Search the archive

CANVA IS ONE PERCENT OF THE WAY THERE

As AI makes software easier to build, good judgment becomes the new bottleneck. Canva's advantage is an operating system that moves founder insight into the product quickly without creating chaos.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED WRITING FOR BILLIONS OF USERS

At a massive scale, every word matters. Great UX writing builds trust, reduces confusion, and helps teams uncover and solve deeper product problems.

THIS IS HOW TO GET WHAT YOU REALLY WANT: 6 SECRETS FROM RESEARCH

Our desires are often shaped by comparison with others. By recognizing those influences, learning from envy, and prioritizing meaningful goals over status, we can pursue what we truly value.

WHY THE PRODUCT MANAGER TO CEO PIPELINE IS THE UNDERRATED CRASH COURSE FOR LEADERSHIP IN TECH

Product management prepares future CEOs to set direction, make difficult decisions, and own measurable outcomes. Leadership skills matter more than following a traditional sequence of job titles.

HOW MAPS CAN HIDE PROBLEMS

Maps and AI can help organizations navigate complexity, but they cannot resolve conflicting goals, structures, and incentives. Use maps to uncover and fix misalignment, not simply make it easier to manage.

Age of AI. Get the book →

THE CASE FOR AESTHETICS

Beauty can preserve cultural continuity, inspire progress, improve craftsmanship, and reveal forms of truth that argument alone cannot reach.

HOW TO SPOT 2026-ERA AI WRITING

AI writing often reveals itself through long sentences, three-part lists, inflated language, technical jargon, and predictable contrasts.

getting harder to catch.

* How earlier, cross-lifecycle signals can help you detect fraud sooner. * What fraud really costs—from customer trust to operational strain.

Get your copy

BARBELL-SHAPED PRODUCT ROLES

AI shifts product management toward deciding what to build and how to sell it. Human judgment and customer insight remain essential.

WHY COMPUTE MIGHT GET 10X+ MORE EXPENSIVE IN COMING YEARS

AI generates more economic value while compute supply grows slowly, so the price of computing power could rise dramatically. This would favor frontier labs with the most efficient models, eliminate lower-value applications, and deepen the concentration of power in the AI industry.

THE NEXT AI MOAT ISN'T A BETTER MODEL

Better models alone will not unlock physical AI. The strongest companies will build intelligent engineering systems that rapidly integrate, validate, deploy, and improve autonomous machines using real-world data.

BUILDING WITH AI ISN'T ENOUGH

AI can accelerate building. However, judgment, taste, and disciplined iteration are what make the result valuable.

SO, YOU WANT TO BE A CONTENT CREATOR?

Content creation can create influence, income, and opportunity, but it also brings pressure and criticism. Lasting success comes from authenticity, useful expertise, and prioritizing impact over attention.

JAKOB'S LAW: HOW TO APPLY IT AS AI COLLAPSES SURFACES INTO ONE CHAT BOX

As AI assistants become the front door to more tasks, users may interact with products without ever opening them directly. Designers must make products easy for agents to understand, invoke, and render while maintaining coherent native interfaces for deeper work.

THE BORDER COLLIE FAUSTIAN BARGAIN

Employees who see organizational contradictions must decide when to challenge them, translate them, conserve their energy, or walk away.

THE HIDDEN MATH OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH

Behavioral health is booming, but complex insurance processes make getting paid difficult. Better billing technology can reduce administrative work and keep clinics financially sustainable.

Elastic report

THE PRODUCTIVITY MIRAGE

The best tools cannot replace strong judgment and the ability to identify valuable problems.

FROM VAGUE REQUIREMENTS TO TESTABLE STORIES

AI can transform vague requirements into testable stories, handling the repetitive work while product managers retain judgment.

Watch the demo →

THE ANTITHESIS PRINCIPLE

Every insight about human behavior has two sides: a tactic for influencing others and a bias to resist yourself. Smart people see the tactic, while wise people also overcome the bias.

STRIPE AND SIERRA BUILT THEIR OWN CODING AGENT SYSTEMS. YOU PROBABLY DON'T NEED TO

Most companies should buy coding-agent infrastructure and focus their resources on the context and workflows that make it uniquely valuable. Building internally is worthwhile only when the technology is strategically essential, and the organization can support it as a permanent product.

