Pawana Burlakoti on AI, Empowered Teams, and Product Sense
Everyone says their team is "using AI." Pawana Burlakoti, Product Management Executive, can show you what hers has built. In this episode of Productside Stories, she tells host Nicole Tieche how her teams make AI in product management part of the job, not a side hobby. She also covers the hiring bar she won't lower and why her UX team reports into product. Her verdict on this year? It's "the applying stage." And no, product sense isn't going anywhere.
Key Topics Discussed in This Episode
Learn and play: how Pawana's teams use AI Every team in Pawana's org has a goal to learn something with AI and share it. One teammate built a best-practice repository in a single evening. That used to take months.
Hiring product managers in the AI era Looking for an AI-mature product manager? Pawana says they don't exist yet. She hires for strong product sense, then looks for candidates who've built something with AI because they couldn't help themselves.
How to build an empowered product team Pawana's UX and research teams report into product, so clients hear one voice instead of three competing agendas. She also explains how she grows empowered product teams, where even early-career PMs lead.
Why Listen to This Episode?
In this thought-provoking episode, you’ll gain:
A model for AI adoption your team can copy by Monday
A straight answer to "Will AI replace product managers?" (Short version: not the ones with product sense.)
What an SVP of Product looks for when she hires PMs today
The case for putting product and UX under one roof and building shared capabilities once across your portfolio
Hit play before your next "So, what are we doing with AI?" meeting.
Related Resources
Check out these additional tools and resources to add to your PM belt:
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