KeyBank

Chosen to lead all aspects of training to enhance product and delivery team effectiveness.
Designed new training strategy focused first on team-level leadership, shoring up the crucial Product role.
Designing and implementing totally new modules on User Story Mapping and Continuous Product Discovery contextualized for the organization's Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) constraints.

Enterprise Delivery Coach and Training Lead

Connecting strategy at the leadership level through Portfolio and Program management down to Team day-to-day execution through Jira Align
Support Program-level leadership
Review, analyze and make recommendations for Program and Portfolio composition
Jira Align maintenance and administration
Coach and support OKR implementation

Enterprise Jira Align User Experience Lead

Invited to bring Agile delivery success at the team level to the Enterprise level as part of the Key Agile Coaching team, continuing to support the bank’s ongoing Agile transformation.
* Updated and enhanced training materials, training, and coaching to support Jira Align usage and connect strategy and OKRs at the scaled level 
* Developed OKR training materials, conducted training and coaching for teams and leadership
* Coached leadership and teams through OKR creation across multiple quarterly business review cycles
* Trained & coached executive leadership on Business Agility, Servant Leadership, & Strategy
* Collaborated with global consultancy in large-scale Agile Transformation
* Spearheaded OKR practice training & ongoing coaching
* Instituted & coached bank teams in Product Discovery and Agile Delivery from initiation through launch
* Initiated Product Management Community of Practice (CoP) to further state of product at Key
* Conducted Agile training sessions introducing and deepening Agile capabilities across the bank
* Architected & delivered Atlassian Agile tool TFIM to F5 APM Single Sign On migration solution

Enterprise Product, Discovery, Lean & OKR Coach

Led $3M, 10-member Scrum team tasked with reimagining the nation’s 13th-largest and near 200 year-old bank’s retail strategy, based on core Financial Wellness principles.
* Facilitated story mapping, design & development that took Post-It notes in a conference room to working MVP software in a branch in 60 days, unprecedented in the bank’s IT delivery history.
* Negotiated complex decision-making with Enterprise Architecture stakeholders to arrive at a solution that allowed the team to fast-follow MVP branch delivery with complex recommendations logic.
* Took on shared Product role to help guide client-centricity and business value 
* Continuously coached team through personnel and budget shifts, evolving processes and tooling
* Coordinate delivery across other Agile and Waterfall teams to deliver end-client value 
* Lead monthly sprint review showcasing all work from Financial Wellness division for the entire Key organization

Delivery Lead & Product Coach

Author, "Product Strategy Decoded" newsletter
Part-time consulting, coaching, writing, and editing on Strategy, Product, & Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).
Worked with various Product Managers, startup founders, leaders, and individual contributors.

Part-Time Strategy, Product, & Continuous Discovery Writing, Training, & Coaching

Virtusa

Strategically guide execution and delivery of custom digital and mobile projects for Fortune 500 banking and financial services clients as part of this global consultancy. Scope encompasses directing 20-member cross-functional team, enhancing developers’ core competencies, and capturing best practices to drive process improvements.
* Lead product and business analysis for a major back-end B2B monolithic API to microservices transformation on AWS IaaS. Worked with sales and client stakeholders to define project schedules, team goals and success criteria.
* Instituted knowledge base to drive adoption of end-to-end mobile and digital product, program, and sales delivery excellence. Partnered with practice leads and Subject Matter Experts in documenting best practices.
* Initiated and directed team executing $4M mobile app development project for major regional credit union. Interviewed & resourced entire team that streamlined apps, redesigned UI, & simplified application management. 
* Managed large-scale hybrid mobile re-platforming program for major financial institution on Ionic 2+. Administered project schedule, budget, and resources; conducted risk management and client relations.
* Analyzed & designed biometrics security authorization solution for financial services client, involving architectural, UX/UI, and business requirements; collaborated with sales and client stakeholders to define success criteria.

Associate Director

Mobiquity, Inc.

