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It’s been a while! No big reason, just life doing its thing. Work got intense, we added a tiny human to the family (sleep is a distant memory), and somewhere in there, I realized I needed to actually take care of myself for a change. Physical health, mental health, the whole deal.

What I did miss, though, was having a place to work through ideas that have been rattling around in my head. And lately, one idea keeps coming back: the difference between PMs who just execute and PMs who actually give a shit about what they’re building.

So here we are.

My therapist once told me I have “professional FOMO.” He meant it as a diagnosis, but honestly, it felt more like a badge of honour. I spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about why some PMs light up a room when they talk about their product, while others seem to be running out the clock until their next sprint planning meeting.

A few years back, I watched a PM present a feature launch in an all-hands. Great slides. Clean metrics. Everything shipped on time. But when someone asked, “Why did we build this?” there was this awkward pause before she said, “Well, leadership asked for it.” The room got quiet in that specific way that makes everyone suddenly very interested in their laptops.

That moment stuck with me because I’ve been that PM. Early in my career, I treated product management like project management with better snacks. Build what’s asked, ship it, measure it (maybe), then move to the next thing. I was a feature factory employee with a fancy title. And the thing is, nobody explicitly told me I was doing it wrong. I hit my OKRs. Stakeholders seemed happy. But I was basically a well-organized vending machine.

The Opinions Deficit

Here’s what nobody tells you in those “So You Want to Be a PM” blog posts: the job is fundamentally about having a point of view and defending it with evidence. Not in an egotistical “I know best” way, but in a “I’ve thought deeply about this and here’s what I believe” way.

The PMs who treat the role like advanced project coordination are everywhere. They take requirements from sales, engineering, leadership (whoever shouts loudest) and turn them into Jira tickets. They run standups like traffic cops. They launch features and immediately forget they exist because there’s another deadline breathing down their neck.

I’m not being harsh for sport. I genuinely believe this happens because companies accidentally train PMs to be order-takers. When your performance review focuses on “delivery velocity” and “stakeholder satisfaction,” you learn fast that having opinions creates friction. Friction slows things down. Slower is bad. So you become the path of least resistance.

But here’s the problem: when AI can write your PRD, analyze your user data, and probably run a decent sprint retrospective, what’s left that makes you valuable?

Agency. That’s what’s left.

What Agency Actually Looks Like

Agency isn’t about being the loudest person in the room or having an opinion on everything. I’ve worked with PMs who confuse contrarianism with critical thinking. They’ll argue about button colours for 20 minutes because they think that’s what “being opinionated” means.

Real agency shows up differently. It’s the PM who ships a feature and then obsessively checks the data for the next two weeks, not because they’re measured on it, but because they genuinely want to know if they were right. It’s the person who speaks up in a leadership meeting when everyone’s nodding along to a bad idea because they’ve actually talked to customers and know it won’t work.

I once worked with a PM (let’s call her Sarah) who managed our accounting integrations. During a quarterly planning session, leadership wanted to prioritize expanding our QuickBooks integration to support inventory tracking, job costing, and project management features. Sounded reasonable. Our enterprise customers had been asking for it. Everyone was ready to commit the quarter to it. Sarah raised her hand and said, “I don’t think we should build this.” You could feel the temperature drop.

She pulled up her laptop and showed us data from the past six months. Eighty-seven percent of our QuickBooks users only synced invoices and expenses. The remaining thirteen percent who used advanced features were mostly on custom enterprise plans with dedicated support. She’d also talked to eight customers the previous week who said they wanted “better QuickBooks integration.” When she dug deeper, they meant the basic sync was breaking, not that they needed more features.

We didn’t expand the integration. Instead, we spent the quarter making invoice and expense syncing bulletproof. Boring. Unsexy. But support tickets dropped significantly, and we stopped losing customers over sync failures.

That’s agency. Not being contrarian for its own sake, but doing the work to form an opinion and having the guts to share it when it matters.

The Curiosity Crisis

The PMs who struggle with agency often have a curiosity problem. They don’t seem genuinely interested in whether what they built worked. Launch happens, maybe there’s a Slack celebration with some emoji, and then it’s on to the next thing.

This is wild to me because the most interesting part of product management happens after launch. That’s when you find out if you were right. That’s when customers do weird, unexpected things with your feature. That’s when you learn something that changes how you think about the problem.

But if you’re not curious, you miss all of it. You treat launches like closing tickets instead of opening questions.

I’ve started asking PMs in interviews: “Tell me about something you built that failed.” The ones without agency give you a well-rehearsed story about a failure that wasn’t really their fault (bad timing, lack of resources, stakeholder interference). The ones with agency get animated. They’ll talk about what they learned, how it changed their thinking, and what they’d do differently. They’re still processing it, even if it happened years ago.

Curiosity isn’t a personality trait you either have or don’t. It’s a muscle. You build it by asking one more question in customer interviews. By checking the dashboard on Saturday morning, even though nobody’s making you. By reading your competitors’ release notes, you want to understand their thinking.

The Meeting Room Test

Here’s a simple diagnostic: pay attention to who talks in meetings. I don’t mean who talks the most (we all know that person, and they’re usually not adding much value). I mean who contributes signal.

PMs with agency ask clarifying questions. They push back on assumptions. They connect dots between things that seemed unrelated. They’re not performing; they’re actually engaged in figuring something out.

PMs without agency are silent until someone asks them directly about the timeline or scope. Then they give a careful, noncommittal answer that keeps everyone happy. They’re optimizing for not making waves.

The frustrating part is that silent PMs often think they’re being professional. They’re “staying in their lane” or “letting others drive the vision.” But product management isn’t about staying in your lane. The job is to have an informed opinion about whether we’re going in the right direction and to say something if we’re not.

I remember early in my career, staying quiet in executive meetings because I figured the VPs knew better than me. Then one day, my boss pulled me aside and said, “You’re closer to the customer than anyone in that room. If you’re not speaking up, we’re making decisions with incomplete information.”

That reframed everything. My opinions weren’t me being full of myself. They were data points the team needed.

Evangelism as a Core Competency

The best PMs I’ve worked with are shameless evangelists for their products. Not in a used-car-salesman way, but with genuine enthusiasm about the problem they’re solving and the people they’re solving it for.

They bring up their product in random conversations. They forward customer feedback to the team even when nobody asked for it. They write detailed launch announcements that people actually read. They make their engineers feel like they’re working on something that matters.

This isn’t about being extroverted or charismatic. I’ve known quiet PMs who were incredible evangelists through written updates and one-on-one conversations. It’s about caring enough to make other people care.

When you don’t evangelize, you’re sending a message: this work isn’t worth getting excited about. Your team picks up on that. So do stakeholders. So do customers.

The PM I mentioned earlier, who couldn’t answer “why did we build this”? I don’t think she was lazy or incompetent. I think somewhere along the way, she learned that caring too much made the job harder. Easier to just execute and move on. But that’s a terrible way to spend your career, and it produces mediocre products.

The Cultural Dimension

Some of this is on the PM to fix. But let’s be honest: company culture plays a huge role in whether PMs develop agency or learn to be quiet.

If your performance reviews focus exclusively on output metrics (features shipped, velocity points, roadmap adherence), you’re training PMs to be delivery managers. If “stakeholder satisfaction” is a key metric, you’re training them to be people pleasers. If you celebrate launches but never talk about outcomes, you’re teaching them that what happens after doesn’t matter.

I’ve seen companies accidentally create cultures where having opinions is risky. Where challenging a VP’s pet project is career-limiting. Where data that contradicts the roadmap gets ignored. In those environments, the rational move for a PM is to keep your head down and ship what you’re told.

But those companies are sleepwalking into irrelevance. Because as AI tools get better at the tactical parts of product management, the only differentiation left is judgment, taste, and the willingness to say hard things.

If you’re a PM in one of these cultures, you have a choice. You can adapt to it and become really good at going through motions. Or you can start small (speaking up in one meeting, digging into one launch’s data, asking one tough question) and see what happens.

Sometimes the culture is more flexible than it seems. People are waiting for someone to model a different way. Sometimes you’ll get shot down and learn that this company isn’t the place for you. Either outcome is better than spending years being quiet.

The AI Accelerant

We’re at an inflection point. Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and ChatPRD (they’re already decent at writing PRDs, analyzing data, and generating ideas). They’ll get better fast. The parts of product management that feel like sophisticated busywork are automatable now.

What’s not automatable is the PM who understands the second-order effects of a pricing change because they’ve spent hours talking to customers. The one who knows which engineer on the team is burning out and needs support. The one who can read between the lines of what a stakeholder is saying and address their actual concern.

These skills all require agency. You can’t outsource having a point of view.

I’ve started using AI tools for a lot of tactical work. They’re great at first drafts, data analysis, and brainstorming. But they can’t tell me if an idea is worth pursuing. They don’t have intuition about what will resonate with our specific users. They don’t wake up at 2 am thinking about a problem.

The PMs who lean into AI as a tool to free up time for higher-order thinking are going to run laps around the ones who see it as a threat. But you have to actually use that freed-up time to think, to develop opinions, to engage deeply with the problem. If you’re just using it to ship more features faster, you’re missing the point.

Strong Opinions, Loosely Held (For Real This Time)

That phrase has become a cliché, but I still think it’s the right frame. The “strong opinions” part means you’ve done the work (talked to users, looked at the data, thought about the market) and arrived at a point of view you can defend. The “loosely held” part means you’re willing to change your mind when you encounter better information.

What doesn’t work is having no opinions because you’re waiting for perfect information, or holding your opinions so tightly that you ignore contradictory evidence.

I’ve been wrong about products plenty of times. I pushed for a feature that customers didn’t care about. I dismissed an idea that turned out to be great. I misread market timing on a launch. Each time, having strong opinions made it clear I was wrong. And being willing to update those opinions meant I could adjust course.

The PMs who struggle aren’t the ones who are wrong sometimes. They’re the ones who never commit to a position in the first place, so they can’t learn from being wrong.

What This Means for You

If you’re reading this and thinking, “I might be that quiet PM,” I get it. Developing agency feels risky. It’s easier to stay in the background, execute what you’re told, and collect your paycheck.

But I promise you’ll be more satisfied, more valuable, and more resilient in your career if you start building that muscle now.

Start small. Pick one thing you’re working on and develop a real point of view about it. Not just “this seems fine” but “here’s why I think this will work, and here’s what I’d expect to see in the data if I’m right.” Share that opinion with your team. Then check the data after launch and see if you were right.

Ask one more question in customer interviews. Push back once when a stakeholder asks for something that doesn’t make sense. Write a post-mortem that actually analyzes what happened instead of just listing what shipped.

These small acts of agency compound. You’ll get more comfortable having opinions. Your team will start seeing you as someone with valuable judgment. You’ll find the work more interesting because you’re actually trying to figure things out instead of just executing tasks.

And if your company culture genuinely punishes this kind of thinking, you’ll learn that too, which is painful, but valuable information about where to spend your career.

The product management field is professionalizing fast. The bar is rising. The PMs who make it won’t be the ones who can run a sprint or write a PRD. Those will be table stakes that AI handles. It’ll be the ones who have taste, judgment, and the spine to use them.

So yeah, be opinionated. Your products will be better for it. Your team will appreciate it. And you might actually enjoy this weird job we’ve chosen.

👋 And that’s a wrap folks. Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed reading today’s newsletter, feel free to forward it to someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

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I took a little break from writing these newsletters. Not burnout, not a crisis, just life being life and the need for a bit of stillness.

And honestly, sometimes the most productive thing a product manager or someone in a leadership role can do is step back. It's in that quiet, fewer meetings, less Slack noise, where the good thinking usually sneaks up. Not the retreat-in-the-woods kind of silence. Just the regular, unglamorous kind where your brain has space to breathe.

I didn't come back with some breakthrough framework or poetic clarity. Just a reminder: not everything worth sharing comes tied up in a bow. Some of the most valuable lessons come from the messy middle.

Which brings me to a phrase I've seen float through too many Slack threads lately: "quick and dirty" solutions.

Ever had someone ask for one? Maybe a sales opportunity popped up, or leadership wanted to jump on a new trend. Suddenly, the roadmap is out the window, and it's all about moving fast.

I hear this request at least once a quarter. And every time, I have to resist the urge to visibly cringe.

Not because I'm against speed, quite the opposite. But because "quick and dirty" fundamentally misunderstands what makes for effective product development.

The False Triangle

You've probably seen some version of the project management triangle: Good, Fast, Cheap-pick two.

Want it good and fast? It won't be cheap. Want it fast and cheap? It won't be good. Want it good and cheap? It won't be fast.

I'm just going to say it: this is complete BS.

This mindset creates a false choice that actually undermines what we're trying to accomplish. It assumes that cutting corners is the only way to move quickly, when the real solution is much simpler: ruthless prioritization.

Quick and Clear in Action

Let's break it down. Imagine a sales team comes running with a major opportunity but needs a feature that doesn't exist. Panic sets in. Everyone's talking about a quick and dirty solution to "just get something out there."

Before diving into build mode, step back and get clarity by asking:

• What's the real problem? Not the request, but the actual job the customer is trying to do.

• What's the smallest thing we could build that provides value?

• What can we skip without breaking the experience?

• How reversible is this decision? If we're wrong, how quickly can we fix it?

By getting clear on these answers, you can often find a path that's fast and effective without leaving a pile of tech debt or unhappy users.

Build With Clarity, Not Chaos

"Quick and dirty" implies we're knowingly creating technical debt or design flaws. "Quick and clear" means we're intentionally scoping to essentials. It's not about moving recklessly fast. It's about being surgical. And it's not just a cleaner way to build. It's how you avoid traps that slow teams down later.

Here's how to make the shift:

1. Scope like a minimalist

Strip away anything that doesn't directly solve the problem. If it's not mission-critical, it's noise.

🚀 Example: At my previous company, sales needed a reporting feature for a major prospect. Instead of building a full analytics dashboard (dirty approach), we created a focused export capability that addressed their specific need (clear approach). It took half the time and actually solved the exact problem.

2. Validate early and often

Get real feedback before overinvesting. Customers will always tell you what actually matters faster than an internal debate.

🚀 Example: Rather than rushing through a half-baked onboarding flow for a sales opportunity, we built just the first step properly. Once validated with the prospect, we added the second step. No technical debt, no design compromises—just intentional, incremental progress.

