Pendo

5 ways to use AI in product discovery

Steve Cheshire

Manager, Product Management at Pendo

Explore top use cases for AI and product discovery, from customer research to idea generation.

Strategies on how to leverage AI

Learn how to navigate risks and challenges when using AI for discovery, such as legal considerations and bias.

Top mistakes to avoid

Get some quick wins under your belt with product discovery prompts, tips, and tricks from other product experts.

Practical tips to start today

Why Should You Take This Course?If you’re a designer OR product builder aiming to break into the AI industry or if your team is starting to build AI products and you feel unprepared, this course is for you. By the end, you’ll feel confident and ready to transition into an AI role, armed with the knowledge and skills to thrive. Previous students reported having significant improvement in both AI Design knowledge, confidence and motivation to drive product building in this space since taking the course. Why Should You Learn from Me?With a decade of experience in building AI and AR/VR products, with over 5 years focused on AI-first products, I bring practical insights and skills you won’t find elsewhere. My experience includes leading world-class AI design teams and developing cutting-edge AI products. Course OverviewDesigned for busy professionals:•	Total 4 weeks, 4-5 hours per week commitment•	Recorded Sessions: Available anytime•	Discussion Boards: Participate asynchronously•	Support: Dedicated support and 1:1 guidance•	Resources: Ongoing AI learning materials•	Live Q&amp;As and Discussions: Hands-on learning --- What You’ll Learn: • Week #1 is focused on learning AI Fundamentals. Gain all the key knowledge necessary to understand the technology and how to work with it and in it as a designer. • Week #2 &amp; #3 is focused on AI Design Patterns. Deep dive on existing patterns in the industry, where the current patterns fail, identify new opportunities and how to innovate by creating net new patterns. Learn to work with System prompts, and prototype your AI products using no-code AI tools. • Week #4 is focused on building an AI career with confidence. Learn to take your AI projects and career to the next level, and how to standout in industry. • Mini-projects across the 4 weeks will ladder up to helping you craft the building blocks of an AI Powered product. Many students choose to continue working on these concepts even after the class wraps up. • If you struggle with accountability, and want to work on AI product you're excited to build. This is an excellent opportunity to do so! --- What the course does NOT cover: My goal is to teach you everything I know within 4 weeks about designing good ai products. By the end of this course, you will be more equipped to build great products compared to existing designers in this space. However there are 2 things this course will not be able to cover due to the limited time: • Advanced prototyping (instead we will cover no-code tools that will help you get a proof of concept running)﻿• Portfolio ready project (You might be able to get decent start through this course, that you can feature on your portfolio after investing more time beyond the course)

Build AI-Powered Products with Confidence

Course syllabus

Do this at your own time:<ul><li>Read/Watch course content</li><li>Put learnings into practice through short hands-on projects</li></ul>

Self-Paced

Wednesdays

<ul><li>Content Overview</li><li>Discussions</li><li>Brainstorms</li><li>Q&amp;A</li></ul> NOTE: If you're unable to make it to above sessions, you can watch videos and engage with content at your own pace at a later time.

Saturdays

Course schedule

Product Designers looking to join AI companies or recently switched but concerned about their skill gap

Managers, PMs, Engineers and other Leaders new to AI teams, looking to expand their expertise to build AI-powered products and confidently

Other technical professionals interested in learning how to build AI powered products.

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

<ul><li>Understand types of AI models and how to leverage them for your design project</li><li>Key AI terminologies (NLP, CV, GANs, etc) you'll need to know as you design</li><li>Emerging product types and potentials</li><li>Limitations and future potential of AI products</li><li>AI Design Principles and more.</li></ul>

Mastery of AI Fundamentals

<ul><li>Understand End-to-end design process for AI products and how it differs from traditional design</li><li>Current design challenges and opportunities with AI products</li><li>Case studies and critique existing AI product interfaces</li></ul>

Expertise in AI Design Patterns

Design an E2E concept (FIGMA for designers, or AI tools for non-designers)Build a rough MVP for that concept with no-code tools

Design & build your concept

<ul><li>What do Design Managers look for in Product Designers looking to join AI teams</li><li>What to expert when joining / starting an AI Design team</li><li>Tips for interviewing with AI-design teams</li><li>Transforming your strengths to enter the AI field</li><li>Learn directly from industry guests</li></ul>

Prepare for a Career in AI Design
 

•	Mini-Projects/Brainstorms: 2 outputs to practice course content•	Discussion Sessions / Q&amp;As: 3 live interactions for in-depth discussions•	Case Studies: Critique existing experiences together

Practice your AI skills

<ul><li>Feeling stuck? Have additional questions? I'll be available throughout the course to help you get the most out of this course.</li></ul>

Get 1:1 Support and Guidance from Maheen

<ul><li>Build a network of peers in the AI design field and stay inspired with key resources, influencers, and companies to follow.</li></ul>

Join a Community of AI Designers and Stay Inspired

Learn how to design AI-powered products and experiences to set yourself up for a successful career in AI.