Advanced to this role to assume ownership over global account and deliver multi-million-dollar portfolio of custom enterprise-level mobile and big data projects for Fortune 500 clients as part of this mobile-centric consultancy. Fostered inclusive & diverse remote design & development teams, provided mentorship to senior project & product managers. Coach management in Agile leadership, documented PMO processes and policies. 
* Led native iOS and Android development teams in multi-year, $2M initiative to build Weight Watchers app in 14 languages. Interviewed prospective team members, leveraged best practices in Agile delivery
* Directed end-to-end development of Android and iOS apps for global consulting firm alerting Enterprise thought leaders with instant notifications of new content releases. $500K project on Redshift and Serverless.
* Also, for global consulting firm, led team executing cloud Lambda serverless solution to distribute content locked in legacy CMS and syndicate to modern apps, simplifying enterprise-wide application management function. 
* Directed tech integration and design of quick service restaurant chain’s Center of Innovation. $200K project.

Principal Project Manager

Directed enterprise-level Agile mobile project and product management. Steered teams on mobile strategy and cross-platform native app development, defined process, selected tools, managed risk, and delivered projects consistently within timeline and budgetary constraints.

Senior Project Manager

usablenet

Principally guided high-profile, complex mobile commerce web projects, primarily for Fortune 500 clients including CVS and OfficeMax, as well as iconic global luxury fashion brands. Scope encompassed project planning and budgeting, resource management, Agile engagement delivery, and client relationship management.

Strategic Domain

Fully directed all aspects of client projects for this small, creative, dynamic marketing, branding, and strategy agency. Clients were primarily in healthcare and life sciences e-marketing space.
* Steered $500K project to build fully modern, updatable web presence for major New York investment firm on Drupal. Conducted complete redesign, overhauled UX, and established secure member-only areas. 
* Built comprehensive patient and caregiver portal for Melanoma Research Foundation. $600K engagement.

Director of Project Management

RichFX

I integrally contributed to closing $500K in new web development and maintenance accounts, and partnered with sales to drive a 40% increase in cross-selling opportunities. Additionally, I introduced innovative projects from beta to full release status for national catalog retailers.

Fry Multimedia

I was innovating and delivering winning sales pitches that captured $2M in new business for this international full-service agency, and managing $500K+ in web maintenance operations for major sites. I oversaw a 12-member team.

Fox Sports Net

In this role, I directed project teams producing broadcast and cable affiliate content, as well as marketing messages, through the digital arm of News America media corporation.

Increasing Product Manager impact through Strategy, Continuous Discovery, & OKRs

I am a Certified Strategy Professional, ICAgile Certified Lean Portfolio Manager and Certified Professional in Business Agility Foundations (BAF), Certified OKR Coach, Senior Agile Leader, Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), as well as a Certified Scrum Master (CSM), with over 15 years of experience in coaching, innovating, executing, and delivering end-to-end digital and mobile solutions for Fortune 200 clients in the banking and financial services industry. 

I'm currently the Delivery Enablement and Onboarding Training Lead at KeyBank, where I teach, coach, and train teams in optimizing delivery at the Enterprise, Portfolio, Program, and Team levels.

My core competencies include Strategy, Product Management, Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), Continuous Discovery, solution development and delivery, Agile leadership, solution innovation, PMO leadership, SDLC management, information architecture, iOS and Android application development, delivery management, program and project management, budget and resource management, user experience enhancement, client engagement leadership, client relationship management, and technology team leadership. 

I am passionate about building great products that leverage Lean and UX-driven, Design Thinking-centered approaches to deliver measurable client-focused business outcomes. I am also an author and public speaker, sharing my insights and best practices on Product, Strategy, OKRs, and Agile delivery.

All views expressed are my own.

Y Combinator partners ripped first-time founders Alexander Danilowicz & Teddy Ni for having "the silliest startup idea they'd ever heard."

Two years later, Magic Patterns hit $1M Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) with two founders and zero employees.

