A product management expert shares how artificial intelligence is affecting the process for the tech and startup worlds. Photo via Getty Images

For the past 14 months, everyone has been talking about ways artificial intelligence is changing the world, and product management is not an exception. The challenge, as with every new technology, is not only adopting it but understanding what old habits, workflows, and processes are affected by it.

Product managers — as well as startup founders leading a product function — more than any other role, face a challenge of bringing new life-changing products to market that may or may not be received well by their users. A product manager’s goal is complex — bring value, stay ahead of the competition, be innovative. Yet, the "behind the scenes" grind requires endless decision making and trade offs to inspire stakeholders to move forward and deliver.

As we dive into 2024, it is obvious that AI tools do not only transform the way we work but also help product managers create products that exceed customer expectation and drive businesses forward.

Market research and trends analysis

As product managers, we process enormous amounts of market data — from reviewing global and industry trend analysis, to social media posts, predictions, competition, and company goals. AI, however, can now replace hours, if not days, of analyzing massive amounts of data in an instant, revealing market trends, anticipating needs, and foreseeing what's coming next. As a result, it is easier to make effective product decisions and identify new market opportunities.

Competitive analysis

Constantly following competitors, reviewing their new releases, product updates, or monitoring reviews to identify competitor strengths and weaknesses is an overwhelming and time consuming task. With AI, you can quickly analyze competitors’ products, pricing, promotions, and feedback. You can easily compare multiple attributes, including metrics, and identify gaps and areas for improvement — all the insights that are otherwise much harder to reveal quickly and efficiently.

Customer and product discovery

Of course, the most intuitive use case that comes to mind is the adoption of AI in product and customer discovery. For example:

  • Use AI for customer segmentation and persona creation to help visualize personas, prioritize user motivations and expectations, and uncover hidden behavior and needs. You can then create and simplify customer questionnaires for interviews and user groups and target customers more accurately.
  • Analyze quantitative and qualitative data from surveys, support tickets, reviews, and in-person interviews to identify pain points and unmet user needs and help prioritize features for future updates and releases.

Roadmap and sprint management

AI provides value in simplifying roadmap planning and sprint management. Resource optimization is often a gruesome task and AI can help with feature prioritization and resource allocation. It helps teams focus on critical work and increase their productivity. You can even analyze and manage dependencies and improve results across multiple sprints months in advance.

Prototyping and mockup generation

There is no product manager’s routine without multiple mockups, wireframes, and prototypes that explain concepts and collect feedback among stakeholders. AI has become a critical tool in simplifying this process and bringing ideas to life from concept to visualization.

Today, you can use textual or voice descriptions to instantly create multiple visuals with slight variations, run A/B tests and gather valuable feedback at the earliest stage of a product life cycle.

Job search and job interviews

Consider it as a bonus but one of the less obvious but crucial advantages of AI is using it in job search. With the vulnerable and unstable job market, especially for product roles, AI is a valuable assistant. From getting the latest news and updates on a company you want to join, to summarizing insights on the executive team, or company goals, compiling lists of interview questions, and running mock interviews, AI has become a non-judgmental assistant in a distressing and often discouraging job search process.

Use AI to draft cold emails to recruiters and hiring managers, compare your skills to open positions’ requirements, identify gaps, and outline ideas for test assignments.

We already know that AI is not a hype; it is here to stay. However, remember that customers do not consume AI, they consume your product for its value. Customers care whether your product gets their need, solves their problem, and makes their lives easier. The goal of a product manager is to create magic combining human brain capabilities and latest technology. And the best result is with a human at the core of any product.

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Natasha Gorodetsky is the founder and CEO of Product Pursuits, a Houston company that helps early stage and venture-backed startups build products and create impact.

Houston-based WellWorth was selected as the winner of this year’s Houston Startup Showcase. Photo courtesy of the Ion

Houston energy startup wins Ion's annual showcase, pitch competition

1st place

The Ion hosted its annual startup pitch competition, and one company walked away with a win.

WellWorth, a financial modeling and analysis software-as-a-service company for the upstream energy sector, won the Houston Startup Showcase + Expo and secured a $5,000 prize. The startup's technology introduces a more streamlined approach to NAV modeling or corporate financial modeling for its users.

“Having worked in investment banking, I have seen firsthand how the limitations of Excel models and a lack of bespoke tools have led to inefficient workflows in upstream Oil & Gas finance," says Samra Nawaz, CEO and Co-founder of WellWorth, in a statement. "We decided to solve this problem by building a cloud-based platform that helps energy finance leaders improve decision-making around raising, managing, and deploying capital.”

Nawaz explains how impactful the opportunity to pitch has been on WellWorth, which aims to raise funding early next year accelerate customer acquisition and product development.

