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Product Helmsmanship (P2): Recalibrate Between Strategy and Execution

By Ali Vahed
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Remember the product transformation I shared in my previous post , where we turned never-ending custom reports with an exhausted dev team into a self-service analytics engine that became a new revenue stream? That shift from execution to strategy did not happen by accident. It came from asking three questions that have guided my career in product for years. Today, I am sharing those questions with you. Before diving in, revisit Part 1 to refresh your memory on the Helmsmanship mindset in product management: the art of balancing strategy, execution, and everything in between. ---------- The Problem Most product management advice naturally focuses on the product work: interview techniques, discovery frameworks, data analysis methods, prioritisation matrices, roadmap templates, or PRD and user story formats. Older frameworks were even designed on the assumption that the product lifecycle is predictable. These resources are often heavy on management tactics but light on leadership skills....
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[Unpolished] AI is supposed to make us more efficient, right? Yeah... about that. ๐Ÿ˜

By Ali Vahed
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๐—ง๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ธ: Write a requirement document. ๐—•๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—”๐—œ: 1. Write the draft. 2. Spell-check in Microsoft Word, fix errors one by one. 3. If it is a client facing document, get a friend or colleague to review as a second pair of eyes. 4. Publish. ๐˜–๐˜ถ๐˜ต๐˜ฑ๐˜ถ๐˜ต: ๐˜ˆ 500-๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฅ, ๐˜ค๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ, ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ-๐˜ง๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฐ๐˜ค๐˜ถ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต. ๐˜›๐˜ช๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ ๐˜š๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต: 2 ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜ด. ๐—”๐—ณ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—”๐—œ *๐—˜๐˜…๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป (๐—š๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐—”๐—œ): 1. Write the draft. 2. Get one of the models to review and update. 3. Publish. ๐˜Œ๐˜น๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜–๐˜ถ๐˜ต๐˜ฑ๐˜ถ๐˜ต: 400-๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜จ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ. ๐˜›๐˜ช๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ ๐˜š๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต: 1 ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ณ. *๐—˜๐˜…๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป (๐—”๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—”๐—œ): 1. Casually chat with your AI agent about what you mean in 5 minutes 2. Your agent writes and publishes the document on your behalf. ๐˜Œ๐˜น๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜–๐˜ถ๐˜ต๐˜ฑ๐˜ถ๐˜ต: 500-๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ด๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ต-๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฐ๐˜ค๐˜ถ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต. ๐˜›๐˜ช๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ ๐˜š๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต: 6 ๐˜ฎ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ถ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ด. *๐—”๐—œ ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†: 1. Write the draft. 2. Feed it to ๐—–๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜๐—š๐—ฃ๐—ง to rev...
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[Unpolished] Semi Invisible Man!

By Ali Vahed
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Over the past few months, I’ve reached out to a few people whose work or ideas had an impact on me, asking for their feedback on my work or ideas. Many responded and provided valuable feedback, and I’m genuinely grateful to them. But a few, like a teacher I learned from, an author whose article inspired my approach, and start-up founders in different countries who implemented similar ideas, didn’t respond. Each time, I shared my thoughts or work, asked for feedback, or simply asked if I could learn from their journey. Each time, there was no reply. Assuming they received my messages but chose not to respond, I wondered: Why no reply? Was I doing something wrong? Am I invisible to them? Was it my message or my name? Or do I have unrealistic expectations of replies to an old student or a stranger from a far, far away country down under? I reviewed my messages again and could not find any issues. Talking it through with my “unofficial therapist / copywriter” ChatGPT(!) to have a second op...
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AI as Product Manager's Copilot - Workshop Slides

By Ali Vahed
 AI-enabled tools have proven effective in some areas, but when it comes to the actual Product Management work product,  where creativity and authenticity matter , using AI becomes more challenging. To explore this further, I ran an experiment to answer a simple question: Can I delegate (automate) at least 30% of my PM work to AI? I documented the outcomes in a blog pos t and later shared them in a workshop with fellow PMs. The slides below are exported directly from the Miro board I used for that session.  ๐Ÿ‘‰ Read the full blog post here: How I Tried Delegating My Product Work to AI Link to Download 
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Product Helmsmanship (P1): Balancing Strategy, Execution, and the Storms in Between

By Ali Vahed
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Product Management often feels like steering a ship through unpredictable seas. Over my career, I’ve learned when to grip the wheel and dive into execution, when to step back and chart the strategic course, when to find that sweet spot in between, and when to simply hand the helm to the crew and trust them to steer. I call this balance Product Helmsmanship . The Origin Story When I first stepped into tech, I started from the lower decks. I began in execution, first as a developer writing code since I was 12, then as a Business Analyst turning requirements into documents and diagrams right after university, and later as a Project Manager focused on delivery. The transition into Product Management felt natural , but in the early years my role often felt like translation, helping business leaders and technical teams understand one another, sometimes mapping business requirements to technical jargon and vice versa. Over time, I realised Product Management is less about translating and ...
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