And they did it by doing something most AI startups refuse to do:
𝗥𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀. 𝗟𝗼𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺.

That decision explains why they're now generating $500K in ARR per employee, while competitors burn through venture capital in a vain attempt to serve larger Total Addressable Markets (“TAMs”).

Magic Patterns users are obsessed with its ability not only to speed up design, but for something that sounds impossible until you see it happen.

In this week's Product Strategy Decoded, I break down the strategic choices two frontend engineers made to build what VCs now value at over $6M:
→ The critical capability most AI design tools completely miss 
→ Why saying no to a larger user base created a compounding competitive advantage 
→ The metrics they track to nurture free users into 50-seat enterprise accounts

Read the full story & subscribe here:

Michael Goitein

Enterprise Product, Strategy & Continuous Discovery

Open article: How Magic Patterns Hit $1M ARR By Turning Away Most Of Their Potential Customers by michaelgoitein.substack.com

How Magic Patterns Hit $1M ARR By Turning Away Most Of Their Potential Customers

The $200M Product Strategy Lovable Uses To Become The Last Piece of Software You’ll Ever Need

Lovable.dev’s Co-Founder & CEO Anton Osika Reverse-engineering the choices powering Europe’s most successful startup ever in its quest to remove the final barrier to startup success Saving lives and generating $500,000 in funding—without writing a single line of code. Brazilian growth marketer Sabrine Matos was devastated by the tragic story of a woman murdered by her partner, a man with a violent criminal record she never knew about....

Open article: The $200M Product Strategy Lovable Uses To Become The Last Piece of Software You’ll Ever Need by michaelgoitein.com

The $200M Product Strategy Lovable Uses To Become The Last Piece of Software You’ll Ever Need

Don't be fooled: Strategy and Planning are NOT same thing.

Why? Just think about the difference between Product Management and Project Management:

Project Management works with planning to manage WHAT WE CONTROL
• Focuses only on inward-facing work
• Uses 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘴 to see what's happened in the past
• Uses Planning to orchestrate our own people and resources
• To deliver features

Product Management works with strategy to influence WHAT WE DON'T CONTROL:
• Client behavior
• Uses 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺 to imagine a different future 
• Design a set of strategic choices to compel clients to change what they do
• These successful changes achieve outcomes

The hard truth? 
The most perfectly-planned and executed projects mean nothing if they don't change how our customers behave

You always need both – Strategy AND Planning.
But don't confuse them, and never start with planning

Start by understanding whose behavior needs to change.

I break both down here in this clip from my podcast interview with Jay Stansell via Product Coalition

Is your product strategy nothing more than a jumble of random features?

Or are you achieving outcomes to move the needle against your company's overarching strategy?
#ProductStrategy #LeadershipInsights #BusinessSuccess

Gamma’s Genius Strategic Shift
Too many companies adopting AI tend to think in terms of binary, either/or options.

Either build expensive proprietary AI stacks, or connect to existing LLMs to bolt superficial AI functionality onto existing products.

Gamma discovered a third path. They built a genuine competitive moat by developing a sophisticated AI orchestration capability that no one thought could be a differentiator.

Gamma is proving you don’t have to be first-to-market or best-funded to succeed. 

You just need to make smarter strategic choices around AI integration while mastering the product-led growth basics of viral loops and community development.

Gamma under Grant Lee pulled off the biggest Hail Mary, betting his company's future on being able to orchestrate and optimize AI better than anyone else.
Putting Gamma to the test, I used it on a lengthy deep-dive article from my "Product Strategy Decoded" newsletter and create this carousel summarizing its product strategy.

How-a-Near-Bankrupt-Startup-Built-a-dollar50M-AI-Moat

Can competitors copy your best features? Yup. Who cares? Let them.

But can they replicate your entire ecosystem's interconnected success? Much harder.

Building an ecosystem requires fundamental business model and process changes most companies simply can't or won't make.

