David Pereira

Software developer

Author of "Untrapping Product Teams," read in 70+ countries, endorsed by Marty Cagan, Mike Cohn, and more.

Over 17 years, I've helped companies achieve more with less. Not through frameworks and planning theater, but through ruthless focus on value creation:

- Helped a marketplace scale from €5M to €45M revenue
- Increased quarterly acquisition by 50% through strategic discovery
- Coached C-Level leaders across EU, Asia, and America on making strategic product decisions, and streamlining operations

The Coaching:

- 100X PM Mastermind: Students from 15+ countries transforming into product leaders
- 20,000+ students in my courses
- Spoke in 20+ countries including Productized Lisbon, Business of Software Cambridge, DL Summit Cologne, InfoShare Gdansk
- Opened PCamp São Paulo to 2,000+ attendees

My mission: Turn Product Managers into Value Maximizers who drive business growth through evidence-based decisions, not feature factories.

Chief Product Officer

• Empowering teams to bring their best and create valuable products that customers love
• Helping teams figure out how to innovate in a complex and highly important B2B market
• Equipping teams to overcome the inevitable challenges of creating digital products

I failed multiple PM interviews at 27.
The hard truth hurt: I was a backlog manager, not a product manager.

I wrote perfect user stories.
I maintained a massive backlog.
I increased team velocity every sprint.
After reaching 57 story points per sprint, I got promoted.
But I couldn't pass interviews at Walmart, Nubank, or WebMotors.

Each rejection stung.
Each hiring manager gave me no specific reason.
Until I asked a hard question: "What am I missing?"
Booking's hiring manager changed everything with one sentence.
"You're excellent at delivery. But you know nothing about discovery."

That hit hard.

I was obsessed with shipping features fast.
Zero focus on whether they solved real problems.
Customers didn't need half of what we built.
But business loved the velocity metrics.

After that Booking interview, I made three changes:

1. 
I stopped asking for permission
Started running customer interviews without approval.
Tested assumptions before writing backlog items.

2. 
I connected customer needs to business goals.
No more building features disconnected from outcomes.
Every initiative had to drive measurable value.

3. 
I learned to say no.
Killed half of my bloated backlog.
Focused on solving one problem at a time.
These shifts transformed how I worked.

Ten years later, I reached executive roles.
Same person, different approach.

The Booking rejection taught me more than any promotion.
Discovery beats delivery every single time.

You'll hit your incompetence level many times in your career.
The question is: will you stay there?

What's one rejection that transformed you?

#productmanagement #leadership #productmanager

Running the 100XPM Mastermind: Transforming PMs into Product Leaders Execs Trust

Devs are rolling their eyes at PMs again.
But this time it's different.

Last week, I talked to a PM who spent three hours trying to connect to a repository. "I have to learn deployment, database setup, all this stuff I don't get. 
Then I talk to devs and they roll their eyes."
He felt stupid. Lost. Like he was failing at being a Vibe Coder PM.

Same week, different PM told me: "I'm paid to figure out what customers care about and how we make revenue from it. Devs are better at building than me. I refuse to vibe code."

Two PMs. Two completely opposite approaches.

Here's what's actually happening.

The first PM is creating a silo. Trying to do the dev's job poorly instead of partnering with them effectively. Learning syntax instead of learning customers.

The second PM is missing speed. In 2026, you can validate ideas in hours, not weeks. But only if you're willing to experiment fast.

Both are wrong. And both are right.

The real question isn't whether you should vibe code. It's whether you're using tools to get closer to customers or further from your team.

If you're non-technical and want to test ideas fast, browser-based tools like Replit remove the technical overhead. No setup. No deployment nightmares. Just rapid validation with real users.

If you're technical, combining tools like Replit with Claude Code lets you move from idea to customer feedback in hours.

But here's what nobody's saying:

Vibe coding doesn't fix bad product thinking. It just helps you fail faster or win faster, depending on whether you know what value means.

Your job isn't to replace developers. It's to understand customers deeply enough that developers can build the right thing.

Tools accelerate that. But only if you're clear on what game you're playing.
Are you building features or discovering value?

Extensive backlogs = Extensive BS 
I've never met a thriving PM who cared so much about the backlog.

The bigger the backlog, the less value you create.

If you're a PM spending 4h+ a week on backlog, you're in serious trouble.

