If you only have 2 hrs, this is how to become an AI PM

Every PM has to build AI features these days. And with that means a completely new skill set: AI prototyping, observability akin to telemetry, AI evals as the new PRDs, understanding RAG vs fine-tuning vs prompt engineering, and working with AI engineers. So this week, I bring you a 2-hour crash course into becoming a better AI PM. I teamed up with Aman Khan. When it comes to people creating AI PM content, Aman is amongst the most insightful and informed. And that's because he's been an AI PM since 2019. He worked at Cruise on self-driving cars. He's worked with Spotify on their AI systems. And now he works at Arize, one of the leading observability and evals companies. 🎥 Timestamps: Can Anyone Become AIPM? - 0:00 5 AIPM Skills Overview - 5:52 Skill 1: AI Prototyping - 6:31 Ad: Miro - 13:35 Ad: Atlassian - 14:50 Building Trip Planner Agent - 15:27 Ad: Maven - 29:46 Ad: Amplitude - 30:40 Skill 2: Observability - 50:34 Skill 3: Evals - 1:10:10 RAG vs Fine-Tuning vs Prompt Engineering - 1:29:54 Bolt Teardown - 1:30:32 Skill 5: Working With Engineers - 1:43:24 Don't Make These Mistakes - 1:48:33 2 Hours Weekly Plan - 1:53:55 AIPM Jobs Exist - 1:57:45 Aman's Resources - 2:00:48 Outro - 2:04:00 Podcast transcript: https://www.news.aakashg.com/p/aman-khan-podcast 💼 Check out our sponsors: 1. Miro: The innovation workspace is your team’s new canvas - http://miro.pxf.io/PO4WZX 2. Jira Product Discovery: Plan with purpose, ship with confidence - https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/product-discovery 3. Maven: Get $100 off Aman’s course with my code ‘AAKASHxMAVEN’ - https://maven.com/aman-khan/thriving-as-an-ai-pm?utm_campaign=aakash-gupta&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=maven&promoCode=AAKASHxMAVEN 4. Amplitude: Test out the #1 product analytics and replay tool in the market - https://bit.ly/4hl25RG 👀 Where to Find Aman: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanberkeley/ X: https://x.com/_amankhan Substack: https://amankhan1.substack.com/ Company: https://arize.com/ Course: https://maven.com/aman-khan/thriving-as-an-ai-pm?utm_campaign=aakash-gupta&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=maven&promoCode=AAKASHxMAVEN 👨‍💻 Where to find Aakash: Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aakashg0 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aagupta/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aakashg0/ 🔑 Key Takeaways: 1. Cursor beats Bolt for serious AI PMs. While Bolt is great for quick mockups, Cursor gives you the control you need to build real agent systems and understand what's happening under the hood. 2. Observability comes before evals. Just like regular products need telemetry for analytics, AI products need traces for evals. Point Cursor to documentation and it adds what you need. 3. Vibe coding doesn't scale. Looking at outputs and deciding if they "feel good" works for prototypes, but not production. You need systematic evals to measure what "good" actually means. 4. Most PMs fine-tune too early. Aman showed a prompt outperforming a fine-tuned model. Start with prompting (95% of results), add RAG for external data, only fine-tune for cost/speed. 5. Your evals need evals. When your LLM judge marks outputs as "friendly" while your human labels say "robotic," that mismatch tells you exactly where to improve your system. 6. Use text labels, not numbers. LLMs understand "friendly vs robotic" better than 1-5 scales. They're trained on language, not mathematics. 7. AI engineers want data, not docs. Stop sending Google Docs with requirements. They want you labeling datasets and defining success through evals. 8. Bolt is just a really good prompt. Aman tore down Bolt's architecture - it's system prompts + tool calling + code generation. The "magic" isn't magic. 9. Side projects are your interview hack. When Aman asks "What are you building?" he can immediately gauge curiosity, initiative, and hands-on experience. 10. Don't automate yourself too early. Use AI as a second brain for analysis, but don't try to automate your entire job. Learn to work with reasoning models to push your thinking.

