If You're Not AI First, You're Already Behind
The letter I wish every product leader would send to their team
When I was at Google, I sent a welcome letter to every new PM we hired.
It wasn’t just onboarding, it was a promise. A way to say: this is who we are, and this is how we build together.
I believed in that message. I still do.
But in the two years since I left, AI has changed everything about how we work. The tools, the tempo, the expectations, they’ve all evolved.
If I were writing that letter today, it would sound very different.
This is what it would say….
Dear Future PM: If You’re Not AI-First, You’re Already Behind
Welcome. You’re talented. You’re hungry.
You’ve built great things. You have the experience, instincts, and product skills we look for in every great PM.
But before you join our product team, let’s get one thing straight:
Being AI aware isn’t enough. You need to be AI first.
This isn’t a buzzword. It’s not some checkbox on a job description. It’s how we operate now.
AI Literacy Is Part of the Job
Using AI well is a product skill, just like writing clear specs, running great interviews, or prioritizing tradeoffs.
We don’t expect you to get it right on the first try. But we do expect you to get better over time.
Prompting, iterating, loading context, evaluating outputs, that’s part of the craft now. And like any craft, we reflect on it, give feedback on it, and help each other level up.
We’re not here to measure how many tools you’ve tried. We care about how well you’re using them to make better decisions, faster.
We Start Every Task With AI
It’s not an afterthought. It’s the beginning.
Before we open a blank doc, we spin up a draft. Before we dive into research, we summarize what’s already known. Before we ask a teammate, we ask the model.
This isn’t about replacing your craft. It’s about accelerating it.
Starting with AI doesn’t mean you skip the hard parts. It means you don’t waste time on the easy ones.
Speed Is The New Baseline
When we move quickly with AI, we’re not just being efficient. We’re shortening the distance between problem and solution.
Instead of taking months to go from idea to prototype, we need to do it in a week. That lets us test more ideas, talk to more customers, and get closer to the real problem, earlier.
Oh, and we get to run circles around our competition.
This isn’t about using AI for AI’s sake. It’s about moving fast with intent.
It's Not Humans vs. AI. It’s Human-AI Optimization
We’re not in competition with the tools. We’re using them to build better products faster.
AI gets us to the draft. We bring the clarity.
AI provides options. We choose the best ones.
AI reveals the patterns. We make the calls.
The point is to let AI do the busy work, so that we can do what we do best: deeply understand our users’ problems, identify creative solutions, and test them fast.
That’s not just how we get more done. That’s how we get better.
We Learn Together
You’ll have access to the best AI tools we can give you: LLMs, agents, custom workflows, shared prompt libraries, and more. They’re ready when you are.
But the magic happens when we actually use them. For everything.
When you figure something out, we want to hear about it. When things don’t work, we want to hear that too. Because every insight you surface helps the next PM move faster.
This is how we scale capability. Not by waiting for everything to be perfect, but through experimentation, momentum, and collaboration.
The Future PMs Will Be Systems Thinkers + Prompt Engineers + Storytellers
That’s where we’re headed.
You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to have all the right answers.
But you do need to be evolving. Fast. Because the next generation of product work won’t look like the last.
The shift is already happening.
And the PMs leading it? They’re not waiting for permission. They're building what’s next.
If that sounds like you, great. Welcome to the team. You’ll fit right in.
We’re already building what’s next. Let’s get to it.
If you ever want to chat about building AI First product teams, feel free to grab some time here.