Cohort 4

Maheen Sohail

Cohort 3

Cohort 5

Common Challenges Faced by PMs in AI Projects 1- Justifying AI decisions and demonstrating ROI to stakeholders. 2- Navigating the hype versus the real capabilities of AI. 3- Communicating across teams without deep technical knowledge. 4- Dealing with inconsistent, missing, or messy data. 5- Aligning priorities and expectations between product and engineering. 6- Addressing ethical risks and bias in AI systems. 7- Keeping up with rapidly evolving tools, frameworks, and best practices. If these are your challenges lately then this course is for you. It’s a hands-on, live, interactive course designed for Engineers and technical Product Managers. Perfect for those with a strong familiarity with technical development and who enjoy building prototypes. What You'll Learn 1- Translate AI concepts into clear business value propositions. 2- Ground product roadmaps in realistic technical constraints and opportunities. 3- Communicate effectively with engineering teams—no deep ML expertise required. 4- Apply practical frameworks to align product vision with technical execution. 5- Navigate messy or incomplete data to build functional, user-centric solutions. 6- Identify and address ethical and bias-related risks early in development. 7- Select scalable AI tools that support long-term product growth. 8- Craft metrics and narratives that demonstrate AI impact to stakeholders. 9- Build prototypes with no-code tools like Lovable to quickly test and validate ideas. Course Format - Duration: 4-5 weeks- Live, instructor-led sessions with interactive discussions- Real-world case study following an AI product from discovery to deployment- Hands-on activities to apply frameworks and concepts- Access to a community of peers for collaboration and support Why This Course is Unique For the first time ever, a Product Manager and an Engineer are joining forces to teach AI product management. This unique collaboration combines product strategy with technical know-how, giving you the tools to not only understand AI’s potential but also execute successful AI projects from start to finish. Through this course, you’ll have access to a dedicated channel where you can ask questions, share challenges, and connect with peers and instructors. After each live session, you’ll receive a recording to review at your own pace, ensuring you never miss important details. You’ll walk away with a deep understanding of how to scope, prioritize, and launch AI products that drive tangible results and create value across teams. Who this course is not for: If you are someone who is expecting to do plenty of hands-on coding.

Leading Cross-Functional AI Product Development

If your events are recurring and at the same time, it might be easiest to use a single line item to communicate your course schedule to students

June 21 - July 20, 2025

Product Managers new to AI or looking to deepen their AI skills to lead AI Products and collaborate effectively with AI tech teams

AI Engineers, Software Engineers and Engineering Leaders looking to collaborate effectively with Product leads to drive successful outcomes

Program, Project, Strategy, Marketing, UX Design/Research and Business Leaders seeking an understanding of how to bring AI Products to mark

How to set learning intentions and align on goals so you can collaborate meaningfully in the cohort. You'll leave with clarity on the case study and your learning journey.

Introductions & Case Study Kickoff

You’ll develop the skills to translate complex AI outcomes into clear business value, ensuring stakeholder alignment and securing the support you need to move projects forward.

Communicate AI product value to leadership and cross-functional teams

How to frame and prioritize AI use cases so you can discover viable, high-impact product ideas. You'll leave with a prioritized list and prototyping prompts.

Master iterating on AI products: gather feedback, improve, and scale

Learn AI with clear, jargon-free explanations from Deepa, an ML Engineer with over 8 years of experience. You’ll master foundational concepts so you can make informed decisions and speak the language of your tech team.

Learn core ML/AI Foundational concepts and know when to apply them in real product scenarios.

Learn to identify use cases where AI can drive real value and spot scenarios where it’s overkill. Armed with this clarity, you’ll make smarter decisions, avoid costly missteps, and build products that solve problems without creating new ones, like bias or user distrust.

Understand where AI can be leveraged effectively and where it won’t help

Foster true collaboration with your technical teams, ensuring your product vision aligns with their realities. You’ll gain frameworks to bridge the gap between product goals and technical constraints, enabling you to ship AI products faster and more effectively.

Collaborate seamlessly with data scientists and engineers to build winning AI products

Tackle the ethical minefield of AI with confidence by learning to identify and address issues like bias, fairness, and privacy concerns before they derail your product; keeping your users safe and your company out of hot water.

Navigate ethical and regulatory challenges in AI

Learn to evaluate the right technologies for every stage of product development. Whether it’s choosing the best LLM for a chatbot or a vectorization tool for search functionality, you’ll build a toolkit that saves time, cuts costs, and delivers results tailored to your goals.

