Product Management on the AI Exponential
Cat Wu, Head of Product for Claude Code at Anthropic, describes how exponentially improving AI models are fundamentally reshaping product management. Traditional PM workflows assumed stable technology throughout a project, but rapid model progress means constraints can disappear mid-project, requiring teams to shift toward rapid experimentation, short sprints, and prototype-first thinking over documentation. The article outlines four key shifts: planning in short sprints with “side quests,” favoring demos and evals over docs, revisiting shipped features with each new model release, and keeping implementations simple so workarounds can be removed as models improve. Wu emphasizes that the PM role is now about creating clarity amid ambiguity, pushing teams to think bigger, and tracking both how AI changes workflows and what becomes possible in the product.