3. Don't confuse polish with progress

Fix what users will notice, not what makes you feel better about your craftsmanship.

🚀 Example: At a previous company in the fintech space, we had a merchant urgently ask for real-time balance visibility. Rather than spinning up a full-fledged account reconciliation suite, we scoped a lightweight endpoint that showed the latest balance snapshot with minimal delay. It shipped within days, was dead simple to maintain, and bought us time to build the full feature set without stress.

4. Make it reversible

Not every decision needs to be permanent. Build solutions that can evolve as you learn more.

🚀 Example: When rushing to meet a competitive threat, we designed our solution with modularity in mind. The first iteration was focused but complete, and when we learned more about user needs, we could swap components without rebuilding from scratch.

The Hidden Cost of "Dirty"

Here's the thing about "dirty" solutions: they're actually slow in disguise.

That quick hack to get the feature out? Someone's going to spend 3x longer fixing it later. Those design shortcuts? They'll create confusion that generates support tickets for months. That temporary workaround? It'll become so embedded that replacing it becomes a project of its own.

Knowing when something delivers enough value to ship is a skill. Similarly, building something quickly and cleanly comes from experience and discipline, not from throwing quality out the window.

The next time someone asks for "quick and dirty," try this: "What if we could do quick and clear instead?"

Then:

• Get to the core need behind the request

• Define the smallest scope that actually solves it

• Build that one thing properly

• Ship it, learn from it, and iterate

You'll be surprised how often this approach is faster than going "dirty" would have been, and without the cleanup headaches afterward.

Why Smart Scoping Beats the Triangle

The triple constraint isn't about picking which corner to sacrifice. It's about shrinking the entire triangle through smart scoping. You can have speed, quality, and cost control all at once when you're crystal clear about what matters.

Because what slows you down isn't taking the time to do things right. It's undoing the mess you didn't need to make in the first place. Quick and clear wins every time.

👋 And that’s a wrap folks. Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it or share your referral link with someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

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Early in my career, I thought good enough was just a euphemism for cutting corners. If you weren't chasing the perfect design, the cleanest code, the most seamless experience—what were you even doing? I'd sit in meetings where we'd agonize over the tiniest details, believing we were upholding quality.

After years of failed attempts, including my own startup missteps, I came to a realization—perfection was keeping me stuck. I had spent too much time chasing flawless execution while customers were left struggling with broken, inefficient workarounds.

One release in particular made this clear. We had built a feature that streamlined a critical workflow for our users. But instead of shipping it, we debated whether it needed additional configuration options before launch—despite knowing that users already struggled with an inefficient process. Weeks passed, and while we chased the "right" answer, customers were still dealing with a frustratingly broken process.

That was the moment it clicked. Perfection wasn't the goal. Better was.

Product work is about making meaningful progress, not crafting a masterpiece. The key is recognizing when something is good enough to deliver value without getting trapped in endless refinement.

Why "Good Enough" Feels Wrong—But Is Often Right

The pushback against good enough is understandable. Designers want things to feel intentional. Engineers want the codebase to be clean. And PMs—especially newer ones—worry that anything less than polished is a failure.

But customers don't live in our Figma files. They don't see the 10 rejected design variations. They don't care that the API could be a little more elegant. They care about one thing: does this help them do their job better?

The shift happens when you stop measuring against an imagined perfect version and instead compare against reality:

• What do customers have today? If they have nothing, shipping something is already a win.

• How painful is their workaround? The more annoying or broken their current solution, the faster we should get them relief.

• Is this meaningfully better? Not perfect, just better.

This mindset has saved me and my teams countless hours, allowing us to focus on delivering solutions that actually help customers instead of obsessing over minor refinements.

How to Decide When to Ship

Here's how I make the call in practice:

1. If it solves the core problem, ship it.

The best way to tell if something is ready is to put it in front of real users. They'll tell you what's missing way faster than an internal debate ever will.

🚀 Example: On a recent project, we debated whether to delay launching a new reporting dashboard until filtering was available. Instead, we shipped without filters, and users told us exactly which ones they needed most. Instead of guessing, we built what actually mattered.

2. Prioritize what users will actually notice.

Some improvements seem important internally but don't make a real difference for customers. If users won't notice or care, it's not worth delaying a release.

🚀 Example: A team I worked with delayed a mobile app update because the loading state animation wasn't polished. When they finally shipped it, users didn't even mention the animation—because they cared about the feature, not the visual flair.

3. Set a deadline to prevent endless tweaks.

Leaving work open-ended creates a false sense that just a little more time will make things perfect. It won't. A deadline forces focus on what actually matters.

🚀 Example: During my digital agency days, a startup we worked with kept pushing back a pricing page redesign because leadership wanted it to "feel right." They set a hard deadline, focused on the most impactful changes, and launched. Conversions went up, proving that the endless tweaks weren't needed.

4. Remember: You can always improve later.

A release isn't the finish line—it's the starting point. The sooner it's live, the sooner you can gather insights and make it better.

🚀 Example: At Railz, we debated whether Step 2 should be before or after Step 3 in a sign-up flow. Instead of delaying, we picked one, launched it, and adjusted it based on drop-off data. Instead of guessing, we had real answers in weeks.

Final Thought: Good Enough is a Skill, Not a Cop-Out

Knowing when something is 'good enough' isn't about lowering standards—it's about making smart tradeoffs. Progress beats perfection when real customer impact is at stake.

At the end of the day, shipping something valuable beats waiting for perfection.

Takeaways You Can Use Today:

✅ When deciding whether to ship, compare against the current reality, not an idealized future version.

✅ If it solves the core user problem, ship it—you can refine it later.

✅ Set deadlines to prevent endless tweaking.

✅ Focus on what customers will actually notice.

✅ Treat launches as the start, not the finish line.

👋 And that’s a wrap folks. Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it or share your referral link with someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

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A Note Before We Dive In

I took a break from the newsletter over the holidays. Life has been busy—both at work and personally. It hasn't left much space to read and digest a lot of articles or sit down to write. Recognizing the signs of early burnout, I decided to pause the newsletter for a bit. While that break is over, my schedule remains packed, which means my publishing cadence—including the Sunday Weekly Roundups—might still be inconsistent.

That break also allowed me to reflect on the content I want to create going forward. It's not about writing just to publish or generating filler. I want to ensure that what I share provides the same value and thoughtfulness as before. Quality will always matter more than quantity.

With more energy and clarity now, I'm excited to share some thoughts that have been on my mind. Let's get into it.

PS: A shorter version of this was shared on LinkedIn recently, but I wanted to expand on those thoughts here.

Scrolling through LinkedIn these days, it feels like everything is on the chopping block. "Product management is dead." "SaaS is dead." You name it; someone has declared it obsolete. Then there's the endless stream of posts telling you you're doing product management wrong unless you're following this framework, listening to that thought leader, or memorizing insights from those books.

It's a lot. And frankly, it can make you feel like you're always behind. And with AI dominating the conversation, it's easy to feel like everything we know about building products is suddenly outdated.

But here's the thing: the best product managers I've met? They're not glued to LinkedIn or subscribing to every newsletter. They're not memorizing frameworks or quoting the latest books. They're out there building. They're solving real problems, working with their teams, and making their products just a little better every day.

The Noise vs. The Work

Let's be clear—I'm not saying thought leadership or frameworks are useless. They have their place. They can spark ideas, offer guidance, and challenge your thinking. But they don't teach you the messy, unscripted side of product management—the part where you're navigating tough conversations with stakeholders or making trade-offs that don't fit neatly into a playbook.

The reality is, no amount of content can fully prepare you for the human side of the job. It's about showing up. Building trust. Saying no in a way that doesn't crush morale. These aren't skills you learn from a book; they're honed through experience.

The Best PMs Focus on the Humans

The best product managers I know aren't preoccupied with keeping up with every trend. They focus on the fundamentals:

• Their teams: Creating an environment where builders can do their best work.

• Their users: Staying curious about real-world problems and prioritizing solutions that make a difference.

• The work itself: Constantly asking, "What's the next best thing we can do?"

They don't ignore new ideas, but they're selective. They're not chasing every shiny object or rigidly applying frameworks where they don't fit. Instead, they're grounded in the people and problems that matter most.

How to Cut Through the Noise

If all the content and advice out there feels overwhelming, here's a reminder: you don't have to consume it all. Start by tuning out what's not immediately relevant. Then, focus on what drives impact in your role:

1. Prioritize people: Whether it's your team or your users, make humans the center of your decision-making.

2. Be selective with content: Treat books, frameworks, and trends as inspiration—not gospel. Use them to complement your work, not dictate it.

3. Focus on progress, not perfection: The best PMs aren't perfect; they're pragmatic. They aim to make things better, one decision at a time.

The Heart of Product Management

At its core, product management isn't about frameworks, hype, or the latest trend. It's about showing up for the humans who build, use, and lead. It's about solving real problems, building trust, and doing the work that matters. Everything else? It's just noise.

👋 And that’s a wrap folks. Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it or share your referral link with someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

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Happy Sunday everyone!

This is the last Weekly Roundup for this year before taking some time during the holidays. I will be back in your inbox in January.

I picked up writing on my pat leave last year to keep my mind engaged in something other than diaper changes. It started with LinkedIn posts, but then, in April, The Product Trench was born. I had no idea what to write about or any plans for this newsletter. Around that time, I had replaced my zombie scrolling on social media with consuming tons of content related to product and leadership.

Over time, I found it overwhelming to read all of the content in my inbox. For someone with OCD who can't go to sleep unless my inbox is zero, it was not fun 😂. That's when I published the first Weekly Roundup (or what was known as the Weekly Recap) edition, and boy, has it evolved since then! Some people now look forward to that Sunday morning email!

Writing The Product Trench has helped me articulate my thoughts better, both at home and at work. I've met (virtually) some awesome people who share similar passions and are either far advanced and ahead on their content creation path or just starting up like me. I would like to take the opportunity to thank some of them today: , , , , , , and Frederico Ferreira (couldn’t find you on substack dude).

The Product Trench is not a side hustle, nor is it my aspiration to become a full-time content creator. My goal is to create value with the hope that sharing my thoughts will help other product managers in the community as my way to pay it forward. So, thank you for tuning in this year. Please pass it along to other folks who could also see this value.

With that said, let's dive into some of The Product Trench highlights in 2024.

Some proud moments this year:

• My goal was to reach 100 subscribers by the end of the year. At the time of writing this post, I am a handful of subscribers away from hitting 300. What I am most proud of is that I maintained an open rate of 39-51%.

• I was an early guest on Aakash's Product Growth podcast. We covered how PMs can leverage AI for their work. Will AI eliminate Product Management as a role in the future? And our take on Product Management in the Era of AI. Make sure to check out the episode and other ones here.

• I wrote a guest post for Amy Mitchell's Product Management IRL about the unique challenges of FinTech product management. I discussed why building in FinTech is a different game, from regulatory hurdles to trust-building metrics.

• I had a few LinkedIn posts that inadvertently went "viral."

  • The IC itch as a leader

  • Analysis paralysis in product discoveries

  • Product management is not dead; it's growing again.

Most Popular Posts in 2024

1. Navigating the Product Hiring Landscape: joined me for a written interview to unpack the PM hiring landscape. We discussed trends, challenges, and strategies for product leaders and job seekers in a shifting market.

2. Why Shipping Features Isn't Enough: In the age of major debates about whether people are doing real product management or, as others would call it, BS management, I dive into how to stop building for the sake of it and start solving what really matters by getting out of the feature factory trap.

3. Product Owner Is Not a Job Title: In this spicy hot take, I discuss why a PO is not a job title, how to stop adding layers to a process that's already complex enough, and how to focus on what really matters—delivering value to customers.

4. Why You Probably Shouldn't Become a Product Manager: In my last hot take for 2024, I discussed how product management is often glorified as the ultimate career for those who want to break into tech or change careers. But after years in the trenches, I've come to realize that PM isn't for everyone—and honestly, it might be a nightmare for most.

5. Customer Feature Requests Are Not Your To-Do List: In my last post for 2024, I discussed customer feedback and feature requests. While they may seem like gold, they can turn your roadmap into a cluttered mess. I explained how you decide which ideas are game-changers and which are just noise. Learn how to balance customer demands with your product vision, focusing on the features that truly matter.

Thank You 🙏

Again, I want to thank each of you for your support in 2024. It has been a great experience so far. My inbox is always open to hearing your feedback or any requests you have for 2025.

Happy holidays, and I wish you a happy new year. 🥳🎄

See you in January.

👋 That's it for this week's edition. Thank you for reading, and enjoy your week.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it to someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

The Product Trench is a free newsletter. I may consider some type of paid tier down the line. Until then, if you find my work valuable, you can buy me a coffee.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

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The first time I opened our "feature requests" backlog, it felt like peeking into a junk drawer. There was everything from "add a dark mode" to "custom renaming of API parameters on the fly"—a request that screamed, "We don't want to update our code, so please do it for us." At first glance, it seemed like a goldmine of ideas, but it didn't take long to realize it was also a minefield. The volume and variety were overwhelming, and it became clear that not every suggestion was a path worth following.

Feature requests come at you from every direction—customers, sales teams, even your boss's cousin's neighbour with an idea they're sure will be a game-changer. Some are great, others less so. But treating every request as a promise is a fast track to feature factory territory: building endlessly with no clear direction. Prioritize everything, and you end up prioritizing nothing, leaving your product bloated and unfocused.

Feedback: Signal or Noise?

Feature requests aren't just a to-do list; they're a roadmap of what people think your product should be. That duality is both valuable and risky. On one hand, they can highlight genuine gaps or shifts in the market. On the other, not all feedback is created equal. Distinguishing between actionable insights and distracting noise is key—sometimes, what glitters isn't gold.

Here's a simple way to filter requests effectively:

• Who's asking? Is this feedback coming from your core persona, or is it an edge case? For example, a top-tier customer asking for a reporting tool may represent broader business needs, whereas an occasional user's niche request might have limited applicability.

• What's the real problem? The request ("I need X feature") is often a symptom, not the actual issue. For instance, a request for a "dashboard export" might reveal a deeper need for better on-screen data visualization. Understanding the underlying challenge ensures you're solving the right problem, not just slapping a band-aid on the surface.