Leverage the best AI tools to enhance productivity as part of daily workflows

You’ll learn to account for AI’s unique challenges, like data prep, model training, and iteration cycles, so you can deliver on time without compromising quality or over-promising.

Design realistic and relevant AI timelines to meet business objectives

Among the sea of Gen AI Tools, use the right ones that can drastically improve your productivity as a product manager

Leverage Gen AI Tools to increase productivity

Build higher-quality AI products! Live course for PMs & Engineers to apply proven frameworks & bridge product-tech gaps.

Deepa Krishnamurthy

Avinash Mahalingam

Cohort 2

"All PMs will be AI PMs in the future" This course is designed for product managers who are working with AI, whether you're just entering the space or already embedded in it: identifying the right problems, influencing technical teams, communicating tradeoffs, and building strategies that matter. In AI, most product managers are figuring things out as they go. The tech is fast-moving. The org is vague. The stakeholders have opinions but little clarity. This course won’t teach you how to train a model, but it will show you how to lead in this environment. You’ll leave with frameworks, mental models, and tactical tools for thinking clearly, prioritizing well, and guiding your teams with confidence. It’s based on what actually happens inside companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, and high-growth AI startups, not theory. The course is structured for people with limited time but high standards. This is not a beginner course. It's for people already in PM or technical roles who want to develop better judgment and become the person others trust to lead. The format is live and cohort-based, so you’ll get feedback from instructors and your peers. You’ll build your thinking muscle in real-time and walk away with a playbook you’ll use again and again. Expect candid discussions, clear examples, and rigorous critique. This course teaches practical skills: how to lead with clarity, prioritize under uncertainty, and develop durable product instincts in the face of complexity. Whether you're working with foundation models, building LLM-based features, or supporting infra teams, the same principles apply: sharpen your thinking, build alignment, and lead decisively. Learning outcomes:• Understand the distinct role of a PM in AI product development• Learn how to make prioritization decisions when outcomes are uncertain• Build stronger relationships with ML, data, and research teams• Learn how to avoid common failure modes in AI product work• Gain tools for storytelling, influencing, and aligning execs around an AI strategy• Navigate technical tradeoffs with clarity even if you don’t write code• Apply product thinking to novel, fast-changing problem spaces

Become a top 1% PM at your company in the AI era

Tuesdays & Thursdays

Feel free to type out dates as your title as a way to communicate information about specific live sessions or other events.

May 7, 2022

Schedule items can also be used to convey commitments outside of specific time slots (like weekly projects or daily office hours).

Weekly projects

Experienced PMs: Looking to pivot into AI or currently working with ML teams and seeking to enhance strategic and technical capabilities.

Mid-career AI PMs: Aiming to refine leadership skills, strategic thinking, and gain recognition for their contributions in AI product work.

Founders: Leading AI product efforts and in need of structured decision-making frameworks and strategic guidance.

Aspiring AI PMs: Individuals with a background in software engineering or data science aiming to pivot into AI product management roles.

C-level Executives: Seeking to understand the fundamentals of AI product management to effectively staff and lead AI-focused teams.

Topics covered

How to reduce noise, recognize patterns, and avoid false certainty when there’s no obvious right answer.

Decision-making under ambiguity

Understand how to validate timing, market readiness, and defensibility for AI initiatives.

The "Why Now" for AI products

Learn the dynamics between model teams and product teams, and how to bridge goals across them.

Working with LLM teams (infra vs applied)

Use language, context, and clarity to get buy-in from both technical and business leadership.

How to earn trust from researchers & execs

Clarify roles in ambiguous teams and avoid stepping on toes while taking ownership.

PM vs TL vs EM roles in AI orgs

Design product strategies that are resilient to model drift, infra shifts, and competitive pressure.

Product strategy: constraints, moats, & goals

Craft compelling, simple stories that help teams and stakeholders understand what you’re doing—and why it matters.

Building narratives that get buy-in

Decide what matters and avoid shipping features just because they're possible.

Leading prioritization without falling into the “build trap”

Lead cross-functionally without getting bogged down in internal debates, confusion, or fear of stepping up.

Handling org politics while staying outcome-focused

A career guide for AI PMs who want to build great products (and get recognized for it).