It's like trying to rebuild Amazon's delivery network in your garage. Theoretically possible, practically impossible.

While you're busy A/B testing features to optimize tiny gains, your smartest competitors are thinking differently, building enabling structures and processes, and striking key partnerships.

Which approach are you taking?

AI is making us mentally "obese," and nobody's talking about it. The closest parallel? Walking.

In some parts of America, you literally can't do anything without getting in a car. No walking. No biking. Just cars to go anywhere and do literally everything.

And it's turned America into a hotbed of obesity, triggering a nationwide health crisis.

And the same thing is happening in slow-motion with AI right now.

When we outsource every mental task to AI, from writing a simple email to brainstorming and creative thinking, we're creating mental "suburbs" where our brain cells start to shrivel and die from lack of use.

The solution isn't avoiding AI. It's being strategic and finding balance.

Figure out the places to use AI to "drive" to destinations that would waste your time. 

But make sure you're still taking regular mental "walks" and solving problems yourself.

Our brains, like our bodies, need regular exercise to stay strong.

What's one mental task you've committed to doing without AI assistance? 

Comment below.

As an author and creator, I've learned the hard way how incredibly time-consuming Infographics can be to create.

When done well, they show complex concepts at a glance.

When done poorly, they overwhelm or confuse, rather than add value. 

In my latest article on Magic Patterns revolutionary AI-driven design approach, I needed to quickly sketch out the concept of "shift-left" for product teams.

This is a tale of three images.
1. 𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝟭: 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲'𝘀 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗡𝗮𝗻𝗼 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗮 𝗣𝗿𝗼: Nails it out of the gate, but oddly throws in "cite" everywhere, and inexplicably places it against an 1849 gold rush-era map background
2. 𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝟮: 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗲 "𝗙𝗶𝘅𝗲𝘀" 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗽𝘂𝘁: Anthropic's Claude is great at so many things, especially editorial feedback. But this is so comical it's embarrassing.
3. 𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝟯: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗩𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻: Bringing the first version into Affinity Photo, cleaning up the "cite" references, and adding the correct Magic Patterns logo.

This is the final version that appears in the article, linked in the comments below.

Google's Nano Banana first pass on the article infographic

The final version, taking the Nano Banana version and cleaning it up in Affinity Photo

How did Perplexity take on Google? It’s a strategy lesson that goes way beyond search.

When the category leader drifts from what made them successful and customer experience begins to go downhill, opportunities emerge for challengers to refocus on those customer needs.

The pattern repeats across industries:
* Netflix vs. Blockbuster (convenience vs rewind fees)
* Uber vs. Taxis (frictionless mobile app experience vs. unpredictable, rude, & dirty taxi rides)
* Airbnb vs. Hotels (unique vacation experiences vs soulless & standardized rooms)
* Substack vs. LinkedIn (genuine conversations & connections vs. algorithms that only favor advertisers)

The key is recognizing when the category leader has slipped for one core user group, and optimized for their business model over customer value.

• Identify the drift
• Focus on one problem for one key but forgotten
  user type
• Delight that user with clarity and speed
• Scale your advantage before the category leader responds

👆 𝗦𝘄𝗶𝗽𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗹 and let me know what opportunities you spot in the comments.

𝗣.𝗦. If strategic insights like this are valuable to you, join 850+ product leaders and startup founders getting my weekly "Product Strategy Decoded" newsletter 
→ Real strategies, real insights, real results 
(link in bio)

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗱? 𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗽 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 👇
#ProductStrategy #Strategy #Innovation #Startups #Google #Perplexity #BusinessStrategy

mg_psd_carousel_perplexity

Failed founders obsessed with their product "Vision" spend more time perfecting their logo than understanding customer needs.

Here's a brutal quiz question that reveals if you're trapped in abstract product vision-thinking:
1. Can you name your 𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 and the 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 your product solves 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮? 
2. Or do you only talk about why users 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 want your product instead?

If you're struggling with the first part, you're doing product research to “validate,” not discover. 

