Build, Pivot or Kill: Building in AI Era, for Product Manager and Founders
Priyanka Shetty
AI Product Leader & Builder
When anyone can build anything with AI. Learn to build what users actually love.
AI has made building the easy part. A prototype that once took a quarter now takes an afternoon, so teams and founders ship more than customers can absorb. What happens when the bill arrives? Unused features, a cluttered product, AI tokens spent and a roadmap that looks good on paper but does not deliver.
Research proves it, Pendo found that 80% of features in the average product are rarely or never used. Microsoft reported that fewer than a third of tested ideas improved the metric they were built to move. In startup circles, founders cite the top reasons for failure as there was no market need.
In this one day workshop, you apply product sense to a real idea of your own, working through the questions that decide its fate: who is the customer, what is the problem, what they do today, whether they will pay, and whether it fits your strategy. With AI as your partner, you test assumptions, red-team your idea, and write kill criteria and pivot triggers before you build.
Walk out with one real answer: Build, Pivot, or Kill. Bonus, the product sense techniques you can carry with you to continue to Build products that people love, and choose to Pivot or Kill when it is the right call.
What you’ll learn
Decide what to build, pivot, or kill with evidence, so your team ships fewer misses and more products customers love
Separate the user from the buyer and segment by behavior and trigger events
Score problem severity on frequency, intensity, and the cost of today’s workaround
Write interview questions that uncover what customers actually did last time
Build a sourced alternatives map covering incumbents, spreadsheets, manual work, and general AI tools
Verify AI-generated research against original sources before it drives a decision
Test your idea against the simplest non-AI alternative and write a one-sentence gap statement
Rank evidence from opinion to payment and weight commitments above survey answers
Use AI to build a fake-door page and design a demand test with pass and fail thresholds
Model the cost to serve an AI product and see which input breaks your margin
Check fit with company goals, capabilities, and what a better foundation model could erase
Red-team your own idea with AI playing skeptical executive, finance, engineering, and compliance
Write kill criteria with a metric, threshold, owner, date, and guardrail before building
Tell customer, problem, and solution pivots apart and know which one the evidence points to
Practice on public cases and AI-simulated week-three data before it is your own money
Write pivot triggers in advance so your team reacts to evidence and avoids drifting
Deliver a two-minute defense of your verdict and answer a skeptical panel’s hardest questions
Record a probability of success, score it at 30 and 90 days, and watch your judgment sharpen
Leave with a one-page decision memo and a first test to run within seven days
Workshop agenda
The Hit Rate Problem
See why building more doesn’t mean winning more, and score your own team’s hit rate. Test your product instincts against the room and against AI on six real cases. Leave the block with a baseline prob
Customer and problem
Define a segment by behavior, separate user from buyer, and score problem severity. Rehearse interviews with an AI persona and rewrite leading questions into ones that reveal real behavior.
Market gap and alternatives
Map every alternative, including spreadsheets, manual work, general AI tools, and doing nothing. Verify AI research against sources and write a one-sentence gap statement.
Value and willingness to pay
Turn your value story into a measurable before and after. Build a fake-door page with AI, set pass and fail thresholds first, and check that your price covers the cost of running an AI product.
Strategic fit and the verdict
Red-team your idea with AI playing skeptical exec, finance, engineering, and compliance roles. Score your evidence, reach a Build, Test More, or Kill verdict, and write kill criteria.
Pivot
Tell customer, problem, and solution pivots apart. Read early evidence in a decision gym, simulate three outcomes for your idea with AI, and write triggers to persevere, pivot, or stop.
Defend and commit
Rehearse the hardest questions with AI, then defend your verdict for two minutes to a peer panel. Record a calibrated probability, set review dates, and commit to a first test within a week.
Learn directly from Priyanka
Priyanka Shetty
AI Product Leader (Oracle, S&P Global, Weill Cornell) | AI Strategist & Founder
Who this workshop is for
Product Manager
You own an AI roadmap in enterprise or regulated B2B and need evidence before your team builds the wrong thing.Founder
You build with AI daily and need a real test of demand, willingness to pay, and fit before investing more.Product Director or VP
You approve AI bets and want a consistent way to grade evidence, set kill criteria, and decide with confidence.
What's included
Lifetime access
Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.
Community of peers
Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.
Certificate of completion
Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.
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