Your job isn't:
- Writing better backlog items
- Putting everything from stakeholders in your backlog
- Making more promises than you can keep

Do the above and get demoted to backlog manager.

Your real job is:
- Connecting customer needs with business goals
- Finding problems worth solving - not everything needs your attention
- Focusing on what matters, cut the rest

Yes, it's hard to be a product manager. And it's easy to become a backlog manager. I was one for too long.

I stayed trapped as a backlog manager for 3 years. 
It drained my energy every single day.

What broke me free?
Taking action instead of complaining.
I deleted 672 outdated backlog items. 
I was afraid. Everyone criticised me for it.
Yet, nothing bad happened.
On the contrary, for the first time we could focus on what mattered.

Whatever is important will come back to you.
Don't let the old block the new.
Backlog items age like milk, not wine.

The question isn't whether you should do it. 
The question is: what's keeping you trapped?"

#productmanagement #leadership #productmanager #agile

For too many years I did what others wanted me to do.
I want to tell you something I never shared.  How a messy year turned out to be the best ever.

Read the full story for free: https://lnkd.in/diFn9KxM

2024 ended perfectly.

We got our product out, and started onboarding customers. I felt I finally got what it meant to be a CEO that enables ideas to happen. Yet, something smelled bad.

As 2025 started, the investors wanted to pivot the direction. 

I didn’t agree with that. And the investors didn’t care. They demanded I’d do as they said. Many things were at stake. Team morale would crash, and we’d move from product management to bad project management.

As the CEO, I could not let that happen. 

I had to discuss in person with the investors to understand why they wanted to pivot the direction when we started winning customers.

Reasons were political. And they gave me an option, do what they want and remain the CEO, or walk away.

For the next days I felt like a failure as I couldn’t get the investors to see what I was seeing. And I didn’t want to abandon the team or pursue a direction I didn’t believe.

I felt horrible. I’d lose my generous salary combined with great perks. After a few days, something clicked.

I either choose my future or let others do it for me.

The choice I faced was something all of us face all the time, but we’re too afraid to be intentional about our future.

Before being a CEO, I let many organisations choose what I’d do. I did too many things I didn’t believe in. But I was afraid of speaking up, and maybe losing my job.

At this time, I decided to remain true to myself.

I told the investors that I believed in a different direction, which I was eager to drive. And I was unwilling to do what they wanted.

I knew my offer could get me promoted to the market.
We made an agreement, and I walked away without a clear path forward.

As time passed I wondered if I made the right call. But I quickly got myself back on track by thinking forward not backward.

We cannot change what happened to us, but we can choose how we react to it.
I reflected on what drove my energy throughout my journey.

My motivation had always been on guiding people to transform the status quo. That clarified what I wanted to do: Help product people transform how they drive value while having fun.

The point most people ignore:
Your future is yours and nobody is going to make it happen for you.

Every day we face choices between letting others decide, or making our own path.

It’s okay to follow what others want sometimes, not always.
If you don’t stand up for yourself, nobody will.

As I reflect on how last year started. I feared losing my generous compensation and perks. But fear is bad for good decisions.

Today, when I look at how last year ended. I’m proud of what turned out to be. Not because of revenue, but because I finally got the guts to choose my own path.

Who’s defining your future: you or somebody else?

I used to make a huge mistake. I complained more than I took action.
Real product people don't complain about the game. They transform it.

It's true that most organizations focus on features, not value.
You can either complain, playing the victim like I used to.

Or you can be the hero of your story and choose how to act today for a better tomorrow.
Organizations aren't broken by design. They just don't know better. You can be the one who shows them.

After 17 years playing this game, the patterns are clear to me, and yet many ignore them.
Too many organizations are unfit to accelerate value.

Want to accelerate value creation? Start by facing reality.
You can use this Miro template to evaluate your situation:
http://miro.pxf.io/9LRXjE

Here are the 7 elements you need to pay attention to accelerate value:

1. People & Performance
Are people rewarded for meeting deadlines, or impact?

2. Roadmapping
Are roadmaps the free pass to the feature factory club, or the key to empowerment?

3. Organizational Topology
Are teams forced to manage dependencies daily, or set to drive value independently?

4. Development and Growth
Is professional growth just something superficial, or intentional?

5. Feedback Culture
Do people get punished when they talk about hard stuff, or speak up when problems are small and solvable?

6. Initiative Management
Do you manage your backlog to keep promises, or to drive value?

7. Trade-off
Do people struggle to understand what makes a good decision, or are they empowered to make decisions with clear trade-offs?

