It's a totally subjective observation, but it seems lately the discussions among product people (PMs, engineers, designers) have shifted away from frameworks. Even five years ago, it was different. There wasn't a day without someone talking about some framework, criticising or praising it, promoting it, making money out of it. Movements formed around some of the frameworks, whole companies built their business models around those frameworks. And now... it feels different, it's like we all collectively chilled out about frameworks. And that's a good thing.
Why is it a good thing? Because I feel, I hope, the conversations have shifted to solving real problems and creating real value rather than constantly discussing the frameworks. It feels like we have finally moved towards asking "why" and "what" rather than spending most of our efforts on the "how".
And it seems logical as well. Maybe previously we saw someone succeeding and we were trying to emulate how they did it, being baffled when it didn't work for us the same way. Only lately, some of us came to the right conclusion that everyone has their unique conditions and challenges. And that there are no universal recipes that work for all. We can and should get inspired by the experiences of others, but we shouldn't just try to copy them.
In other words, people realised it's better to be agile rather than do Agile, it's better to measure impact than game OKRs, it's better to talk to customers rather than theorise about personas...
What comes next?
Shortcuts, smoke and mirrors. Abandoning frameworks brought a surprising challenge - many organisations took this as an opportunity to "do things their way", even if that way is painful for everyone involved. Imagine doing "Scrum" but instead of iterating on a product, they would be iterating on plans or documentation. It was happening with frameworks as well, but not on the same scale. At least with framework experts around, teams were protected from the biggest abuses of customisation. These days, it feels like a free-for-all.
Moreover, if earlier, when looking for a job, you could have had a basic understanding of what it's gonna be like working somewhere by looking at what frameworks they are using. Now it's way trickier as you won't know how someone has customised those frameworks.
What should come next?
Impact, reflection and improvement. There's nothing inherently wrong about customising a framework. It's just way more expensive and longer if you want to do it right, rather than taking one off the shelf. Because common frameworks were tested before by many in various setups. Someone already paid the price of learning, so you can enjoy a working framework.If you think you can do better - you're always welcome to try. If you have time, money and patience, you absolutely can improve on a framework, customise it and adapt it to your organisation. In order to do that, you need to focus on the impact - why are you applying this framework, what are you trying to achieve? Knowing that is the first step. Then you need to actually measure it and be honest about the progress.
You need to reflect at any opportunity, admit mistakes, and clearly outline what worked and what didn't. Then you'd make improvements and repeat the cycle. And then again. And again. And again. See why it's expensive and long? And the kicker? You won't ever be done. Context keeps changing, business and tech conditions are changing so fast that you'd never end up with a perfect way of doing things. You'd need to keep trying, failing, succeeding, but always learning and improving.