Aman KhanguestAakash Guptahost

Jun 15, 20252h 4mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: June 15, 2025
Duration: 2h 4m
Channel: Aakash Gupta
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Every PM has to build AI features these days. And with that means a completely new skill set: AI prototyping, observability akin to telemetry, AI evals as the new PRDs, understanding RAG vs fine-tuning vs prompt engineering, and working with AI engineers. So this week, I bring you a 2-hour crash course into becoming a better AI PM. I teamed up with Aman Khan. When it comes to people creating AI PM content, Aman is amongst the most insightful and informed. And that's because he's been an AI PM since 2019. He worked at Cruise on self-driving cars. He's worked with Spotify on their AI systems. And now he works at Arize, one of the leading observability and evals companies. 🎥 Timestamps: Can Anyone Become AIPM? - 0:00 5 AIPM Skills Overview - 5:52 Skill 1: AI Prototyping - 6:31 Ad: Miro - 13:35 Ad: Atlassian - 14:50 Building Trip Planner Agent - 15:27 Ad: Maven - 29:46 Ad: Amplitude - 30:40 Skill 2: Observability - 50:34 Skill 3: Evals - 1:10:10 RAG vs Fine-Tuning vs Prompt Engineering - 1:29:54 Bolt Teardown - 1:30:32 Skill 5: Working With Engineers - 1:43:24 Don't Make These Mistakes - 1:48:33 2 Hours Weekly Plan - 1:53:55 AIPM Jobs Exist - 1:57:45 Aman's Resources - 2:00:48 Outro - 2:04:00 Podcast transcript: https://www.news.aakashg.com/p/aman-khan-podcast 💼 Check out our sponsors:
1. Miro: The innovation workspace is your team’s new canvas - http://miro.pxf.io/PO4WZX
1. Jira Product Discovery: Plan with purpose, ship with confidence - https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/product-discovery
1. Maven: Get $100 off Aman’s course with my code ‘AAKASHxMAVEN’ - https://maven.com/aman-khan/thriving-as-an-ai-pm?utm_campaign=aakash-gupta&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=maven&promoCode=AAKASHxMAVEN
1. Amplitude: Test out the #1 product analytics and replay tool in the market - https://bit.ly/4hl25RG 👀 Where to Find Aman: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanberkeley/ X: https://x.com/_amankhan Substack: https://amankhan1.substack.com/ Company: https://arize.com/ Course: https://maven.com/aman-khan/thriving-as-an-ai-pm?utm_campaign=aakash-gupta&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=maven&promoCode=AAKASHxMAVEN 👨‍💻 Where to find Aakash: Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aakashg0 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aagupta/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aakashg0/ 🔑 Key Takeaways:
1. Cursor beats Bolt for serious AI PMs. While Bolt is great for quick mockups, Cursor gives you the control you need to build real agent systems and understand what's happening under the hood.
1. Observability comes before evals. Just like regular products need telemetry for analytics, AI products need traces for evals. Point Cursor to documentation and it adds what you need.
1. Vibe coding doesn't scale. Looking at outputs and deciding if they "feel good" works for prototypes, but not production. You need systematic evals to measure what "good" actually means.
1. Most PMs fine-tune too early. Aman showed a prompt outperforming a fine-tuned model. Start with prompting (95% of results), add RAG for external data, only fine-tune for cost/speed.
1. Your evals need evals. When your LLM judge marks outputs as "friendly" while your human labels say "robotic," that mismatch tells you exactly where to improve your system.
1. Use text labels, not numbers. LLMs understand "friendly vs robotic" better than 1-5 scales. They're trained on language, not mathematics.
1. AI engineers want data, not docs. Stop sending Google Docs with requirements. They want you labeling datasets and defining success through evals.
1. Bolt is just a really good prompt. Aman tore down Bolt's architecture - it's system prompts + tool calling + code generation. The "magic" isn't magic.
1. Side projects are your interview hack. When Aman asks "What are you building?" he can immediately gauge curiosity, initiative, and hands-on experience.
1. Don't automate yourself too early. Use AI as a second brain for analysis, but don't try to automate your entire job. Learn to work with reasoning models to push your thinking.

SPEAKERS

Aman Khan
guest
AI product management educator and creator (amank.ai), focused on AI prototyping, evals, and observability.
Aakash Gupta
host
Host of the Aakash Gupta podcast/channel covering product management and AI PM skills.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Aakash Gupta, featuring Aman Khan and Aakash Gupta, If you only have 2 hrs, this is how to become an AI PM explores a five-skill crash course for becoming an AI product manager An AI PM is framed as either using AI to accelerate PM workflows or building AI into products, and Aman argues virtually every PM role will become “X + AI” rather than a separate job track.

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