This too shall pass!

By Ali Vahed

 There are two moments I absolutely love in any project:

- Kicking off a brand new product, when everything seems possible!
 - Launching it for the first time, when the results start rolling in and life feels pretty good!

Then there are these two moments I secretly dread:
 - Right before kickoff, when I second-guess every decision I’ve made.
 - Right after launch, when I can’t help but think, “You could’ve done better…!”

And there’s this one rare moment I genuinely struggle with:
Shutting down a product I helped bring to life. Even if it’s the right business decision for the client, it still stings!

Living one of those moments right now and yeah, it sucks!

But … this too shall pass!





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sell Me This Pen!

By Ali Vahed
Image
The Scene:   INT. OFFICE – DAY A sleek high-rise office with floor-to-ceiling windows. A formal interview is underway for a role in a Software development team. A table sits between the INTERVIEWER and the CANDIDATE CASTING The INTERVIEWER: Professional, relaxed. Someone who interviews for any role, from a Sales rep to Software Engineer to C-level Executive, inspired by The Wolf of Wall Street , loves asking questions that throw candidates off guard. The CANDIDATE:   Suited up, a bit nervous but composed. A seasoned software professional: Product or Project Manager, Business Analyst, or experienced Software Engineer, ready for whatever the interview throws their way.    ACTION INTERVIEWER:  (smiling confidently) Please sell me this pen! CANDIDATE  (pauses, raises an eyebrow, thinking: “Seriously? For this role?” but decides to roll with it) Sure... that’s a good question. (leans forward slightly, zoomed in on the candidate's face, thinking out loud) B...
Read more

Agile Frameworks for Product Managers

By Ali Vahed
As highlighted ( here ), I recently ran a workshop for our team on Agile Frameworks tailored for Product Managers. In an attempt to take my mind off everything happening in the world lately, I decided to turn the key takeaways from that session into a set of simple, visual study cards. These slides offer a quick tour through a few popular frameworks, such as  XP, Kanban, Scrum, Lean, LeSS, SAFe, etc.,  with just enough context to learn (or refresh) your understanding. Hope you find them useful! Click here to access and download the file.
Read more

How I approached building a 0-1 product.

By Ali Vahed
Image
What would you do if your entire product market vanished overnight? This article presents a real-world example of navigating uncertainty, validating ideas, and finding traction in unexpected places when our market shifted unexpectedly.   This experience shaped my mindset in developing software solutions from scratch. If you work in product, tech, or delivery, you may relate. THE CROSSROADS: WHEN THE MARKET SHIFTS Problem Statement: The market for our current product has been shrinking. What should we do? At Radman ITD, we created our main products based on the needs of the public sector and government departments. This drove high demand for our products, which helped us grow from a few people in a rental room to a full team with structure and our own office with a view. Then, unexpectedly, a new government administration took over, and everything changed. Our team no longer felt motivated to continue working with the new administration.  For a young company, this was a se...
Read more