Product teams talk about risk constantly. They track it, mitigate it, escalate it, and reference it in nearly every decision discussion. What they rarely do is define it. As a result, “risk” becomes a vague proxy for unease. A catch-all label applied to disagreement, uncertainty, incomplete information, or the simple fear of being wrong. When that happens, risk stops being a tool for better decisions and starts functioning as a brake on them. Most stalled product decisions do