Updated: June 4, 2024 - 11 min read
AI is everywhere — in 2023, the global AI market was valued at $142.3 billion and is expected to exceed $1 trillion by 2028. But what does that mean for product managers?
For one thing, learning the skills to use AI effectively and embracing the tools – which are proliferating at breakneck speed – could mean the difference between gaining a competitive advantage or falling behind. In addition, digital experience technologies are an incredible resource for product teams to learn from their users, gain important insights and inform strategies to improve those experiences through understanding the customer journey.
In this article, we’re taking a look at:
How product managers can implement AI in their company’s products
How to use AI to level up their skills and improve efficiency by shortening the time it takes to perform tasks
How to gain better insights by using AI to help analyze large datasets, inform optimization for current features and generate ideas for new products
Key takeaways
Product managers willing to learn and leverage AI will set themselves up to succeed
AI technologies position companies to be more competitive and improve customer experience
The best way to get started with AI is to dive in and experiment with it, and use it in your everyday work..
Product managers can use AI to glean insights that enable more data-driven decisions to improve customer satisfaction and business outcomes.
The benefits AI technologies bring to product managers
AI is becoming indispensable to product management due to increased accessibility. Product managers no longer require deep technical expertise or support from data scientists to enhance their workflows and decision-making processes.
AI tools are now designed to be user-friendly, with no more than an account setup to start delivering valuable answers quickly. This ease of access can have a deep impact on how product managers handle tasks such as drafting product requirements documents (PRDs), creating user stories, and conducting competitive analysis. The result is a better user experience within their products (a difficult task previously), and the ability to analyze data at scale more quickly and with better insights.
Leveraging AI for enhanced product management insights and efficiency
We’re living in a data-driven environment, and product teams at companies like Glassbox are channeling AI to transform their workflows and decision-making processes. Here’s a streamlined approach to how AI can revolutionize how product teams work:
Accelerated decision-making and data utilization
AI empowers product managers to make faster, smarter decisions by efficiently sifting through massive amounts of data to uncover hidden insights. This transformative capability allows teams to respond to market changes, pivot quickly as needed, and spend more time focusing on identifying and capturing the right opportunities. As a result, they’re able to spend less time wrestling with data analysis, and can dedicate more time engaging with customers and users in other ways to support them and strengthen those relationships.
Comprehensive user understanding
An understanding of user behaviors and preferences is gold to product managers. AI's analytics capabilities can provide deep insights into user behaviors and preferences for product teams in several ways, including:
Sentiment analysis and customer feedback analysis: These tools quickly analyze user feedback to identify overall customer satisfaction and areas for improvement
Product usage analytics: AI monitors how users interact with products, which features are used most, and pinpoints potential enhancements.
Predictive modeling: AI facilitates forecasting of market trends and customer behavior, which are crucial for proactive strategy adjustments. For example, Product teams can identify which customers are most likely to respond to certain product features or promotions, to optimize resource allocation and increase the effectiveness of marketing strategies (segmentation analysis).
AI - One of many tools in your Product toolbox
AI is an invaluable tool for product teams. It can improve your ability to analyze data, predict trends, and personalize experiences. But don’t let the excitement of its newness and capabilities make you forget that it's just one part of a broader toolkit. Traditional product management methods such as user research, direct customer feedback, and iterative testing are still essential for comprehensive solutions.
Sure, AI helps streamline these processes and offers predictive insights. But remember that a simpler fix may sometimes be more effective. The final, and often best, decision-making often combines AI outputs with human judgment and industry experience to craft strategies that are data-driven but also intuitively aligned with user needs and business goals.
Strategic application of AI in user journeys
Customer journey maps are a great place to start for identifying pain points. R&D, UX and customer success teams frequently interact with users, so collaborating with them is a great way to brainstorm viable AI-enhanced solutions.
Such collaboration can weave a comprehensive view of these pain points, facilitating effective brainstorming sessions. Together, these teams can combine their insights to create AI-enhanced solutions that streamline the user journey, improve user satisfaction, and optimize overall usability. As a result, AI tools can be applied strategically to enhance the user experience based on real, observed challenges.
Considerations before implementing AI solutions
Implementation feasibility is an essential process to implement prior to deploying AI. Below are some essential considerations to discuss before deciding how to proceed:
Technical feasibility: Do you have or can you easily obtain all the data you need? If not, do you need to gather more data about your users from external factors? How you answer this critical question of implementation feasibility is the most important consideration in moving forward.
Compliance: Are there regulatory issues to work through? If so, is that in alignment with the company's strategy and vision?
Level of effort: Consider the amount of work needed to implement these solutions. What will the impact be of those efforts, and are they worth the risk and reward?
Armed with this knowledge, you’ll be more confident that AI integration into your product processes can be both strategic and effective.
Enhancing communication and user engagement
AI can refine how product teams communicate and engage with users in numerous ways. These include:
Adaptive communication: Tailoring messages based on the audience, whether it's users, stakeholders, or management.
Interactive FAQs: Generating FAQs based on product specifications and user feedback.
User persona interaction: Creating user personas to simulate real interactions, which can provide deeper insights.
User interviews: Speaking with users not only ensures that you’re grasping the full extent of their unique challenges, but it can also reduce tickets, improve resolution times, and make them feel heard and valued – a monumental step in enhancing customer experience and loyalty.
