Written by Larry Kahn, Vice President of New Dimensions in Technology, Inc. (NDT)
There is a lot of chatter in the market these days about the traditional Product Management and the traditional Product Marketing roles. Will AI replace these roles whereby humans are no longer needed to do these jobs? Will the speed that companies need to bring products to market be so fast that product professionals will not have the time to do their jobs well? Will Product Management and Product Marketing responsibilities be rolled into one and not be separate disciplines? These are all worthy topics of conversation and are on the minds of hiring managers, product professionals, and CFOs who are thinking about hiring budgets.
NDT had an opportunity to complete a retained search over the summer for a B2B Saas company searching for a Senior Product Marketing Manager. It was a “meaty” role that required deep previous experience both in Product Marketing as well as the industry niche. In speaking with the hiring manager, the company’s Vice President of Marketing, he said:
“Our company is evaluating its hiring needs for the next two years. Some areas of Finance, Human Resources, and Services within our company will be downsized as we no longer need those folks given our anticipated adaptation of AI. However, we are not touching Product Marketing or Product Management. In fact, we are going to continue to invest and grow those functions. That message is loud and clear from senior management and our board.”
The team at NDT agrees that Product Marketing and Product Management play strategically important roles at tech companies. Replacing professionals who do these jobs with AI would be a risky proposition and would not optimize product performance and client engagement success. Skilled Product professionals bring the ability to work within highly ambiguous and dynamic environments and adapt cross discipline communication and collaboration. AI will likely aid product professionals in certain aspects of their jobs, but the thought leadership needed to strategically and successfully launch a product will continue to require human interaction.