“By getting involved in the Ion’s innovation ecosystem, we’ve been able to not only network with many entrepreneurs and innovators in the Houston community, but also find opportunities to scale our growth,” continues Nawaz. “We’re thrilled to have brought a few more customers onboard recently, and are working closely with them to optimize our product pipeline."

The company pitched alongside the other five finalists, which included Tierra Climate, MRG Health, BeOne Sports, Trez, and Mallard Bay. Mallard Bay, a booking platform for hunting and fishing trips, secured the people's choice award, which was decided by the crowd.

“Our flagship event, Houston Startup Showcase, not only connects startups and entrepreneurs with top business leaders but also provides them an opportunity to pitch their innovations to the technology ecosystem,” says Jan Odegard, executive director of the Ion, in a news release. “We extend our congratulations to WellWorth and the company’s innovative SaaS platform for energy industry finance teams, as well as Mallard Bay, the People’s Choice winner. These companies are exemplifying the exciting new technologies being developed in Houston today.”

In addition to the pitches, several companies showcased at the event, including Nanotech, manufacturer of thermal management materials for the built environment; last year's winner Unytag, a universal toll tag that provides drivers the ability to pass through tolls anywhere in the nation; and Softeq, provides early-stage innovation, technology business consulting, and full-stack development solutions to enterprise companies and innovative startups.

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This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

Having diversity of thought among the leadership team is usually regarded as a positive, Houston researchers found that conflict can cause more harm than good. Photo via Getty Images

Houston research: Navigating diversity of thought among company leadership

houston voices

For the past 40 years, management researchers have assumed that diversity of opinion about company strategy, even when it causes conflict among senior managers, leads to higher-quality strategic decisions and improved firm performance.

It turns out there isn’t evidence to support that belief.

Rice Business Professor Daan Van Knippenberg has spent his career studying topics related to team performance, decision making, diversity and conflict. When a research team led by Codou Samba, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, approached him with an offer to test longstanding assumptions about conflict related to company strategy in senior management teams, he jumped at the opportunity.

In his experience, the business case for diversity is strong, but it comes with caveats. “Diversity of perspectives can lead to better solutions to complex problems, but only when team members are open-minded enough to listen carefully to each other and really integrate another point of view into their decision-making process,” he says. This does not seem to apply to differences in opinion about what company strategy should be.

When managers dig in their heels and refuse to consider and integrate other perspectives, that two-way door of communication slams shut and conflict ensues. “The popular idea that conflict is actually good for firms went against all my knowledge,” says Van Knippenberg. “It’s annoying that this idea has floated around in my field for so long when the evidence really points the other way.”

The team led by Samba, which also included C. Chet Miller, a professor at the University of Houston, conducted a quantitative summary and integration of 78 papers that provide data about strategic dissent — a term used to describe diverging opinions about strategic goals and objectives on senior management teams — and its influence on strategic decision making and firm performance.

Every paper that made a prediction about strategic dissent (only a few did not) posited that strategic dissent leads to better outcomes for firms.

In their paper, “The impact of strategic dissent on organizational outcomes: A meta-analytic integration,” the research team used a deep well of empirical data to demonstrate that the opposite is true. Turning common wisdom on its head, they found that strategic dissent among senior managers actually leads to lower-quality decisions and impaired firm performance.

The authors identify two major reasons for the negative impact of strategic dissent on firm outcomes.

First, strategic dissent causes relational breakdown among senior managers. “If managers walk away from a team meeting thinking they just had a conflict instead of a productive discussion, the outcome is rarely positive,” says Van Knippenberg. The two sides retreat into their respective corners, believing the other side to be wrong and closing their minds to further information.

Second, strategic dissent leads to less relevant information being exchanged among managers. Inevitably, this blockage impairs the decision-making process. If a marketing director and an operations director are at odds, for example, they are less likely to share the marketing- or operations-specific information that is needed to make an optimal team decision.

Teams can benefit from diversity of thought, but it is not always clear what conditions need to be in place for that to happen on senior management teams that disagree about the firm’s strategic direction. CEOs — the leaders of senior management teams — would do well to realize that it takes an effortful investment to foster open-minded discussions of diverging views on the organization’s strategy, to create an environment that encourages members to express dissenting perspectives while absorbing the perspectives of others, and to prevent vested interest and power dynamics from determining the outcomes of such discussions.

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This article originally ran on Rice Business Wisdom and was based on research from Daan Van Knippenberg, the Houston Endowed Professor of Management at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, C. Chet Miller, the C.T. Bauer Professor of Organizational Studies at C. T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, and Codou Samba, an assistant professor at Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

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Houston team develops innovative soft skeleton for kids with cerebral palsy

health tech

A team from the NSF University of Houston Building Reliable Advances and Innovation in Neurotechnology (UH BRAIN) Center and TIRR Memorial Hermann has introduced the MyoStep soft exoskeleton for children with cerebral palsy, according to a news release from UH.