–

The more your answers are on the left, the more you need to act.
Choose one item at a time. Not all at once.

If you're completely on the left, start by doing an honest cleaning in your backlog. Deleting may be the best option. 

If that scares you, do like the iPhone photo library, soft delete, and if not touched for 30 days, then it’s gone forever (I really doubt you will check old items again).

Those who maximize value continuously are intentional, acting today for a better tomorrow.

Which dimension hits hardest for you?

#MiroPartner

PROD FIT by David Pereira

Most AI tools foster a feature factory mindset.
Yet, a few are still serious about value creation. Here's one worth checking out.

I have been trying out Figr for a few weeks now, and I like the result.

Here’s my honest comparison against Lovable:

Lovable jumps from prompt to output straight on.
Figr slows you down by demanding context.

Lovable is about speed.
Figr is about problem solving.

Lovable has no guardrails to protect you from useless solutions.
Figr requires you to give the context, reflect, and make choices.

I noticed my 100XPM Assessment had a 35% drop. When I tried to fix it with Lovable, I actually made it worse, maybe I prompted poorly. But then, I tried out Figr, and things got interesting.

First, I recorded my screen.
Then, Figr interviewed me.
It took some steps before getting to any change.
When I got the results, I found them solid.

The real difference is that one is about coding while the other is about problem solving.

If you haven’t tried Figr yet, you better try it out.

Curious how you ensure you solve problems instead of empty vibe-coding stuff.

Helping Product Teams Drive Business Value, Not Just Ship Features | Coach • Speaker • Author

Are you the quiet executor that never gets promoted?

How do you feel when you look at your 2025 roadmap?
I bet you worked hard, discussed a lot, and delivered more than others believed to be possible. 
But, did you get the deserved recognition?

Maybe you got the cold “well done” message. But what about the deserved promotion? Or the long deserved salary increase?

Here’s what I learned over the last decades in tech.
The quiet executor is the last to get promoted.
The last to be seen.

Those getting the rewards don’t deliver more. 
They increase visibility and influence.

They know when to challenge, and when to listen.
They talk numbers, not tickets.
They show results, not features.

My confession to you: 
I was the bloody quiet executor for too long. 
Everyone appreciated working with me. And I felt like I was on the right track until someone else got promoted. Honestly, I cursed, and I got pissed so I quit. 

Guess what happened?
I moved on, got another job.

The pattern repeated, I delivered, got the boring “well done” message, and somebody else got promoted. I was angry again, but decided to act differently. I had to learn what I was missing. And it became clear to me where I fell short.

Visibility and influence.

I focused on delivering what others decided. I was a follower, not an achiever.
I talked about referral features, others talked about reducing CAC by 14%.
I agreed with areas on roadmap content, others agreed on objectives like reduce onboarding churn by 50%.

Those getting promoted talked about what execs wanted to hear, not product, but business.

You won’t get promoted by getting the job done.
You will get promoted by showing the impact you make.

You can learn the differences by observing those getting promoted. Maybe, you can learn like me by receiving a few punches on the face. Or I can guide you.

I know you’re talented.
I know you’re capable.

Let me ask you something: 
Do you really care about your career, or are you just hoping someone finally notices your work?

It took me too long to grow because I tried everything on my own. 
And I want to offer you a different path.

You can accelerate your growth with guidance, and I can do that for you. 

On the 27th of January, we’re kicking off the 100X PM Mastermind, the 3 week program that rewires how you think, and equips you to operate at the level your next promotion requires.

In the last two cohorts: 3 PMs got promoted to Senior PM, 2 to Director, and a few participants got 25%+ salary increase. That happened because they learned what it really takes to show their value.

Apply now and let’s make 2026 the year you get the deserved recognition.
https://lnkd.in/dT4rGmrE

Here’s what some alumni say:

“I am beyond impressed and would recommend any product manager to make this investment! You will not be disappointed.” Kavita G.

“I really loved this course (100xPM) — it gave me the clarity and confidence I was missing in my day-to-day work." Morta K.

Better is what gets PMs stuck.
PMs and leaders I often ask weak questions. You address them, you get stuck.

How do I write better acceptance criteria?
How do I write better user stories?
How do I create better roadmaps?

I mastered the above for too long, and nobody cared. I remained a disguised backlog manager. Stuck paycheck, frequent praises, but others got the recognition I wanted.

