Marily Nika
Marily is a computer scientist and an AI Product Leader currently working for Meta’s reality labs, and previously at Google for 8 years. In 2014 she completed a PhD in Machine Learning. She is also an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School and she has taught numerous courses, actively teaching AI Product Management on Maven and at Harvard. We also discuss why PM’s should learn a bit of coding, where they can learn it, and best practices for working with data scientists. Marily shares some insight into building her AI Product Management course and also why she full-heartedly believes you should also create your own course.
AI & Technology Skills
AI will become the default for product management as personalization and automation become standard requirements.
"I believe that ballpark managers will be AI product managers in the future. And this is because we see all products needing to have a personalized experience, a recommender system that is actually goo..."
Avoid using actual AI for MVPs; instead, use low-fidelity prototypes to 'fake' the AI functionality and validate the market first.
"Don't do it for your MVP. It makes zero sense. Do not waste time of data scientists that can train models with using powerful machines that are going take weeks to train. This is because if you have a..."
AI PMing involves managing high levels of uncertainty and focusing on problem-solution fit rather than just feature delivery.
"AI product development is different. As I mentioned before, sometimes you're actually managing the problem and not the product and you're trying to secure out if there is a problem that makes sense to..."
Communication Skills
De-risk big AI bets for leadership by using adjacent success stories and providing clear rollback plans.
"Whenever I try to convince leadership about something that I want to do that's a big bet, I always use examples and I'm like, "Hey, this seemed crazy at the time, here's how they work. What I'm propos..."
Growth Skills
PMs are responsible for bridging the gap between AI research and monetization through user willingness-to-pay research.
"If you're a PM you need to come up with ways to actually be able to monetize and ChatGPT is now free for everyone. But I don't know if you saw, there was a signup forum that was coming around saying,..."
Hiring & Teams Skills
A key PM skill is the ability to simplify complex technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders.
"I love to ask people, how would you explain a database to a three year old? ... it's so important to be able to explain things in a simple ring and have the storytelling to convince a kid and really e..."
Leadership Skills
Successful AI PMs must learn to bridge the gap between product goals and the experimental nature of research science.
"You will need to get comfortable with having a partner that's a research scientist and you will need to understand that these people can produce a smart model. They'll be able to do some automation, s..."
Product Management Skills
AI can help refine mission statements to be more inspiring and accessible to a broad audience.
"Even when I'm at work and I am trying to come up with a nice mission statement, when we're PMs will come up with mission statements, it's just crucial part and it's where the core begins. You want to..."
Avoid the 'shiny object trap' by ensuring AI is used to solve a specific, validated user pain point rather than for its own sake.
"There is something called the shiny object trap, and I'm always telling people, "Hey, don't do AI for the sake of doing AI." Make sure there is a problem there. Make sure there is a pain point that ne..."
Generative AI can be used to brainstorm and expand on user personas, motivations, and pain points.
"It helps me create user segments in a fantastic way. It will think of user segments that your mind wouldn't even go there, it just wouldn't go there. And it will provide the motivations, it will provi..."
The core value of an AI PM is identifying the specific problems that are best suited for machine learning solutions.
"I usually say that the generalist PM helps their team and their company build and ship the right product. But the AI PM helps their team or company solve the right problem."