In the age of AI – product management needs the best of both worlds 

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As AI gains presence in our everyday lives, many people in the tech industry are asking the question, “can AI replace product managers?” The debate is fierce, and many companies are already using the question as a reason to dismiss this often-misunderstood role as unnecessary. After all, you can train AI on the combined published knowledge of the Marty Cagans, Jeff Pattons, and Teresa Torreses…can’t it do what they do? I am asked similar questions when it comes to teaching new product managers to be successful: “Can’t you share this existing wisdom, give them an AI assistant, and trust them to do what’s best?” My answer to both questions is the same: “of course not.”

Product management is an inherently human role. At its core, it is a job focused on communicating with multiple groups of humans to solve problems and deliver value to other humans. It is nuanced, it is different in every context, and it is what I like to call the “glube” of software development – it is the “glue” that holds the team together with one united vision, and the “lube” that makes everything run more smoothly along the way. Some of this you can learn from books or from a tool trained on the books and videos of great thinkers, but most you cannot.

When I first discovered Turnberry’s Product Academy two years ago, I wasn’t just impressed, I was excited. The templates were sharp, the methodology was consistent, and most importantly, the Academy emphasized hands-on practice in a way I hadn’t seen before. As someone who had taught other programs and explored many approaches to product education, this one stood out to me. It wasn’t just theory; it was real-world application. Guided practice is what you don’t get from books alone, and rarely get on the job.

That emphasis on practice struck a chord with me, because my own journey into product management was anything but structured. I didn’t start with a course or a playbook. I started with curiosity, a bit of luck, and a lot of learning on the fly. I was lucky enough to get a job as a product manager based on some very tangential experience and “good instincts,” and my boss figured I would learn on the job.

And learn I did. I learned about engineering from the engineers I was working with, I learned about design from the designers on my team, and I learned about our business from my stakeholders. I learned about our product by using it constantly, studying the competition, and by talking to customers and users regularly. Although there were certainly plenty of articles and books I leveraged, even now as I write this, it is the faces of my early teachers that come back to mind.

Shortly after getting my first role, when I realized I had a lot more to learn about product management, a venture capitalist in the NYC tech scene organized a product symposium to give product managers in the area a chance to connect and learn from each other. Now, I was learning about key topics in our field from product managers who were actually doing the work. Every week, I would hear stories from those just ahead of me in our careers about their successes and failures, what worked for them and what did not. It was invaluable. It taught me to value my own experience and helped me to sidestep some of the pitfalls they had encountered.

My approach today comes from two instincts: sharing what has worked for me and giving others the guidance I wish I had when I was starting out. I have learned a lot through hands-on experience, but I have also envied those who had a solid foundation in the principles and practices that make a great product manager. That is why the Product Academy resonates so deeply with me.

The reality is product management as a craft and as a career has changed dramatically since I entered the field many years ago. The standards are higher, the nuances are deeper, and the technology is changing faster than ever. One has to incorporate AI into their craft even to keep up. At Turnberry, we have trained a chat bot to specialize in product management, and we often toss around ideas for new modules with it. We are updating the course to incorporate more ways to leverage AI in product management. It’s an invaluable tool to help with learning, but it’s not enough.

So, what is the best way to learn – through theory, practice, or the guidance of experts? If this were a multiple-choice question, the answer would be “all of the above.”

You need to understand what has worked in the past with insights from books, speakers, and even AI tools. You also need to learn from those shaping product management today, the people experimenting, pushing boundaries, and navigating pitfalls you will want to avoid. And of course, you need hands-on practice to turn all these lessons into your own craft.

That is exactly what the Turnberry Product Academy delivers. We combine proven expertise, insights from visiting practitioners, and plenty of practical exercises, giving you the full toolkit to make product management your own.

When these three elements combine, we can create a new generation of product managers that is an unstoppable force for good in our industry. If you’re curious about how Turnberry’s Product Academy is shaping the next generation of product leaders, or want to be part of it, reach out. Let’s build the future of product management together.