Can you really run product discovery experiments more effectively with AI?
Can GenAI vibe coding be useful for real MVPs? If not, how CAN it be useful for discovery/experimentation?
Insights
How can AI REALLY help you build better products?
AI isn’t replacing all software engineers anytime soon. So what is the impact it can have on the product development experience and outcomes?
Michael Gerharz on Breaking Out of Agile Theater and Communicating Real Value
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 …
How To Evade Coordination Tax By Organizing Around Outcomes
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/roadmaps …
Fixing Your OKRs Using AI
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: Whatever way you create this prompt, I like to save it as context, for example, …
How To Break Process Theater Using Outcome Orientation
Picture this: You’ve invested in a framework, maybe rolled out Agile, SAFe or OKRs , and your teams are “following the process”. But despite all the activity, the promised business impact just isn’t showing up. Sound familiar? If so, you might be caught in Process Theater – a situation where everyone’s performing the rituals, but …
Tackling Strategy Theater – Fractals To The Rescue (Yet Again)
Are your strategic themes gathering dust like unused New Year’s resolutions? If you’re investing significant energy evaluating initiatives but your enterprise themes seem vague, unconnected, merely decorative, or too restrictive, you might suffer from “Strategy Theater.” The frameworks these organizations use prescribe a strategy artifact. But the leadership team responsible for it hasn’t boarded the …
What To Do When Adoption of an Internal Tool/Process Stalls
You’ve paid for that product license. JIRA Align. Copilot. ChatGPT. Maestro. Pendo. Gong. ServiceNow. Snowflake. Cascade. Monday. Clickup. (Engineering|Product|Rev|Whatever) Ops. IT. Take your pick. OKRs. Scrum. Agile. SAFe. Force Mgmt. The latest framework/process you’re deploying. Now you’re trying to maximize the usage of that product/process. You want to show ROI. You create playbooks of what …
The Status of Agile as a Platform and Navigating Agile Career Pivots
What’s the future of Agile? Agility? Agile as a career choice? Yesterday, I joined Jonathan Stark on his podcast Ditching Hourly to discuss the current state of Agile as a platform, how it has evolved over the years, and what practitioners should consider as the platform matures. Jonathan primarily focuses on advice for freelancers/consultants on …
From Hype/FOMO/Theater to Fit-for-Purpose: How To Use a Product Operating Model To Develop Your Product Operating Model
Alice wants her product organization to adopt a product operating model because she believes it’s the future of working. She’s been an early adopter of agile and lean startup methods and is constantly looking for better ways to work. Bob wants their product organization to adopt a product operating model because they have an expensive …