• What's the workaround? If customers are already finding creative solutions, it might signal the problem isn't as urgent as it seems. For example, if users manually compile data in spreadsheets, it's an opportunity to refine your export feature, but perhaps not a priority compared to other gaps.

Turning Chaos into Clarity

To avoid drowning in requests, you need to organize feedback effectively and establish a process for triaging. Tagging, categorizing, or theme-spotting isn't just busywork—it transforms your backlog from a dumping ground into a treasure map, pointing to areas where focus can deliver the most impact.

Step 1: Collect & Organize

• Gather feedback from all channels—support tickets, sales calls, social media, and emails.

• Categorize requests using clear tags or themes. Tools like Notion, Linear, or even a basic spreadsheet can help.

• Example: Your sales team flags recurring complaints about limited reporting options. By tagging these as "reporting," you start seeing a trend across multiple sources.

Step 2: Identify Patterns

• Look for recurring problems across customers. Common issues often point to the most impactful opportunities.

• Don't just treat the symptom (a feature request); dig for the root cause.

• Example: If several customers ask for "custom dashboards," it may reflect a broader need for flexible data visualization tools, not just the requested layout.

Step 3: Validate Problems

• Talk to users. Ask why they need it and challenge assumptions. For instance, a request for "multiple shopping carts" might really reflect a need for "save-for-later" functionality or improved user roles.

Organizing requests helps you spot trends, while triage ensures you can methodically decide what to prioritize. This dual approach is the key to turning chaos into actionable insights.

The Art of Saying No

The hardest part is deciding when to act. Sure, your customers want it. But does it actually move the needle for your product? Ask yourself:

• Does it align with your current goals?

• Is it a distraction from higher-impact priorities?

• Is there a solution that solves the core problem but fits better into the roadmap?

Saying no is an art. Imagine prioritizing a roadmap feature designed to improve user retention, but a customer asks for a niche functionality that solves a unique problem. A polite "not now," paired with clear reasoning like, "Thanks for sharing this. Right now, we're focused on X, but we'll keep this in mind as priorities evolve," can help. Communicating effectively ensures customers feel heard, even when the outcome isn't what they hoped for.

Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do. Keeping your focus sharp is what separates successful products from mediocre ones. Every feature added means less focus on something else—and that's a trade-off worth considering carefully. Remember, not all opportunities are opportunities for you.

Exceptions Are (Occasionally) Necessary

Every rule has an exception. Maybe it's compliance-driven (hello, FinTech friends). Maybe it's for your biggest client, and losing them would be catastrophic. These exceptions should be rare, intentional, and well-communicated.

When making an exception, be transparent:

• Know the Why: Explain why this exception is being made. Is it to meet regulatory requirements or maintain a key partnership?

• Highlight Trade-offs: Clearly communicate what's being deprioritized as a result. For instance, building a niche feature for one whale client might mean delaying a high-impact feature for the broader audience.

• Quantify the ROI: Frame the exception as a strategic choice, not a reactive one. If the benefits outweigh the costs, it's worth pursuing—but only if it doesn't become a pattern.

Exceptions are sometimes necessary, but if they become the norm, they risk derailing your vision and burning out your team. Use them sparingly and always with clarity around the consequences.

Closing the Feedback Loop

The unsung hero of managing feature requests is communication. Internally, your team needs to understand why you're prioritizing or passing on a request and how those choices align with broader goals. Externally, customers deserve acknowledgment. For example: "We love this idea, but right now, we're focused on X. Let's revisit this later." Acknowledging feedback, even when you can't act on it, builds trust and stronger relationships.

Transparency also extends to showing your process. Public roadmaps can help communicate focus areas without overcommitting. They're especially useful for showing customers where their requests fit (or don't) in your plans. To balance transparency with flexibility, focus on sharing themes or priorities rather than specific timelines or features. This approach sets expectations while leaving room to adapt to changing needs. Just be sure these roadmaps are realistic; overpromising is worse than saying nothing at all.

Internally, emphasize alignment. Teams need clarity on the trade-offs being made and how decisions connect to the overall strategy. This helps ensure everyone works toward shared objectives and understands the downstream effects of prioritization choices.

The ultimate goal of communication is alignment—ensuring your team knows the "why" behind your decisions and your customers feel valued, even when their specific requests don't make the cut.

Final Takeaways

Feature requests are feedback—clues about what your users need—not orders to fulfill. To make the most of them:

• Dig deeper to uncover the root problem behind each request.

• Build a structured process to collect, validate, and prioritize ideas without losing sight of your goals.

• Be transparent about exceptions; make them rare and intentional.

• Use your roadmap to communicate your priorities and show stakeholders that their input matters, even if it doesn't lead to immediate action.

Ultimately, success isn't about shipping every feature. It's about delivering meaningful solutions that solve the right problems for the right people. By staying true to your product vision and embracing focus, you ensure every decision drives a lasting impact. The path to a great product lies in saying no as much as in saying yes.

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This is the last post of 2024 before taking a writing break for the holidays. Thank you for all of your support this year and I’ll be back in your inboxes in January!

👋 And that’s a wrap folks. Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it or share your referral link with someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

The Product Trench is a free newsletter. I may consider some type of paid tier down the line. Until then, if you find my work valuable, you can buy me a coffee.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

Was this forwarded to you? Join The Product Trench 👇

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Happy Sunday everyone! 😎

Can you believe we’re already counting down the final days of 2024? I, for one, am excited for the holidays and to take some time off.

This is the second-to-last Weekly Roundup before taking a writing break for the holidays. After next week’s edition, the Weekly Roundup will return to your inbox on January 12, 2025.

With that said, let’s dive in.

This Week's Roundup 🔁

1. Surviving 2025 as a Product Manager — or anyone in tech, really.

2. 5 + 1 predictions for venture studios in 2025.

3. Partnerships for product managers.

4. The best growth advice of 2024.

5. Three proven strategies to monetize AI features in SaaS.

6. Finding your ideal customer profile in B2B: Interview questions & guide.

7. How to implement product principles so you stop struggling with decisions.

8. Founder-style leadership.

9. Pricing roadmap: How to be strategic instead of reactive.

Surviving 2025 as a Product Manager — or anyone in tech, really (5 min read)

Adapting to a challenging tech landscape requires a blend of business acumen, versatility, AI proficiency, and strong relationships. Prioritize understanding your organization's commercial goals and focus on delivering impact with fewer resources. Embrace a "full-stack" mindset—developing skills beyond your core role increases your value. Experiment with AI tools to stay competitive and understand their real-world applications. Build genuine connections by networking or organizing events to expand opportunities. Finally, prepare for setbacks by diversifying your interests and nurturing resilience.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Build adaptability by expanding your skillset, integrating AI into your workflows, and prioritizing meaningful relationships to navigate the evolving tech landscape.

5 + 1 predictions for venture studios in 2025 (6 min read)

The venture studio landscape is expanding, with more vertical, geographic, and corporate-specific studios emerging. Specialization and solving "boring problems" will be key to scalability and differentiation. Venture capitalists are warming to the model but remain wary of cap table equity issues, even as some launch their own studios. Modest capital inflows will support the industry, though confusion about its definition limits investor confidence. Operational costs make sustainability tough, leading to more failures. Performance data remains murky, complicating validation of the model. Transparency in deal terms and cap tables is critical for building trust and competing effectively.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Build a clear value proposition with a niche focus, prioritize transparency in your equity structures, and address operational sustainability to navigate the evolving venture studio space.

Partnerships for product managers (6 min read)

Partnerships are essential for delivering integrated solutions, driving innovation, and expanding into new markets. Product managers are crucial to moving partnerships from announcements to operational success by managing risks, aligning goals, and fostering collaboration. Developing a partnership playbook helps document strategy, manage risks, and lay the groundwork for scalability. Clear roles, shared goals, and strong cross-functional collaboration ensure partnerships deliver value, not just promises. Effective management of partnerships can transform them into true win-win outcomes that keep products competitive and innovative.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Build a partnership playbook to align teams, mitigate risks, and consistently deliver measurable outcomes for long-term success.

The best growth advice of 2024 (6 min read)

This article shares 24 proven growth tactics used by leading companies like Canva, Calendly, and Clay, covering strategies from finding product-market fit (PMF) to embracing automation. Key takeaways include running long-term retention sprints, leveraging white-glove onboarding for deep customer insights, disrupting existing categories instead of creating new ones, and focusing on account-based growth strategies like intimate events and unified GTM metrics. For monetization, tactics such as reverse trials, charging based on work units, and automatic fee increases showed impactful results. Efficiency and automation hacks include combating fake accounts, simplifying user onboarding, and revamping email and cancellation flows for better engagement and retention.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Implement growth strategies tailored to your stage, such as validating PMF through waitlists, improving lead qualification processes, or optimizing pricing models to align with customer value. Use automation to reduce operational overhead and focus resources on scalable wins.

Three proven strategies to monetize AI features in SaaS (6 min read)

AI in SaaS is rapidly evolving, with three monetization strategies emerging: embedding AI into existing pricing tiers (core, differentiating, or premium features), leveraging usage-based pricing (consumption or outcome-driven models), and add-ons (seat-based or hybrid). While content tools are the most monetized use case, AI is expanding into data analysis, customer support, development, and security. Monetization lags behind adoption due to complexities in billing systems, but usage-based and add-on pricing are closing the gap. The SaaS landscape is moving toward broader AI applications beyond content generation.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Align pricing strategies with the value AI features deliver. Test hybrid or add-on models for flexibility while iterating on billing systems to support emerging trends like outcome-based pricing.

Finding your ideal customer profile in B2B: Interview questions & guide (7 min read)

Defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) goes beyond firmographics; it's about understanding what truly motivates and challenges your buyers. Use structured interviews to dig deeper into five key areas:

• Learning Patterns: Where they gather industry insights.

• Industry Context: Broad challenges and objections.

• Roles in the Organization: Their responsibilities and influence in decision-making.

• Goals and Challenges: Their objectives and barriers.

• Decision-making Process: How products are discovered, evaluated, and purchased. The goal isn't just collecting data but uncovering real stories that reveal use cases, emotional triggers, and motivations. This framework helps focus your efforts on what truly matters to your most valuable customers.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Conduct buyer interviews to uncover specific use cases and emotional drivers behind customer behaviour. Focus on what your customers truly care about to sharpen your product, growth, and sales strategies.

How to implement product principles so you stop struggling with decisions (5 min read)

Decision-making is a major hurdle in product development, and product principles simplify this process by aligning teams and enabling faster progress. Craft principles tailored to your context by defining customer priorities, experience goals, boundaries, and quality standards. Collaborate with teams and leadership to ensure relevance and adoption. Review principles every three months for impact and usability. Categorizing principles into layers such as strategy, discovery, delivery, and collaboration makes them more actionable and applicable in daily work.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Collaborate with leadership and teams to craft context-specific product principles. Regularly review and adapt them to simplify decision-making and foster team alignment for smoother product development.

Founder-style leadership (9 min read)

Founder-style leadership, driven by deep product sense and strong coaching skills, is crucial for empowering teams at startups and scaling organizations. It prioritizes hands-on customer engagement, iterative learning, and mentoring to build product expertise and team autonomy. Unlike professional management, which often lacks product intuition, this approach fosters innovation and sustainable growth by ensuring leaders actively guide teams with context and strategy.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Develop product sense through direct user engagement and team collaboration. Hone coaching skills to empower teams with the context and support they need to thrive.

Pricing roadmap: How to be strategic instead of reactive (4 min read)

Smaller companies often neglect pricing strategy due to time constraints, limited expertise, and lack of ownership. However, pricing is a critical revenue lever that must evolve with new features, competitive changes, inflation, and bundling opportunities. A roadmap prevents dramatic price hikes that alienate customers and aligns pricing with product roadmaps. Tom Buiocchi's framework outlines categories like new products, bundling, and portfolio reviews to maintain proactive planning and avoid fragmented, reactive decisions that hurt profitability and trust.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Develop a pricing roadmap with clear ownership and input from all teams. Regular updates will help capture value, counter costs, and keep customers engaged while outpacing competitors.

👋 That's it for this week's edition. Thank you for reading, and enjoy your week.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it to someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

The Product Trench is a free newsletter. I may consider some type of paid tier down the line. Until then, if you find my work valuable, you can buy me a coffee.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

Was this forwarded to you? You can join by clicking below.

Subscribe now

Alright, here's something I haven't said aloud since that time in college when I convinced myself I could learn guitar in a week: you might be chasing the wrong dream. And in this case, that dream is becoming a Product Manager. Yeah, I said it—the job everyone romanticizes as the "mini CEO" role isn't all that it's cracked up to be. In fact, it might just be a terrible fit for most people.

Let me back up for a second. I didn't choose product management. Product management chose me—or more accurately, my boss "chose" me after realizing I was spectacularly mediocre as an engineer.

Picture this: Me, a junior developer whose code was a less elegant solution and more controlled disaster. I was the guy who'd spend three days fixing a bug that should've taken three hours, and my pull requests looked like a crime scene—comments everywhere, spaghetti logic, and more dependencies than a soap opera character.

My technical skills were so legendarily bad that my team lead looked at me one day and said, "You know what? You'd make a great product manager."

And just like that, I was promoted from "guy who turns simple features into complex nightmares" to "guy who talks about why product management might be a nightmare for some".

The Tough Realities of Product Management

First, let's talk about what makes PM'ing tough. The skillset is a weird mix. You need strategic thinking sharp enough to cut through the organizational fog, adaptability that would make a chameleon look rigid, and empathy by the truckload: for your team, your users, and that stakeholder who thinks your feature priorities are garbage. On top of that, high agency is crucial—being proactive, taking ownership, and driving outcomes without waiting for instructions.

Not everyone's wired for constant context-switching, hard conversations, and solving puzzles with blurry edges, and that's okay. But if you don't love shifting gears a hundred times a day, engaging in ambiguity, and being the one to make things happen, you might find yourself overwhelmed by this role.

Product management is also about embracing discomfort. You're not the CEO, and often, you won't even be the visionary behind the ideas you're working on. You need to be okay with executing someone else's vision—especially if it's the right decision for the company, even if it isn't your own brilliant idea.

