🤖 From Consulting to GenAI Product Development: Key Learnings

After transitioning from consulting to GenAI projects, I've noticed some fascinating shifts in approach and mindset. Here's what I've learned:

🎓 Education is Key

• Founders / Teams need deep understanding of AI capabilities
• Critical to distinguish between data quality issues vs. AI limitations
• Fine-tuning ≠ behavior change; it's about control

🎯 Problem-First Approach

• Consulting: Platform sales → Problem solving
• Product: Problem solving → Platform selection
• Accuracy requires significant iteration
• 1 PRD line can spawn 100+ test cases
• Multiple design variations are common

⚙️ Building for Scale

• Focus on concrete solutions over platforms
• Balance data quality with model output
• Small teams enable rapid iteration
• Quick pivots back to fundamentals when needed

🚀 Product Development Reality

• Patience is crucial for monetization
• Innovation must be truly unique
• Products need time to get paid users. The first few cycles of the pilot 
• Success relies on understanding trade-offs

🔄 Blended Role Benefits

• These experiences enhance my current work:

Workshop facilitation

• Domain-specific use case brainstorming
• Core LLM training from practitioner's view
• Business-focused advisory

#GenAI #ProductDevelopment #AI #Innovation #StartupLife #TechTransition #Leadership

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Success and Failures in Pushing Ideas in Startups vs Matured Companies

Over the past 4 months, I've been working with really small teams, and the difference in communication dynamics compared to larger teams has been striking.

In my previous roles in product and consulting, I achieved success but with a considerable amount of effort spent convincing and negotiating with numerous people. Here are some of the specific challenges faced when pushing ideas in larger, more mature companies compared to nimble startups:

Increased Lines of Communication: With more team members in mature companies, ensuring everyone is on the same page becomes significantly harder. There's a higher risk of changes in approach, iterations, feedback, and information being lost or mistranslated as it travels through various levels. In contrast, startups often have flatter structures, making communication more direct and less prone to distortion.

Slower Decision-Making Processes: Larger teams often have more layers of approval, which can slow down decision-making. Every stakeholder has their own priorities and concerns, adding to the complexity. Startups, with their smaller teams, can often make decisions more quickly, which allows for faster iterations and innovation.

Greater Need for Consensus: In smaller teams typical of startups, reaching a consensus or getting buy-in for new ideas is often easier. Larger teams in mature companies require more effort to align everyone's visions and goals. This can lead to lengthy discussions and compromises, which may dilute the original idea.

More Stakeholders to Convince: Larger teams come with more stakeholders, each with their own perspectives and interests. This multiplicity can make it challenging to get everyone on board with a new idea. Startups, on the other hand, usually have fewer stakeholders, and the founders or key decision-makers are more accessible, simplifying the process of getting buy-in.

However, the journey you take, whether in a startup or a mature company, will reward you for the risks and decisions you choose to travel with. Each environment has its own set of challenges and rewards, but understanding these dynamics can help in navigating them more effectively.

Keep Going!!!

Leadership in Action

Beautiful Lines from the post

• Strategy changes rarely come from a fancy offsite. They come from late-night emails or hallway conversations 
• He never throws anyone under the bus except to take some blame for himself

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Senior Roles = Product + Data + ML - All Hats :)

An ideal senior role in my view,

Blend your ideas in DATA + DOMAIN + AI + Business Value to work on use cases. Tech expertise is important, but it is equally important to solve the right problems in the right way. Building a world-class solution requires goal-oriented thinking, not task-based thinking. Chose careers that build your passion, Find something where you can contribute significantly and also get yourself involved in bigger goals.

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Learning / Selling / Coding

Consulting has multiple hats. Some of the experiences summarizing below :)

• You are with ok with hearing a 'No'
• Source ideas/inspirations from domain/products / what really happing in this space/domain
• Read papers to find connecting dots of learning :)
• Start selling those ideas, Building MVP / Production grade implementation

Getting all three is a challenge - Productive, Gratified, and Satisfied :)

Keep Thinking!!!