Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career
What AI means for your product strategy | Paul Adams (CPO of Intercom)
Episode guests
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- AI can be integrated strategically into product strategies to enhance and augment products.
- Adopting AI requires a mix of experts and generalists in product teams, balancing optimism with healthy skepticism.
- Striking a balance between differentiation and table stakes is crucial for building a successful product.
Deep dives
The importance of exploring AI
AI is a transformative technology that will impact society. It is crucial for individuals and businesses to explore AI properly to avoid being left behind.
The potential of AI in product strategy
AI can enhance and augment products in various ways. It can partially or fully replace certain tasks, improve workflows, generate content, provide insights, and even take actions. Businesses need to evaluate how AI can align with their product's core premise and strategically incorporate AI into their product strategies.
Challenges and opportunities of adopting AI in teams
Adopting AI requires a mix of experts and generalists in product teams. It is important to have strong machine learning engineers, as well as designers and engineers who are open to learning AI concepts. It is essential to balance optimism with healthy skepticism when navigating the uncertainties and potential impacts of AI.
Building a culture of experimentation and learning
To embrace AI effectively, it is important to create a culture that encourages experimentation and learning. Companies should encourage fast iteration, ship to learn, and embrace high-risk, high-reward approaches. It is also crucial to stay up to date with the latest developments in AI, balance positive and negative perspectives, and constantly seek opportunities for improvement and growth.
Importance of Differentiation and Table Stakes
Differentiation and table stakes are two key driving forces for customer adoption and product success. Differentiation refers to what's different and better about a product in ways that customers care about, while table stakes are the basic and essential features that are necessary to play the game in a competitive market. The podcast emphasizes the importance of striking a balance between differentiation and table stakes, citing examples from their own experience at Intercom where they initially focused more on differentiation but later realized the need to invest in table stakes features as well. Finding the right balance between the two is crucial for building a successful product.
Swinging the Pendulum Framework
The swinging the pendulum framework emphasizes taking a step back to recognize when something is in an undesirable state, such as lacking in differentiation or missing essential table stakes features. The process involves making necessary changes and avoiding overcorrection. The podcast shares real-life examples where they swung the pendulum too far in terms of hiring specialized experts or overemphasizing differentiation at the expense of table stakes. By understanding the framework and avoiding extreme swings, companies can strike a balance between differentiation and table stakes to achieve long-term success.
Paul Adams is the longtime chief product officer at Intercom, where he leads the product management, product design, data science, and research teams. Before Intercom, Paul was the global head of brand design at Facebook, a senior user researcher at Google, and a product designer at Dyson. He’s also a best-selling author, a podcast host, and a public speaker. In today’s episode, we discuss:
• Practical advice on integrating AI into your organization
• Tips and tools for learning AI as a PM
• Hilarious stories from Google and Facebook
• How to build conviction with skeptical coworkers
• Lessons learned from pricing at Intercom
• How Intercom implemented JTBD
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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/what-ai-means-for-your-product-strategy-paul-adams-cpo-of-intercom/
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Where to find Paul Adams:
• X: https://twitter.com/Padday
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauladams/
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Paul’s background
(04:09) Freezing onstage in front of 8,000 people
(07:28) Insights from Google+ days
(12:31) Learning from failure
(13:56) Intercom’s “ship fast, ship early, ship often” principle
(15:17) Integrating AI into product strategy
(17:31) Making time for AI learning
(19:37) AI in new-product development
(21:16) Questions to ask about your product
(23:33) How Intercom pivoted after the release of ChatGPT
(25:13) Intercom’s AI chatbot, Fin
(26:45) The early impact of AI adoption at Intercom
(28:53) Mind-blowing capabilities of AI
(34:27) How to structure teams around AI products
(37:57) Why all teams should be involved in AI
(39:04) Staying up to date on emerging technology
(42:44) Hurdles implementing AI at Intercom
(45:52) Building conviction around AI
(49:52) Why you shouldn’t fear AI
(50:56) Paul’s “before-after” framework
(51:54) Pricing lessons from Intercom
(54:54) Paul’s “differentiation vs. table stakes” framework
(59:22) What “swinging the pendulum” means and examples from Intercom
(1:05:21) Paul’s “product market story fit” framework
(1:08:23) His take on JTBD
(1:11:01) How Intercom uses the “four forces” framework
(1:12:54) Lightning round
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Referenced:
• Intercom: https://www.intercom.com/
• The New ChatGPT Can “See” and “Talk.” Here’s What It’s Like: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/27/technology/new-chatgpt-can-see-hear.html
• Fergal Reid on X: https://twitter.com/fergal_reid
• Intercom’s AI chatbot, Fin: https://www.intercom.com/drlp/fin
• Mark Zuckerberg: First Interview in the Metaverse | Lex Fridman Podcast #398: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVYrJJNdrEg
• Black Mirror “Joan Is Awful” episode: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20247352/
• Mission: Impossible on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Impossible-Tom-Cruise/dp/B000X4IRE4
• Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/
• Claude: https://claude.ai/
• Matt Rickard’s newsletter: https://substack.com/@mattrickard
• OpenAI’s blog: https://openai.com/blog
• The Rundown AI newsletter: https://www.therundown.ai/
• Exponential View newsletter: https://www.exponentialview.co/
• Google Bard: https://bard.google.com/
• Rewind: https://www.rewind.ai/
• The Three Horizons Framework: https://medium.com/fact-of-the-day-1/the-three-horizons-framework-9d7ac0fbea21
• Sam Altman on X: https://twitter.com/sama
• Tableau: https://www.tableau.com/
• Kano model: https://www.productplan.com/glossary/kano-model/
• The ultimate guide to JTBD | Bob Moesta (co-creator of the framework): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-jtbd-bob-moesta-co-creator-of-the-framework/
• Hot takes and techno-optimism from tech’s top power couple | Sriram and Aarthi: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/hot-takes-and-techno-optimism-from-techs-top-power-couple-sriram-and-aarthi/
• Outcome-Driven Innovation: JTBD Theory in Practice: https://jobs-to-be-done.com/outcome-driven-innovation-odi-is-jobs-to-be-done-theory-in-practice-2944c6ebc40e
• The Four Forces Framework: https://thefourforces.com/four-forces-framework/
• It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be: https://www.amazon.com/Its-Not-How-Good-Want/dp/0714843377/
• Principles: Life and Work: https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Life-Work-Ray-Dalio/dp/1501124021
• The Bear on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/the-bear-05eb6a8e-90ed-4947-8c0b-e6536cbddd5f
• “Terry (Olivia Colman) and Richie peel mushrooms” scene from The Bear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7D8THR_osU
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change: https://www.amazon.com/Habits-Highly-Effective-People-Powerful/dp/0743269519
• Guinness: https://www.guinness.com/
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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
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