Becoming an AI PM | Aman Khan (Arize AI, ex-Spotify, Apple, Cruise)

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Aman Khan is Director of Product at Arize AI, an observability company for AI engineers at companies like Uber, Instacart, and Discord. Previously he was an AI Product Manager at Spotify on the ML Platform team, enabling hundreds of engineers to build and ship products across the company. He has also led and worked on products at Cruise, Zipline, and Apple. In our conversation, we discuss:

• What is an “AI product manager”?

• How to break into AI PM

• What separates top 5% AI PMs

• How to thrive as an individual-contributor PM

• Common pitfalls to avoid when building AI products

• The importance of energy and curiosity in product roles

• Much more

Some takeaways:

1. There are three main types of AI product managers:

   1. AI Platform PMs, who build tools for AI engineers

   2. AI Product PMs, who build products centered around AI

   3. AI-powered PMs, who use AI tools to enhance their work

2. Practical ways PMs can use AI tools:

   1. Generate UI mockups and prototypes quickly

   2. Analyze customer feedback and transcripts at scale

   3. Create data visualizations and reports

   4. Draft product requirements documents and other artifacts

3. Develop specific metrics for your AI initiatives, even if they don’t directly correlate to revenue right away. Track how many prototypes you create and how many ideas are generated from hackathons, and gather feedback on usability. This will help you gauge effectiveness and iterate on your approach.

4. Just as Betty Crocker found success by letting users add eggs to their cake mix, your AI tools should foster a sense of ownership. Avoid full automation; instead, integrate features that allow users to actively participate in the experience.

5. Top AI PMs stand out by:

   1. Focusing on solving customer problems rather than just implementing trendy AI features

   2. Thinking critically about the right interface for AI in their products (not always a chatbot)

   3. Balancing short-term deliverables with long-term exploration of new technologies

6. To thrive as an individual-contributor PM:

   1. Bring high energy to your work, even when facing uncertainty

   2. Be comfortable with “wandering” to find new directions for your product

   3. Use AI tools to amplify your abilities and find signal through noise

   4. Maintain a sense of fun and curiosity in your work

Where to find Aman Khan:

• X: https://x.com/_amankhan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanberkeley/

• Website: https://amanalikhan.com/

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Aman’s background

(06:16) Understanding AI product management roles

(13:29) Getting started as an AI product manager

(18:14) Building a portfolio and standing out

(22:31) Why product management is not dead

(28:56) How to thrive as an AI product manager

(35:42) Finding good ideas that are AI-oriented

(39:27) Be careful not to automate away every customer experience

(42:53) What separates top 5% AI PMs

(46:55) Key habits for long-term IC success

(52:48) The importance of energy in meetings

(57:00) Wandering vs. waiting

(01:01:41) Amplifying signal through AI tools

(01:03:18) Just have fun

(01:05:36) Lightning round

Referenced:

• AI Resources and Tools for PMs (Updated Oct 2024): https://open.substack.com/pub/amankhan1/p/ai-resources-and-tools-for-pms-updated

• Unlocking the AI PM Dream: Your Roadmap to Success: https://amankhan1.substack.com/p/unlocking-the-ai-pm-dream-your-roadmap

• Arize: https://arize.com/

• Ryzen: https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/business-systems/ryzen-ai.html

• NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google/

• Figma: https://www.figma.com/

• Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/

• Replit: https://replit.com/

• Excalidraw: https://excalidraw.com/

• Vercel: https://vercel.com/

• v0: https://v0.dev/

• How Airbnb Proved That Storytelling Is the Most Important Skill in Design: https://www.inc.com/yazin-akkawi/the-surprising-technique-airbnb-uses-to-better-sell-an-experience.html

• Brian Chesky’s new playbook: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/brian-cheskys-contrarian-approach

• Midjourney: https://www.midjourney.com/

• Dall-E: https://openai.com/index/dall-e-3/

• Introducing the Realtime API: https://openai.com/index/introducing-the-realtime-api/

• Intro to Large Language Models | Andrej Karpathy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjkBMFhNj_g

• Watch Me Build an App in 60 Minutes With o1 and Cursor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zmhe6_T-xU

• Greg Isenberg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

• Vision, conviction, and hype: How to build 0 to 1 inside a company | Mihika Kapoor (Product at Figma): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/vision-conviction-hype-mihika-kapoor

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/

• Instacart: https://www.instacart.com/

• How to grow a subscription business | Yuriy Timen (Grammarly, Canva, Airtable): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/transform-your-subscription-growth

• When Identifying the Problem Isn’t Enough: Lessons from Boxed Cake Mix by Ann M. Aly, TechFlow Director of Human Centered Design: https://www.techflow.com/when-identifying-the-problem-isnt-enough-lessons-from-boxed-cake-mix/

• Waymo: https://waymo.com/

• The Ikea effect: https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/ikea-effect

• Blue Apron: https://www.blueapron.com/

• Unorthodox PM wisdom: Automating user insights, unselling job candidates, logging every decision, more | Kevin Yien (Stripe, Square, Mutiny): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/unorthodox-pm-wisdom-kevin-yien

• LeBron James: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeBron_James

• The Secrets Behind Lyft’s Dynamic Culture: https://www.forbes.com/sites/marissaperetz/2018/05/16/the-secrets-behind-lyfts-dynamic-culture/

• Aparna Dhinakaran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aparnadhinakaran/

• Why most public speaking advice is wrong—and how to finally overcome your speaking anxiety | Tristan de Montebello (CEO & co-founder of Ultraspeaking): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/master-public-speaking-tristan-de-montebello

• Ultraspeaking: https://ultraspeaking.com/lenny/

• A Short History of Nearly Everything: https://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/076790818X

• Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life: https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Your-Life-Well-Lived-Joyful/dp/1101875321

• Tour de France: Unchained on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81153133

• Formula 1: Drive to Survive on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80204890

• Websim: https://websim.ai/

• Appeel Books: https://appeel.brandeditems.com/

• Steve Jobs quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/374630-your-time-is-limited-so-don-t-waste-it-living-someone#

• Becoming a conscious leader: Leading without fear, finding your life’s objective function, and getting better at vision and strategy | John Mark Nickels (Uber, Waymo, DoorDash): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/becoming-a-conscious-leader-john-mark-nickels

• Aman Khan (cricket player): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aman_Hakim_Khan

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.