The role of prompt engineering
Prompt engineering skills are critical for product managers using generative AI. Crafting detailed prompts guides AI to generate useful and relevant responses, enhancing the quality of insights derived from AI tools. Using specific, well-crafted prompts, and refining the results through additional instructions or questions is worth the extra time and will reward you with better results.
How Digital Experience Intelligence (DXI) empowers product managers with AI
Once a product team is empowered with the knowledge and skills to effectively use AI, the next step is to provide them the tools needed to put those skills to use.
Digital experience intelligence (DXI) is a powerful set of tools that provides product managers and their teams with the customer-centric data they need to gain comprehensive insights into customer interactions and product performance.
The value of a digital experience platform like Glassbox emerges when users can see the complete picture of a customer’s interactions. Unlike standalone tools, these insights deliver the what, not just the why. With invaluable data like session replay, journey mapping, and product analytics, among other tools, product managers and their teams have access to the advanced insights needed for confident and swift data-driven decisions.
8 ways product managers can use DXI platform:
AI-driven behavioral analytics: Understanding user behavior is central to enhancing customer experience. Digital experience platforms use AI to meticulously analyze how users interact—tracking clicks, scrolls, and navigations. By using this data to understand patterns and trends, product teams can make informed decisions from insights about user preferences and pain points, ultimately enhancing usability and engagement.
Real-time insights and alerts: Real-time analytics and alerts can be a game-changer for understanding what customers are experiencing. AI is used to monitor digital platforms and immediately alert teams to technical issues and user struggles. For instance, a product team member may be alerted via AI to a sudden spike in users abandoning a transaction page. With that real-time knowledge, the team can immediately investigate and resolve the issue, drastically reducing the impact on user experience.
Enhanced session replay and analysis: Session replays provide a window into the user’s journey on an application or website. Highlighting significant actions and anomalies during a session, these replays allow product teams to quickly identify and correct issues. Not only is this essential for troubleshooting, but also for understanding which features users find most engaging – an unparalleled way to enable continuous improvement of the digital experience.
Customer journey mapping: AI is an exceptional tool to aid in creating detailed customer journey maps. Data aggregated from various touchpoints across the customer lifecycle makes these maps invaluable for product managers. By providing a holistic view of the customer experience, they reveal strengths and areas for improvement. Equipped with these insights, product teams can streamline the customer journey, reducing friction and creating a smoother, more intuitive customer experience.
Predictive analytics: Predictive analytics are a forward-looking AI capability that Glassbox uses to anticipate future user behaviors based on historical data. This predictive intelligence allows product managers the ability to proactively incorporate strategies that enhance user engagement and increase conversion rates, to stay one step ahead of user needs.
Anomaly detection: Anomalies are often red flags indicating serious issues such as unusual user behaviors or bugs. AI algorithms are outstanding at detecting anomalies, and by detecting them early, companies can proactively address problems in the early stages – before they affect a broader user base – ultimately maintaining exceptional user experience.
Enhanced personalization: Personalization is essential to user satisfaction, and AI introduces a more sophisticated approach. By analyzing individual user data, AI can inform ways for product managers to tailor experiences, content, and offers to meet specific user needs. The result can be boosted user engagement while fostering a deeper connection between the user and the brand, to enhance customer loyalty.
Voice of the customer: Voice of the Customer (VOC) is a process that captures, analyzes, and provides responses to customer feedback to improve products, services, and overall customer experience. It focuses on understanding customer needs and preferences by collecting data from various sources where customers express their opinions. Any time you can get feedback from your customers first-hand is the easiest way to understand their struggles.
Too often, though, your customers don’t take the time to tell you how they feel. Glassbox takes VOC one step further with Voice of the Silent analytics, which uses machine learning to translate customer behavior into quantifiable feedback. Product teams can finally listen to their silent majority, whether they take your satisfaction surveys or not.
With digital experience intelligence at their disposal, product managers can unlock powerful tools to better understand and improve the customer journey. AI-driven analytics, real-time alerts, and predictive insights allow teams to proactively enhance user engagement and satisfaction, while features like session replay and customer journey mapping ensure a seamless user experience. With a smooth and frictionless user experience, your customers will soon become loyal fans.
Three AI best practices for better customer insights
Implement continuous learning and development: AI technologies evolve rapidly, so staying up-to-date with the latest tools, techniques, and best practices is crucial. Continuous learning opportunities like workshops, webinars, and courses will help product teams keep their skills sharp and their strategies relevant. Use it as much as you can in your day-to-day work, experiment with it, and get to know the technical hands-on elements.
Foster a culture of data-driven decision-making: Promote an organizational culture that prioritizes data-driven decisions. This involves equipping teams with the necessary tools and encouraging them to integrate data insights into every aspect of product development and management. Establishing regular review sessions where teams can discuss insights from AI analytics will foster informed decisions that are aligned with user needs and market trends.
Optimize collaboration between teams: Ensure seamless collaboration between R&D, UX, Marketing, Customer Success, and Product Management teams. Careful and collaborative use of AI across departments ensures teams can implement AI solutions properly for the best results. Breaking down silos and fostering a collaborative environment will ensure the insights gained from AI tools are integrated into all facets of product strategy and customer experience improvements.
Final thoughts
AI offers compelling opportunities to product managers and their teams. Learning the skills to work with AI, along with access to a digital experience intelligence platform is a powerful combination that empowers continuous improvement and exceptional customer experience.
Learn more about how Glassbox can help your product teams be more successful.
Updated: June 4, 2024
