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. There's a competitor deck floating around. Everyone wants a "quick win."

Without clear bets and decision rules, you end up saying yes by default.

The fix isn't saying no more often. It's having a framework that makes your priorities defensible.

Here's what that looks like: take a messy backlog and turn it into a couple of clear, defensible bets with:

• A specific "who" — not "all users," not "the market," but a named segment with a named problem
• Odds of success — how confident are you, and what evidence supports that confidence?
• Kill criteria — when do you stop if it's not working?

Most product managers skip the kill criteria entirely. They commit to a bet and ride it until someone higher up pulls the plug. That's not strategy — that's hoping someone else will make the hard decision for you.

The PMs who escape order-taking mode are the ones who can articulate what they're betting on, why, and when they'd walk away.

That clarity doesn't just help you — it helps your stakeholders trust you. When you can say "here's our bet, here's our evidence, here's our exit criteria," leadership stops micromanaging your roadmap. They don't need to — you've already answered the questions they were going to ask.

If you're tired of being an order taker and want more clarity and conviction in your strategy, the first step is naming your bets.

Want to build the system for this?

Book a Clarity Call — 30 minutes, no pitch. Just clarity on moving from "yes to everything" to clear, defensible bets.