The soft skeleton aims to address motor impairments caused by cerebral palsy that impact children’s ability to participate in physical activities, self-care and academics.

“The MyoStep project represents a significant advancement in the field of pediatric mobility aids, particularly for children with cerebral palsy,” Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, director of UH BRAIN and the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said in a news release.

The next-generation lightweight, soft exoskeleton was funded by the IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS) Award.

The MyoStep is made to be lightweight and discreetly fit under clothes. It includes a wireless sensor network embedded inside the smart and flexible fabrics that is the backbone of the suit and collects and sends real-time data about the user’s movements It also includes safety features with temperature monitoring and emergency shut-off mechanisms.

“By integrating cutting-edge technologies such as artificial muscles, smart fabrics, and a comprehensive sensor network, MyoStep offers a promising solution to the challenges faced by existing exoskeletons,” Contreras-Vidal said in a news release.

Cerebral palsy is a neurological disorder that impacts motor skills. It occurs in one to four out of every 1,000 births worldwide.

“What makes the MyoStep project so compelling is that it’s not just about the technology: it’s about restoring confidence, function, and hope,” Dr. Gerard Francisco, a clinical partner on the technology, The Wulfe Family Chair of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UTHealth Houston and medical officer at TIRR Memorial Hermann, said in a news release. “This kind of innovation has the potential to dramatically improve quality of life, helping children move through the world with greater ease and dignity.”

Houston universities launch summer 2025 accelerators for student ventures

summer session

OwlSpark, a startup and small business accelerator for Rice University-affiliated ventures, has named the latest 11 companies to its program that focus on challenges across technology, health care, consumer products and other sectors. The program is hosted in tandem with the University of Houston’s RED Labs and will take place at the Ion.

The early-stage accelerator runs for 12 weeks and culminates at The Bayou Startup Showcase on July 31.

According to a news release from Rice, “the accelerator cultivates a vibrant environment where founders are empowered to build, test, and scale their ideas in a setting built for entrepreneurship.”

The program is divided into two tracks: one for high-growth tech startups and another for small businesses.

The latest OwlSpark class includes:

  • Web and mobile platform EasilyBEE, which boosts family and community engagement in K-12 schools
  • Diagnos, a wearable-integrated wellness platform that monitors health and prevents injuries in college athletes
  • Johnnie, an AI-powered records management software for rural and midsize first responder agencies
  • JustKindHumility, which offers faith-based travel journals
  • Klix, whichautomates early-stage clinical trial management from document screening to AI-driven patient outreach and eligibility checks
  • Lizzy’s Gourmet Gains, which offers high-protein, flavor-forward dips and dressings
  • NextStep, an AI-powered multilingual assistant helping underserved communities navigate resources for health care
  • A catheter-integrated sensor device PeriShield, which detects early infection in peritoneal dialysis patients
  • Right Design, which connects creatives with vetted employers, mentors and projects via job matching and commissions
  • UCoreAlly, which provides business support for biotech startups in marketing, business development, customer support, human resources and accounting
  • Ultrasound-based ablation system VentriTech that treats ventricular arrhythmias

The Owl Spark accelerator has supported 229 founders and launched 104 ventures with participants raising more than $116 million in funding since 2013, according to Rice.

UH also shared the 9 teams that will participate in RED Labs' latest cohort.

The latest RED Labs class includes:

  • BLEED, an art agency that helps artists commercialize their work by connecting art collectors to original artwork and artists
  • Brain Haven, which is developing nasal inhalers designed to stimulate the emotional and memory processing centers to preserve neuroplasticity and delay cognitive decline
  • Candi Wands Automated Cotton Candy, which has developed a continuously operating cotton candy machine to help entertainment venues boost passive revenue
  • ChériCollectible, a series of in-person events where Gen Z and collectors can buy, sell, and trade modern collectibles
  • JobRadar, a job board that uses AI to analyze and categorize positions in real-time and then apply candidates instantly
  • Stage Select LLC, a supplementary talent booking service that partners with multi-stage venues to help fill gaps in programming and increase profitability by finding and booking local talent for their "second stage."
  • P-LEGS, a pediatric lower-limb exoskeleton that reduces physical strain on therapists while delivering customizable gait training.
  • Roll ‘N’ Reel Photo Booth, an interactive event-based equipment rental business
  • Stayzy, which automates guest communication and handles maintenance issues with an AI-powered software for short-term rental companies that manage 20-plus rentals