Product development concepts come in handy every time you're developing something. Whether that thing is software, product, or even a point of view. The first sentence in this email is a point of view (POV). I want this point of view to be effective - I want people to understand what I mean, be intrigued by it, take action, and hopefully see me as a thought leader / expert in this space that they'll want to follow / listen to more. It took me a while to develop this point of view. To carve a...
5 days ago • 3 min read
Context is King You’ve probably encountered this term in the context of AI. You won’t get far with AI, even with amazing prompting techniques, if AI doesn’t have the right context. Many people focus on the Data aspect of context – what’s in our CRM, in our collaboration tools, in our ERP, in any of our vertical systems. Another interesting aspect is the intent – what are we trying to achieve? What is our strategy? What problems are we focused on? Who are the players? Some of that information...
10 days ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, Before you fix teams, fix the system they operate in. Most organizations focus their improvement efforts at the team, program, or product level while maintaining the same organizational operating system—how they make decisions, fund work, and measure success. These teams might be using the latest and greatest processes (Agile, Product Model, Lean Startup, take your pick) but they still need to manage countless dependencies. The funding and GTM processes are still following classic...
16 days ago • 1 min read
When Vered and I got married, my father-in-law gave me a very nice watch as a wedding gift. I didn’t wear a watch that often at the time. I wore the watch, but it didn’t transform me. It provided the service of telling the time, but even back in 2004, we had phones that had clocks. And I was and am pretty punctual so didn’t need that transformation. (And when you’re in Engineering/IT leadership, nobody cares about the watch you wear… at least in Israel… ) Don’t tell Eli, but that watch spent...
23 days ago • 1 min read
“GenAI can enable cheaper, faster experimentation / discovery (it compresses the truth curve by reducing the cost of pretotyping style product experimentation techniques)” (Yours truly, in yesterday’s insight on how AI can really help you build better products) This statement seems to have hit a nerve with reader Elad, who is product leader at a cybersecurity scaleup: “Not everyone can do this… New companies, sure. Larger, established companies are knee-deep in mountains of code,...
24 days ago • 1 min read
While the jury is out on the extent of impact GenAI and vibe coding will have on building mission-critical enterprise products… Here are some thoughts on how AI can help turn the product flywheel: Use GenAI to enable fuller-stack engineers and reduce tech debt This will enable you to organize smaller product/outcome oriented teams These teams can achieve more with fewer dependencies and streamlined processes (even without looking at opportunities to streamline product dev processes themselves...
25 days ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, I have a question for you. Let's say you're in the market for some agility improvement service. What kind of guarantee would help you differentiate between services that are likely to end up in agile theater vs ones that will guide you to improved outcomes? Here's the thing - We've been buying (and selling) Agile "Features" for way too long: Training (you're guaranteed to get a certificate of completion. Some even guarantee you'll pass the exam...) Mechanics (You're guaranteed to...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Ever get the feeling you’re the “agile person” in the room—brought in to run ceremonies, fix Jira boards, or play Scrum cop, but never actually invited to shape real strategy? If that hits close to home, you’ll want to listen in on my latest conversation with Michael Gerharz. Michael’s a computer scientist by training, but these days he’s known for helping leaders and teams find the right words so their ideas land, rather than getting tossed in the trash. We dug into why so many agilists get...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, Most days, it feels like mentioning Agile anywhere in your online presence is like the GenAI Emdash. A troll magnet. That makes it harder (maybe even unsafe) to have a real conversation. share nuanced opinions. (And its even less safe to talk about SAFe...) If you're a leader working on improving your organization, should you only listen to people that DON'T talk about Agile? That don't have any SAFe association? Does not mentioning their Agile association immediately mean that...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read