The Next Release

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 ...

I spent hours and hours a few weeks back crafting a perfect playbook for user story creation, then got my AI co-pilot to create perfect user stories. They were INVEST, criticised by an Agile Coach role, and written with so much detail that there was no ambiguity in them. Crystal clear. I was so proud of them. It turns out, they were not perfect after all. In our retro yesterday, we discussed them. They had extra details, and the team needed to spend more time reading them. Having requirements (functional, non-functional, assumptions, and design) broken down into different sections also made it hard for QA to create and link test cases. The team wanted something simple. Simple is what they get. At the end of the day, the format of a user story does not matter. It is the outcome that matters. I spent a few hours and simplified some of the user stories. Next step: I will simplify the playbook for the AI copilot to create simpler and imperfect user stories from now on. [Unpolished] po...

Like many PMs, I didn’t really trust AI for serious product work. I mostly used it for general purposes: polishing emails and notes, drafting messages and creating images from time to time. I used AI in a project only as a second opinion and to validate my discovery work, but that was it. For more on that check my earlier  blog post . While AI felt adequate for technical tasks or copywriting, it didn’t feel reliable for the messy, ambiguous world of product management where curiosity, judgement, and breaking patterns matter most. Then everything shifted. Here is my experience report.

Last year at a tech meetup, someone looked me straight in the eye and declared: "𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱!" The conversation went something like this: Him: What do you do? Me: 𝘐'𝘮 𝘢 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘳. Him: Oh, really? I heard product management is dead! Engineers can handle it. We don't have a PM on our team, no PM, no PO, no Project Manager. Just us devs. Me: 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬! 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘺 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘥𝘮𝘢𝘱? Him: We tried to work it out together initially, but recently only one of the guys usually takes the lead on that. Me: 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴? Him: The same person works that out too, but honestly, it's tough. Me: 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘵! 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 ...

You know that satisfying moment when you realise you’ve been doing something right, without even labelling it? There’s a quote that often shows up in Agile articles: “D𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘈𝘨𝘪𝘭𝘦, 𝘉𝘦 A𝘨𝘪𝘭e. ” It hit me again while I was prepping for a workshop I’d promised my team. I ran the 𝗔𝗴𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀 session, covering a few key topics: • What Agile really means • What Product Managers need to know • A quick tour through XP, Kanban, Scrum, Lean, LeSS, SAFe, Nexus, and more While working on the content, I paused and asked myself: 𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭? And the answer surprised me: 𝘠𝘦𝘴, 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵! Not perfect. Not by the book. But real, grounded progress. We may not have ticked every box in a framework, but we are almost Agile. Especially in the Product Team, we are improving month after month, and that matters. Agility isn’t just about ...

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...