PM needs to be present at user research tests.

Case Galleries

• Stacksync
• Amazon go

Week 2

In week 2 we discussed some technical issues for AI start-ups, and pitched our project.

Resources

How to Get and Test Startup Ideas - Michael Seibel

• Start with ideas is tricky, start with a problem.
  • Having a personal connection to a problem is helpful.
  • Idea books -> Problem books.
• Why are you uniquely qualified to work on this problem?
• MVP (Minimal viable product)
  • Don’t fall in love with your MVP. Be in love with your problem and customer. Treat your product in a way that it can change.
• Initial users
  • Almost handpicked. Have the right type of initial users.

How to Get and Evaluate Startup Ideas | Startup School

• 10 questions to ask about any startup idea
  • Do you have founder/market fit? (Pick a good idea for your team)
  • How big the market? (Big now, or small but rapidly growing)
  • How accute is the problem?
  • Do you have competition? (Good ideas typically have some competitions)
  • Do you want this?
  • Did this only recently become possible/necessary? (New need. Example: background checker api when Uber took off)
  • Are there good proxies for this business? (Someone succeed, but not your direct competitor)
  • Is this an idea you’d want to work on for years?
  • Is this a scalable business?
  • Is this a good idea space? (Like Fintech, it has a good hit rate)
• 3 things that make your startup idea good
  • Hard to get started (Strip)
  • Boring space (Payroll idea has more hit rate than apps to find a good restaurant / song to listen to)
  • Existing competitors (Dropbox)
• How to come up with startup ideas (organically > thinking of ideas)
  • Become an expert on something valuable.
  • Work at a startup.
  • Build things you find interesting.
• 7 recipes for generating startup ideas
  • Start with your team is especially good at.
  • Start with a problem you’ve personally encountered.
    • Think of every job you’ve had (+ internships + life experiences)
    • What are problems or opportunities you’ve been in a special position to see?
  • Think of things you personally wish existed. (Dangerous)
  • Look for things in the world that have changed recently.
  • Look for new variants of successful companies.
  • Talk to people and ask what problems they have.
    • First picking a fertile idea space.
    • Talk to potential customers, and also other founders.
  • Look for big industries that seem broken.