Why great AI products are all about the data | Shaun Clowes (CPO Confluent, ex-Salesforce, Atlassian)
December 29, 2024
AI Summary
5 min readShaun Clowes, CPO at Confluent and formerly at MuleSoft, Salesforce, Atlassian, and Metromile, discusses why product management remains underdeveloped despite two decades of practice, emphasizing external focus over internal execution. He outlines principles for effective PMs, AI's role in synthesis and data handling, moats in B2B SaaS amid cloning risks, and growth strategies.
Core Habits of Effective Product Managers
Most PMs fail by fixating on internal politics, scrum, and delivery, missing the real job: identifying differentiated market value. Clowes advises spending 80% of time outside the building—viewing everything from customer, market, and competitor lenses—and backing views with data and analysis, not anecdotes. Seek disconfirming evidence: probe where strategies mismatch customer feedback, analyze competitor moves for market signals, and structure efforts to avoid confirmation bias. unstructured customer calls yield activity without outcomes; true leverage comes from insights others miss.
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What you'll learn
- 1 *(05:12) **State of Product Management**
- 2 *(09:33) **Leveling Up as a PM**
- 3 *(13:24) **AI Tools for PM Synthesis**
- 4 *(19:40) **AI's Core Impact: Data Management**
- 5 *(24:29) **Future of B2B SaaS Amid AI Cloning**
- 6 *(36:48) **Data-Informed Decision Making**
- 7 *(45:56) **Building B2B Growth Teams & PLG**
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Shaun Clowes is the chief product officer at Confluent and former CPO at Salesforce’s MuleSoft and at Metromile. He was also the first head of growth at Atlassian, where he led product for Jira Agile and built the first-ever B2B growth team. In our conversation, we discuss:
• Why most PMs are bad, and how to fix this
• Why great AI products are all about the data
• Why he changed his mind about being data-driven
• How to build your B2B growth team
• How to choose your next career stop
• Much more
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Brought to you by:
• Enterpret—Transform customer feedback into product growth
• BuildBetter—AI for product teams
• Wix Studio—The web creation platform built for agencies
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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-great-ai-products-are-all-about-the-data-shaun-clowes
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Where to find Shaun Clowes:
• X: https://x.com/ShaunMClowes
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaun-clowes-80795014/
• Website: https://shaunclowes.com/about-shaun
• Reforge: https://www.reforge.com/profiles/shaun-clowes
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Shaun’s background
(05:08) The state of product management
(09:33) Becoming a 10x product manager
(13:23) Specific ways to leverage AI in product management
(17:15) Feedback rivers
(19:20) AI's impact on data management
(24:35) The future of enterprise businesses with AI
(35:41) Data-driven decision-making
(45:50) Building effective growth teams
(50:18) The evolution of product-led growth
(56:16) Career insights and decision-making
(01:07:45) Failure corner
(01:12:32) Final thoughts and lightning round
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Referenced:
• Steve Blank’s website: More from this podcast