Lessons In Product Management

Episode Summary:

In this episode, John Fontenot explores a thought-provoking topic: the potential consolidation of Product Management (PM) and User Experience (UX) roles due to advancements in Generative AI. He examines the overlap between these two disciplines, the evolving responsibilities of PMs and UX designers, and how organizations may react to increased efficiency through AI.

Key Takeaways:

1. Understanding the Unique Roles of PM and UX Designer (00:25 - 02:32)

• PMs focus on business objectives, prioritization, roadmaps, stakeholder management, and go-to-market strategies.

• UX designers specialize in information architecture, interaction design, prototyping, and usability testing.

• Despite distinct roles, there is a significant overlap, particularly in customer research, solution ideation, and user flow testing.

2. Will AI Eliminate the Need for Both Roles? (02:35 - 06:50)

• AI can increase efficiency, but does it replace UX or PM roles entirely?

• Many organizations underutilize UX designers, treating them primarily as visual designers.

• AI efficiency gains should ideally allow both roles to focus on higher-level strategic work rather than replacing either.

3. The Risk of Role Consolidation (06:55 - 09:25)

• Companies with limited UX investment might see AI as an opportunity to eliminate UX roles, shifting responsibilities to PMs.

• Similarly, strategic UX professionals who engage with stakeholders and business objectives could replace PMs in certain organizations.

• PMs focused only on execution (e.g., writing JIRA tickets) may find their roles at risk in the future.

4. The Need for Cross-Skilling (09:30 - 13:40)

• PMs should develop UX skills (e.g., using Figma, understanding usability principles) to become better collaborators and future-proof their careers.

• UX designers should engage more in strategy, business alignment, and product thinking to solidify their role.

• Organizations benefit when both disciplines embrace AI efficiencies while maintaining their unique expertise.

5. Future-Proofing Your Career (13:40 - End)

• PMs and UX designers should leverage AI as a tool rather than fearing replacement.

• Developing cross-functional skills ensures career longevity and adaptability.

In this episode ofLessons in Product Management, host John Fontenot tackles a listener's question:How can a product manager succeed in a waterfall environment? He acknowledges that while Agile is often the preferred framework, many industries and organizations still operate in waterfall models, making adaptability key.

Fontenot offers two approaches:

1. The Ideal Scenario – Where leadership is open to change, product managers can integrate discovery into waterfall planning by validating key assumptions upfront, treating specifications as hypotheses rather than rigid plans, and advocating for continuous learning.
2. The Less-than-Ideal Scenario – When change is difficult, PMs should still find ways to gather feedback on in-flight projects, document assumptions, and leverage data to push for iterative improvements.

His key message: Regardless of methodology, success lies in how PMs use the time between releases to refine strategies and make data-driven decisions.

If you're an aspiring PM looking to gain real, hands-on product management experience OR if you're a current PM looking to augment your current experience in other domains, come join us atPath2Product where you'll solve real problems from real users of real products.

Do you feel constantly pressured to ship new features? Do you get the space you need for proper discovery?

Most Product Managers feel this pressure, and I was recently asked on LinkedIn why this is the case. What about our company cultures or human nature drives this desire for more new stuff? In this episode, I attempt to break down the top 3 reasons why I believe Product culture drives outputs over outcomes, even we say we want the opposite.

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If you're looking to get your shot at a job in product management and not sure how to get the experience you need to make that leap, come join us onPath2Product where over 1,200 aspiring PMs are not only learning what the job is really like, but they are gaining hands-on experience and developing their portfolio to stand out in the job market.

On today's Lesson in Product Management, this one is for the perfectionists out there.

If you consider yourself a "creative" or an artist, you might be tempted to hide your work until you deem it "perfect" - but that could be hurting you more than you know. On this episode we break down why perfectionism hurts you and those around you and ultimately will set you back in your career and the progress you seek to make for customers.

If you're looking to get into product management but lack the years of experience you need to get in, look no further than Path2Product where we help you bridge the gap in product management experience, build a portfolio to prove your skills and prepare you for interviews and empower you to hit the ground running once you land that first PM job.

It's easy to get overly focused on "doing your job" as a product manager. Unfortunately, we risk taking too narrow of a view of what our job actually is.

When it comes to working with PMMs (product marketing managers), it's no different. And it's about time we start treating them like partners rather than someone we throw releases over the wall to and expect them to make our products sell.

If you're looking to get into product management and want the training and experience you need to get there, join us at Path2Product where we bridge the gap in product management experience for aspiring product managers.

Some of the greatest leaders and leadership authors have given the advice to "Lean into your strengths."

This idea makes sense in some instances. In other cases, it can handicap your career and growth trajectory.

If you want to get into product management and challenge yourself to gain much needed PM experience, join a growing community of 1,000+ aspiring product managers on Path2Product where we bridge the gap of product management experience for aspiring PMs.

On today’s episode, I got to chat with Bob Ainsbury, Chief Product Officer at Granicus. 

Bob is a long-time Product leader who has had a winding journey from engineering to sales and marketing leadership to leading strategy and now in the C-suite as a Product executive. For most of Bob’s career, he’s been in highly regulated spaces like Healthcare and government. 

On today’s episode, we dive into Bob’s experience in leading product in regulated industries and cover a bunch of fun topics such as:

• Privacy and Ethical Considerations in Government Technology
• AI and Machine Learning Trends in Government
• What it’s like Leading Product in Regulated Spaces
• Compliance and Product Ethics
• The Future of AI and ML in Government and so much more

This episode is jam-packed and we cover a lot of ground in 30 minutes, so sit back, relax, and enjoy these lessons in product management. 

What is your relationship like with your stakeholders? If you're not treating them like partners, I can promise you it's not great.

In this episode, we share how to build great relationships with your "stakeholders" and create win/win relationships that stop making stakeholders feel like blockers to your desired progress.

If you're looking to get into product management, join us at ⁠Path2Product⁠ to get the knowledge, experience, and coaching you need to make that transition and accelerate your path to product management!

On today's lesson in product management, John Fontenot shares a recent story about his experience working in a Scrum shop and how the rigid interpretation of Scrum almost killed his ability to ship a critical integration on time.

If you're interested in entering product management and want to gain the hands-on experience you need to make that leap, join us at Path2Product and start earning much-needed experience today.