Like every Millennial, I’ve had those existential AI thoughts: Will it replace me? What will PMM even look like in 2, 5, or 10 years? And what does that mean for my role?

But instead of spiralling, I’ve decided to approach AI with curiosity, not fear.

One of my goals for 2025 is to learn how to integrate AI into my work in ways that feel genuinely helpful. I want to find tools that make me even more strategic — not less essential.

So I brought in someone I trust to help: my friend Jess Petrella, who’s been leading regular AI Office Hours inside PMM Camp as our resident AI coach.

This year, we’ve explored everything from prompt writing to customer research. But last week’s session on building your own custom GPTs was the best yet.

Today, we’re digging into how PMMs are using custom GPTs — plus what you can learn from Jess about getting started.

Generalist vs Specialist

ChatGPT is a generalist. It’s smart, flexible, and, yes, occasionally unhinged. I don’t know about you, but I find it frustrating to start every session from scratch, constantly worrying about whether I’ve worded my prompt just right.

Custom GPTs are different. You train them once and then tweak as you go.

You can tell the Custom GPT who they are, what they’re for, how they should talk, and what kind of work they should help with. You feed them the same templates, docs, and strategy decks you already use in your own work. And then you can stop prompting and start collaborating.

Here are a few specific roles a PMM might “hire” a custom GPT to fill:

• The PMM Strategist - Help pressure-test GTM plans, reframe positioning, and create launch documents (Jess built a tool like this that she demoed for us).

• The Messaging Coach - Trained on your brand voice, positioning, and past campaigns. Helps you rewrite copy, tailor messages to different audiences, or improve value propositions.

• The Research Synthesizer - Feed it interview transcripts and survey responses. It pulls themes, quotes, objections, and insights.

If you’re ready to build your own, here are the key takeaways from Jess on how to create a custom GPT that actually supports your work.

Step 1: Define the role

What do you want your GPT to do? Be specific (and remember, it’s a specialist).

Examples:

• “You are a senior product marketer. You support messaging development, go-to-market planning, stakeholder communication, and internal strategy docs.”

• “You specialize in competitive analysis. You help identify differentiators, write objection-handling language, and simplify complex product categories.”

Step 2: Teach it how to behave

You’re not just assigning tasks, you’re setting expectations. How should this GPT show up? What kind of partner do you want it to be?

Default behaviors to include:

• Ask clarifying questions before producing work

• Reframe fuzzy requests into sharper problems

• Prioritize strategic thinking over surface-level responses

• Push for specificity and challenge assumptions when needed

Set the tone too:

• Clear, confident, and direct

• No filler, no jargon

• No emojis unless asked for

Step 3: Feed it the right materials

This is what gives your GPT context and makes the outputs feel relevant to you and your business. Upload real docs you use, like:

• Positioning and messaging frameworks

• GTM or launch templates

• Strategy docs or one-pagers

• Customer research summaries or personas

• Anything written in your voice (blog posts, internal decks, etc)

Don’t worry about getting it perfect right away. Jess mentioned she’s been tweaking hers since last October. As you spot weird outputs, go back and tweak the instructions. Upload another doc. Refine the tone.

Want to go deeper? If you’re a Camper, you can catch the full session with Jess in the Bonfire recording tab.

CAMPER ESSENTIALS

📚 Reading List: Jess Petrella has a free mini course on how to bring AI-powered products to market. If you're thinking about AI beyond just prompts, start here.

📚 Reading List: Ready to build your own GPT? This how-to article from Zapier goes into the exact details, step by step.

Happy building!