PM in the Age of AI and Celebrating 10 Years of The Lean Product Playbook
TL;DR:
š RSVP for my free July 16 Webinar: 10 Years of The Lean Product Playbook
š¤ Upcoming talks at Product-Led Summit SF & ProductCamp Chicago
Product Management in the Age of AI
AIās impact on product management has sparked a lot of discussion and speculation. Whatās interesting is how much opinions have shifted in less than a year. Around 9 months ago, some people were predicting that AI would have a major negative impact on PM jobs, some even went so far as to claim that PM was dead (funny how many things proclaimed ādeadā keep on living š). Now, many people see AI as a powerful tool that product managers can use to be more effective and efficient in their job.
The recent rise of vibe coding has played a major part in this change of opinion. Vibe coding is a broad term. I think many PMs are benefiting significantly from vibe prototyping. The key difference is that with vibe prototyping, itās understood that the main objective is testing product ideas without any expectation that the generated code will be used in production.
I am very bullish on what vibe prototyping and vibe coding can unlock for product managers willing to learn and embrace these new tools. Vibe prototyping is particularly valuable for product managers who face a situation I call āThe Design Gapā that Iāve been discussing for a long time.
The Design Gap occurs when your product team does not have access to adequate designer bandwidth. This could be because you donāt have any designer at all. Or you have a portion of a designer allocated to your project, but they are spread too thin. Or you have a designer, but they are not skilled enough in creating prototypes.
This slide I created a while back shows the different levels of UX design capability for product teams. You ideally want to be at level 5 where you have a dedicated, talented designer on your product team (I explain this slide in more detail in the video linked below).
Before the advent of vibe prototyping, most product teams at all levels below level 5 were unable to create prototypes. Now, a PM can easily and quickly create a prototype with these new tools. In case youāre not familiar with them, some of the most popular vibe coding tools are Bolt, Cursor, Lovable, Replit, v0, and Windsurf.
Instead of covering this rich topic further here, I encourage you to check out this video of my recent interview with Aakash Gupta. We had a broad discussion on āProduct Management in the Age of AI.ā
Join Me July 24th for a Vibe Coding Learnathon + Hackathon
I'm so excited about Vibe Coding and Vibe Prototyping that I'm hosting a Vibe Coding Learnathon + Hackathon July 24th at Lean Product Meetup. This event is designed for people who are curious to learn more about Vibe Coding. Join us online or in person to learn by getting your hands dirty.
The Lean Product Playbook Turns 10!
Itās hard to believe, but itās now been 10 years since Wiley published my book The Lean Product Playbook. Iāve been very happy to hear the positive feedback from the many readers who found it helpful. And Iām glad to see it continues to sell well as new readers continue to discover it.
To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of The Lean Product Playbook, Iām hosting a free webinar event on July 16th where Iāll discuss the book, share some key ideas from it, reflect on whatās changed in 10 years, and answer your questions. Learn more and RSVP on Luma.
Iām very glad that about a year ago, I narrated a new audiobook version (the initial audiobook version was narrated by someone else). As the author of the content, this new narration allowed me to convey my material in a more authentic way.
Concurrent with the new audiobook, I also released a new deluxe audiobook companion PDF, available for free. This enhanced PDF has a hyperlinked table of contents, includes high-quality images of all the figures and tables, and is in color.
My book has been translated into Chinese, Turkish, Polish, and Thai. Some of you may know that Iām half Spanish, so I have always wanted a Spanish edition to be published. If you know of a Spanish language publisher who might be interested, please let me know.
Upcoming Speaking Events
Iām happy to see that in-person product events are back in force this year! In case you missed it, check out my list of 2025 Product Conferences. June was a busy month where I visited San Diego, Calgary, and Toronto (go Canada!) for events.
Iām excited to be speaking at several upcoming product events:
Product-Led Summit San Francisco ā Sep 16-17
The Product-Led team has been hosting conferences all around the world. Iām excited to be speaking at their upcoming Product-Led Summit in San Francisco Sep 16-17.
ProductCamp Chicago ā Oct 10
I love to support ProductCamps when I can, and Iāve been hearing great things about the growing product community in Chicago. Plus, as a Northwestern alum, I always enjoy visiting Chicago. So Iām excited to be speaking at ProductCamp Chicago on Oct 10th.
When Iām visiting a city, I like to take advantage of being there in person to teach in-person training workshops. If your company is based in Chicago and might be interested in a private training workshop, please reach out to me. Even if your company isnāt in Chicago, feel free to reach out about a workshop (I travel regularly for work and also offer virtual workshops).
Product Leader Summit ā Oct 23
I am one of the co-organizers of the Product Leader Summit, a special invite-only event for product leaders. This yearās Summit ā our 10th edition ā will be held OctĀ 23rd at the Walmart and Samās Club offices in San Bruno. If youāre a product leader, I encourage you to learn more and apply.
I publish my full speaking schedule on my website.
Thanks!
Thanks for reading and for being part of this amazing product community. Let me know if youāll be at any of these eventsāI always enjoy connecting in real life or online.
š Dan
Thanks, Dan - This is a great post using your UX maturity hierarchy to show how AI-powered tools can level up product teams at all layers of maturity.