Even on the most empowered teams, your work as a PM often involves executing someone else's vision. You might finesse the tactics, but the direction usually comes from above. It's more about shipping features than setting the long-term goals & strategy. Despite what you might read from thought leaders on LinkedIn or even in Marty Cagan's book—which I genuinely admire—there is a real gap between the idealized version of product management and the day-to-day grind most of us experience.

It's not about mastering frameworks or canvases. It's about something far more nuanced. Product management is essentially professional translation—but not between languages. You're translating:

• Customer pain into product solutions.

• Business objectives into actionable strategies.

• Technical constraints into human possibilities.

And that's just scratching the surface. It's about not just knowing what needs to be done, but stepping up and taking ownership to get it done, even if it's inconvenient or beyond the job description. The truth is, PMs must be comfortable with the messiness of being in the middle of it all, and they must bring humanity into their work—empathy, judgment, and leadership in the face of uncertainty.

This is all part of the harsh realities and the nuanced skills that make product management what it really is. As PMs, our superpowers are leading without authority and transforming uncertainty into direction while being the connective tissue for the team.

A Slow Burn: Measuring Impact as a Product Manager

Measuring your impact is hard. Sometimes even impossible to quantify in the short term. Imagine spending a quarter polishing an onboarding experience, only to see the metrics barely move. It might take months, maybe even years, to see if what you did made a difference. And during that time, the company will gravitate toward the flashy wins—the new features, the high-profile launches. You're like the drummer in a band, keeping the beat while everyone's cheering for the guitarist's solo. With all the focus on flashy wins, it can be challenging for a PM to see the fruits of their labour in the short run. If you need immediate validation to stay motivated, PM'ing might not give you the high you're hoping for.

The AI Challenge: Staying Human in the Age of Automation

And just as if the job weren't already demanding enough, there's now a new player at the table: AI.

Junior PMs are now facing a new kind of challenge where entry-level tasks are being automated faster than they can even learn them. Writing requirements, managing mundane tasks, prioritizing simple backlogs—these are now increasingly being handled by AI tools.

The low-hanging fruit is disappearing. To break into PM today, you've got to stand out by being truly human. It's not about memorizing frameworks or relying on tools; it's about demonstrating deep human understanding, empathy, and judgment. AI can help with certain tasks but can't navigate team dynamics, manage interpersonal conflicts, or deliver tough news to a CEO about their pet project. The skills that make a great PM are evolving, and it's becoming more about how effectively you can bring humanity into tech.

The Illusion of Frameworks & Canvases

And just like AI tools, templates, frameworks, and canvases can give you a false sense of security. They're useful, but they don't replace real experience. A lot of folks starting out think, "I'll just grab the Business Model Canvas or the Product Strategy Canvas, fill in the blanks, and presto—I've got a strategy!" But let me tell you, those canvases are just tools. They don't create a strategy; they simply provide a structure for it. The real work is in understanding the subtleties that lie beneath the surface.

It's the difference between following a recipe and understanding how to make adjustments based on the ingredients you have on hand. The canvas won't tell you when a stakeholder is being unrealistic, or how to deal with the tension between user needs and business constraints. That comes from experience—the kind where you burn a lot of rice before you finally learn how to make the perfect risotto.

Should You Still Be a Product Manager?

I'm not here to gatekeep. If navigating complexity, connecting dots others miss, and finding solutions in ambiguity sound exciting—go for it.

Product management is a journey of continual growth. There are many challenges, but for those who thrive in the middle of chaos and love solving problems that others shy away from, the rewards are unmatched. It's not about the title—it's about the impact you create, one decision at a time. Product management isn't just a job; it's about approaching challenges with curiosity, finding practical solutions to constraints, and understanding that success often looks different than expected.

👋 And that’s a wrap folks. Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it or share your referral link with someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

The Product Trench is a free newsletter. I may consider some type of paid tier down the line. Until then, if you find my work valuable, you can buy me a coffee.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

Was this forwarded to you? Join The Product Trench 👇

Subscribe now

Happy Sunday everyone! 😎

First, let me apologize again for skipping the last Weekly Roundup. I was fighting a bad cold (at least I think it was) and had to prioritize my health and family.

I also wanted to take a moment to express how thankful I am for each and every one of you. Your support, your feedback, and your engagement make this journey so meaningful.

With Thanksgiving, it was a calm-ish content week, but I still managed to find a few good nuggets for ya. So, let’s dig in.

This Week's Roundup 🔁

1. How to build your product sense: The trait that sets leaders apart.

2. Data-informed, not data-driven.

3. Outcomes over output.

4. 5 steps to select your go-to-market motion.

5. The Product Manager career path is not a straight line.

6. Generative AI UX — Developing innovative use cases for the enterprise.

How to build your product sense: The trait that sets leaders apart (4 min read)

Product sense is the most critical skill for PMs, enabling them to reframe problems, spot opportunities, and lead strategically. Unlike technical skills, it requires active learning through exposure, feedback, and regular practice. Improve product sense by joining diverse product reviews, decoding leader feedback, reverse-engineering successful features, and practicing decision-making with varied audiences. Mentorship can accelerate growth, but daily application is essential to sustain progress.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Build a system for consistent practice. Engage with other PMs, seek diverse feedback, and reflect regularly to develop the leadership-defining skill of product sense.

Data-informed, not data-driven (6 min read)

Being data-driven can lead to biased decisions disguised as objectivity. Biases like selection, confirmation, and recency creep into data collection and interpretation, making data a rationalization tool rather than a guide. Instead, embrace a data-informed approach: use data to augment decisions, not dictate them. Key strategies to reduce bias include:

• Cross-functional collaboration.

• Focusing on falsification over validation.

• Gathering multiple data points.

• Reflecting on past decisions.

• Becoming bias-aware.

AI tools can assist but aren’t substitutes for critical thinking or strategic judgment, especially given data variability like small sample sizes or regional disparities.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Balance data insights with human judgment by challenging ideas through falsification and layering qualitative insights. Use AI cautiously, recognizing its limitations in nuanced decision-making.

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Outcomes over output (6 min read)

Prioritizing outcomes over outputs ensures teams focus on delivering customer value rather than completing tasks for activity’s sake. Many teams fall into output-driven thinking due to insecurity and a lack of experimentation, which leads to reliance on correlation over causation. High-velocity experimentation, paired with a North Star Metric (NSM), helps uncover what truly drives impact. Frameworks like ICE scoring (Impact, Confidence, Ease) enable teams to allocate resources effectively. Growth teams bridge silos across product, marketing, and operations, ensuring alignment around impactful goals.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Overcome output-driven traps by embedding experimentation into workflows, aligning your team on a clear NSM, and prioritizing initiatives with high ICE scores to drive meaningful results.

5 steps to select your go-to-market motion (7 min read)

GTM motions are established playbooks to efficiently deliver products to customers, such as inbound content, outbound outreach, paid media, community engagement, partnerships, account-based marketing, or product-led growth. Smaller companies should focus on 1-3 motions before scaling. Selection involves five steps: engaging customers, analyzing competitors, leveraging strengths, narrowing choices, and committing for 1-3 months. Tools like the traffic light system evaluate costs and time-to-value for motions. Persistence and iteration are key to building traction and trust with customers.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Identify 2-3 GTM motions based on customer behaviour and your strengths. Use a structured evaluation and commit to them for a quarter to refine and gain traction.

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The Product Manager career path is not a straight line (5 min read)

The Product Manager career path is unique, flexible, and rarely linear. Entry routes range from traditional roles like engineering or marketing to modern PM certifications and internal transitions. Career growth offers managerial or specialized IC tracks, and success relies on skills like customer empathy, strategic thinking, and adaptability. Global remote work and emerging senior roles, including C-suite positions, reflect the industry’s evolution. PMs must embrace diverse opportunities, leveraging transferable skills and redefining their paths as they go.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Forge your own PM path by developing foundational skills and building on your existing experience. Embrace unconventional opportunities and aim for growth aligned with your strengths and ambitions.

Generative AI UX — Developing innovative use cases for the enterprise (11 min read)

Creating innovative enterprise Gen AI experiences requires balancing user needs, business goals, and the unique challenges of trust, control, and agency. Teams need to adapt their product development processes by using frameworks that emphasize authoritative data, cross-functional collaboration, and context-specific insights. This approach ensures Gen AI adds meaningful value while aligning with organizational goals and managing risks effectively.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Leverage frameworks that prioritize trustworthy data, collaborative input, and tailored insights to design Gen AI tools that address enterprise challenges and align with organizational objectives.

👋 That's it for this week's edition. Thank you for reading, and enjoy your week.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it to someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

The Product Trench is a free newsletter. I may consider some type of paid tier down the line. Until then, if you find my work valuable, you can buy me a coffee.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

Was this forwarded to you? You can join by clicking below.

Subscribe now

Read time: 6 minutes

If you're a product manager, the word "roadmap" might make you feel a bit queasy. There's this persistent, almost romantic idea that product roadmaps should be stable, linear paths guiding us to success, but what we end up with often looks more like a winding rollercoaster with surprise twists from market changes, CEO whims, and customer demands. Yet, somehow, as PMs, we keep hoping for calm seas in a business world that's practically a hurricane every other week.

Look, I get it. I've been there, religiously following every piece of advice from Marty Cagan's "Inspired", devouring every product newsletter on Substack, and meticulously crafting those beautiful roadmap views in Productboard or Notion. We've all done it. The PM world has sold us this dream of perfect quarterly plans and neat execution frameworks. It's like trying to build a sandcastle during a tidal wave.

When frameworks fail

I used to be a framework junkie. RICE scoring? Check. Opportunity solution trees? You bet. Value vs. Complexity quadrants? Had them plastered on my wall. Then, I joined a hypergrowth startup where our biggest competitor would ship major features every other week. Suddenly, all those frameworks felt like bringing a protractor to a street fight.

Don't get me wrong - frameworks are useful thinking tools. But somewhere along the way, we started treating them like gospel. It's the product management equivalent of thinking following a workout plan perfectly matters more than actually getting stronger.

The brutal truth about market changes

Here's a fun story: In my last startup, our team spent a few weeks meticulously planning a major platform upgrade. The roadmap was perfect, stakeholders aligned, and everything groomed and ready. Then, our biggest competitor launched a game-changing feature, our partners changed their developer API terms & conditions, and our top customer threatened to leave over a performance issue.

Just another Tuesday in tech, right?

The reality is, market speed has fundamentally changed. Your competitors aren't waiting for your quarterly planning cycle. Customers aren't organizing their needs around your sprint schedule. And that shiny new technology you're planning to adopt? It'll probably be outdated by the time your long-term roadmap "completes."

Finding balance: The six-week cycle

After years of quarterly planning PTSD, I realized I needed a different approach—something more adaptable and realistic. That's when I stumbled onto something that actually works: six-week cycles, inspired by Basecamp's Shape Up method and adapted to fit our needs. Not sprints, not quarters - cycles. Here's why:

• Long enough to build something meaningful

• Short enough to change course without massive waste

• Natural breakpoints for reflection and adjustment

• Maps well to human energy levels (try staying excited about the same initiative for 3 months)

But here's what makes it really work: continuous strategy. Each cycle isn't just about delivery - it's a chance to reassess, realign, and readjust based on what's actually happening in your market. Think of it as strategic planning in perpetual motion.

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Recharge with a cooldown week

The secret sauce? Week six is a cooldown week. Not a planning week, not a catch-up week - a cooldown week.

The main benefit? It gives everyone time to recharge and invest in future growth, which ultimately boosts productivity in the long run.

During this time:

• Engineers can tackle that technical debt they've been eyeing

• PMs can do deep discovery work without delivery pressure

• Designers can explore new patterns and ideas

It's a deliberate break to recharge and refocus every six weeks, ensuring teams stay fresh and motivated. And surprisingly, it makes the other five weeks way more productive.

Trust over roadmaps

Here's the real kicker - our obsession with detailed long-term roadmaps often masks a trust problem. When executives demand to see the next 12 months mapped out, they're usually saying, "Prove to me you know what you're doing." When PMs resist changing plans, we're often saying, "Trust that we did our homework."

I learned this the hard way at my last company. Instead of fighting for roadmap stability, I started spending more time building trust through small wins and transparent communication. By consistently delivering small, valuable increments and being open about our process, we replaced the need for detailed roadmaps. The funny thing? Once trust was established, nobody cared much about long-term roadmaps anymore.

Rethinking success

The mindset shift that changed everything for me was moving from "What can we finish?" to "What do we care about finishing?"

It sounds subtle, but it changes everything:

• Instead of cramming features into arbitrary time boxes, you focus on impact

• Instead of measuring velocity, you measure value delivered

• Instead of following a static plan, you follow market signals

When we made this shift, our team started shipping better features faster - not because we planned better, but because we stopped letting the plan get in the way of progress.

Facing the reality of product management

Let's be honest with ourselves:

• That 12-month roadmap? It'll change by month 2

• Those precise story point estimates? Creative fiction

• The perfectly groomed backlog? A security blanket

Instead of pretending we can predict the future, what if we got really good at:

• Shipping small, valuable changes frequently

• Building trust through consistent delivery

• Staying close enough to users and the market to spot shifts early

• Making decisions quickly with incomplete information

Reality isn't as tidy as we'd like, but adapting fast is the superpower we need.

Staying focused with a North Star metric

But wait - doesn't all this flexibility mean we'll lose sight of our long-term goals? It's a valid concern. The answer is no, and that's where your North Star metric comes in.

Every cycle ties back to your North Star (I talked about this in a previous post). If it's reducing cart abandonment, every six weeks you're tackling a piece of that puzzle - whether it's performance, UX issues, or missing features. The path might zigzag, but the destination stays constant.

Adaptability: The only real truth in product management

The best PMs I know don't have the prettiest roadmaps - they have the fastest learning cycles. They're more like rapid-response teams than long-term planners.

Think of it this way: If product management was a sport, would you rather be really good at creating game plans or really good at reading the field and adapting in real time?

Stop beating yourself up about changing plans. The market doesn't care about your roadmap. Your users don't care about your process. They care about getting value, consistently and reliably.

Your roadmap is a lie, and that's OK. The truth is in what you ship.

👋 And that’s a wrap folks. Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it or share your referral link with someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

The Product Trench is a free newsletter. I may consider some type of paid tier down the line. Until then, if you find my work valuable, you can buy me a coffee.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

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Hey Everyone,

Good morning and happy Sunday 😎. I can’t believe Q4 is almost over. Just when you think everyone is cooling down their publishing game, you stumble on some good reads. So let’s just jump straight into the good stuff 🤌.