You're looking for confirmation, not truth.

The most dangerous phrase in startups: 
"Users just don't understand our vision yet."

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁?

Atlassian’s $975 million acquisition of Loom happened not because of Loom’s original, official strategy. 

It happened because of the revealed strategy, overwhelmingly driven by user behavior.

Loom originally started as a set of connected developer tools. 

You could share chunks of code, do pull request reviews, really integrate collaboration for engineering teams. Video was one small part of it.

But what Atlassian ended up acquiring them for was solving the problem of meetings.

What Loom became, and what Atlassian acquired, was async video messaging updates. 

Now woven into the fabric of every Atlassian product, whether Jira, Confluence, or anything else, you can find a little video icon, record a short clip, and that gives context. You don’t have to be great at writing. You record a short Loom clip that travels with that work unit, giving people context without you having to be there.

That’s been hugely successful for Atlassian in its drive to build a suite of “connected workplace” tools. 

Listen to Chris Tottman and I discuss this and many other pivot stories in this week's "Product Strategy Decoded" conversation.

You’ve posted your roadmap to some central tool where everyone can see it and send everyone there.

But there's a difference between roadmap transparency and strategy clarity.

The roadmap shows what you hope to build and release, and by what dates. 

But only your strategy can tell your people why it matters now, and what you've deliberately chosen not to build.

I've seen countless teams design elaborately documented roadmaps.

But nobody could articulate why they were building these things, what the actual overarching strategic choices were. 

Roadmap problems aren't communication problems. They're choice problems. 

No one has made the hard tradeoffs to give the necessary clarity to let the rest of the team move forward.

Your strategy isn't invisible because you didn't communicate it. 

It's invisible because you’ve forgotten to make the choices clear.

𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗺 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: 
"𝗪𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗫 𝘀𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗱𝗼 𝗬..."?

There's always a hidden strategy controlling your organization– whether you like it or not.
Whatever bold transformation move you want to make, hidden gravity will pull everything back into the same old patterns.
It's the hidden habits of daily company life.
One way out?
Reverse-engineer your current strategic choices using the Strategy Choice Cascade.

My latest "Product Strategy Decoded" is a video podcast looking back over four totally different winning AI product strategies.

Open video: Video: How AI Strategy is Different on open.substack.com

Most SaaS companies are building products for the wrong person. And with AI, they’re taking off faster in the wrong direction, leaving millions on the table because of it.

AI and ML pioneer Gong figured this out in 2016. 

Their competitors still haven't.

Subscribe to Product Strategy Decoded this week, and learn how Gong:
→ Created an entirely new category with its product
→ Spotted the strategy choice mistake killing too many products’ value ceilings
→ Unlocked 50 percentage points of hidden growth for Demandbase
→ Continuously builds compounding advantages competitors can't replicate

Today, I’m showing 1146 people why optimizing AI for "user productivity" is a huge mistake, and what to do instead. 

Read the full story for free & subscribe here:

Open article: How Gong Created a $7.25B Opportunity By Realizing Sales Software Optimized For The Wrong Person Entirely by michaelgoitein.substack.com

How Gong Created a $7.25B Opportunity By Realizing Sales Software Optimized For The Wrong Person Entirely

SWOTs are totally worthless anyway, so you may as well let 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗮 do the heavy lifting instead of paying $$$

RIP Mckinsey.

Use these prompts to replace $500/hr consultants:

1. Go to gamma .app
2. Click on "Create with AI".
3. Paste the prompt you need:

✦ SWOT Analysis
Create a 10–12 slide deck titled ‘SWOT for [BUSINESS/PROJECT]’. Include: brief overview, goals, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats, top 5 priorities, 30-day action list.

✦ Competitor Comparison
Make a 10–12 slide deck ‘Competitor Snapshot: [INDUSTRY/REGION]’. Include: who the competitors are, price/features table, pros/cons, where we’re better/worse, and 3 moves to win in 90 days.

