AI changes the world.
Can you tell how it changes yours?
I’m not talking about productivity tools, but rather about how it changes the world that your product lives in.
This is the second post in a series about AI and product strategy.
Last week, I talked about why product strategy matters more than ever in the AI era, and how a clear strategy can give you leverage not only in the market but also across your company, from communication to the tools and systems people now rely on.
The following posts will talk about how AI impacts the various parts of the Product Circuit model, namely:
- The problem
- The solution
- The product
The world is changing, and so is your problem space.
This week, we’ll dive into how the problem itself is changing. Not just how you solve it. Not just how you build for it. The problem. The need. The pain. And as a product leader, you must start there.
A Quick Recap: The Product Circuit Model
Before we go further, here’s a quick look at the Product Circuit model – a framework I created to guide you through strategic product thinking and navigate your journey to product-market fit.
I have used this framework with hundreds of companies and products already, helping entrepreneurs and product leaders create their product strategy. At its core, the framework distinguishes three tightly connected components:
- The Problem – what you’re solving and for whom, in greater detail than you usually care to specify
- The Solution – the concept, approach, and principles that define how you solve it and why it’s the right way
- The Product – the actual implementation: what you build and ship
To make it more tangible, think of the following example: let’s say that you want to solve the problem of “helping people get from one place to another faster.” There are many possible solutions that you could invent: the car, airplanes, or Waze, for example. Of course, each such solution stems from a slightly different problem, but you might not see it until you think of the possible solutions. Now, let’s say that you decided to invent the car, and you framed your problem accordingly. There are many possible products for this solution – think about every car make and model. They are different products, but the solution remains the same.
Separating the problem, the solution, and the product helps you stay focused on real value, not just features, and ensures that what you ship actually solves what matters.
How AI Changes the Problem Space
Every product starts with a problem. A need.
AI doesn’t change that, but it does change the problem space and the problems your customers experience.
If your problem is no longer relevant, no matter how great your solution or product is, your strategy is already obsolete.
AI changes your customer’s problem in one of three main ways. All of them matter deeply to your product strategy.
1. New Problems Emerge
Sometimes AI introduces brand new problems that your customers didn’t have before.
Anyone said cybersecurity?
But also manageability of AI tools, content ingenuity, FOMO, deep fake, and others.
Another angle is new opportunities, which are essentially problems that couldn’t be solved otherwise and therefore not even thought of as problems. Non-technical people didn’t use to feel that they could build tech products, but now they can and they want to do it quickly and easily.
2. Old Problems Escalate
In other cases, AI might not change the nature of the problem, but it changes the scale. Things that used to be “under control” are now overwhelming.
Say your product helps teams review user-generated content. What used to be a manageable daily task might now be a flood, because AI-generated content is coming in faster and more abundantly than before. The same problem – content moderation – but now it’s unmanageable without a new approach.
3. Some Problems Just Disappear
This is probably not relevant for most of you, but for some companies, ironically, it’s usually those who solved problems with AI years ago, might find that the problem they were solving is no longer relevant.
Not because the need disappeared, but because generic AI solutions solve it well enough and with a fraction of the cost that you would charge for a bespoke solution.
The democratization of AI creates massive opportunities for tech companies, but for some, it also creates an impossible challenge.
Ask the Real Question
Every product leader today should be asking:
“How has AI changed the problem my customers are facing?”
Not just: Can I use AI in my product?
Not just: Can AI improve our efficiency?
Those are valid questions, but they’re lacking the strategic angle.
Every product strategy starts with the problem you are solving for your customers.
So as you rethink your strategy, start here. Take a brutally honest look at the world your customer is in now, not the one you were serving three years ago.
In the next posts, we’ll move forward in the circuit: from the problem to the solution, and eventually to the product. But unless you re-anchor your strategy in the right problem, none of that will hold up.
