Episode Details

Product managers are saving hours with AI, yet feel more uncertain than ever about whether their products will succeed. What’s going on?

In this episode of The Product Experience, Lily Smith and Randy Silver sit down with Axel Sooriah, product management evangelist at Atlassian, to unpack the findings from a large-scale survey into the state of product management today.

Axel shares why so many teams are stuck on the hamster wheel of execution, how cross-functional collaboration still breaks down in practice, and why 84% of product managers doubt their products will succeed despite loving the craft. The conversation explores the real reasons behind PM anxiety, the role of leadership in creating confidence, and how reframing work around customer progress can re-energise teams.

Chapters
00:00 – Money, motivation, and product work
01:12 – Axel Sooriah’s product background
02:16 – What a product management evangelist does
05:38 – Why Atlassian ran the state of product management survey
07:01 – AI productivity and the strategy time paradox
11:32 – The hamster wheel of execution
14:01 – Leadership, incentives, and product manager agency
16:16 – Using AI in customer discovery
18:17 – Cross-functional collaboration in practice
22:06 – Why 84% of product managers doubt success
26:16 – Discovery, evidence, and decision-making confidence
28:47 – Fear and curiosity in the age of AI
30:50 – Getting started with AI as a product manager
32:54 – Profit focus and product team motivation
34:27 – Reframing product work around customer progress
36:49 – Advice for product managers today

Key takeaways 
— Product managers are exhausted by execution, not strategy
— Even when AI frees up time, that capacity is quickly consumed by more delivery work.
— Cross-functional teams don’t guarantee collaboration
— Engineers are still excluded early, which kills creativity and confidence.
— Doubt comes from lack of evidence
— When teams don’t have time for discovery, decision-making confidence collapses.
— AI is a lever, not a solution
— Its real value is reclaiming time and enabling better thinking, not just faster output.
— Motivation comes from customer progress, not metrics
— Revenue matters, but meaning comes from helping people move forward in their lives.
— Agency matters more than permission
— Product managers cannot wait for perfect conditions to do good product work.
— Be intentional about the PM you want to become
— Growth requires stepping off the hamster wheel and choosing where to invest energy.

Featured Links: Follow Axel on LinkedIn | Axel's website | Atlassian | 'What we learned at Industry conferen

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