✦ Customer Persona
Build an 8–10 slide deck ‘Who We Serve’. Include: 2–3 personas with photo/quote, pains, goals, buying triggers, channels they use, and what message works for each.

✦ Value Proposition & Message House
Create a 8–10 slide deck ‘Why Choose [PRODUCT/BRAND]’. Include: problem in one line, promise in one line, 3 proof points, before/after example, short tagline options, and website hero copy.

✦ Go-to-Market Launch Plan
Produce a 12–14 slide deck ‘Launch Plan for [PRODUCT]’. Include: target customer, simple message, channels (email/social/partners), 4-week content calendar, small budget split, and launch checklist.

✦ Pricing Options
Create a 8–10 slide deck ‘Pricing for [PRODUCT/SERVICE]’. Include: good/better/best packages, what’s included, who each package is for, simple discount rules, and a clear recommendation.

✦ KPI Scorecard
Make a 8–10 slide deck ‘Scorecard for [TEAM/BUSINESS]’. Include: 6–8 must-have metrics, what each metric means, target vs current, how often to check, and who owns each metric.

✦ 30-60-90 Day Plan
Build a 10–12 slide deck ‘First 90 Days for [ROLE/PROJECT]’. Include: goals, quick wins, weekly rhythm, stakeholders, risks, and checklists for day 30, 60, and 90.

✦ Budget & Break-Even
Create a 8–10 slide deck ‘Simple Budget for [PROJECT/STORE/APP]’. Include: costs list, expected sales, break-even point, best/base/worst case, and money-saving ideas.

✦ Risks & Mitigations
Produce a 8–10 slide deck ‘What Could Go Wrong (and Plan B)’. Include: top risks in plain words, how likely/impactful each is (red/yellow/green), owner, and the backup plan.

In whatever you "create," what’s the “story” behind the value the person on the other side gets from it?

What benefits will your ideal customers receive from you?

How will your offer take them from darkness and despair, to light & future promise?

What’s their “hero’s journey?”

In other words, you may not need to invest in another guru, course, or certification.

Invest your time refining the "story" that helps the right people understand the transformational value you, your products, and services provide.

That’s something AI won’t easily copy anytime soon.

VPs of Product don't have to choose between strategy and execution.

The trap: you assume strategy gets handed down, and you execute it. You have authority over your team but not over direction.

Wrong mental model.

Before the roadmap gets built, force this question: 
“What customer problem are we solving for which segment with what differentiation? And what segments and problems are we intentionally NOT trying to solve for this quarter?”

If leadership can't answer, you have strategic opacity. That's your real problem.

Strategic choices that seem abstract at the executive level become concrete at yours. You live with the tradeoffs first. You execute them first.

Most VPs wait for strategy to get handed down. 

The ones with actual leverage push make strategic choices an ongoing conversation even before execution begins.

You don't need permission. You need a set of sharp questions asked at the right moment.

The insight: your position isn't powerless. You're the first to see when strategy breaks down. That visibility is your leverage point.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝘁?

Reposting for my network- phenomenal opportunity for the right senior product leader to collaborate with forward-thinking executive David Benavides III

We're looking for a digital product leader to help shape the future Alliant's digital experiences for our members.

Alliant Credit Union

Chicago, Illinois, United States (Hybrid)

Now there’s real data to support what we’ve been seeing at all levels in product

The strategic gap between IC PM needs and product leadership 

Powerful insights with the usual witty memes we’ve come to expect from Jason Knight

Fractional CPO | Coaching, Training, and Scaling B2B Product Teams | Building AI Products Since Before it was Cool

I wrote this short newsletter article discussing one of the most interesting findings from "The State of B2B Product Management 2025" survey I've run with Saeed Khan. B2B IC PMs and B2B Product Leaders have very different opinions about how well the leaders are doing, and I'm fascinated.

Check out the comments for a link to my thoughts, alongside links to Saeed's deeper analysis of the data so far, and how to register your interest for the full report 👇

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