AI Will Replace Functional Communication, Not Influential Communication

Claire Vo's perspective on AI's impact on product management centers on distinguishing between different types of communication and maintaining a fast pace while preserving high quality standards.

AI's Impact on Product Management Skills

Communication Types: What AI Can and Cannot Replace

• "Lowercase c communication" will likely be replaced by AI

  • The functional trading of information that allows others to do their jobs
  • Synthesizing information and putting together documentation
  • Coordinating who communication goes to across different content modalities
  • Example: Creating structured PRDs, specs, and documentation

• "Capital C Communication" will remain uniquely human

  • Being influential and convincing
  • Demonstrating boldness and vision
  • Getting a system of humans to follow you down a path
  • Building buy-in and alignment across stakeholders

PM Skills Most Vulnerable to AI Disruption

• Document creation and information synthesis
• Requirements gathering and organization
• Standardized planning and roadmapping
• Data analysis and insight generation
• Basic decision-making based on known patterns

PM Skills Likely to Remain Human-Driven

• Seeing the future in ways that models trained on past data cannot
• Charisma and the ability to attract support for initiatives
• Bold decision-making in uncertain environments
• Cross-functional relationship building and influence
• Organizational design and team leadership

Creating Fast-Paced, High-Quality Product Organizations

Setting a Faster Pace

• "One click faster" clock speed principle

  • If something needs to be done this year, it needs to be done this half
  • If it needs to be done this half, it needs to be done this quarter
  • If this quarter, this month; if this month, this week; if this week, today

• Don't let pace degrade to the cadence of recurring meetings

  • Avoid the anti-pattern of "we'll make the decision in the next meeting"
  • Don't snap to artificial calendar-driven timelines
  • Make decisions based on when you have sufficient information, not when the next meeting occurs

• Personal SLAs for leaders

  • Never be the bottleneck for the organization
  • Be responsive with high decision velocity
  • Model the pace you want to see in the organization

Maintaining High Quality Standards

• Define specific, measurable talent bars

  • Create clear, specific leadership principles
  • Develop tractable, measurable career ladders, especially at senior levels
  • Avoid soft, vague criteria like "takes in cross-functional stakeholder feedback"

• Normalize direct feedback

  • "Clear is kind" - feedback-avoidant cultures degrade talent bars
  • Make it clear that questioning ideas is not questioning innate talent
  • Take the "temperature out of the room" when it comes to candid feedback

• Move quickly when talent isn't a fit

  • Don't delay addressing performance issues
  • Maintain a healthy, effective, performant team environment
  • Be direct: "The way you are operating is not meeting our leadership expectations"

Advice for PMs in the AI Era

• Develop skills around building nondeterministic products
• Study and critique AI products to understand their strengths and limitations
• Experiment with no-code/low-code tools if you're not engineering-oriented
• Find enjoyable ways to engage with AI tools to spark learning
• Focus on where you can add unique value beyond what AI can provide