AI Distance Series
The Trust You Spend Without Noticing
Overriding a supportability concern is a withdrawal from an account nobody tracks. First they stop raising concerns, then they stop caring, then they leave.
Newsletter
Newsletter Archive
Every issue of Decision Fitness for Product Leaders.
AI Distance Series
Somebody Is Paying for That Demo
The cost of a fast prototype doesn't get absorbed collectively. It lands on one person, and it's invisible in every system you own.
AI Distance Series
The Distance Ledger
Three entries on one page, filled in before the yes: the multiple, the named owner of the gap, and the kill condition nobody ever agrees in advance.
AI Distance Series
The Last Mile Is Ninety Percent of the Road
Generation got cheap. Finishing did not — and finishing is the product. The number your delivery system never calculates.
AI Distance Series
It Already Works, Just Finish It
The demo sets an anchor nobody wrote down, and then your team spends a quarter losing an argument to it.
AI Distance Series
The Demo Is Not the Product
A working demo used to cost six weeks of somebody's life. Now it costs a weekend — and your executives are still reading it as a credential.
Newsletter
The Cross-Functional Operating Agreement
Three weeks, three symptoms, one disease. Everyone agreed on the strategy and walked out solving different problems. Sales got fed first while Product negotiated like
Newsletter
Three Teams, Three Backlogs, One Customer
Your customer doesn't care that your teams are organized by function. They experience one product. One login, one bill, one bad moment when
Newsletter
Sales Is the Favorite Child. Stop Negotiating Like You're Not.
Watch what happens in any product org when Sales wants something. It gets built. Maybe not well, maybe not soon, but it gets built. Now
Newsletter
Everyone Agrees on the Strategy. Nobody Agrees on What It Means.
Everyone in the room nodded. "Win the enterprise segment." It was right there on the screen, and twelve people agreed with it. Sales
Newsletter
Build Your Product Story in 30 Minutes
A product story is three sentences. Most teams have never written even one of them. We've spent this month on the cost of
Newsletter
Your Roadmap Is a List of Features, Not a Story
Your stakeholders don't distrust your delivery because you're slow. They distrust it because your roadmap doesn't add up to
Newsletter
Why Your PM Can't Say No
Your PM isn't an order taker because they're weak. They're an order taker because you left them nothing to
Newsletter
The Black Box Problem
Nobody outside your team can explain what product does. That's not their failure. It's yours. Walk down the hall and ask
Newsletter
Stop / Pivot / Invest: A Survival Metrics Primer
Your team already knows which products on your roadmap shouldn't be there. They have no legitimate mechanism to say so. Three weeks. Three
Newsletter
The Feature Nobody Uses But Everyone Maintains
"Vibe code, launch, and abandon" is the culture being championed right now. Build fast. Ship fast. Move on. The pitch is compelling — AI
Newsletter
The Meeting Where Nobody Says "Kill It"
Every zombie product has a meeting where it should have died. A room where someone has the data. Someone has the instinct. Someone has the
Newsletter
Declare It. Price It. Own It.
Maintenance is not an engineering problem. It's a leadership decision that most product organizations never make. Your roadmap hides the real cost. Your
Newsletter
Your Strategy Is Lying to Your Dashboard
Your dashboard isn't lying to you. Your strategy is lying to your dashboard. Most metrics tell you what's happening. They don&
Newsletter
Speed Without a Maintenance Strategy
Your team is shipping faster than ever and delivering less than ever. That's not a paradox. That's what happens when prototypes
Newsletter
When It Breaks at 2 AM — Who's On Call?
The people pushing for speed are never the ones who get paged. Your CEO wants more vibe coding. Your head of sales wants features faster.
Newsletter
Nobody's Calculating the Real Cost
Everything your team builds has two prices. Your organization is only looking at one of them. The first price is the build. Requirements, design, sprints,
Empowerment
From Order Taker to Strategist
A lot of PMs admit the same thing when I work with them: they're stuck taking orders. Sales has a list. Leadership has
Decision-Making
For PMs Who Feel Stuck Saying "Yes" to Everything
Most PMs I meet don't have an idea problem. They have an order-taking problem. Sales has a list. Leadership has a list.