This Week's Roundup 🔁

1. The difference between product management and project management.

2. Product management isn't dead and it's not AI that's going to kill it.

3. How PMs can 10x quality with dogfooding - Simple approach, Impressive results.

4. The inconvenient truth about AI and jobs.

5. Reducing complexity.

6. The art of workplace finesse.

7. When and why to use an interactive demo.

The difference between product management and project management (6 min read)

Product management is about crafting products that deliver value, whereas project management deals with organizing and scheduling tasks. In startups, these roles often blur, causing confusion and inefficiencies. Overemphasizing process can stifle a product manager's creativity, reducing them to mere project managers.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Clearly define and communicate the distinct roles of product and project management to ensure alignment and efficiency within your team.

Share

Product management isn't dead and it's not AI that's going to kill it (7 min read)

The rise of AI has sparked debates about the future of product management. While AI can automate certain tasks, the core responsibilities of product managers—such as understanding customer needs, strategic planning, and cross-functional collaboration—remain irreplaceable. AI serves as a tool to enhance efficiency, but it cannot replicate the human insights and leadership essential to product management.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Embrace AI to streamline routine tasks, allowing more focus on strategic initiatives and customer engagement.

How PMs can 10x quality with dogfooding - Simple approach, Impressive results (5 min read)

Dogfooding is the practice of becoming your product's customer to deeply understand its usefulness and shortcomings. It reveals insights that can help refine features, improve usability, and accelerate value creation. While invaluable, it doesn't replace contact with real customers but complements it. Teams using dogfooding often discover why customers may leave or find value gaps. For B2B products, applying this approach can be challenging, but finding ways to experience your product firsthand is critical. Combining dogfooding with testing practices like smoke, regression, and sanity testing ensures a well-rounded strategy for delivering high-quality software.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Act as your product's customer to gain perspective on its value. Supplement dogfooding with customer interactions and rigorous testing to enhance quality and usability.

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The inconvenient truth about AI and jobs (5 min read)

The popular quote "AI won't take your job, but someone using AI will" misrepresents the deeper reality of AI's impact. AI isn't just a productivity tool; it can scale output to levels that replace entire teams. This creates "technological unemployment," where roles vanish faster than markets adapt, risking significant social upheaval. Reskilling is not a universal solution, as many roles require shifts incompatible with workers' core skills or natures. Like manufacturing automation displaced manual labour, AI threatens to reduce knowledge worker demand. Addressing this requires comprehensive policies and support systems to manage the transition intentionally and equitably.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Understand AI's potential to reshape work at scale. Focus on collaboration between individuals, organizations, and policymakers to build adaptive systems for displaced workers.

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Reducing complexity (4 min read)

Complexity in product work is unavoidable, driven by its adaptive, collaborative nature and systemic interdependencies. Leaders shouldn't aim to reduce complexity itself but should focus on minimizing friction, setting clear boundaries, and fostering environments where teams can manage complexity effectively. Blaming teams or adding pressure risks pushing real challenges into the shadows, making them harder to address.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Don't aim to reduce complexity itself; instead, address friction by improving processes, setting boundaries, and enabling autonomy for teams to manage complexity effectively.

The art of workplace finesse (7 min read)

Workplace finesse means knowing when to ask for forgiveness vs permission, managing perceptions, and tailoring actions to your personality. Recognize the importance of discretion in sensitive matters, adapt advice to your situation, and understand that incentives drive decisions. Effective finesse is judgment-based, not rule-following, and requires navigating unspoken dynamics.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Build workplace finesse by reading situations, tailoring strategies to your style, and understanding unspoken rules and incentives.

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When and why to use an interactive demo (5 min read)

Interactive demos are guided simulations that showcase key product use cases tailored to audience needs, making them an ideal tool for B2B companies. Their ease of setup, low risk, and ability to target specific buyer intents make them valuable for both sales-led and product-led businesses. They simplify complex products, enhance the buyer experience, and empower sales teams by reducing traditional demo friction. By addressing customer needs effectively, they create wins for companies, sales teams, and prospects alike.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Use interactive demos to target high-intent prospects, simplify the buyer journey, and reduce friction in sales processes. Test them with tailored use cases for a quick and impactful start.

👋 That's it for this week's edition. Thank you for reading, and enjoy your week.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it to someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

The Product Trench is a free newsletter. I may consider some type of paid tier down the line. Until then, if you find my work valuable, you can buy me a coffee.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

Was this forwarded to you? Join The Product Trench 👇

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Happy Monday everyone! 😎

Usually, you’d be getting this email on a Sunday morning. I wish I could tell you I am doing some A/B testing for my newsletter or trying something new, but I got nada.

The past few weeks have been hectic at work, home and preparing for my next local CrossFit competition. This makes writing a newsletter a bit difficult as my brain is fried at the end of the day, especially the Weekly Roundup, which requires some time for reading and digesting different articles.

I am trying the 5 AM club as a writing space. I hope it gives me an hour or so in the morning before the chaos starts. So, I am sorry for being late sending this.

I know you didn’t subscribe to read my rant and complaints (I am not btw), so let’s just get to it.

PS: If sending on Mondays magically spike some metrics, I might consider moving Sundays to Mondays 🫠.

This Week's Roundup 🔁

1. Thriving in a virtual team.

2. Always be launching.

3. The context matrix.

4. 5 ways to invent and simplify as an AI/ML product manager.

5. The Product Manager's decision making dilemma.

6. What finesse looks like when reading people and situations.

Thriving in a virtual team (4 min read)

In virtual team environments, product managers must navigate multiple roles: leading, contributing, and supporting. Thriving requires mindset shifts, such as seeing support as a form of leadership, sharing early work to maintain momentum, and always having an adaptable plan. Leaders need to organize work clearly, communicate goals, and set up structured checkpoints. Contributors should share their work proactively, while followers provide active, meaningful support. Success hinges on flexibility, communication, and balancing roles seamlessly.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Embrace proactive communication, timely work-sharing, and adaptable planning to boost productivity in virtual teams.

Always be launching (4 min read)

The "Always Be Launching" (ABL) strategy encourages continuous engagement over singular, polished product reveals. This involves sharing updates, customer quotes, insights, and even challenges regularly to build momentum. ABL moves away from one-time Big Bang Launches, focusing instead on long-term relationships and authentic interaction. Founders should embrace consistent, human-centric communication directly with audiences, avoiding dependency on traditional media channels. The strategy builds reach over time, fostering deeper connections and growth through persistent, relatable content.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Share frequent, honest updates and engage directly to build trust and maintain product visibility.

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The context matrix (2 min read)

Product management at every level involves creating and interpreting context. For product strategy, this means analyzing market data, capabilities, and long-term goals and forming strategic relationships. Product OKRs align with vision and strategy, focusing on key results that drive outcomes and adaptability. Product Discovery relies on strategic goals and customer insights, requiring effective problem framing, research prioritization, and solution validation before development.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Align context creation and sense-making in strategy, OKRs, and discovery for informed decision-making and cohesive execution.

5 ways to invent and simplify as an AI/ML product manager (3 min read)

The article discusses how AI/ML product managers can apply Amazon's 'Invent and Simplify' principle to enhance product development. It outlines five main methods: focusing on ways of working through iterative prototyping and outcome-based strategies; defining and tracking LLM quality metrics; adopting a fail-fast approach with rapid testing and feature flagging; mastering prompt engineering to create prototypes without engineering resources; and incorporating robust privacy and security controls in collaboration with legal teams. These methods help build impactful AI products that meet user needs and comply with regulations.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Streamline your AI product development by adopting iterative prototyping, defining quality metrics, incorporating fail-fast strategies, leveraging prompt engineering, and embedding privacy and security measures collaboratively.

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The Product Manager's decision making dilemma (5 min read)

Product managers must continuously prioritize by balancing diverse feedback from customers, sales teams, engineers, and designers against limited resources and the promise of consistent value delivery. Effective prioritization requires alignment with the product vision, addressing genuine customer needs, understanding potential business impact (such as customer acquisition or retention), and thorough risk assessment. Frameworks like MoSCoW and KANO can support structured decision-making.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Prioritize features by aligning them with your product vision and strategy, ensuring they address genuine customer needs and have a clear business impact while considering associated risks.

What finesse looks like when reading people and situations (6 min read)

Finesse is an essential yet nuanced skill in handling people and complex situations effectively. It includes delivering bad news tactfully to maintain relationships, understanding power dynamics to avoid unintended arrogance, and strategically deciding when to call someone out. Prioritizing impact over intention underscores that execution matters more than motives. Finesse also means reading between the lines to recognize hidden questions, seeking win-win solutions for sustainable relationships, and applying popular advice thoughtfully to avoid missteps that could damage trust or rapport.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Approach situations with strategic thinking and adapt your communication to balance mutual benefits and nuanced interpretation.

👋 That's it for this week's edition. Thank you for reading, and enjoy your week.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it to someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

The Product Trench is a free newsletter. I may consider some type of paid tier down the line. Until then, if you find my work valuable, you can buy me a coffee.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

Was this forwarded to you? You can join by clicking below.

Subscribe now

I once bet my entire product roadmap on building a revolutionary analytics & insights feature using business accounting data that would "change everything" for our startup. Six months and countless coffees later, we launched to crickets. Meanwhile, our competitor shipped three new data integrations and stole 10% of our customers, including an enterprise one.

Ouch.

That expensive lesson taught me something crucial about product strategy: betting isn't about going all-in or folding. It's about knowing when to make calculated risks versus steady plays.

The betting mindset

Sometimes, I think product strategy is like approaching a tough CrossFit workout.

Do you stick with the exercises you know you can manage, keep a steady pace, and get it done without too much fuss? Or do you go all-in, tackle the heavier weights, risk hitting failure, but potentially set a new personal best? It's a choice between the comfort of what's achievable and the thrill (and risk) of a breakthrough. In product terms, this is the story of big bets versus small bets—the constant balancing act that every product leader faces.

And right now, many of us are looking at the year ahead, trying to figure out how to tackle these challenges in a way that's both steady and ambitious. We're the ones making the call, and the outcomes can be uncertain.

Moonshots and roofshots

A big bet is a moonshot—the type of project that gets people talking, maybe even redefining your company. Think of launching the first iPhone or Netflix's move to streaming. A small bet, on the other hand, is more like adding another topping to a well-loved pizza—it's not revolutionizing anything, but it keeps people coming back for more.

Big bets are intoxicating. They're why many of us got into product in the first place—to make something that has an impact, to change the game. But let's face it, they're risky. A big bet that doesn't pay off can leave your team tired, your resources drained, and your users still wanting more of the basics they asked for.

Small bets are the unsung heroes. They're your bug fixes, your minor usability tweaks, and those small features that quietly make everything smoother. They're not going to land you a TED Talk, but they build trust, keep users happy, and make sure the ship stays afloat.

The truth is, you need both. The need for both moonshots and roofshots isn't just theoretical—how you balance them depends largely on your company's unique position. Only moonshots, and you'll lose the foundation that makes big bets possible. Only incremental improvements, and you'll never break out from the pack. The key is understanding when to lean into which—and for that, context is everything.

Betting Differently

Depending on where your company is in its lifecycle, the way you balance these bets will look different.

Startups

You're scrappy, you're hustling, and every resource counts. It's tempting to swing for the fences and make the big bet that puts you on the map. But in these early stages, a lot of your value comes from showing your users that you're listening—that you're there to make their experience better week by week. This means small bets matter. Sure, take a moonshot or two—they're often why people buy into startups—but don't ignore the quick wins that can turn your early adopters into evangelists.

At my previous startup, Corl, we bet on a new feature we thought would redefine our value. It got some buzz, but what actually retained users were the smaller bets—things like speeding up our onboarding flow and fixing key bugs our first customers hated.

Scale-ups

You're past the survival stage. Now, it's about finding your place and protecting it. Competitors are nipping at your heels, and users have expectations that can't be ignored. Here, you've got to balance the immediate customer needs—roofshots—with strategic bets that show you're thinking about where the market is headed. Maybe that's a new feature that feels a bit bold, but just might be what secures your space in a shifting landscape. The art here is defending your territory while pushing the boundaries.

At Rails, we faced intense competition. We made a big bet on analytics & insights to differentiate our product, but our growth also depended on those small bets—constantly iterating on user-requested features and reducing friction to keep our existing users happy while we pursued bigger visions.

Digital transformation

Legacy companies undergoing digital transformation have a different challenge. Often, it's less about proving value and more about reimagining it. A pure moonshot approach can be dangerous—you can't forget the fundamentals of why your existing customers stick around. Yet, sticking purely to small, cautious steps can mean missing out on the real, transformative shift you need to stay relevant. Here, the bet mix is about stabilizing your digital presence while also signalling that the company is moving forward, not just surviving.

In my consulting days, I worked with a few "legacy" companies undergoing digital transformation. With one particular client, we had to ensure their existing users weren't alienated. While we made a big bet on an entirely new digital experience, small improvements—like adding more user-friendly features (things like dark mode) to their traditional interface—ensured their core audience didn't feel left behind during the change.

Practical takeaways for evaluating your bets

So, how do you make sure you're balancing things right? Here are a few prompts that might help as you sit down to plan:

Look back to look forward

Are there bets you made last year that didn't pan out, not because they were wrong, but because the timing was off? Revisiting old bets with fresh eyes can sometimes be the key to unlocking new value.

Check the bet mix

Is your team burned out from chasing too many big ideas, or are they bored from focusing on the mundane? Do you have the capacity to execute? Healthy teams need variety. The best bet mix keeps people challenged without exhausting them.

Assess market shifts

Are new players entering your space with bold moves? Are your metrics showing slower growth? Sometimes, stagnation is a signal that it's time for a bigger swing. Conversely, when things feel a bit chaotic internally, it's time to focus inward and stabilize before the next big push.

Final thoughts... and a reality check

Here's the uncomfortable truth: most of us aren't going to create the next iPhone. And that's okay. The real skill is in knowing which bets to make and when.

I've seen too many product leaders and founders fall into what I call the "TechCrunch Trap" - chasing headline-worthy moonshots while their core product slowly becomes irrelevant.

