Managing AI-First Products: Roles, Skills, Challenges, and Strategies of AI Product Managers

Production management in this research is concerned with three key decisions: demand forecast, production scheduling and stock forecast. These three decisions are very much interrelated and cannot be made in isolation. Previous studies of precast concrete industry activities concluded that production management is fragmented. For example, production planning is done in isolation from demand forecasting and from stock forecasting. This has contributed to poor production management performance in terms of resource utilization and over-stocking. This paper goes beyond traditional production management theories and practices and develops a model to integrate all aspects of production management. The main objective is to develop an integrated production management model for the make-to-stock sector of precast concrete building products, in order to help production managers make better planning decisions and explore alternative options. The model is a factory simulator which examines and evaluates the effect of several managerial strategies on production planning and stock forecasting before actual production commences. It uses different measures of performance which facilitate the choice of planning strategies under various demands and factory conditions.

A capacity planning model for precast concrete building products

J-I-T guide to basic: Putting the just-in-time philosophy into practice—a strategy for production managers by P J O'Grady. Published by Kogan Page, UK. 1988. 138pp. £16.95

Product managers are central fgures in digital product development, coordinating teams and prioritizing features. Despite their infuence, little research explores how their decisions afect user experience, especially in integrating social values into product architecture. Employing a mixed-methods framework, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 product managers and an online survey with an additional 81, all based in Israel. Our study identifes four unique strategies product managers utilize to balance business goals, user satisfaction, and ethical considerations. The survey data further substantiates the prevalence of these strategies across diverse sectors, confrming they refect industry-wide approaches in the Israeli tech sector rather than isolated practices. To conclude, we emphasize how "soft resistance" tactics, such as adjusting data interpretations based on personal values, impact digital product designs. Moreover, our fndings highlight that maintaining an ethical reputation in the job market can be pivotal in shaping product design. • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI; • Social and professional topics → Codes of ethics.

SUMMARY

The increasing number of consumer goods and services offered in recent years suggests that product‐line extensions have become a favored strategy of product managers. A larger assortment, it is often argued, keeps customers loyal and allows firms to charge higher prices. There is disagreement, however, about the extent to which a longer product line translates into higher profits. We develop an econometric model derived from a game‐theoretic perspective that explicitly considers firms' use of product‐line length as a competitive tool. On the demand side, we analytically establish the link between consumer choice and the length of the product line. Based on our derivations, we include a measure of line length in the utility function to investigate consumer preference for variety using a brand‐level discrete‐choice model. The supply side is characterized by price and line length competition between oligopolistic firms. For the empirical analysis we use market‐level data for the yogurt category. We find that there are decreasing returns to product‐line length. Based on a series of “what‐if” experiments, we derive recommendations for effective product line decisions in a competitive environment.

The author describes the what, why, and how of a manufacturing strategy called activity based costing (ABC). The benefits of implementing ABC management systems include: it aids in identifying and eliminating non-value added activities; it aids in changing cost-cutting behavior; it promotes designers to consider factory activity costs in their designs; it assists product managers and manufacturing managers in determining the state-of-the-art product costs; it aids manufacturing support managers in identifying and supporting critical process needs; and it supports business unit costing and financial reporting needs. A summary of the lessons learned from an interdisciplinary effort in a major telecommunications manufacturing facility is presented. >