The Product Skills That Matter in the Post-ZIRP and AI Era
The Product Skills That Matter in the Post-ZIRP and AI Era
PM leaders from Airbnb, Duolingo, and Toast discuss hard truths about how the PM role is changing
Dear subscribers,
Today, I want to share a new episode about how the PM role is changing with Sanchan Saxena (Airbnb), Nickey Skarstad (Duolingo), and John Cutler (Toast).
For my paid subs, I also want to share a list of 10 product skills for the post-ZIRP and AI era that’ll help you stand out.
How the PM role is changing in 2024 | PM Panel
Listen now on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify.
This episode features a panel that I hosted a few months ago with Sanchan Saxena (Airbnb), Nickey Skarstad (Duolingo), and John Cutler (Toast). We talked about:
[00:00] Less internal shenanigans, more customer focus
[03:30] Why many companies are tired of product managers
[10:25] How Airbnb practices narrative-first product development
[13:09] Designing the right incentives for PMs
[17:03] How Duolingo gets PMs to focus on customer obsession
[22:01] How the PM and design relationship is evolving
[26:08] Getting hired in today's tough tech jobs market
[32:55] Favorite AI PM use cases from the panel
[42:25] How to be a great product leader in the post-ZIRP era
[45:27] Your number one career skill is how to smell out orgs
The product skills that’ll help you stand out in the post-ZIRP and AI era
As we heard from the panel, competition for PM jobs is more intense than ever due to:
Companies cutting bloat and favoring builders over managers.
AI automating busy work like project management.
To stand out, I think it’s important to work on 10 skills across 3 key areas:
Navigate the product development loop
Collapse the talent stack
Become AI-native
Let’s dive in.