I got promoted when I moved from how to why.
Why should we solve certain user problems?
Why should we add such items to our roadmap?

I stopped improving user stories. I started learning obsessively.
I stopped planning by capacity. I started driving strategic alignment.
I stopped coordinating work. I started influencing direction.

Without noticing. I upgraded myself from Backlog Manager to Product Manager.
My visibility increased, then I managed to influence the direction, not the backlog tickets.

You have higher leverage when you change your perspective.
Visibility, strategic thinking, and influence gets you promoted.

After coaching hundreds of PMs, what kills me is realizing how talented PMs get stuck because they focus on the wrong things.

Are you ready to embark on a journey of self-growth, unlearning, and rewiring?
We’ll go from invisible contributor to value maximizer.
That’s exactly what you’ll get from the 100X PM Mastermind.

In 3 weeks, you will:
. Think like a product strategist without drowning in frameworks
. Speak the language that influences executive decisions
. Say no with confidence, yes with clarity
. Operate at the level your next promotion demands

This mastermind is for those who want to drive change, become a leader, and grow.

Agenda (all lessons at 7 pm CET/10 am PT)

January 26th: BS Management vs. Real Product Leadership
January 28th: Building the 100X PM Mindset
January 30th: Mastering Strategic Thinking
February 2nd: Discovery That Doesn't Waste Your Time
February 4th: Owning the Room (and the roadmap)
February 6th: Delivery Without Becoming a Backlog Manager
February 9th: The Politics of Product
February 11th: Coaching the Team, Not Just Managing Work
February 13th: From PM to Product Leader
February 16th: Bonus - AI Beyond the Hype

PS: Still deciding? The PMs who hesitate are usually the ones who need this most. Don't let analysis paralysis keep you stuck another year.

Apply now (only 25 spots)
https://lnkd.in/dT4rGmrE

Here some quotes from our alumni:

“If you are a PM planning your next career step, joining the 100XPM course is one of the best decisions you can make—I certainly did, and I’m very glad about it.“ - Rahul Bhanu

“If you’re looking for something that’s almost like having a personal coach but also want to learn from others and hear their unique perspectives, I’d really recommend this Leadership Mastermind. It gave me confidence and a clearer sense of direction, and I think it’s really valuable for anyone looking to grow as a product leader.“ - Lina Zalgiryte

When I first became a product leader, I was horrible.
And I believe many more leaders are making the same mistakes I made.

Whenever people came to me with problems, I gave them solutions.
When they struggled with decisions, I called the shots.
When they didn’t know where to go, I pointed in the direction.

My boss loved my work. But I smelled something off.
I became a bottleneck, and going on holiday meant stallingcrippling progress.
That happened because I failed to equip my team to be successful.

After working with 100+ product teams, the pattern is painfully obvious.
Product leaders fail because they're scared to lead. They manage at best.
They avoid hard conversations. They give fish instead of teaching others to fish.

Here's the truth: your team doesn't need another bottleneck boss. They need a leader who paves the way for their success, not yours.

Leadership is hard. And you need to embrace this challenging journey to thrive.
Use this Miro template to face reality:
miro.pxf.io/4GkeG9

Here are the 5 dimensions where product leaders fail:

1. Style
Are you the leader you'd like to have, or the leader your team actually needs?

2. Collaboration
Do you abandon your team to figure it out alone, or create space to solve hard problems together?

3. Attitude
Are you the nice boss people tolerate, or the growth leader people respect?

4. Responsibility
Do you hide behind product decisions, or step up for your people when it matters?

5. Feedback
Do you avoid uncomfortable conversations, or give your team the truth they deserve?

If you're leaning left on most of these, your team is suffering. They're just too polite to tell you.

Pick one dimension. Commit to changing it this week. Not someday. This week.

If you're completely on the left, start with feedback. 
Stop protecting your comfort at your team's expense.

If you’re a leader, where do you struggle the most?
If you’re a PM, what do you miss the most in your leader?

#MiroPartner

Product Leadership Health Check by David Pereira

Too many PMs are invisible contributors.

Most do exactly what’s expected of them.
They execute well. They ship fast. They don’t cause friction.
And that’s precisely why they stay invisible.

Doing what you’re asked doesn’t unlock growth.
It signals reliability, not leadership.

Visibility does.

If you want to grow as a PM, you have to stop playing the execution game and start playing the influence game.

