# From Prioritization to Curation, and Better AI Workflows for PMs

*By PM Daily Digest • June 10, 2026*

This brief highlights a shift from backlog prioritization to product curation, plus practical AI workflows for better PM judgment, discovery, and execution. It also covers lessons on empathy-led product discovery, search as a core feature, team learning, and a curated reading list for PM growth.

## Big Ideas

- **The PM job is shifting from prioritization to curation.** Ravi Mehta argues that when specs, prototypes, and code get cheaper, PMs spend less time ranking scarcity and more time deciding what deserves a place in the product [^1]. AI speeds up execution, but the bottleneck moves to customer understanding, alignment, and judgment [^1]. He frames the new work as closing three gaps: signal, evidence, and continuity [^1]. **Why it matters:** faster shipping raises the cost of weak selection. **Apply it:** keep a live stream of customer input, require evidence for roadmap changes, and preserve the "why" from discovery through delivery.

> "A feature is not done when it ships. It’s done when customers get value from it." [^1]

- **Empathy beats passion in early product building.** Scott Belsky says passion-led teams often launch something "30° off" product-market fit if they anchor on a solution instead of user reality [^2]. In Behance’s early research, creatives said they did *not* need another network; deeper interviews surfaced the actual needs: attribution, discovery by strangers, and ways to publish joint work [^2]. **Why it matters:** users often reject your proposed solution while clearly describing the problem. **Apply it:** interview for pains, workarounds, and missing outcomes—not feature validation.

## Tactical Playbook

1. **Use AI-native design as a product process, not a prompt trick.** Sachin Rekhi’s 10-step sequence starts with identifying a manual problem, mapping the current workflow in detail, and gathering real inputs and edge cases. Only step 4 is the actual AI prototype; the rest is testing, integration, rollout, adoption, contribution, and value capture [^3]. **Why it matters:** most AI projects fail in process design, not model choice. **Apply it:** spend the bulk of the work on workflow mapping and edge cases before worrying about scale.

2. **To avoid AI “slop,” feed context in layers.** Matthew Wensing describes Claude as a brilliant junior hire that sprints before it understands the full problem [^4][^5]. His pattern: inventory raw material first, start abstract so the model doesn’t snap to a generic template, add rules gradually, reorganize source material around a framework, and only generate talk tracks after the slides exist [^5][^4][^5]. **Why it matters:** executives filter out polished but shallow work quickly. **Apply it:** prefer iterative working sessions over one-shot prompts, and verify any non-deterministic analysis before it goes into an executive document [^5].

## Case Studies & Lessons

- **Customer.io’s AI stack is a strong template for PM leverage.** Wensing describes three internal tools: a Slack/Snowflake analysis bot for natural-language data queries with human verification, a Slack scanner that surfaces threads where product input is needed, and Chiefys, which checks new work against strategy and operating docs for contradictions [^5]. **Why it matters:** the best PM AI use cases keep leaders close to data, customer problems, and company context at the same time. **Apply it:** look for one tool each for analysis, signal detection, and consistency checking.

- **Search becomes the product sooner than many teams expect.** In products with large content libraries, the hard part is often not storage but helping users find the right thing fast [^6]. Once there are thousands or millions of assets, users care more about discovery than another feature [^6]. Complaints like "I can’t find anything" or "the platform feels slow" can actually be search and metadata problems [^6]. **Apply it:** treat metadata structure as a product decision, and invest early before categorization debt compounds [^6].

## Career Corner

- **Small-group learning is often the highest-yield format for PM teams.** Teresa Torres says it creates accountability, shared momentum, and better application to real work than purely self-directed learning, while also working better than mass training when teams are at different stages [^7]. **Apply it:** pilot new methods with duos or trios, keep coaching groups tight, and use book clubs or course cohorts to turn learning into practice [^7].

- **Do reference checks early enough to learn something.** Julie Zhuo shares David Fischer’s view that late-stage reference calls mostly confirm decisions already made [^8]. His calibration question: *If you were starting a company tomorrow and making your first sales hire, would this person be it?* [^8] **Apply it:** move at least one reference conversation earlier in senior hiring loops.

## Tools & Resources

- **A practical reading list for whatever skill you need next.** Lenny Rachitsky’s latest roundup organizes durable books by job-to-be-done: design, taste/craft, influence, starting a company, and career growth [^9]. Useful anchors include *Don’t Make Me Think* for UI judgment, *Never Split the Difference* for collaborative negotiation, and *The Effective Executive* for focusing on the highest-leverage work [^9]. Full list: [Part 2](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/essential-books-for-product-builderspart-611) [^10].

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### Sources

[^1]: [AI doesn't make your job easier.](https://blog.ravi-mehta.com/p/prioritization-vs-curation)
[^2]: [What Behance, Adobe, and A24 Have Taught Scott Belsky About Art & Tech](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMrKuCWNG_g)
[^3]: [𝕏 post by @businessbarista](https://x.com/businessbarista/status/2064089261121626531)
[^4]: [substack](https://substack.com/@aakashgupta/note/c-273544845)
[^5]: [How a VP of Product Uses Claude Without Producing Slop | Matthew Wensing, Customer.io](https://www.news.aakashg.com/p/claude-vp)
[^6]: [r/startups post by u/SwordfishSpecial9673](https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1u11i4k/)
[^7]: [𝕏 post by @ttorres](https://x.com/ttorres/status/2064395602222350590)
[^8]: [𝕏 post by @joulee](https://x.com/joulee/status/2064445032950792636)
[^9]: [Essential books for product builders—part 2](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/essential-books-for-product-builderspart-611)
[^10]: [𝕏 post by @lennysan](https://x.com/lennysan/status/2064373730416194043)