Or, Who Decides What Goes in ‘Next’? You can usually tell how solid a roadmap is about two weeks after it’s shared.That’s when “Now” starts to shift, “Next” gets debated again, and “Later” quietly grows. Nothing dramatic. No big reset. Just small adjustments that signal something wasn’t resolved the first time. Now/Next/Later, as a planning approach, is meant to make roadmaps more honest. Less performative certainty, more flexibility. It’s a useful correction to date-driven p

User stories look clean on the page. “As a [user], I want to [do something], so that [I get value].” They create the sense that the problem is understood. That the user is known. That the work ahead is mostly execution. Then you start building. And somewhere along the way, the story starts to thin out. The “user” turns out to be a composite. The “want” reflects a mix of requests, not a clear job. The “value” is directionally right but not specific enough to guide tradeoffs. W

Market research didn’t start as a department. It started as paying attention. Somebody noticed which version of a product people picked up first.Somebody else caught the hesitation right after a price was mentioned.Then they made a change—and watched what happened next. That was the essence of it: notice, understand, improve. Build something better because you actually saw what people did, not just what they said. As businesses scaled, that proximity disappeared. You couldn’t

Most B2B research is designed to feel safe. It prioritizes representativeness. It seeks consensus. It works hard to make sure every segment is covered, every voice counted, every finding defensible in a room full of skeptics. Those goals make sense if the primary risk you’re managing is organizational discomfort. They make far less sense if you’re trying to decide what to build, what to cut, or where to place a meaningful bet. Representativeness is a statistical virtue, not a

AI is changing how product teams work, no question. It listens, summarizes, predicts, and drafts. It’s efficient and, at times, eerily competent. But it also creates a kind of distance. The more time we spend reading summaries, the less time we spend listening. That’s how empathy gets dulled. And once it dulls, everything else does too: judgment, curiosity, imagination. Empathy isn’t about being nice. It’s about paying attention. About catching what people mean when they don’

Every product team I know carries some form of debt. Most think in terms of technical debt—the shortcuts taken in code that later slow development. But there’s another kind of liability that quietly shapes almost every roadmap, meeting, and feature decision: discovery debt . It’s what accumulates when a team moves faster than it learns. When assumptions outpace evidence. When a backlog fills with guesses disguised as insight. And unlike technical debt, which can be seen and m

Consensus is seductive. It feels democratic, responsible, safe. Teams gather feedback, tally the votes, and tell themselves they’re...

Data analytics has become the default language of product decision-making. Every product manager we know spends at least part of their...

Most teams treat the “opportunity space” like it’s a chart you can fill in with the right research. Field the surveys, conduct the...

For more than a century, businesses have been told to treat “the customer as always right.” Coined by retailers like Harry Gordon...

Product managers rarely suffer from a lack of customer contact. Calls, site visits, advisory councils—most teams have some version of...

I've come to the uncomfortable realization that nobody—I mean nobody —really knows how to navigate the current economic craziness with...

Seems like the signal-to-noise metaphor shows up everywhere anymore. It used to clarify things, helping us focus on what matters. Now it...

Most product teams aren’t starved for data. They’ve got usage dashboards, survey tools, helpdesk logs, and analytics stacks. And in many...

Most teams say they want bold thinking. Most organizations don’t reward it. Not when the roadmap is already full. Not when the metrics...

We work with product teams every day who want to build what’s next. They want to stand out, be different. They want to grow. But too...

“Measure what matters.”   It’s one of those phrases that’s become so widely accepted in business that it no longer gets questioned. A...

When a product team talks about “the mainstream,” it’s usually in vague terms: a future state where growth is steady, retention is high,...

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in product development—powering everything from personalization engines to...

Innovation is often seen as the domain of product teams whose charter is to develop, refine, and launch offerings that drive competitive...