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Discovery Debt: When Learning Falls Behind Building
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

Paul Peterson
Oct 19, 20253 min read


The Real Bottleneck Isn’t Ideas—It’s Everything After
Ideas aren’t the problem. Most product teams have more than they can manage. Whiteboards overflow, frameworks stack neatly, and someone...

Paul Peterson
Jul 21, 20252 min read


Nobody Really Knows. But Listening Still Works.
I've come to the uncomfortable realization that nobody—I mean nobody —really knows how to navigate the current economic craziness with...

Paul Peterson
Jul 10, 20252 min read


Don't Have "Innovation" in Your Title? Doesn't Matter.
In my humble opinion, we’ve let the word innovation get too far away from its meaning. It’s been hijacked by pitch decks and product...

Paul Peterson
Jun 8, 20252 min read


How to Tune In When Everyone's Tuning Out
We’ve reached a strange inflection point in marketing and innovation. On one hand, we’ve never seen more content, more campaigns, more...

Paul Peterson
May 30, 20253 min read


Design Isn’t Optional
A few weeks ago, I posted something on LinkedIn that went viral. It wasn’t a hot take. It wasn’t tied to a product launch or a trend....

Paul Peterson
May 16, 20253 min read


What if Fear Is the Real Reason You’re Stuck?
What if the real reason your innovation efforts stall has nothing to do with strategy? Nothing to do with budget. Nothing to do with...

Paul Peterson
Apr 24, 20252 min read


“Product Owner?” That’s Cute.
Somewhere along the winding road of Agile transformation and Silicon Valley job title inflation, we decided to start calling people...

Paul Peterson
Apr 18, 20253 min read


You’re Holding It All Together. We Haven’t Forgotten That.
There’s a particular kind of tired we see on the faces of so many product managers. It’s not just from late nights or back-to-back...

Paul Peterson
Apr 18, 20252 min read


Be Bold or Be Boring
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...

Paul Peterson
Apr 8, 20253 min read


Tariffs, Turbulence, and the Value of Customer Proximity
The announcement of new tariffs has sent ripples through global supply chains and boardroom discussions alike. For many businesses,...

Paul Peterson
Apr 5, 20252 min read


Measure What Matters? Sure. But Don’t Forget What You Can’t Measure.
“Measure what matters.” It’s one of those phrases that’s become so widely accepted in business that it no longer gets questioned. A...

Paul Peterson
Apr 2, 20252 min read


Creating a Culture of Innovation—with Catalytic Customers at the Core
A few years ago, we sat across the table from a product executive at a fast-scaling SaaS company. Their roadmap was...

Paul Peterson
Apr 2, 20254 min read


Ten Ways to Kill Innovation
Whether it’s a new product, a reinvigorated marketing plan or a concept for more efficient operations, innovation is the cornerstone of...

Paul Peterson
Mar 3, 20254 min read


The Silent Crisis of Lapsing Customers: How to Spot the Problem and Stop It Early
In a world of subscription fatigue, fierce competition, and evolving customer expectations, lapsing customers are the silent killers of...

Paul Peterson
Jan 26, 20253 min read


The Echo Chamber Problem, or You are Not Your Target
As product managers, it's natural to believe that we know our products inside and out. After all, we are the architects behind the...

Paul Peterson
Jan 3, 20254 min read


Your MVP Is Killing Innovation: Why Starting with Minimum Value is Maximum Risk
When was the last time your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) truly delivered groundbreaking insights or propelled your team toward meaningful...

Paul Peterson
Jan 2, 20253 min read


The Truth About De-Risking Innovation: What No One Tells You
Let’s be real: innovation is risky. It’s messy, uncertain, and more often than not, it’s expensive. For every celebrated success story,...

Paul Peterson
Jan 2, 20253 min read


Famous Flops (AKA, What Were They Thinking?)
In the high-stakes world of innovation, not every idea is destined for greatness. Some products fall flat for reasons so obvious in...

Paul Peterson
Dec 26, 20245 min read
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