Sometimes, the best bet is the boring one. My team once spent two weeks fixing API documentation bugs instead of building our planned analytics suite. That "small bet" reduced customer success escalations by 38% and, over time, boosted time to value. Not exactly TechCrunch material, but it paid the bills.

Remember: Every Netflix started with a good DVD delivery service. Every iPhone began with a well-executed iPod. The art is in knowing when to maintain your roof and when to shoot for the moon.

👋 And that’s a wrap folks. Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it or share your referral link with someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

The Product Trench is a free newsletter. I may consider some type of paid tier down the line. Until then, if you find my work valuable, you can buy me a coffee.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

Was this forwarded to you? Join The Product Trench 👇

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Happy Sunday everyone! 😎

This week's edition comes to you courtesy of DayQuil, pre-dawn writing sessions, and approximately 47 trips to the bathroom (most of them not mine). Turns out joining the 5 AM club is significantly less impressive when you're already awake from a combination of cold medicine and a toddler's newfound bathroom independence journey.

While I master the art of functioning on minimal sleep and maximum coffee, here's what I've been reading and what caught my eye this week.

This Week's Roundup 🔁

1. The best prompts start as conversations.

2. Applying for product & growth in 2024.

3. How to navigate product discovery like a map.

4. Product discovery activities by risk.

5. How to win the enterprise in 2024: The ultimate guide.

The best prompts start as conversations (3 min read)

Using AI creatively isn’t about perfect prompts—it’s about collaborative flow, like jamming in music or improv. The SNAP method (Speak, Note, Analyze, Polish) breaks down this process. Start by thinking out loud (Speak) to generate ideas naturally. Capture everything (Note), as even small ideas may spark something big. Review to spot patterns (Analyze), then refine (Polish) the strongest ideas into something structured. This flexible approach to prompting AI opens up surprising insights and new creative directions.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Treat AI as a thought partner, not a search engine. Use the SNAP method to make ideation feel collaborative, starting with free-flow conversation rather than pre-determined prompts.

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Applying for product & growth in 2024 (6 min read)

To stand out in product and growth roles:

• Focus on a results-driven CV tailored to hiring criteria, with specific achievements rather than generic responsibilities.

• Avoid embellishments and emphasize authenticity by aligning your skills directly with the role.

• Use clear, descriptive job titles, set transparent career goals, and prepare questions that reflect an understanding of the company and role.

• Generic cover letters and LinkedIn messages are discouraged unless there’s a strong context.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Stand out by crafting a sharply focused resume on quantifiable outcomes and authenticity—specific, tailored titles and achievements are your best assets in product and growth hiring.

How to navigate product discovery like a map (3 min read)

Product discovery should be flexible, treating each step as a “move” based on specific insights needed, not as a rigid sequence. Discovery involves:

• Entry points (starting triggers).

• Crossroads (key decision moments).

• Moves (specific research methods chosen based on insight needs).

• Commitments (decisions based on reduced uncertainty).

Each stage prioritizes reducing ambiguity through adaptable strategies rather than static steps.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Make discovery agile—choose your next step based on what brings the most clarity and accelerates insight, not on a rigid process.

Product discovery activities by risk (3 min read)

This guide organizes product discovery activities by key risks—desirability, viability, feasibility, and usability—allowing teams to de-risk development by focusing on core assumptions. Desirability risks involve customer interviews to confirm product value, viability risks use market research to test for financial potential, feasibility risks require prototyping to assess technical capabilities, and usability risks benefit from user testing to ensure accessibility. Prioritize action over waiting for perfect data.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Begin with discovery activities like customer interviews and prototyping to validate core assumptions early, reducing risk and accelerating product insights.

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How to win the enterprise in 2024: The ultimate guide (28 min read)

Winning in enterprise SaaS requires a playbook that combines Product-Led Growth (PLG) with a strong enterprise sales motion. This strategy leverages the product for scalability, security, and enterprise-specific features, allowing PLG to initiate larger deals—nearly half of $1M+ deals start with self-serve entry points. Companies gain a competitive edge by prioritizing technical foundations (security and scalable architecture) over sales, accelerating deal cycles by 2-3x. Scientific measurement, particularly using technical adoption signals, predicts growth 2.3x better than traditional sales metrics. Successful companies don’t just sell differently; they build to scale enterprise growth systematically.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Prioritize security and scalability in the product, use PLG to fast-track enterprise deals, and leverage technical metrics to predict expansion, transforming enterprise growth into a repeatable, measurable process.

👋 That's it for this week's edition. Thank you for reading, and enjoy your week.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it to someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

The Product Trench is a free newsletter. I may consider some type of paid tier down the line. Until then, if you find my work valuable, you can buy me a coffee.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

Was this forwarded to you? Join The Product Trench 👇

Subscribe now

In case you missed my post this week about navigating the product hiring landscape, make sure to check out the written interview with Heidi Ram.

Happy Sunday everyone! 😎

I am not sure if it was a coincidence or just my unconscious thoughts playing a part in it, but today’s roundup ended up with a theme; using AI and building products/visions that don’t suck. 🤔

I am constantly working on evolving this roundup. So, if you have any feedback on things you would like to see in these roundups, I would love to hear back from you. Leave me a comment, reply to this email or chat with me.

With that said, let’s just get to it.

This Week's Roundup 🔁

1. How to build an AI product that doesn't suck.

2. Empathy and context: The hidden drivers of growth.

3. Why sticking to a rigid product roadmap might be killing your product, and how to escape.

4. How PMs can benefit from generative AI instead of being replaced by it.

5. Why your (company) vision is blurry.

6. Frustrated by rejection? How to plan before you ask.

7. Mastering solution product management.

How to build an AI product that doesn't suck (11 min read)

Creating AI products that resonate with users requires a balance between advanced tech, simplicity, and transparency. While tools like LLMs add power, they aren't a universal fix; often, straightforward solutions best serve real user needs. Focusing on reliable, adaptable designs that solve clear problems is key to making AI practical, trustworthy, and genuinely valuable.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Emphasize solving real problems with simplicity and transparency—sometimes, the simplest AI solutions are the most effective.

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Empathy and context: The hidden drivers of growth (3 min read)

Real growth stems from truly understanding the context of customers' lives and the specific "job" they hire products to accomplish. By focusing on customer needs and lifestyle demands, products can become essential rather than optional. Empathy-driven tools like direct conversations and surveys offer rich insights into these customer contexts, enabling more relevant solutions that balance convenience, choice, and customer empowerment. Sustainable growth is not only about product functionality but also about fitting seamlessly into the routines of users.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Deepen customer empathy by exploring their daily context and core needs to make your product indispensable.

Why sticking to a rigid product roadmap might be killing your product, and how to escape (13 min read)

Overly rigid roadmaps can limit product adaptability, missing shifts in market trends or regulatory needs and reduce team motivation. Flexibility enables better responses to change. The FLEX model (Focus on outcomes, Learn continuously, Experiment, and maintain X-ray vision/transparency) helps keep product direction dynamic yet structured, promoting innovation and continuous customer alignment. The key is balancing roadmap structure with adaptability.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Embrace a flexible roadmap by emphasizing themes over strict deadlines, prioritizing customer feedback, and holding regular roadmap reviews to ensure product relevance and team engagement.

How PMs can benefit from generative AI instead of being replaced by it (4 min read)

Generative AI accelerates key PM tasks like prototyping, analysis, and content creation, but it's most powerful as a co-pilot, not a replacement. Effective AI usage requires precise problem framing, clear context, and PM-driven decision-making. While AI saves time, it cannot replicate human judgment, empathy, or direct customer insights. PMs should deploy AI thoughtfully, focusing on the best-fit solutions rather than relying on AI universally.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Use AI selectively to enhance, not replace, your expertise; let empathy and judgment lead for the best results.

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Why your company vision is blurry (8 min read)

Many company visions lack focus because they're overly generic or aspirational without clarity on purpose. An effective vision is specific, aiming at a target audience and problem, and aligned with a strategic goal. This clarity helps in decision-making, keeps teams motivated, and attracts talent. Strong visions are ambitious yet adaptable, guiding without being restrictive.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Define your vision with a specific audience and problem in mind, balancing big-picture goals with flexibility for evolving needs.

Frustrated by rejection? How to plan before you ask (3 min read)

To reduce rejection, be selective in who and how you ask, focusing on the recipient's needs. Show how saying "yes" benefits them to make your request more appealing by prioritizing empathy, aligning your request with the recipient's goals, and enhancing your credibility with relevant data.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Make intentional, well-prepared asks by focusing on the other person's perspective and offering a clear value exchange.

Mastering solution product management (5 min read)

Product managers with a solution-focused mindset drive product success by anticipating customer constraints, customizing standard products, and managing risks across product ecosystems. PMs at any level can help reduce customization requests, address dependencies, and improve alignment by considering interdependencies across products, partners, and ecosystems. Shifting focus from features to full solutions strengthens customer satisfaction and strategic growth.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Build cross-product relationships, align roadmaps, and track ecosystem impacts to create cohesive, customer-focused solutions.

👋 That's it for this week's edition. Thank you for reading, and enjoy your week.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it to someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

The Product Trench is a free newsletter. I may consider some type of paid tier down the line. Until then, if you find my work valuable, you can buy me a coffee.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

Was this forwarded to you? You can join by clicking below.

Subscribe now

Intro

If you're feeling like the hiring landscape has been a bit of a rollercoaster lately, you're not alone. Product hiring is balancing between optimism and uncertainty, with founders and companies trying to grow cautiously, one calculated step at a time. As 2025 approaches, there's hope for new opportunities—but success in this market requires a proactive and informed approach.

To unpack this more, I sat down for a written interview with Heidi Ram, Senior Recruiter at  The Product Recruiter (a division of Martyn Bassett Associates). Heidi has spent years helping startups and scale-ups across North America build winning product teams. With her finger on the pulse of the evolving job market, she offers valuable perspectives on hiring trends, the current state of job-seeking, and how candidates can stand out in an increasingly competitive space.

In our conversation, Heidi and I touched on:

1. What's really happening in the current job market?

2. The cautious approach many founders are taking towards hiring.

3. Challenges for both junior product talent and top product leaders.

4. Strategies for standing out in a competitive market.

Whether you're a product leader or just starting your journey, these insights will help you find opportunities others might miss.

So let’s dive in.

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What is happening in the market?

The good news is that the market is showing improvements. More companies are hiring, and more people are posting "I'm happy to announce I will be joining..." on LinkedIn.

Additionally, this time of year provides a line of sight to a new year, which evokes a sense of relief that another tough year will end and the hope that a more prosperous year will soon begin. 

What's happening with employers?

Broadly speaking, with some exceptions, investment remains conservative, and founders are playing it safe. In a recent interview with Maria Pacella for Betakit, Maria was quoted as saying:

The result for most companies is a fear of risk and a default to playing it safe.

I couldn't agree more. We see that when it comes to hiring. 

For example, last week, I spoke with three founding leaders who had spent time "feeling out the market" while "thinking about" making their first Head of Product hire. This is basically kicking tires. 

They all took a passive approach to hiring with an online posting while socializing their ideas across the executive leadership team networks. They all also concluded that they weren't ready yet, and the applicants who expressed interest weren't the right fit, which resulted in the role being put on hold. 

I find that fascinating. After all, most tech startups are a product business—the product generates revenue (ARR). So what does it say about your company when you determine you are not ready for someone to ensure value is delivered to your customers and opportunities for growth are realized? Is the delivery of that done in a scaleable, repeatable way? 

Additionally, job postings are never an accurate measure of candidate quality. Our experience with a recent posting generated almost 530 applicants, of which none had the actual experience our client wanted.

What is the market like for job seekers?

While it's not easy to be a job seeker in this market, it's especially hard to be a less experienced candidate (junior PM) or, on the other end, the most senior product leader. Why?

Junior Product Talent: Before the downturn, the product function had become almost a celebrity function in itself, attracting candidates from fresh graduates to industry professionals outside of tech. Many who joined the product party before the downturn did not have the opportunity to "crush it" in their roles as they expected they would. When downsizing began, this cohort was often included. Now, unemployed, with little actual product experience, few outcomes to boast about, and in a market with few companies willing to hire the least experienced. 

Top Product Leaders: "Getting to profitability" often meant making a tough business decision to remove the CPO's highest salary. Given that most companies only employ one CPO, there are simply fewer opportunities—and the larger the business, the fewer opportunities. 

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How to find a job in this market?

While LinkedIn and other platforms try to solve the problems that exist for employers and job seekers, their systems and workflows are far from perfect. Someone somewhere is always pitching the next AI bot that will "match" candidates to jobs in a way humans can't, but for now, we are left with these imperfect systems. 

Today, most candidates need to run multiple streams of work to generate top-of-funnel engagement that will convert one to an offer. 

Stream 1: Your Community 

Most people get jobs through someone they know. Everyone you have ever worked for, with, or partnered with needs to know you are in the market and ready for your next adventure. 

Help others understand who you are professionally with a thumbnail of what you've been working on most recently, including the scope and scale of work. Don't assume people who know you or know of you will know the value you deliver and what you've done. 

Stream 2: Read the Posting

Read the job posting in its entry and only apply if you are relevant to what they have outlined they are looking for. Always submit a resume to an employer's website - don't rely on Linkedin alone. Ignore the number of applicants. Most of those applicants didn't read the posting, and they won't get interviews anyway. Stay focused.

If you are extremely relevant to the details in the posting, find the hiring stakeholder (company website or LinkedIn), find their email (there are tech tools for this), and email them to introduce yourself. 

When I say "hiring stakeholder," I refer to the functional leader who loses sleep at night, wondering how to find someone like you. Whose ass is on the line if they don't find the right hire. 

Stream 3: Targeted Engagement 

This involves doing research and executing an outbound email campaign to business stakeholders when there is no obvious opportunity. I cover why and how to do this in a LinkedIn Live I hosted for CPOs. 

Stream 4: Recruiters 

Most people never get a job through a recruiter because recruiters work for employers who retain them for a specific set of experiences or level of candidates. Unless you are a match to their current portfolio of searches, your engagement with them is a long game over the course of your career. 

