Product for Product Management

We’re back with a familiar voice on the podcast: John Fontenot returns to continue our *First Principles for PMs in the Age of AI* series, this time focused on Vision and Strategy. In a conversation that blends product thinking, personal reflection, and a healthy dose of AI skepticism, John helps us explore what it really means for PMs to define where they’re going, and how to get there.John defines vision as the desired end state or future outcome, and strategy as the path, phases, and tradeoffs required to reach it. With examples ranging from long-term business goals to the realities of regulated industries, he explains why product managers still need to lead on vision and strategy even when leadership doesn’t provide a clear direction, and why AI can support this work, but not fully own it.Join Matt and Moshe as they explore with John:What vision and strategy actually mean in product management, and why they’re easy to confuse - How to connect a big vision to practical milestones, obstacles, and key results Why AI can help with analysis and brainstorming, but can’t replace human creativity, empathy, or rule-breaking thinking - The limits of AI in regulated spaces like finance and healthcare, where context and compliance matter Why PMs often have to create strategy when the organization doesn’t hand it to them - How to use AI as a thinking partner without outsourcing your strategic judgment The balance between staying anchored in the long-term vision and adjusting to the realities of the market, user needs, and constraints John’s perspective on where product teams should be careful not to let AI flatten nuance or over-automate strategy And much moreWant to connect with John?LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrfontenot/ You can also connect with us and find more episodes:Product for Product Podcast: http://linkedin.com/company/product-for-product-podcastMatt Green: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattgreenproduct/ Moshe Mikanovsky: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikanovskyNote: Any views mentioned in the podcast are the sole views of our hosts and guests, and do not represent the products mentioned in any way.Please leave us a review and feedback ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We’re kicking off a new series with a very timely question: what does product management look like in the age of AI? In this first episode, Matt and Moshe set the stage for *First Principles and Beyond for Product Managers in the Age of AI*, exploring how PM work is changing, what should stay human, and where AI can genuinely help. The conversation ranges from Matt’s work implementing software for government agencies to Moshe’s hands-on experiments with AI coding tools like Cursor, Kirk, and Claude Code. Along the way, they dig into the tension between speed and judgment, debate what “product sense” really means, and start shaping the core theme of the series: identifying the first principles of product management before layering AI on top. Join Matt and Moshe as they explore: - How product management is evolving as AI becomes part of the workflow - Why human-centered value delivery still matters, even when tools can generate work faster - What “product sense” means in practice, and whether it can be defined as a set of first principles - Experiments with AI coding tools, local development, and the possibilities of building faster with more leverage - The idea of using AI to augment product work without removing human judgment from the loop - Bring it to the audience by polling where PMs should remain involved, and where AI can take more of the load - And much more! Want to share your thoughts on the series or follow along?- - Product for Product Podcast: http://linkedin.com/company/pr... - Matt Green: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ma... - Moshe Mikanovsky: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mik... Note: Any views mentioned in the podcast are the sole views of our hosts and guests, and do not represent the products mentioned in any way. Please leave us a review and feedback ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We continue our AI Tools series with a deep dive into using Large Language Models (LLMs) for research, featuring Slobodan (Sani) Manić, AI skeptic, podcaster, and founder of the AI Fluency Club. Sani joins Matt and Moshe to share why context, careful prompting, and critical thinking are essential for getting real value out of today’s LLMs in product work. Drawing on his work as a product builder, educator, and host of No Hacks Podcast, Sani challenges common myths about AI’s capabilities and underscores both its practical uses and its risks for product managers. The conversation ranges from practical workflows to future visions of invisible AI, open-source models, and the real state of the “wrapper economy” built on major LLM providers. Join Matt, Moshe, and Sani as they explore: - Why most LLM workflows boil down to two mindsets: understanding your work, or avoiding understanding it - The crucial role of context and authority, why careless prompting leads to hallucinations, and how to break questions into smaller steps for better results - How LLMs fit as accelerators for deep research, surfacing insights faster than classic search engines, but always requiring fact-checking - Why Sani uses Google’s Gemini and NotebookLM, and the value of integration with your company’s existing tools - The open-source LLM alternative: privacy, flexibility, and why some see this as the future for secure enterprise AI - Pitfalls of the “wrapper economy,” vendor lock-in, and shaky business models based on reselling tokens - Starting out: how to include LLMs in PM research without reinventing your workflow, and why you must be careful with company data - The risks and limitations of AI today, especially in enterprise and sensitive environments - How internal AI context in tools like Atlassian makes those LLM features uniquely powerful - Future predictions: AI that fades into the background, plus the big unanswered questions about interface and humanoid robots - Sani’s approach to AI education, success stories from AI Fluency Club, and what executives need to learn to stay ahead - And much more! Want to learn more or join Sani’s community? - LinkedIn: Slobodan (Sani) Manić https://www.linkedin.com/in/sl... - No Hacks Podcast http://nohackspod.com/ - AI Fluency Club https://aifluencyclub.com/ You can also connect with us and find more episodes: - Product for Product Podcast http://linkedin.com/company/pr... - Matt Green https://www.linkedin.com/in/ma... - Moshe Mikanovsky http://www.linkedin.com/in/mik... Note: Any views mentioned in the podcast are the sole views of our hosts and guests, and do not represent the products mentioned in any way. Please leave us a review and feedback ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We’re excited to feature another visionary builder in product management: Tim Herbig, Product Coach and author of the newly released book “Real Progress: How to Connect the Dots of Product Strategy, OKRs and Discovery”.In this episode, Tim joins Matt and Moshe to share how his journey, from being handed a Product Owner role out of the blue, to leading teams and coaching organizations, shaped his mission to help product managers