My Role in an AI Team
If I were to work in an AI team in the future, my role would be (hopefully) a product manager because of my two specific experiences: basketball and studying abroad.
Firstly, why does my basketball experience matter? I have played basketball for 14 years in Japan and sometimes I was a team captain. What I have learned from basketball experiences will be helpful when I become a product manager in an AI team. When playing basketball, I’m always trying to pay attention to every team member to make sure that they are all performing well, which I think is one of the vital role a product manager has to play as well. Skills or talents required for a product manager and those for a captain of basketball team is similar. They are both required to care about each member and control their tasks or schedule so that the team can achieve its goal. In an AI team the goal is to complete the project on time, and in a basketball team that is to win a tournament.
The second reason is related to my experiences in other culture. Since I came to UT as an exchange student in last August, I’ve made a lot of effort to make friends who speak different language and have different culture. Sometimes it is quite tough for me to guess what they are thinking about. However, I’m sure that my everyday struggles will help me in the future, for a product manager also has to communicate with people who have a variety of background. There is always “diversity” in an AI team. Engineers, designers, researchers, writers and many other people get together and comprise a team. A product manager, as a leader, needs to establish relationship with them and understand their opinions.
In spite of these expectation for my future role in AI team, there are a lot of concerns about the job. The biggest one is my lack of technological insight. Although I love to imagine what latest technology will realize in the future, thinking about “how” is beyond me. Business has to be real, not just an imagination. Therefore I need to get more knowledge to tell what is possible and what is impossible with technology.
