Product Managers Are the Ideal Prompt Engineers

Mukul Pathak
4 min readAug 12, 2024

Look, I’ve been in the product game for a while now, and I’ve seen trends come and go. But this whole AI thing? It’s not just another fad. It’s changing the game, and we product managers need to step up.

Let’s talk about Prompt Engineering. If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry — it’s basically the art of sweet-talking AI into doing what you want. And let me tell you, it’s becoming a big deal in the world of AI-driven products.

So, who should be in charge of this Prompt Engineering stuff? I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say it should be us — the Product Managers. Here’s why:

1. Mastering the Art of Specification

Come on, who else spends their days (and let’s be honest, nights) writing detailed specs and user stories? That’s right, us PMs. And guess what? Crafting good prompts for AI is pretty much the same thing. It’s all about being clear, specific, and thinking three steps ahead.

Plus, we’re always thinking about the big picture. When we’re planning features, we’re not just thinking about the next sprint — we’re thinking about where the product needs to be in six months, a year, five years. That’s exactly the kind of forward-thinking you need when you’re designing prompts that’ll shape how AI behaves in your product.

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