Now that I'm a Product Director in collegiate sports compliance software (a mouthful, I know), I see the landscape changing, and I worry that I won't be able to keep up.
When I was a Senior PM, the use cases were obvious: creating a custom GPT to help synthesize research, write PRDs, plan roadmaps, and draft project status updates. AI served as an execution partner. Easy. Straightforward, even.
Now I'm less in the weeds, and there's this quiet, nagging voice that says: What if I fall behind? What if the transformation happens around me while I'm in stakeholder meetings?
The use case shift
I still use AI for execution (shoutout to working at a startup where title doesn't matter as much as getting the job done). But increasingly, I'm finding the real leverage is as a thought partner, not a task executor.
What that looks like in practice
- Pressure-testing a strategy before I bring it to stakeholders
- Spotting patterns across data and products faster
- Asking "what am I missing?" before a big decision (and actually getting a useful answer)
- Staying current across domains I don't have time to go deep on
The shift is from doing things faster to thinking better.
I don't have this fully figured out. I'm genuinely still building the muscle and knowledge. But I think the leaders who crack this might have more leverage than ever.