A recommendation that product managers treat hands-on trial of new AI products as an ongoing, standing habit rather than a one-time skill to acquire — the same way PMs once had to keep constantly using new mobile apps during the smartphone-platform shift to stay calibrated on what "good" looked like.
The analogy implies the habit has a shelf life tied to the pace of the underlying platform shift: it matters most while the category is moving fast enough that last month's mental model of AI products is already stale. Related to Top Talent Adopts AI Tools Fastest, Not Average Performers (who actually keeps up this habit) and Studying Competitor Products as a Product-Sense Habit (the general practice this is a special case of).
Reported by Tamar Yehoshua (Glean).
A standing practice for product leaders: constantly try new products in whatever category is currently undergoing rapid shift — mobile apps in an earlier era, AI tools now — rather than relying on secondhand descriptions of what a tool can do. In practice this means regularly using ChatGPT, Claude, and competitors' AI products firsthand, the same way one would have kept trying new mobile apps during the smartphone shift, to keep a first-hand, current sense of category capability.