The pattern is always the same:

→ Strategic thinking builds influence
→ Influence creates visibility
→ Visibility leads to promotion

I’ve coached 100+ PMs through this shift.
Almost all already had the skills.
What they lacked wasn’t competence.
It was how they were perceived.

Enrolment for 100X PM is now open.

A 3-week mastermind for PMs ready to operate at the level their next promotion actually requires.
Not by shipping more.
Not by pleasing everyone.
But by changing how you think, decide, and show up.

Most PMs choose safety and stay invisible.
Are you one of them?

Start your transformation now: https://lnkd.in/d4r97N2U

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

I’ve helped leaders, founders, and VCs unlock business impact and value by closing the gap between competing features and actionable strategy. I'm a Principal Design Enablement Manager at KeyBank, Substack author, and Product/Strategy coach who's spent 15+ years turning enterprise chaos into clarity. 

If your teams are shipping features but not moving metrics that matter, Product Strategy Decoded is for you.

As Principal Design Enablement Manager, Design Excellence & Operations (DExOps) – Key Experience Design (KeyXD) Team at KeyBank, we centralize and support KeyBank's world-class design function. 

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.

Michael Goitein

The reason it takes so long to build software with large teams isn't what you think...

It's called "High WIP" (Work in Progress), and it's destroying your teams' ability to get stuff done.

You've all seen it:
• 100 projects started. 
• 0 finished
• 37 stuck at 97%
• How could it be that everyone's so “busy," yet nothing's getting done?

The downstream results aren't good, as team morale tanks over time.

But the worst thing? These teams' ability to have any material impact on meaningful business results becomes non-existent.

But the truth too many leaders miss is that high WIP isn't the problem – it's a SYMPTOM.

The real reasons are hiding below the surface:
1. The inability to make strategic choices – saying "yes" and trying to do it all. 
2. The outdated "vendor" mindset, with "The Business" throwing requirements over the wall to "IT." (It's time to wake up and collaborate earlier instead of dictating. Last I checked, it's 2026...)
3. We're managing software development like a factory assembly line (velocity?), when it's actually a learning journey toward changing customer behavior
4. Leadership refusing to understand and accept true team capacity, instead of always pushing for more. ("Hoping" will never make it true)
5. The unending search for the next shiny object: (“NOW we're all doing agentic AI on our roadmaps! ...until the next hot thing comes along.) 

We have to face that we've become addicted to starting things, but hate doing the hard work of finishing them.

The only way to break free? Start by accepting that less = more.

Fewer things done well will be worth far more than trying and failing to do many more things badly.

Your teams don't need more to do. 

You owe it to them to make clear, thoughtful strategic choices and prioritize the fewer, truly essential moves you need to make for your customers and your business.

Agree? Share your thoughts below 👇

I help product teams turn confusion into actionable strategic choices | Enterprise Product, Strategy & Discovery Coach | KeyBank | Author

Typical story: PM tries to vibe-code a prototype. Goes down the rabbit hole trying to connect databases & refactor spaghetti code.

Meanwhile, the assumption they were trying to prove/disprove goes untested.

While there are many "vibe-coding" platforms out there, what sets Magic Patterns apart is founders Alexander Danilowicz and Teddy Ni's laser-focus on front-end only, faithfully capturing and extending a company's existing design system so quick prototypes don't distract with blatantly wrong UI.

Forget about massive documentation. Magic Patterns revolutionizes the  software development lifecycle by shifting that part of the process "left."

"We're data-driven" may be the most dangerous phrase in product.

Roger Martin saw how some of the biggest breakthrough innovations didn’t come from data-obsessed companies. Instead, products like the iPhone and the Aeron chair came to life because there was no data, and moving forward required a leap of imagination.

Data can't tell you what's possible. It can only tell you what happened in the past.

I once worked with a team that watched their analytics dashboards like day traders. One tiny dip triggered all-hands, red-alert panic. They analyzed furiously.
What didn't they do? Speak to a single customer.

What’s one critical opportunity you’re ignoring because you don’t have the data?

I'm looking for product trios to join me for a 30-minute session where I'll walk you through a strategy framework from "Playing to Win for Product Teams" to help balance data with strategic imagination. Drop "DATA" below if this hits home.

Strategy isn't magic. It's a learnable skill.

This will inflame the strategy gatekeepers who've spent years reading dusty volumes and want you to believe it's some rare talent, reserved for the special few.