However, you should still take calls from Recruiters when they reach out and build bridges. They are often a conduit into the hidden job market and senior roles. Employers are likely to justify retaining a Recruiter for leadership roles and tough to find IC roles, which require a targeted GTM strategy that will add specific experiences to the product org, (e.g., API Integrations, payments, or infrastructure tech debt.)

What is the hidden job market?

The hidden job market is mysterious. It is not necessarily a set of unadvertised positions, although that is part of it. The hidden job market includes opportunities that have not yet been converted into an "open position" in an organization. The hidden job market can be as nebulous as the time span from the moment a CEO realizes it's time to hire a product leader to the moment it's an approved position with a budget. That time span can take as long as two months.

That example of the hidden job market is so hidden that it isn't even a job yet! Accessing hidden opportunities can only come through human-to-human engagement. Consider a CEO who goes to bed at night thinking about or worrying about the product leader they intend to hire. That CEO will likely take a call from someone whose carefully curated inbound message is aligned with their business and customers and how they could add value to that CEO. I covered how to engage with that decision-maker level in a LinkedIn Live for CPO-level candidates. 

Recruiters are also likely to be influential in these hidden opportunities. The work we do at The Product Recruiter includes being a resource to CEOs and CPOs who require real-time market insights for future strategic hires. 

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How do you stand out and land a role?

If you're in the current hiring cycle and participating in the interviews, congratulations! That is a tall task in this job market, and the pressure is on not to squander the opportunity. The best way to stand out in an interview is to be all in! Employers want to invest in candidates who are both interested and excited about their business and the problems they are solving. So how do you do that?

Show Your Enthusiasm

Your job as a candidate is to communicate in such a way that reinforces interest and appropriately expresses excitement. This will help you stand out from candidates who communicate like they are just lukewarm on the opportunity. 

To be all in, avoid language like:

• "I'm not in any rush." 

• "I'm taking my time."

• "I'm in the fortunate position to take extended time off while I figure out what I want to do next."

Optimize for Recency Bias

When speaking with a recruiter or employer, be mindful that in most instances,  the reason they wanted to speak with you is because of what you've been working on recently. Most employers and recruiters are not interested in the entirety of a career and certainly not what you did immediately after graduating from University. Especially since many PMs begin their careers in engineering or in a CS role and then move into product after delivering value to their employer. Be careful that when given an opportunity to communicate your story, your starting point is what you've delivered most recently, not what you did in 2016. 

Listen to the Question

I know this sounds obvious, but nervousness during an interview or an active mind that jumps to all the possible ways to answer a question can cause some candidates to talk around a question instead of answering it. 

Work to discipline yourself to actively listen to the question being asked and then answer exactly that question first before offering more information is essential. Showcase this skill as the very nature of the Product Manager's role is someone with excellent communication. 

Qualify Questions 

Not sure what the interviewer is asking? Qualify the question. Just like a Product Manager is not a professional candidate, an employer is not a professional interviewer. They may not know the best way to probe for what they need to understand. Ask a follow-up question to ensure you are providing them what they need to make the interview successful.

Close by Confirming Interest 

Always end an interview by verbally communicating that you are interested. You don't want to be the candidate who is so fixated on the question/answer portion that you leave the meeting with the employers thinking that you did not seem to appear interested. Remember, you need to be all in! Ways to showcase this are:

• "I'm excited to continue the discussion. What's the next step?"

• "After learning more today, I'm even more interested in your organization and confident I can deliver what you need done."

Refer a friend

What tips do you have for those not getting to the interview stage?

Nailing a PM interview is all about preparation and curiosity. Ensure your product resume is in good working order and best optimized to land you those interviews. Follow the checklist below: 

✅ Do consider recency bias. While your entire career has helped make you who you are today, in most cases, your accomplishments at your last employer (or two) will be the reason you get hired, so front-load your resume.

✅ Do present outcomes. A resume is intended to showcase your contribution, scope, and scale. It is wise to always assume your audience knows nothing about you and the great things you've done. This is the time to brag.

✅ Do focus on data. This provides the hiring manager with tangible quantitative outcomes. Showcase all stats, numbers, metrics, dollars, customer names, integrations, investors, or analysts you've partnered with.

✅ Do communicate in the language of the product. If your resume sounds like a finance person, it introduces confusion and doubt that you really are a product professional. 

✅ Do keep it to two pages (three is the absolute maximum). Hiring managers are busier than ever, and almost no one will read past two.

✅ Do curate. Every word needs to be processed by its reader, so stick to the main points and delete the excess.

✅ Do use a font size of 10.5 or larger. Keep it easy to scan.

✅ Do use black font. It has the greatest contrast and can be read easily. Modern, pale shades of gray are not accessible.

✅ Do make it easy to contact you. The goal of a resume is to get an interview, so streamline for that experience and put your contact (email + phone + LinkedIn) at the top.

✅ Do share your resume as a PDF. It's the most globally accessible format and will not get reformatted if opened by a different program (i.e., Word to GDocs).

✅ Do name the file with your first and last name. Make it easy for the hiring manager to find your resume.

❌ Don't add a photo.  Photos belong on LinkedIn; in fact, there is a designated area to upload one.

❌ Don't include your home address. No one is going to mail you anything. Offer letters and other documents are sent electronically. If you are the hire, then you'll be asked to provide your home address.

❌ Don't make viewing it complicated. Don't share a resume from a drive that requires a password or download. This introduces extra steps, friction, and the likelihood of someone not doing and not reviewing your resume.

❌ Don't repeat your previous employer's name in every line of that employer's section. Readers will understand anything in that section happened while working there.

❌ Don't add the location of employers. Where an employer has their HQ is irrelevant. They need to know where you are.

❌ Don't overuse hyperlinks. Hyperlinks take your audience away from your resume and down rabbit holes that introduce friction and distractions and delay them from the action you really want: an interview.

❌ Don't use italics, underlining, or shaded text boxes. Products look modern now, so resumes need to, too.

❌ Don't add clip art, graphs, maps, and other designed assets. This may date the style of your resume or distract the audience from getting to what they care about: outcomes, accomplishments, scope, and scale.

❌ Don't write in the third person. Just don't. Please.

❌ Don't rely on an automated app. Don't think ChatGPT or other automation apps will produce an impactful resume that reflects your outcomes and will stand up against all the other candidates who took the time to "nail it" on paper.

❌ Don't write out a job description. A job description is not a resume!

❌ Don't add a skills section. If you are a senior leader, you are beyond a skills section. The outcomes, scope and scale you present should satisfy the hiring manager that you have skills.

❌ Don't include a cover letter. Unless you are asked for one - most tech companies will never ask for one.

❌ Don't include references. References are provided once you have been selected as the candidate an employer wants to hire. Often, the offer is presented as "pending references, background, and criminal check."

❌ Don't write in paragraphs. People don't read resumes; they scan them.

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Closing thoughts

Navigating the current job market requires strategy, perseverance, and leveraging multiple streams, particularly when it comes to product leadership roles. While the current job market remains challenging, there is the light of a new and more prosperous year ahead. Good luck!

🙏 Thank you to Heidi! For more insights from Heidi Ram, including the latest on market trends and hiring strategies, you can reach her at The Product Recruiter or connect on LinkedIn. The Product Recruiter provides specialized recruiting services for startups and scale-ups across North America. Their team of talent scouts works on behalf of Founders, CEOs, and CPOs who need to make a strategic hire in Product Management, Product Design, or Product Marketing. 

👋 And that’s a wrap folks. Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it or share your referral link with someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

The Product Trench is a free newsletter. I may consider some type of paid tier down the line. Until then, if you find my work valuable, you can buy me a coffee.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

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Happy Sunday everyone! 😎

It’s been a minute! I am back and almost done fixing my jet lag.

It was a great trip and time well spent with family. Plus, we got to see some pandas 🐼 (see picture at the end). My 2-year-old insisted they were dogs 🐕. I didn’t bother correcting him 🤣. I pick my battles, okay?! Mine was trying to make him sleep on a 24-hour flight back.

Anyway, I digress! I know you missed the Weekly Roundup, so let’s get to it.

This Week's Roundup 🔁

1. What your biggest weakness really is.

2. Creating a product hierarchy.

3. Why founders should understand the worldview of bureaucrats.

4. 6 ways you can increase customer satisfaction immediately.

5. Growth teams should stay in a founder mode.

6. The importance of business models to building great products.

7. Leading B2B product management in high-resistance environments.

What your biggest weakness really is (14 min read)

The article argues that candidates often fail to recognize weaknesses that matter most to hiring managers, such as domain gaps or limited experience. Instead of hiding these, reframe them into strengths by showcasing growth, adaptability, and problem-solving. It's crucial to craft a narrative showing how your unique path adds value, even if it deviates from traditional expectations.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Acknowledge your real weaknesses and show how you've turned them into advantages by using storytelling to highlight personal growth.

Creating a product hierarchy (3 min read)

Instead of viewing a product in isolation, think of it as part of a broader portfolio. A well-structured product hierarchy helps align teams around customer needs and strategic goals. This hierarchy shapes everything—from product strategy to marketing and messaging—by organizing products from broad categories down to specific features. It enables teams to execute independently while staying aligned on market objectives, leading to clearer communication and stronger market positioning.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Start collaborating with marketing early using a product hierarchy. It ensures alignment on positioning, messaging, and timing across the product lifecycle, and prepares tailored messaging for varied stakeholders.

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Why founders should understand the worldview of bureaucrats (9 min read)

Bureaucrats often prioritize job security and risk avoidance over innovation, which can be challenging for startups. To succeed in selling to them, emphasize stability, minimize perceived risks, and use social proof. Their decisions are primarily driven by the need for defensibility rather than a desire for bold ideas, so frame your pitch accordingly.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Emphasize how your solution is low-risk, defensible, and aligns with precedents, using strong social proof to appeal to risk-averse decision-makers.

6 ways you can increase customer satisfaction immediately! (4 min read)

Customer satisfaction hinges on delivering promised value, ensuring the product is worth the cost, and providing a pleasant experience. Segment customers using NPS to prioritize efforts: promote happy users, convert neutrals, and address detractors. Strategies include reducing friction, surprising users, improving experiences, and preventing dead ends. High satisfaction drives loyalty, making it critical for growth.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Ensure customers feel satisfied by balancing value, refining experiences, and addressing issues proactively to drive retention and organic growth.

Growth teams should stay in a founder mode (6 min read)

Growth teams must remain in "Founder Mode," characterized by agility, innovation, and direct problem-solving, regardless of company maturity. This scrappy approach is vital for preventing stagnation, as it helps detect emerging opportunities and market shifts. Unlike "Manager Mode," which focuses on scalability, growth teams thrive by iterating quickly and staying close to customers, ensuring impactful outcomes.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Keep your growth team focused on continuous experimentation and direct user feedback to maintain momentum and avoid complacency.

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The importance of business models to building great products (5 min read)

Product managers should align their work with the business model to drive revenue, not just focus on features. Key areas include reducing churn, increasing customer usage, and targeting metrics that lead to sustainable growth. Features that don't directly impact these areas can waste resources. Understanding the business model deeply is essential to prioritize efforts that contribute to long-term success.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Prioritize product changes based on what directly impacts the business model, not just feature outputs.

Leading B2B product management in high-resistance environments (9 min read)

Navigating resistance in B2B product management, especially in environments where stakeholders may lack experience with agile or incremental delivery, is challenging. Common issues include misaligned expectations, risk aversion, and technical debt. Strategies to overcome these include using the OKR framework for vision alignment, adopting an MVP approach with A/B testing to secure buy-in, and employing multi-channel communication tools to reduce misunderstandings. Additionally, addressing technical debt through phased modernization and lean budgeting helps balance immediate needs with long-term product scalability.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Prioritize clear communication and use visual aids to align diverse stakeholders, while balancing short-term demands with long-term product vision.

Some Pandas for ya. Or, as my kid called them, woof woof

👋 That's it for this week's edition. Thank you for reading, and enjoy your week.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it to someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

The Product Trench is a free newsletter. I may consider some type of paid tier down the line. Until then, if you find my work valuable, you can buy me a coffee.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

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On paper, it looked like a win: new features, shiny capabilities, and a roadmap full of updates. We shipped on time, we hit our sprint goals, and I was feeling pretty good—until the data started coming in. Crickets. Hardly anyone used it. Customers didn't care.

It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of shipping new features. But have you ever asked yourself if we are solving real problems or just shipping features for the sake of it?

If you've ever asked yourself that, congrats! You've stumbled into the world of feature factories, where product teams churn out shiny new bells and whistles faster than a TikTok trend but often miss the forest for the trees. Let's face it, many teams are still stuck in the feature factory trap.

So, how did we end up here? And more importantly, how do we stop?

Why do teams fall into the feature factory trap?

A feature factory is when teams focus on cranking out features without connecting those features to real customer problems. Think of it like fixing the symptoms of a problem instead of addressing the root cause. You're constantly shipping features, meeting deadlines, and checking off boxes. It feels productive because there's movement, but in reality, you're just layering temporary fixes on top of bigger, unresolved issues.

According to the 2023 State of Product Management Report, 54% of roadmaps are built around outputs, while only 44% communicate outcomes. Even worse, 19% of teams get their actionable feature ideas from senior management, many of whom are disconnected from day-to-day customer needs.

But why do we fall into this trap?

1. Lack of a clear strategy

Here's a fun fact to keep you up at night: when product investments don't meet expectations, it's due to a lack of clear company strategy 23% of the time. Without a well-defined North Star to guide the team, the pressure to deliver visible progress often leads to shipping features that may not address the core issues users are facing.

Imagine being on a team that scrambles to meet feature delivery goals every quarter. There's no bigger vision to tie those features back to. The team ends up focusing on output rather than impact, which leads to poor resource allocation and wasted effort. It's a perfect storm of "we don't know what we're doing, but we're doing it really fast!"

Without a clear strategy, product teams end up playing whack-a-mole with features, trying to please everyone and ultimately pleasing no one. It's a fundamental issue of prioritization. A strong strategy should align short-term wins with long-term outcomes, allowing teams to be adaptable while staying true to their mission.

2. The shiny object syndrome

Another reason teams become feature factories is the irresistible pursuit of the next shiny object, or as Radhika Dutt described in her book Radical Product Thinking, Pivotitis.

