How the Best AI Product Teams Act Differently

In this episode, we sit down with Christian Marek, VP of Product at ProductBoard, to explore how AI is fundamentally reshaping product management. With experience at Meta, DocuSign, and now ProductBoard, Christian has been at the forefront of integrating AI into product workflows long before the generative AI boom. Now he's helping build ProductBoard's AI-powered features that help PMs distill thousands of pieces of customer feedback into actionable insights in minutes—work that previously took days or weeks.

If you've ever wondered how AI will change the day-to-day work of product managers, what skills PMs need to develop to stay relevant, or how the best product teams are already using AI to 10x their productivity, then this episode is for you.

Key Takeaways

• Product managers are evolving from feature spec creators to curators of vision, strategy, and commercial aspects

• The biggest AI value is in discovery—prototyping and processing high data volumes that humans couldn't handle alone

• AI is most helpful for customer feedback analysis, requirements definition, and rapid prototyping with tools like V0

• Strategic judgment and deep market understanding remain uniquely human and will differentiate future PMs

• Companies sitting on large data pools but unable to leverage LLMs due to architecture or compliance are prime targets for disruption

• The most successful AI product features solve deep pain points using core LLMs without requiring extensive fine-tuning

• PMs need to think strategically, ask AI to think, then think together for exceptional outcomes

• Voice interfaces may finally replace keyboard-mouse dominance as AI transcription becomes more accurate

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In this episode, we cover:

• Introduction (00:45)

• Christian’s journey in product and AI from DocuSign to Meta (01:14)

• Building for product managers and challenges of the space (04:00)

• Where Gen AI is most and least helpful in product work (05:35)

• Why being Gen AI-native is a strategic advantage (09:01)

• The importance of thinking critically with and without AI (10:25)

• Companies successfully applying Gen AI to solve deep pain points (12:34)

• UX design pitfalls and patterns in AI-powered products (15:51)

• Why foundational model performance varies across tools (18:28)

• The shift toward “vibe coding” and PMs shipping faster (21:01)

• Impacts of AI on product team size and structure (22:45)

• What defines a great AI PM and how to become one (23:53)

• Get in touch with Productboard (25:31)

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You can connect with Christian Marek through the following platforms:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianmarek/

• Website: https://www.productboard.com/

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You can connect with Adam through the following platforms:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-judelson/

• Substack: https://www.emergentproduct.com

• X: https://twitter.com/Ajuggles

• Website: www.firstprinciples.la

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For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast or becoming a guest, email adam@firstprinciples.la.

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