AI & ML

AI is Transforming Product Management

By
Joel Passen
May 23, 2023
5 min read

Product management has evolved significantly over the years, adapting to customer expectations, increased competition, and technological advancements. What was once a fragmented and operational role is now one of the most strategic and cross-functional disciplines in many organizations. Modern product management has two key goals; delivering customer value and, subsequently, driving business growth.

In the past, product managers were often hardened SMEs relying on previous experiences and assumptions. However, in recent years, subject matter expertise has become less critical as the focus has shifted to better understanding a wide variety of users. Product managers now emphasize understanding customer needs, conducting user research, and gathering feedback to inform feature prioritization and, more importantly, the desired value-driven outcomes for customers. 

These days, PMs have a massive amount of data at their disposal, enabling experimentation and validation. This iterative mindset helps mitigate risks, validate hypotheses, and optimize product features based on user feedback. And, to that end, user feedback is the key — the currency of modern product management feedback is what makes or breaks a product. 

Traditional user feedback methods are a miss

Traditionally, user feedback has been gathered through surveys and customer interviews. Surveys are emailed to customers to gather feedback. Pretty straightforward. Customer interviews allow PMs to dig deeper into customer motivations, pain points, and specific use cases.  

What do traditional product research methods have in common? They are labor-intensive, often expensive, and time-consuming, requiring reliance on other teams to complete. And, maybe the biggest drawback is that the data and insights generated are typically from a small subset of the product’s user base. 

Welcome to the AI-era

AI-powered platforms are making it possible to sift through data using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms to quickly analyze large amounts of customer-generated information like email, tickets, call transcripts, and more. These data sets have been nearly impossible to access in the past because of their unstructured nature. AI-based tools can search for patterns and recognize key signals that might be difficult and even impossible for humans to spot, especially at scale. 

AI is catapulting PM teams into a new era by enabling them to quickly and accurately identify trends in user preferences and behaviors related to specific feature requests, common product defects, and areas the most prone to user confusion. 

Additionally, AI-based platforms analyze vast amounts of data in real-time, helping product managers iterate and experiment faster while reducing costs and reliance on other teams. With the help of AI, teams can gain valuable, unbiased insights into their products more efficiently and more effectively than ever before.

Real use case examples are maturing 

For example, product teams at HireEZ, the award-winning outbound recruiting solution, use Sturdy to slice and dice real user feedback like feature requests, confusion, and product friction by product mix, segments, and cohorts to understand better how to maintain product-market fit across their customer base. 

Teams at MP, a leading provider of innovative HR technology and managed HR services, no longer rely solely on surveys and interviews to understand customers better. They use the real voice of the customer from email and support tickets to better identify opportunities to improve their offerings. 

It’s no surprise that AI is transforming product management. The function was poised for evolution. AI is now simply accelerating more teams to become even more customer-focused, data-driven, collaborative, and iterative. Product managers are embracing digital transformation, agile methodologies, and a customer-centric approach to navigate complex market dynamics and deliver innovative products.

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Integrations

Product Update! Sturdy now integrates with Jira

Joel Passen
March 10, 2025
5 min read

We’re making it easier than ever to turn customer feedback into action while saving businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. With Sturdy’s new Jira Connect, any AI-powered Signal in Sturdy can be automatically logged in Jira—helping teams capture, prioritize, and resolve issues faster than ever.

Sturdy for Jira is a Game Changer

Every team needs to know more about their customers. 

Turn customer feedback into valuable Jira content automatically. Sturdy’s AI accurately detects feature requests, bug reports, and other critical product feedback. Customizable agents then deliver this context-rich intelligence to a configurable staging area in Jira with all relevant user and account details, such as segment, ARR, and more. The content is objectively summarized automatically. From there, assigning it to an epic, task, sprint, or release is just one click.

Productivity Gains that Move the Needle

Businesses are unknowingly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on something as simple as manually logging Jira issues. A single customer-facing rep wastes nearly 87 hours annually on repetitive data entry—scaling up to a staggering $354,200 per year for a team of 100 reps. By integrating Sturdy’s AI-driven automation, businesses can reclaim thousands of hours, improve productivity, and reinvest those savings into growth and innovation—all while ensuring more accurate, real-time data flows into Jira effortlessly.

Align product teams with customer reality.

By centralizing AI-powered insights in Jira, Sturdy ensures that product and engineering teams get a complete, objective picture of what’s working, what’s broken, and what needs to be built—without relying on anecdotal feedback. Customer-reported issues appear in Jira moments after they happen, ensuring your product and engineering teams stay ahead of emerging trends and critical bugs—without the lag of traditional reporting.

Effortless setup, immediate impact.

Sturdy’s turnkey integration takes minutes to configure. Once connected, your team gains instant access to context-rich, structured feedback—helping you make faster, data-driven decisions that improve customer satisfaction.

Want to get started? Click the 'Schedule Demo' button at the top of the page.

Integrations

Product Update! Sturdy Now Analyzes Customer Slack Channels

Joel Passen
March 3, 2025
5 min read

We’re making it easier than ever for teams to tap into the power of customer conversations. With this integration, Sturdy’s AI-driven insights—trained to spot key behaviors and trends unique to your business—are now right where your team works. That means more proactive decisions, better collaboration, and a serious productivity boost.

Here’s how Sturdy works with Slack.

  • Get the right insights, right in Slack. Sturdy delivers AI-powered Signals where your team already works, flagging risks, expansion opportunities, and other key moments in real-time. No more digging through conversations—just actionable insights when you need them.

  • Stay on top of every conversation. If your team works asynchronously in Slack channels, it’s easy for important feedback to get lost. Sturdy keeps you ahead by surfacing critical insights before they slip through the cracks.

  • Act fast, not after the fact. Whether it’s a service risk, a feature request, or a potential upsell, Sturdy helps teams spot and respond to what matters—without disrupting their workflow.

Seamless sync with your tools. Sturdy doesn’t just stop at Slack. Insights discovered in customer Slack channels automatically flow into Jira, CSPs, CRMs, and other systems, ensuring the right teams get the right info—without extra work.

Customer Intelligence

He doesn’t talk much, but when he does, you’d better listen.

Steve Hazelton
February 27, 2025
5 min read

He doesn’t talk much, but when he does, you’d better listen.

Quote from C-3PO, Star Wars: A New Hope

A few days ago, I spoke to a business leader, and they asked, "How would Sturdy work for customers who never contact us?"

"Do you know who those customers are?"

"No idea."

"Would you like to?"

“Dark Customers.” It is almost impossible to source this list. Your customer might be dark to five silos, and bright in just one. 

(By the way, there is a little-known filter in the Accounts page of Sturdy that lets you sort by “Last Inbound.”  Check it out. You can see the last time any customer sent you an inbound message.)

Let’s be fair. In a recurring-revenue business, a lack of inbound contact isn’t necessarily bad. Sometimes your customers don’t feel the need to chat with you, but they like you just the same. 

But, here’s the cool thought. What should happen when a Dark Customer suddenly reaches out? 

For example, Acme Corp sends an email to your CS team for the first time in 18 months. What needs to happen next?

I would want to know. So, we’re working on that. Naming such a signal is a bit tricky, if you have ideas, let us know.

How many customers will you have to lose before you try Sturdy?

Schedule Demo
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