Test-n-Tell - tiny apps, Big ideas

  An AI agent is like a super obedient engineer. It does whatever you ask. It rarely challenges you. It rarely pushes back. It rarely says: “This is a bad idea.” And if it goes off script, well, that’s probably because your instructions were too vague. Finally, executives got what they always dreamed about: a builder who simply builds.

  A mistake many companies make when hiring Product Managers is that they overvalue industry knowledge.

  When I started vibe coding, I had a budget in mind. I knew I needed to learn a bunch of new AI tools, and that would cost something: subscriptions, hosting, third-party tools, APIs. And it did cost me a bit… then a bit more… and finally a lot more. So here’s me sharing a few things I learned (and paid for) so you don’t have to.

  There’s a persistent myth in product development: that what you ship is the roadmap. In reality, what you ship is the organisation that built the roadmap.

  Spreadsheets are among the most powerful tools in modern organisations. They clarify plans. They align teams. They make trade-offs visible. They help leaders reason about complexity. But they also create one of the most dangerous illusions in product development: the illusion of certainty. 

  Whether we like it or not, we all need to be competition-aware as PMs. Most of us have competitors, and understanding what they do might help us to win in the market.

  Is it only me, or have we stopped talking about frameworks? Long gone debates about Agile vs Waterfall, we stopped fighting over TDD vs BDD or KANO vs effort/value... it's KANO by the way, KANO is way superior.

  A common misconception when people say Product-led org is to assume product managers are running things. That shouldn't be the case. Product-led is about the mindset of everyone.

  Predictable innovation is one of the most harmful myths in product development. It leads to tons of frustration and subpar outcomes.

  I saw many entrepreneurs trying to sell their ideas on both sides of the Atlantic, they often make this one mistake - assuming one pitch would work everywhere.

  Anyone who has tried using B2B or corporate software can probably attest - on average it's worse than B2C, consumer apps. Let's look into some reasons why it is so.

  Most companies are full of people with good ideas. More good ideas than resources to realise them. Hence the problem for most companies is how to prioritise and align the organisation so everyone pulling in the same direction.

Making products successful is tough. It requires a lot of skill, even more hard work and a great dose of luck. Most importantly it requires everyone to work together and towards the same objective. This sounds obvious but people aspects, or culture, often become the reason your product fails.

  This is a trivial reason for product failure, but also very common. You have finite resources to achieve product success. If you run out of them before you reach product success - you might not have a second chance.

  In journalism, there is a rule of 5Ws that is surprisingly relevant for product managers in more ways than one.

  Or so they think. And the main reason people think this way is the hindsight bias.

  They can, and many of them are doing product management, especially in the early days of their startups. It makes sense, business founders are working very closely with their customers, really know their problems and can PM the right solution to get an initial product-market fit.

  Product-market fit is not something you get once and maintain forever. You can lose it, regain it and lose again. As a PM, you need to have a good understanding of where you are with product-market fit and have signals set up to inform you of a possible change.

  To make a successful product you not only need to build it, but also position it rightly on the market and convince your customers to try it. Luckily people exist who can help you do that - product marketers.

  Is it really a product blog without a single quote from Steve Jobs? Relax there will be no quote from the man, but there will be a quote about him. And it just might explain the secret behind his extremely successful career.