Building My AI Doppelganger: A Product Manager's Guide to Scaling Yourself

picture of me with all the drinks because is there any other way to write?

The Problem: Being the Bottleneck

Was I reading something or listening to a podcast? Honestly, I can't recall. I can remember being like, "Oh, that's a really neat idea." You see, as the head of product at a growing company, I've been thinking about my scalability. Anyone will tell you that being in product management means a lot of meetings. Being the head of product means ALL the meetings! There's only one of me, but the team's need for guidance keeps growing. How do I help more people make good product decisions and stay true to my values without cloning myself? Well, that's where other people's ideas and AI come in! Using AI as a way to scale oneself sounded cool, while also wanting to make sure there isn't some version of me out there giving the opposite advice I would give.

So I did what any product manager would do. I treated this like a product problem.

Enter "Ask Lauren"

I built a custom GPT that functions as my decision-making doppelganger. It's been going great, and I wanted to share the journey.

As we mature into a more product-led organization, my job isn't just about making good decisions. It's to help others make good decisions using our frameworks, priorities, and strategic thinking.

I approached this the way I'd approach any product build:

Discovery: What questions do people actually ask me? What patterns emerge in my responses? What context do they need to make good decisions?

Design: I provided our strategy, my decision-making frameworks, examples of how I communicate tradeoffs, and my general approach to product problems.

Test & Iterate: I shared it with a small group for feedback, made improvements, then expanded the test group.

Real Feedback

The feedback has been surprisingly positive. One team member used it to navigate a tricky vendor communication, asking how to decline a proposal professionally while keeping the door open for future work. The response was nuanced and diplomatic, and also sounded a lot like me!

Another person tested it with a complex scenario about scraped documentation and incorrect AI-generated answers. The GPT broke down the problem into actionable categories: reputation protection, proactive improvements, and long-term strategy. It offered concrete next steps without falling into the "we must do everything" trap.

One team member particularly appreciated how it helped them "simplify and get rid of the BS and buzz words" when working on messaging, which honestly made me laugh because that's such a core part of how I work.

The Meta-Product Manager

What I've created is a tool that helps scale the most important part of my job: teaching others to think like product managers. It's not about replacing human judgment, but about providing a thinking partner that can help frame problems, suggest frameworks, and offer that crucial "sanity check" when you're stuck.

The best part? It's available 24/7 and doesn't require someone to watch me eat yet another snack over Zoom.

The real win isn't that I've created an AI version of myself (though my ego appreciates it). It's that I've found a way to help my team level up their product thinking while reducing dependencies on me.

In a world where we're all trying to do more with the same resources, sometimes it's finding creative ways to scale the expertise you already have.