"Top AI Product Manager" — hidecloud: Whether I'm "top" or not is beside the point; following my curiosity is the best approach
April 27, 2024
Recently, hidecloud went viral after appearing on the 42 Chapters podcast episode The Self-Cultivation of a Top-Tier AI Product Manager. His advocated learning methods and professional skills inspired many aspiring PMs looking to break into AI, while also sparking debate and controversy: Is there only one path to becoming a top AI product manager? — hidecloud doesn't think so. He believes that, like him, following your own unique curiosity is the best solution.
We've known hidecloud for over 15 years, witnessing each other's growth. This time, we invited him as a guest to share his story as an AI active practitioner.
Both hidecloud and koji come from product management backgrounds — we started from the evolution of the PM profession itself, chatting with hidecloud about his journey from internet to ToB customer success, and on to AI product manager. One particularly valuable insight was hidecloud sharing his learning method: "learn by doing, with the goal of making something new every year" to keep himself learning.
But we also voiced our own confusion: I understand the logic, but still can't live this life well. In conversation, we discovered that the proposition "learn his methods, become a top AI product manager like him" is itself flawed. As that old but true saying goes, interest is the best teacher. The most effective approach isn't to become someone else, but to follow where your own curiosity leads.
Of course, you can use AI tools to accelerate yourself.
🚀 hidecloud's WeChat Official Account / Channels: Qian Yun Si Xu (Drifting Cloud Thoughts)
🎬 Timeline:
1:24 — hidecloud and koji's product management career paths
8:06 — A good product is an entire experience
11:05 — From internet to consumer goods: the evolution of "product manager" in koji's eyes
15:50 — From ToC to ToB: hidecloud's new understanding of "product manager"
22:15 — koji's observations on PM anxiety and dilemmas
25:34 — Noticing AI back in 2017: what hidecloud did
33:34 — The learning goal of "make something new every year"
35:08 — Why "product manager is the most secure job"
38:00 — I get it, but execution is hard — how to break through
44:00 — All in AI
54:46 — hidecloud's daily AI tools: ChatGPT, Moonshot AI, Notion
1:02:04 — Feeling the overwhelming energy in the AI field
1:05:07 — How the habits and disposition of continuous learning and optimism are cultivated
1:11:06 — If traveling back from the future to 2024, the "translation konjac" hidecloud would give us today
1:12:57 — The first guest to recommend an optimistic science fiction work
🔵 "Doraemon of the AI Era" Content Series:
We interview and bring together "active practitioners" of the AI era — today's Doraemon: full of curiosity and imagination, anxious and complaining at times, but mostly taking positive action and solving problems, bringing us forward momentum.
In this series, we interview entrepreneurs, investors, and indie developers in the AI era. Let's see what fun gadgets we can pull from their "four-dimensional pockets."
🚦 Welcome to subscribe to "Crossroads." We focus on new industry changes and entrepreneurial opportunities brought by the new wave of AI technology. Crossroads is Steve Jobs' metaphor for Apple — standing at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, where great products are born. AI is transforming industries across the board. We seek out, interview, and bring together "active practitioners" of the AI era, exploring and embracing new changes and new possibilities together.
👦🏻 Host Koji: Co-founder of The Fair and Tangdao, also an active practitioner diving into AI. Follow on Jike: [A Self-Introduction by Koji]
👧🏻 Host Ronghui: Works at a tech VC, former Silicon Valley correspondent for Yicai Weekly. Follow on Jike
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