AI Product Leadership Masterclass: The Makings of a Manager (With Author of the Book)

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Sep 1, 2025

Julie Zhuo, former VP of Product Design at Facebook and bestselling author, dives into the rapidly evolving landscape of product management and design. She raises provocative questions about the future of these roles in an AI-driven world. Zhuo emphasizes the importance of timeless management principles and how great AI product leaders must adapt. She discusses building product taste and the necessity of a collaborative mindset as AI transforms individual contributions into streamlined workflows. It's a thought-provoking exploration of the future of product development.

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INSIGHT

Roles Will Blur; Think Skills Not Titles

AI lets one person or a very small team do work that used to require many specialized roles.
Stop thinking in fixed job titles and think in skills and builders instead.

ADVICE

Inventory Your Unique Skills

Remove identity from your role and inventory the specific skills you bring that AI can't replicate yet.
Augment missing skills with complementary people or AI to build end-to-end products.

ADVICE

Train Your Product Taste From Masters

Learn product taste by studying the best practitioners and reverse-engineering their thinking.
Read their work, ask for critiques, and refine your mental models from their principles.

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Today's guest: Julie Zhuo, Former VP of Product Design at Facebook, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of "The Making of a Manager," and now AI product leader at Sundial

"Is the product designer role going to exist in 10 years? Is the product manager role going to exist in 10 years?"

That's Julie Zhuo asking the existential questions every product leader is thinking but afraid to voice.

Julie spent 13 years at Facebook, starting as an IC designer and rising to VP of Product Design. She wrote the Wall Street Journal bestseller "The Making of a Manager." Today, she's building AI products at Sundial and working with companies like OpenAI.

In our conversation, she breaks down:

* How AI is killing traditional product roles

* The timeless management principles that still matter

* What makes a great AI product leader

* How to build product taste when AI gets better than you

This isn't just about adapting to new tools. It's about reimagining what product development looks like when one person can do what used to take a whole team.

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Check out the conversation on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.

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Timestamps

00:00 Intro

02:30 The Death of Product Development

08:42 Learn The Craft

15:02 ADS

17:00 Definition of a Managers's Job

21:12 Julie's Thoughts on AI Agents

28:12 Blindspots While switching from IC to Manger

30:40 ADS

35:48 The Three Levers That Never Change

41:20 What is Feedback

46:43 How AI is Changing the Domain

52:49 What Makes Great AI Product Leaders Different

1:00:55 Essential AI Tools Every Leader Should Master

1:09:15 Lessons from OpenAI's Product Team

1:15:55 Outro

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Key Takeaways

1. Stop Thinking in Roles, Start Thinking Skills. The future belongs to builders who combine unique strengths with AI capabilities, not people attached to traditional job titles like PM or designer.

2. Taste Becomes the Critical Differentiator. When AI can do many things well, your ability to recognize exceptional work versus average output becomes your most valuable skill.

3. The Three Management Levers Still Apply. People, process, and purpose remain the core levers. AI agents just add new tools within the "people" lever you need to manage.

4. Face Reality to Build Trust. Create environments where teams can confront what's really happening. Thank messengers who bring problems instead of shooting them.

5. Conviction + Humility Balance. Have strong conviction in your process and vision, but stay humble enough to accept feedback and iterate based on what you learn.

6. Be a Beginner Again. Even experienced product leaders need to earn their stripes in the AI era. The willingness to learn matters more than past success.

7. Lead Through Experimentation. This isn't a playbook era. Try new team structures, new workflows, new approaches. Nobody has all the answers yet.

8. Master AI Tools in Your Workflow. Don't just use ChatGPT occasionally. Actively disrupt your old systems and use AI throughout your daily work processes.

9. Learn from OpenAI's Approach. They work seven days a week, obsess over understanding user behavior data, and maintain rigorous weekly metrics reviews for alignment.

10. Focus on What Remains Human. The joy of creation, learning processes, and meaning we derive from building things we're proud of can't be automated away.

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Related Content

Podcasts:

Full Roadmap: Become an AI PM

Complete Course: AI Product Management

How to Become, and Succeed as, an AI PM | The Marily Nika Episode

Newsletters:

How to become an AI Product Manager

How to Write a Killer AI Product Manager Resume

How to Become an AI Product Manager with No Experience

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