BUNDLING & UNBUNDLING CAPABILITIES (AND AI)

AI redistributes capabilities across organizations, but efficiency gains can weaken the expertise and judgment that sustain high-quality work.

GAMEPLAY BEFORE STRATEGY

Strong strategy emerges from making better moves, learning quickly, and scaling what works.

on. See how your company compares

HOW TO RUN CUSTOMER INTERVIEWS FOR A CAPABILITY YOUR USERS HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED

Customer research for novel AI products should focus on familiar needs rather than hypothetical interest. Study current workarounds, create a realistic experience, and examine the decisions and outcomes the capability could improve.

CLAUDE OPUS 5 REVIEW + BROWSER USE IN CODEX + HOW CURSOR AND A RASPBERRY PI MAKES AI FUN (27 MINUTE VIDEO)

Browser and computer-use agents can handle tedious digital work, from exhaustive QA and persona testing to inbox management, shopping, and remote device setup. They perform best when given room to plan, matched to the right model and effort level, and paired with brief human oversight for verification and final decisions.

DESIGN DOESN'T HAVE A FINISH LINE

Design should continue throughout development because the hardest decisions often emerge only after building begins. Keeping designers in the delivery loop helps teams catch mistakes early and avoid efficiently shipping the wrong product.

SUBSTACK ASKED FOR VOLUME, THEN SHIPPED A SCANNER

Substack incentivized frequent posting, then introduced an AI detector to police the resulting content. This shifts the burden of verification onto users rather than addressing the platform's growth mechanics.

BRUTE INTELLIGENCE

AI can accelerate discovery when problems are structured for continuous, verifiable experimentation.

THE APPLIED AI OPPORTUNITY

Better models increase the need for specialized companies that connect AI to real-world enterprise workflows.

WHAT SYSTEMS THINKING LOOKS LIKE FOR PM'ING AI PRODUCTS

AI products must be cultivated as evolving systems rather than designed as isolated features. Product teams can create lasting differentiation by building reusable interfaces, shared contracts, and feedback loops that help agents improve over time.

WHAT COMES AFTER "BECOME A BUILDER"? (61 MINUTE PODCAST)

As AI makes building easier, product managers must differentiate themselves through judgment, conviction, and customer impact. The best PMs build systems that scale their expertise and help teams make better decisions independently.

MOST AI ROLLOUTS FAIL DUE TO CHANGE MANAGEMENT, NOT TECHNOLOGY

Enterprise AI succeeds when companies treat it as a people transformation, not simply a software rollout. Leaders must create safe conditions for experimentation while helping effective employee-led workflows spread across the organization.

WHY YOUR AI PRODUCT HAS NO MEMORY

AI products improve retention by remembering relevant user context instead of making every session start over.

WANT USERS TO STICK AROUND? THESE 5 ONBOARDING TEARDOWNS SHOW YOU HOW

Effective onboarding helps users experience value by guiding them toward one important behavior. The best flows combine timely instruction, purposeful questions, and immediate action to build trust and encourage repeat use.

FIVE PRODUCT MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES FOR INTERNAL DEVELOPER PLATFORMS

Successful developer platforms make the right workflows easier and continuously improve based on developer outcomes.

HOW TO BECOME SO CREATIVE IT FEELS ILLEGAL

Creativity thrives when the mind has space to wander, process experiences, and notice unexpected connections. Reducing stimulation and pursuing a meaningful project can restore curiosity and make original ideas easier to find.

WHY HASN'T AI INCREASED UNEMPLOYMENT?

AI is beginning to improve productivity without significantly increasing unemployment because it still depends on human expertise, direction, and oversight. That balance could change as models become more capable and automate longer, more complex tasks.

THE AI PRODUCTIVITY PARADOX

AI improves outcomes when teams use it to validate the right solutions, not simply build faster.

DEFENSIBLE, BUT NOT GOOD

Strong teams pursue work that creates real value, not ideas that are merely defensible.

8 STRATEGY CONCEPTS EVERY PM SHOULD KNOW

Strong product strategies combine several sources of competitive advantage. Those advantages must be chosen carefully and revisited as the market changes.

IS "JOBS" A FOUR-LETTER WORD?

AI is changing Silicon Valley's definition of ambition from building large teams to needing fewer people. This shift could make hiring look inefficient and layoffs look impressive.