Executives often chase after the hottest new feature or "market-disrupting ideas," believing it will be the magic bullet for their product's success. It's impulse buying but for product management. A new feature comes along, and suddenly, priorities shift. The team, which was focused on solving a core customer problem, is now thrown off course.

As product managers, we often get caught between these executive demands and what we know to be best for the product. Learning to push back is crucial, but it's all about tact. 52% of product managers say their product strategy is influenced by requests from senior executives. The real danger here is that these executive-driven ideas often lack the rigorous validation that customer-centric features undergo. They're based on gut feelings or competitive pressures rather than actual user needs.

The next time you're faced with an executive request for a shiny new feature, ask yourself: Does this solve a problem for the customer? If not, it's your job to protect your roadmap from these distractions.

3. The customer is always right... Until they're not

Let's start with the age-old adage: "The customer is always right." Spoiler alert: they're not. Don't get me wrong, customer feedback is crucial and a goldmine of insights. But treating every customer request like gospel is a one-way ticket to Featureville.

We've all faced the VIP B2B customer ("If you don't add this feature, we're taking our business to your competitor... who also doesn't have this feature") who demands a specific feature that benefits only them, or the unreasonable customer requesting a complex feature for their niche needs. Or worse, the confused customer—the one who thinks they know what they want but hasn't really thought it through.

A common trap is building these requests without proper validation. Customer feature requests are still the top source of new ideas (35%), but they're often just noise. Validation is key here. You want to understand the jobs your customers are trying to get done and the progress they're trying to make in their lives.

So, before diving into development, ask yourself: Does this solve a broader problem? Can this feature be generalized to help a larger group of users? If the answer is no, it's time to reframe or reject the request.

How do you get out of the feature factory?

So, how do we break free from this cycle? Here are some practical tips to help you focus on value and outcomes, rather than just pumping out features like they're going out of style.

1. Learn to say no (without getting fired)

Saying no is an art form. It's not about being a dream-crushing, fun-sucking black hole of negativity. It's about steering the conversation towards outcomes. Not every idea from a customer or executive deserves a spot on your roadmap. The key here is to reframe the conversation around the broader product goals and be clear about why you're declining specific requests.

When someone comes to you with the "next big feature idea," instead of a flat "no," ask them what problem it solves and how it aligns with your product strategy. If they stare at you blankly, congratulations, you've identified a feature in search of a problem. This approach helps stakeholders think more critically about their requests, often leading to more productive discussions about product direction.

2. Validate, validate, validate (and then validate some more)

Before committing to a feature, validate the problem with multiple core customers. Don't take one customer's word for it. Test their request against the broader market. You want to understand the root cause of their request, not just the symptoms.

Think about it this way: customers often ask for solutions, but what you should be hunting for is the problem they're trying to solve. By reframing these requests around the job that needs to be done, you can dig deeper and avoid creating features that don't address a real need. For example, a customer might ask for more advanced reporting features, but the underlying issue could be that they're struggling with data accessibility. Addressing the latter creates far more value.

Remember, validation isn't a one-and-done process. It's ongoing. Your first idea might not be the right solution, and that's okay.

3. Use prioritization frameworks

Yes, I said it! Considering I am not a big fan of frameworks (topic for another week), I am shocked that I am actually recommending this. But hey, they work for some people, so here it goes.

Opportunity scoring, RICE, weighted shortest job first, etc., aren't just fancy terms to drop in meetings to sound smart. They can be powerful tools to help you focus on what really matters by eliminating isolated judgment calls. I still believe they can be subjective sometimes, but they do help battle-test some of your decisions when used correctly. They force everyone on your team to justify the need for a given feature and any trade-off decisions needed. They can guide you (keyword guide) in prioritizing the most impactful solutions rather than just the loudest requests.

Just keep in mind that a framework may or may not work for your company or product. You have to try a couple or adjust some of them to work for you. My go-to is to create quarterly goals and plan according to what drives my OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) forward.

4. Set OKRs, KPIs, and success metrics (and actually use them)

Did someone say OKRs?

OKRs, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), and success metrics aren't just for impressing stakeholders in quarterly reviews. They're your North Star, guiding every decision you make. Are you trying to increase user engagement? Great, now every feature idea should be evaluated against that goal. If it doesn't move the needle, it goes in the "nice to have" bucket (also known as the "probably never" bucket).

OKRs, in particular, can be a powerful tool for aligning your team around outcomes rather than outputs. They force you to think about what you're trying to achieve, not just what you're going to build. For example, instead of "Launch feature X," your objective might be "Increase customer retention by 20%," with key results like "Reduce time to value for new users by 50%" or "Increase daily active users by 30%."

5. Adopt a featureless roadmap approach (yes, it's a real thing)

Featureless roadmaps, also known as theme-based or outcome-based roadmaps focus on, well, themes and outcomes rather than specific features. Instead of saying, "We'll launch features A, B, and C," you say, "This quarter, we'll focus on increasing user engagement by 20%." This gives your team flexibility. It doesn't matter how you achieve that—what matters is that you solve the problem. Themes keep you grounded in outcomes while allowing for creative flexibility in how you solve the problem.

Here's a real-world example: Let's say one of your themes is "Enhance user engagement." Under this theme, you might have initiatives like:

• Improve onboarding experience

• Increase content discovery

• Boost user-generated content

Notice how none of these specify exact features? That's the beauty of featureless roadmaps. They keep you focused on outcomes while giving your team the freedom to innovate and iterate.

Transitioning to this approach isn't always easy, especially if your organization is used to feature-based roadmaps. Start small – pick one upcoming initiative and try framing it as a theme rather than a feature list. Gradually expand this approach as your team and stakeholders see the benefits.

Handling objections (because change is scary)

Now, I know what you're thinking. "But Sam, how am I supposed to sell this to my stakeholders? They love their feature lists!"

Once shiny object syndrome creeps in, it's only natural that pushback follows when you try to refocus on outcomes. Executives and sales teams love features because they're easy to sell. So, what do you do when they push back on outcome-based roadmaps? Here's how to handle some common objections:

Objection: "But how will we know what we're building?"

Response: "We'll still build things, but we'll focus on solving problems rather than just adding features. This gives us the flexibility to find the best solution, not just the first one we think of. We'll use our OKRs and success metrics to guide us."

Objection: "Our competitors are adding features left and right!"

Response: "And how's that working out for them? We're going to focus on solving real customer problems, which will give us a competitive advantage in the long run. Remember, it's not about who has the most features. It's about who provides the most value to customers."

Side note: "According to a report from Pendo, 80% of product features rarely or never get used."

Objection: "But features are easier to market!"

Response: "True, but outcomes are easier to sell. Would you rather buy a product with 100 features or one that actually solves your problem? Plus, when we focus on outcomes, we often end up with more innovative and impactful features that truly resonate with our users."

Objection: "This sounds like it will slow us down."

Response: "Initially, it might seem that way. But in the long run, it'll actually speed us up. We'll be building the right things, not just anything. Think of it as 'slow down to speed up' – we take a bit more time upfront to ensure we're on the right track, but then we can move faster because we're not constantly course-correcting."

Final thoughts

Breaking free from the feature factory comes with challenges. It requires a fundamental shift in how we think about product development. But the payoff is worth it. When we focus on outcomes rather than outputs, we build products that truly resonate with our users. We solve real problems, not just imaginary ones.

Product management is about making the right bets. And the right bets aren't on the number of features you ship.

So the next time you're tempted to add "AI-powered taco folding" to your roadmap, take a step back and ask yourself: "Is this really what our users need, or am I just contributing to the feature factory industrial complex?" Your users (and your future self) will thank you.

Stats Source: The 2023 State of Product Management Report.

👋 And that’s a wrap folks. Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed reading today's newsletter, feel free to forward it or share your referral link with someone! Or you can always hit the like button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack.

The Product Trench is a free newsletter. I may consider some type of paid tier down the line. Until then, if you find my work valuable, you can buy me a coffee.

See you next time.

— Sam ✌️

The Weekly Roundups will resume on October 20th. My bi-weekly original posts should not be impacted. Expect a new post this coming Wednesday.

If you’re looking for something to read or listen to in the meantime, here are a few suggestions:

1. My last month’s podcast with Aakash Gupta: Product Management in the Era of AI and lessons from 15+ years in product management. Don’t miss this one and other incredible episodes.

2. The unique challenges of FinTech product management: Why building in FinTech is a different game. From regulatory hurdles to trust-building metrics.

3. How to Land a PM Job in 2024: A 3-part series by . Here are the links to Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

4. How I run value poker to build outcome-based roadmaps.

See you next week!

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Happy Sunday everyone! 😎

I rarely find it tricky to capture top product highlights from the community. This week was a tough one to crack though. There was lots of good content, so let’s get to it.

This Week's Roundup 🔁

1. How I use anti-use cases to set clear product expectations.

2. Where do we find joy?

3. 5 tips to plan my career like I plan my product.

4. How to deliver bad news when it's not your fault.

5. From hands-on to hands-off.

6. Thoughts on work-life balance.

7. Crisis mode.

8. Typical PLG failure points in sales-led companies.

9. Is product art or science?

10. How systems thinking can transform your product strategy.

How I use anti-use cases to set clear product expectations (5 min read)

Anti-use cases—outlining problems your product won't solve—are a powerful tool to prevent misunderstandings between product, sales, and marketing teams. Product managers can set more explicit expectations by proactively defining these, especially for complex or buzzword-heavy technologies like AI. Anti-use cases should be embedded in strategic documents, GTM briefs, and training sessions to ensure alignment. They are especially helpful when team members overestimate product capabilities, helping prevent scope creep or unrealistic promises.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Integrate anti-use cases early in product planning to clearly communicate what your product won't solve. Use them in GTM briefs and product training to prevent misalignment across teams.

Where do we find joy? (4 min read)

Rich Mironov reflects on how product leaders can lose sight of joy amid daily firefighting and administrative tasks. He explains that true fulfillment often comes from building meaningful customer relationships, seeing the long-term impact of products, and celebrating team accomplishments. The day-to-day grind can drain energy, but moments of joy arise when product managers step back to appreciate the broader outcomes of their work.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Make time to reflect on long-term customer outcomes and team achievements, even when daily tasks feel overwhelming, to find joy and fulfillment in your work.

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5 tips to plan my career like I plan my product (4 min read)

highlights how treating career growth like product development can drive improvement. It encourages setting clear goals, writing a "year in review" vision, including growth goals in performance reviews, reflecting on progress, seeking feedback, and iterating frequently. These strategies ensure you stay adaptable, measure success, and continuously evolve in your career.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Apply structured, iterative tactics to your career by setting clear goals, measuring progress, and pivoting when necessary, just like product management.

How to deliver bad news when it's not your fault (6 min read)

When delivering bad news, avoid using overly negative language, providing too many details, or accepting blame that's not yours, as these actions can harm your credibility. Get to the point quickly and emphasize the recipient's own agency in the situation. Keep the tone constructive to maintain trust and minimize emotional drama.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Present bad news clearly and without unnecessary negativity, focusing on shared responsibility to maintain trust and minimize emotional stress.

From hands-on to hands-off (4 min read)

As product teams grow more autonomous, product managers must shift from direct involvement to strategic leadership. This transition is driven by access to AI tools, specialized team members, and product-led growth strategies. Product managers should let teams self-manage, focusing on fostering collaboration, trust, and open communication. The key is moving from managing daily tasks to ensuring alignment on vision and strategy.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: When teams become self-sufficient, step back and guide them strategically by focusing on alignment, trust, and communication.

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Thoughts on work-life balance (6 min read)

Work-life balance is an unrealistic concept, and instead, advocates for work-life prioritization. Life's priorities—work or personal—shift constantly, and trying to maintain an even split is counterproductive. Setting boundaries like fixed work hours, gym time, and travel limits can help protect personal priorities. Recognizing that career trade-offs evolve over time is key, and it's possible to negotiate personal space even early in your career.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Focus on prioritization, not balance. Protect key personal time through clear boundaries that align with your current priorities.

Crisis mode (7 min read)

argues that it's crucial to focus on conserving energy, not just managing time. Outsourcing less important or draining tasks—even if they aren't done perfectly—helps preserve your focus on what matters most. Recognizing and addressing energy drains is essential for long-term productivity. Without actively resisting inefficiencies and burnout, organizations are unlikely to make necessary changes.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Prioritize conserving your energy by offloading non-critical tasks and addressing inefficient processes early to prevent burnout.

Typical PLG failure points in sales-led companies (7 min read)

Sales-led companies often struggle with Product-Led Growth (PLG) due to poor integration between sales and product. Misconceptions like relying solely on freemiums or avoiding sales early can lead to failure.

A hybrid approach between PLG and sales-led methods (Product-Led Sales) works best, combining self-service and sales-assisted strategies. Leaders must drive change and align teams, as balancing sales incentives and product priorities is critical.

Additionally, over-reliance on data can hinder necessary but unquantifiable decisions. Customer success teams, often ignored, hold vital insights for long-term revenue and product improvements.

With shifting market conditions pushing for profitability over growth, PLG requires careful planning and leadership buy-in.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: PLG isn't just about freemiums or data; build a cross-functional team with buy-in from leadership, prioritize customer success, and balance sales and product efforts to drive long-term success.

Is product art or science? (3 min read)

Product development combines the structure of science and the creativity of art. Teams typically follow scientific methods, testing and iterating ideas, but there is an artistic element—especially in design and user experience—where creativity adds desirability and beauty. While artists create for self-expression, product creators focus on delivering customer value, though both share common creative processes.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Embrace both creativity and structure in product development. Use scientific methods to test ideas, but don't forget the artistic elements that make products engaging and delightful for users.

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How systems thinking can transform your product strategy (3 min read)

Systems thinking helps product managers assess the interrelationships between a product's components and the broader ecosystem in which it operates. This approach enables leaders to see beyond individual issues, revealing hidden connections and feedback loops that influence outcomes. By anticipating ripple effects and unintended consequences, product teams can create more resilient, long-term strategies that adapt to complex and dynamic environments. Systems thinking also helps avoid short-sighted decisions by encouraging holistic analysis of both internal and external factors.

⚡️Your Actionable Takeaway: Apply systems thinking to identify how different elements of your product ecosystem interact, allowing you to make informed, long-term decisions that strengthen overall strategy.

👋 That's it for this week's edition. Thank you for reading, and enjoy your week.

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— Sam ✌️