How Product Management Teams are Using AI to Cut MVP Timelines from Months to Weeks
Vivek Srivastava from Karbon HQ reveals how Replit and Figma Make are transforming AI-first product development, cutting stakeholder approval cycles and accelerating launches.
By Antoine Screve, Host of The AI Weekly Brief
Vivek Srivastava, a product leader at Karbon HQ, is at the forefront of how AI is transforming product management. His team uses AI tools not just for efficiency, but as core development infrastructure that fundamentally changes how products are built and validated.
In this conversation, Vivek shared how his team reduced MVP development timelines from months to weeks using AI-first product development, and what the AI-first mindset means for modern product teams.
AI Tools Transforming Product Development at Karbon HQ
Karbon HQ's product team relies on a stack of AI tools: Figma Make for creating interactive design prototypes, V0 by Vercel for rapid visual mockups, Replit for prototyping working applications, and Team Claude plus ChatGPT for various AI-assisted tasks. Coursera serves as the upskilling platform for the broader team.
The shift from static presentations to interactive AI-generated prototypes has dramatically changed stakeholder buy-in cycles. Instead of describing a concept in slides, product managers now demonstrate working prototypes - built in hours rather than weeks.
Cutting MVP Timelines from Months to Weeks
The most impactful change has been in prototype fidelity. Using Replit and Figma Make, Vivek's team creates interactive prototypes instead of static presentations. This shift facilitates quicker stakeholder buy-in and iterative feedback, compressing what used to take months into weeks.
When stakeholders can interact with a real working prototype rather than imagine what a feature might look like, approval cycles shrink dramatically. Engineering resources are preserved for validated ideas rather than wasted on concepts that fail in stakeholder review.
What an AI-First Approach to Product Development Means
An AI-first approach means focusing on core business problems first, then asking whether AI can radically change the user experience, reduce costs, and significantly impact customer pain points - rather than defaulting to traditional solutions. It's about making AI a first-class citizen in the product development process, not an afterthought.
Frequently Asked Questions
What AI tools do product management teams use?
Product teams at Karbon HQ use Figma Make for design prototypes, V0 by Vercel for visual mockups, Replit for rapid application prototyping, and Team Claude plus ChatGPT for various AI-assisted tasks.
How does AI reduce MVP development time?
Using AI tools like Replit and Figma Make enables interactive prototyping instead of static presentations. This facilitates quicker stakeholder buy-in and iterative feedback, reducing MVP development time from months to weeks.
What is an AI-first approach to product development?
An AI-first approach means focusing on core business problems first, then asking whether AI can radically change the user experience, reduce costs, and significantly impact customer pain points - rather than defaulting to traditional solutions.