“GenAI can enable cheaper, faster experimentation / discovery (it compresses the truth curve by reducing the cost of pretotyping style product experimentation techniques)” (Yours truly, in yesterday’s insight on how AI can really help you build better products) This statement seems to have hit a nerve with reader Elad, who is product leader at a cybersecurity scaleup: “Not everyone can do this… New companies, sure. Larger, established companies are knee-deep in mountains of code,...
1 day ago • 1 min read
While the jury is out on the extent of impact GenAI and vibe coding will have on building mission-critical enterprise products… Here are some thoughts on how AI can help turn the product flywheel: Use GenAI to enable fuller-stack engineers and reduce tech debt This will enable you to organize smaller product/outcome oriented teams These teams can achieve more with fewer dependencies and streamlined processes (even without looking at opportunities to streamline product dev processes themselves...
2 days ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, I have a question for you. Let's say you're in the market for some agility improvement service. What kind of guarantee would help you differentiate between services that are likely to end up in agile theater vs ones that will guide you to improved outcomes? Here's the thing - We've been buying (and selling) Agile "Features" for way too long: Training (you're guaranteed to get a certificate of completion. Some even guarantee you'll pass the exam...) Mechanics (You're guaranteed to...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Ever get the feeling you’re the “agile person” in the room—brought in to run ceremonies, fix Jira boards, or play Scrum cop, but never actually invited to shape real strategy? If that hits close to home, you’ll want to listen in on my latest conversation with Michael Gerharz. Michael’s a computer scientist by training, but these days he’s known for helping leaders and teams find the right words so their ideas land, rather than getting tossed in the trash. We dug into why so many agilists get...
10 days ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, Most days, it feels like mentioning Agile anywhere in your online presence is like the GenAI Emdash. A troll magnet. That makes it harder (maybe even unsafe) to have a real conversation. share nuanced opinions. (And its even less safe to talk about SAFe...) If you're a leader working on improving your organization, should you only listen to people that DON'T talk about Agile? That don't have any SAFe association? Does not mentioning their Agile association immediately mean that...
20 days ago • 2 min read
Picture this: you've a breakthrough strategic initiative tied to one of your company-level goals that impacts 10 teams across two product groups, as well as your GTM organization. These are all busy, overloaded teams. Those same 10 teams are also juggling five other initiatives. And the business-as-usual whirlwind. You pull this work into the backlogs and roadmaps for all these teams. Fractional slices of people across the teams will work on this. Which means it will take a while. Leaders...
21 days ago • 1 min read
Please don’t write your OKRs using AI. OKRs should reflect YOUR strategy. Your choices. Your strong opinion. Your tradeoffs. What you CAN do is use AI to fix your OKRs. Here are some ways you could go about doing that: Collaborate with AI to create a prompt that reflects your perspective on what makes great OKRs Point AI at an OKR expert you’re following and tell it to create a prompt based on that expert’s advice. (Your OKR Hot Seat with that expert) Point AI at a set of OKR experts and ask...
22 days ago • 1 min read
Hey, You probably noticed that I rarely promote/launch offerings around here. Today is the exception. I’m starting a small peer group (up to 10 people) for product/tech leaders who are working on evolving/ transforming their organizations. This Mastermind was born through conversations with leaders like you who expressed a desire for an intimate peer group with a high signal-to-noise ratio, where they can go beyond theory and dogma and have thoughtful, nuanced conversations about the journey...
23 days ago • 1 min read
Do you ever have nightmares of underpant gnomes running your transformation? Process Theater happens when people focus on following the process instead of connecting it to outcomes and impact. It's like the South Park underpants gnomes, who never managed to figure out the connection between stealing underpants and world domination. So, how can we break the downward spiral caused by process theater and switch to a positive transformational flywheel? Outcome Mapping can help us clarify the real...
24 days ago • 1 min read