connect strategy, OKRs, and discovery into a framework for real impact.Tim draws on his years of experience across diverse industries and organizations to address a challenge he’s seen again and again: teams invite him to solve one issue but quickly discover there are deeper, often interlinked problems between strategic planning, measuring progress, and enabling effective discovery. That’s the gap he set out to fill with his book, a hands-on resource designed specifically for PMs and teams looking to go beyond process and frameworks, and start making progress that matters.Join Matt and Moshe as they explore with Tim:The story behind writing “Real Progress” and connecting the dots between strategy, OKRs, and discoveryWhy so many teams appear busy but are stuck making “alibi progress” instead of real impactThe Progress Wheel: a visual tool for mapping how strategic, measurable change drives product successHow to think critically about frameworks, challenging readers to adapt tools for their own context, rather than following them blindlyThe book’s practical structure: workbook-like prompts and non-linear sections for self-assessment and targeted improvementKey building blocks of strategy and how they relate to various templates and organizational maturityLinking company strategy to product strategy, and the strategic thinking required for product leadersUsing OKRs to measure if your strategy is working, and spotting when OKRs reveal deeper strategic problemsRole of discovery in reducing strategic risk and building conviction, including how Tim’s Evidence Strength Matrix helps teams evaluate signalsFirst steps for teams looking to connect their frameworks and drive improvementAnd much more!Thinking about making progress in your product work? Check out Tim’s book at realprogressbook.com and connect with him on LinkedIn or herbig.co.You can find the podcast’s page, and connect with Matt and Moshe on LinkedIn:Product for Product Podcast - http://linkedin.com/company/product-for-product-podcast Matt Green - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattgreenproduct/ Moshe Mikanovsky - http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikanovsky Note: Any views mentioned in the podcast are the sole views of our hosts and guests, and do not represent the products mentioned in any way.Please leave us a review and feedback ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As we continue our tradition of highlighting innovative startups building for product professionals, we’re excited to introduce Matan Kleyman, CEO and Co-Founder of Hunch, on this week’s episode.On the show, Matan shares his journey from technical engineering and data science roles to leading product teams and hosting a podcast focused on AI and product management. Now with Hunch, he’s set out to solve a problem many product managers know well: after all the investment in collecting and aggregating data, only a handful of senior data engineers truly know how to use it.With that problem in mind, Hunch is on a mission to democratize data access, giving product people rapid, autonomous, and approachable ways to get insights, act on their hunches, and unlock value from their company’s data.Join Matt and Moshe as they explore with Matan:The founding story of Hunch and why product managers are at the center of their visionHow Hunch enables any team member to query data using a ChatGPT-like interface and ready-made templatesTurning raw insights into dashboards and customizable data apps with no technical background requiredHunch’s two big differentiators: optimizing for speed and for true autonomyReal-world use cases, from engineers and PMs, to data-driven decision-making in actionHow Hunch supports both quantitative (what happened in the product) and qualitative (what should happen next) analysis, including transcript integrationsMatan’s philosophy on building trust: prioritizing transparency over rigid accuracy and giving users control over contextBest practices for onboarding, context management, and building knowledge sets in HunchLessons from building their public roadmap and belief in open, user-driven product developmentThe future of product management as a hybrid of visionary leadership and orchestrationAnd much more!Curious to try Hunch or learn more? Connect with Matan:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matankleyman/ Hunch: https://www.hunch.dev/ You can find the podcast’s page, and connect with Matt and Moshe on LinkedIn:Product for Product PodcastMatt GreenMoshe MikanovskyNote: Any views mentioned in the podcast are the sole views of our hosts and guests, and do not represent the products mentioned in any way.Please leave us a review and feedback ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As we traditionally have done in previous years, we got to feature some exciting startups this year too. Featuring visionary founders who are building exciting tools for product people, we are starting Startups of 2025 with Sahil Jain, cofounder and CEO of Samepage.ai.On the show we explore with Sahil his journey—from gaming enthusiast and QA tester at Yahoo to serial entrepreneur building products that solve the toughest challenges for product teams. Sahil shares how experiences at AOL, Trigger.io, AdStage (which he ran for 8 years and sold to TapClicks), and weekly conversations with VCs and startups led him to an important insight: most product teams struggle to stay truly aligned. That challenge became the spark for Samepage.ai, where the mission is to solve information asymmetry and help product managers focus more on communicating what matters.Join Matt and Moshe as they explore with Sahil:The founding story of Samepage.ai and why alignment is the central challenge for product managersHow product teams lose context and fall out of sync—with communication making up to 80% of a PM’s roleThe evolution of Samepage.ai from a “blank slate” approach beyond traditional tools like email and SlackLeveraging GenAI to surface relevant, daily insights from scattered sources (Slack, Linear, Github, and more)AI copilots for product managers: creating streams for weekly status updates, release notes, and trend analysis while keeping humans in the loopThe real challenges of transmitting vs. interpreting information, and supporting teams with diverse learning styles and cultural backgroundsEarly success stories from beta usersSahil’s process for validating and iterating Samepage, building in stages, and focusing on solving the right problemsThe future vision for Samepage.ai and how context-aware AI tools will enable better information retrieval, synthesis, and distributionAnd much more!Want to try Samepage.ai? Sahil will expedite your access to the beta program, so do connect with Sahil directly for access!You can connect with Sahil at:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahilio/ Email: [email protected] You can find the podcast’s page, and connect with Matt and Moshe on Linkedin: Product for Product Podcast - linkedin.com/company/product-for-product-podcast Matt Green - linkedin.com/in/mattgreenproduct/Moshe Mikanovsky - linkedin.com/in/mikanovsky/Note: any views mentioned in the podcast are the sole views of our hosts and guests, and do not represent the products mentioned in any way.Please leave us a review and feedback ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️