Inside:
🔸 Why "prompt sets are the new PRDs"
🔸 Why the PM role isn’t dying in the AI era—it's actually becoming more important
🔸 How Aparna's teams live “one year in the future”
🔸 Why NLX (natural language experience) is the new UX, requiring deliberate design principles for conversational interfaces
🔸 The three characteristics of AI agents: autonomy (delegation of tasks), complexity (handling multi-step challenges), and natural interaction (conversing beyond simple chat)
🔸 Why she believes Microsoft let other companies get so far ahead in the AI coding market
🔸 How standup comedy is like product
🔸 How to balance cutting-edge AI adoption with appropriate governance through dual-track approaches
🔸 Leadership differences between Microsoft’s Satya Nadella (known for multi-level thinking and early trendspotting) and Google’s Sundar Pichai (mastery of complex ecosystems)
🔸 A practical framework for evaluating zero-to-one product opportunities
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Aparna Chennapragada is CPO of AI at Work Microsoft, where she oversees AI product strategy for their productivity tools and their work on agents. Previously, she was the CPO at Robinhood, spent 12 years at Google, and is also on the board of eBay and Capital One.
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Some key takeaways:
1. Navigate the “Van Damme split” of AI adoption: Companies are stretched between the incredibly fast pace of AI advancements (weeks/months) and the slower pace of human habit change and organizational adoption. The key is not to hold back early adopters while planning broader, trusted change management. Introduce cutting-edge tools (like Microsoft’s “Frontier” program) to pioneers first.
2. “Prompt sets are the new PRDs”: In the AI era, the fastest way to clarify and communicate a product idea is to build a prototype and define its core interactions via prompt sets. Prioritize “demos before memos.” If you’re not prototyping to figure out what you want to build, you’re likely doing it wrong.
3. “NLX is the new UX”—design language interfaces deliberately: Natural language experience (NLX) isn’t just “talking to a model.” It requires intentional design, just like graphical UIs.
5. PMs evolve to “tastemakers” and editors: As AI floods the world with ideas and prototypes, the PM role shifts away from process management (which AI can handle) and toward editorial judgment and tastemaking. The ability to curate, refine, and guide toward a coherent, valuable product becomes paramount.
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