That you're either born with it or you're not.

That only they possess the "secrets."

But strategy is way simpler than they want you to think:
Strategy: A set of choices to influence customer behavior.
Great strategy: Intentionally pairing choices that reinforce each other, consistently.
Success: The result of focused action.
Anyone can learn this. 

And that's exactly what "Playing to Win for Product Teams" is designed to teach.

Comment "skill" in the comments if you're tired of strategy being treated like some secret club.

Notion founder Ivan Zhao calls it "sugaring the broccoli":
Hide revolutionary capabilities inside familiar experiences.

Too much software still tries to impress you with all its cool features out of the box. Feature tours. Onboarding flows. Tutorials explaining everything the product can do.

Zhao made a far different choice, influenced by Apple’s approach to focus and simplicity.
Open Notion for the first time, and you see a simple, familiar note-taking interface. 
You can start taking notes and get value within 30 seconds.
But Notion gradually reveals the powerful, next-gen software development platform hidden underneath as you go. Notes become pages. Pages become databases. Databases become custom apps.
By the time you realize you're building your own software, you're already hooked.
This is a clear "How to Win" choice. Instead of competing on features, Notion competes on the gentlest possible learning curve toward the most powerful outcome.
What's your product's version of “sugaring the broccoli”?

There are two types of Tech Leads. Only one helps your product deliver business results over the long-term.

I worked with a super-capable tech lead who ended every discovery conversation the same way: "Whatever the product manager and stakeholders want, I'll build it."

Seemed great. Collaborative. Easygoing.

Until the product collapsed under the weight of its own tech debt.

Being "nice" and "serving The Business" masked a lack of strategic leadership that eventually cost us everything.

Another tech lead I worked with asked a totally different question in discovery:
"Can you walk me through the user journey, how this delivers against our strategy, and the customer & business metrics we’re trying to drive?”

One focused only on the next feature release.

The other knew everything we discovered and delivered had to create sustained user AND business impact.

Any tech lead can learn client-centricity and strategic thinking. "Playing to Win for Product Teams" is designed to help everyone on the product team be more strategic.

I'm offering a limited number of product trios a free 30-minute session to walk through a simple, powerful strategy framework. Drop "tech" in the comments or DM me if this hits home.

Is your product strategy fundamentally broken? Find out with the Toggle Method, a 10-second diagnostic. It can't tell you everything about your strategy, but it will tell you if something fundamental is broken.

Every product strategy has two core choices:
 • Where to Play: Which customers do you serve, to address which problems, in which contexts?
 • How to Win: What's your differentiated approach to serving them?

Take your Where to Play and your How to Win, and ask:

Does this How to Win ONLY work for this Where to Play?

Toggle your Where to Play to a different customer segment. A competitor's customers. A related market. Does your How to Win still make sense for them?

If your How to Win would be wrong or undesirable for those other customers, you have a matched set. Your choices reinforce each other.

If your How to Win would work just as well for them, something is broken. Either you haven't made real choices, or your choices don't fit together well enough.

But the Toggle Test can only surface a symptom. 

You’ll need a separate test to diagnose which problem you actually have.

Subscribe to “Product Strategy Decoded” where I share the full framework, together with prompts to help test your strategic thinking.

Design isn't about making things look "cool" or "intuitive." It's about working with product and tech to deliver business results.

But when you ask "who’s this for?", all you get are vague answers like "users" or "prospects."

So you look for design inspiration elsewhere and create brand-safe, "attractive" choices. Generic layouts. Because nobody upstream made choices.

My teams’ greatest breakthroughs have happened when design sits down with product and tech and walks through an experience with the right people to better understand their needs in that moment.

Great design uses simplicity and constraints to solve for unmet customer needs. 
But it depends on understanding who you're designing for, and who you can exclude.

As a designer, your best work depends on getting the strategic clarity you need.

When's the last time vague direction held back the level of design work you knew you could deliver for your team?

I'm looking for 3 product trios to join me for a 30-minute session where I’ll walk you through a specific strategy framework from my upcoming book, 'Playing to Win for Product Teams' to help you get the clarity you need. 

Drop a comment and connect if you're dealing with this now.

