Can AI boost productivity?
On social media, you’ll find me talking about how AI can boost your product team’s productivity.
And for good reason.
AI, like computers, internet, and outsourcing, gives us a chance to do more with less.
OK…but by how much?
Everyone talks about AI improving productivity. But no one has build a business case around it.
So today I am going to build it for you.
Specifically,
What are the key productivity value drivers
A business case for a team of 20 PMs, and
Benefits beyond productivity (what really matters)
For our purposes, I am going to focus on product managers. But this framework can be used for any job function.
So let’s dive in.
Three key productivity levers.
When it comes to AI, there are three main value drivers:
#1. Time Saved:
AI can dramatically reduce the time it takes for a PM to complete routine tasks. Tasks such as writing requirements, crafting metrics, and synthesizing user research, that used to take days can now only take a few hours.
For example,
Maya used AI to build a persona from scratch and saved 19 hours and
Jason saved 7 hours writing user stories.
#2. Improved Quality (Reduce Rework):
Organizations often spend as much as 40% of their development budget on rework. Primarily due to issues such as incomplete or inaccurate requirements, misalignment with business goals, changing priorities, and failure to identify users’ true needs.
By using AI, PMs can improve the quality of the above artifacts and in turn, reduce the need for rework. For example, Jason's detailed user stories provided clear directions to the engineering team. Which helped reduce the need for rework. Similarly, many of my PMs employ AI to analyze requirements and spot missing elements early on.
#3. Increased Velocity:
Reducing the “hands-on keyboard” time also ends up reducing the elapsed time. Going back to our examples, Maya shaved off 3 weeks of elapsed time. While Jason was able to reduce it by 2 weeks.
With AI handling the bulk of the grunt work. Product Managers can now complete tasks in a fraction of the time and accelerate product development velocity.
The examples above are focused primarily on improving individual productivity. Team organization and process re-engineering around AI will unlock even more.
Building the business case
To illustrate the potential impact, let's imagine a situation where 20 product managers work with 40 developers.
What this means (if you enable only 20 PMs):
AI can add 3 FTEs (most likely scenario) of additional capacity if you shave off just 2.5 hours per PM task. We assumed each PM completes 10 tasks a month.
The benefits are not just relegated to the PMs. By improving quality, PMs can directly reduce rework. That’s like adding 2.4 Dev FTEs if you reduce rework by 20%.
If you put it all in dollars, that is like finding $1.6M of extra headcount
And my favorite, product development velocity increases by 5x or more. Since you don’t have to wait.
Now to be fair, this is not about eliminating headcount. But this is about getting more from your existing headcount.
Extra capacity is great. But the real benefit is what it allows the team to do.
It means your product managers now have:
More time to talk to customers
More time on strategic initiatives, and
More time to innovate
This is why, investing in AI to boost PM productivity is a no-brainer. You should run not walk.
Making the business case real. Enjoying the benefits.
Maya building her persona in 10 mins. Jason writing user stories in hours not days. The business case. These are not isolated success stories but a glimpse into the future of work.
AI has the potential to unlock productivity gains.
Here is how you can get started:
Identify Opportunities: Analyze your product team's existing workload to identify areas where AI can help.
Begin Automating Now: Start small. Automate a few PM tasks. Assess its productivity impact. This will pave the way for broader adoption.
Upskill Your Team: Train your team to use AI in managing products.
Drive Adoption: Actively promote and encourage the use of AI tools within your team. Celebrate early wins, share success stories, and establish AI champions.
Continuously Improve: As your team gains experience, continue to automate more PM tasks. Start curating a central library. Build an AI-first culture. So that you can continue to gain productivity benefits.
Happy building!!
Whenever you are ready, here are 2 ways that I can help you:
#1. AI for Product Managers Bootcamp (public): An intense 3-week bootcamp, where PMs learn how to leverage AI to save time, deliver top-notch work, and accelerate velocity. The next cohort starts 4/3.
#2. AI for Product Teams Bootcamp (private): Private version of the above bootcamp. 100% customized to your organization. Includes hackathons, coaching, mentoring, and executive playbacks.