Dr. Marily Nika, PhD

GenAI Product Lead @ Google, AI Educator @ Fortune, co-founder of AI Product Hub

LinkedIn

Microsoft

Google

Diego Granados

GenAI Product Lead @ Google, co-founder of AI Product Hub

August 2025

Product success hinges on timely insight—yet most Product Managers either can’t find the hours or lack the tooling to run research themselves. This four-week, hands-on program equips experienced PMs with an AI discovery stack that shrinks research from weeks to hours, then verifies every output with human-in-the-loop checks, so every roadmap call is grounded in fresh, trustworthy evidence rather than gut feel. You’ll master AI across four mutually reinforcing practices: 1. AI-Powered Product Discovery Sprints – Run global, scaled, multilingual AI-moderated interviews overnight, auto-cluster themes you can spot-check in-app, and verify problem/solution fit before engineering lifts a finger. 2. Continuous Discovery Loops – Pipe tickets and call notes into AI tools so they can surface both trend shifts and links to raw verbatims for quick validation so you pivot with confidence. 3. Rapid Concept Testing – Launch rapid, scaled concept tests and receive summaries and AI-cut highlight reels; side-by-side raw footage lets you confirm the insight before you decide Go / Iterate / Kill. 4. Synthetic-User Studies – Spin up credible AI personas to test hypotheses, expand your thinking, and probe edge cases, then triangulate findings with live users to ensure accuracy and relevance. WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT • Practical, hands-on guidance – Live demos and guided exercises show exactly how to slot AI workflows into your existing product cadence. • Time-saving techniques – Automate heavy-lift tasks such as concept-test setup, participant scheduling and interview analysis, freeing hours for strategy. • Curated AI tool stack – A focused toolkit proven to accelerate discovery, synthesis and validation is shared without overwhelming you, and saving hours of hunting for the right tools. •&nbsp;Real-World Application: Engage in weekly practical exercises and projects using real-world product challenges, providing immediate feedback and hands-on learning that builds confidence and capability. •&nbsp;Expert Insights &amp; Support: Access detailed playbooks, best-practice examples, and exclusive resources designed explicitly for Product Managers integrating AI into their research processes. WHAT MAKES THIS CLASS UNIQUE •&nbsp;Direct access to enterprise-grade platforms and their founders: Experience full-featured trials and hear directly from tool founders innovators live in class about how AI is reshaping product discovery – and get your specific questions answered. •&nbsp;Balanced focus on tools and prompt engineering – Gain skills that transfer even when procurement or policy limits access to third-party software. Know how to get the most out of prompting to accelerate your research. •&nbsp;Collaborative, Hands-On Learning: Participate in live workshops that combine expert guidance, interactive practice, and peer collaboration to solve real-world research challenges. COURSE FORMAT Live workshops – Four 120-minute sessions, each run twice every Thursday (1-3 pm ET &amp; 7-9 pm ET) for flexibility and small groups. Homework sprints – About one to two hours between sessions applying the week’s method to real-world scenarios. Weekly Q&amp;A – Live office hours for personalized troubleshooting and deeper dives. Recordings &amp; resources – On-demand videos, walkthroughs, prompt libraries and checklists. By the end of the course you’ll capture, synthesize and verify customer insights in a single day, enabling faster, confidently user-aligned product decisions and elevating your strategic impact as a PM.

AI Sprints, Continuous Loops, Concept Tests & Synthetic Users—All Human-Verified

Interactive workshop: Learn new concepts and get set up to conduct hands-on training with AI-powered research tools. Workshops are being run identically in the afternoon and evening so that you can pick what works best for you!

Thursdays

Test and master AI-powered tools for Product Discovery, Continuous Discovery and Concept Testing. Determine which tools are right for you.

Optional time to meet with the session host and get 1:1 advice and support.

Office hours

Time-pressed PMs who need fresh user evidence to ship features—without waiting on a research team.

PMs eager to fold AI-powered discovery loops and concept tests into their workflow in weeks, not quarters.

Senior product leaders seeking confident, user-centric roadmap calls via rapid synthetic-user &amp; qual-at-scale studies.

Walk away with a plug-and-play AI research toolkit—sprints, loops, concept tests & synthetic users you can deploy tomorrow.

Run AI-moderated interviews overnight, auto-cluster patterns with LLMs, then review transcripts to confirm themes and share a decision-ready summary before the next stand-up.

AI-powered Product Discovery Sprints that de-risk your roadmap before any code is written

Feed support tickets, call notes and survey feedback into an AI tagging pipeline that flags emerging trends, bundles linked verbatims for quick validation and alerts you only when a real shift appears.

Continuous Discovery Loops — Signal + Evidence

Launch lightning-fast AI surveys + AI-powered interviews, collect video reactions, and test prototypes in minutes. Translate sentiment and usability signals into clear decisions so you can iterate in days, not quarters.

Lightning-Fast Concept Tests — Decision Data in Hours

Generate realistic AI personas to probe edge cases, test assumptions, and surface unmet needs—then validate insights with a quick round of live user checks. Learn how to ask "impossible questions" you could never customers.

Synthetic-User Studies — A New Always-On Low-Risk Resource

Master AI-powered tools for Product Discovery, Continuous Discovery & Concept Testing and elevate your strategic impact.

Lightning Lessons

5 ways to use AI in product discovery