Sometimes your most strategic move is building something that doesn't fit your strategy.
I used to think my only job was keeping the team aligned to and enforcing our strategic choices. 
Over time, and after some needless friction, it turns out the real flex is knowing when to let a misaligned feature through for the sake of the longer-term relationship.
Maybe your VP needs a quick demo for a board meeting. Or sales is inches from closing a key deal that needs a tiny fix. Or an influential stakeholder has political capital riding on a feature that doesn't exactly fit your "Where to Play."
Trust me, you can wave your strategy one-pager, be "right," and die on that hill.
Or you can build the thing, nurture the relationship, and gently steer back to your strategy.
Of course those choices matter. But so does staying in the game long enough to bring it to life.
The best product leaders know when to hold the line and when to bend. 
Winning is worthless if you lose the trust necessary to help your organization win over the long term.

Reed Hastings tried to sell Netflix to Blockbuster for $50 million. The Blockbuster team laughed him out of the building.
But Hastings understood something Blockbuster's mission statement never revealed: rewind fees were a huge revenue driver. Customers hated them. And Blockbuster couldn't give them up.
Hastings made that gap the centerpiece of Netflix's strategy.
Today, Netflix is worth over $300 billion. Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010.
Want to find your competitor's blind spot? 
Forget their mission statement. Just ask three questions:
1. Where are they spending money? Engineering headcount, marketing channels, partnerships.
2. What are they saying no to? Features they don't build, customers they ignore, markets they avoid.
3. What can they not change? Business model, brand positioning, technical architecture.
The answers reveal their actual strategy and where they're vulnerable.
Try this on your biggest competitor this week. Where does what they do differ from what they say?

Your razor-sharp, 42-slide roadmap deck took eight straight days to build, working nights & weekends. 

2025 recap, every 2026 Q1 feature justified with data, ICE scores, tied to OKRs, and mapped to a customer complaint.

Leadership asked a minor detail question, said "thanks," and moved on. No real digging. No debate. No insights, direction, or warning about potential upcoming moves across the org.

The problem? When you overwhelm leadership with features, outputs, and data, you miss the opportunity to tell a simple, clear business impact story.

What opportunities are we prioritizing? Who are we serving and not serving this quarter? What's an emerging advantage to exploit? What are we betting will be true about the market? And how do we anticipate these choices to drive customer and business results?

Next time, try one slide on the customer opportunity, one on who you’re serving and how, one on the numbers that matter to tell that story, and present 3-5 choice possibilities for the coming quarter. 

See how the conversation shifts.

Four reasons for the Strategy Gap. Which one hits you hardest right now?

1. Strategy treated as executive mystery — reserved for the "ivory tower"
2. Strategy disconnected from execution — "it's on the roadmap" becomes the only answer
3. Strategy is rarely taught — design schools teach visual thinking, engineering schools teach systems architecture, but almost no one teaches product strategy
4. The opposite is taught — business schools emphasize strategic planning (data-driven, analytical, internal-facing) over strategy (creative, customer-centric)

The thing is, your product team is already being strategic.

You choose to do some things and not others. Many of those choices are made for you.

But even when you're told what to build, you can deliver better against customer, company, and business goals when you make sharper choices within your constraints

That's what "Playing to Win for Product Teams" is designed to teach.

Drop your number (1-4) in the comments. I'd love to hear which one resonates most.

81% of PMs know strategy is core to their role.
Only 25% work at companies with clear strategic direction.

Welcome to The Strategy Gap.

You keep dancing around the problem: 
 – Maybe more planning will help (it won't)
 – Maybe OKRs will help (they won't)
 – Maybe your favorite framework will help…

But you already have a strategy.
It's what you're doing right now.

I've designed "Playing to Win for Product Teams" to give you the tools to understand what's really happening and create the right strategy for your context.

Drop "strategy" in the comments or DM me for early access.

Product stuck? Maybe it’s time to listen to what the market is trying to tell you.

But the most successful product pivots never come from brilliant strategy sessions.

They start when someone notices an unexpected pattern in user behavior:
 • Discord: "Why are 78% of our users non-gamers?"
 • Loom: "Why is everyone ignoring our awesome dev tool integrations and just sending quick videos?"
 • dbt Labs: "Why is our internal tool gaining 1000+ users while our consulting stagnates?"

These questions led to billion-dollar pivots only when these companies let go of their locked-in “Mission” and “Vision,” and created a new set of choices aligned to what their users were actually doing.

Want to find the key for your product?

I've designed "Playing to Win for Product Teams" to give your entire team a set of First Principles, mental models, and frameworks. Not to create the “one, perfect” strategy, but to make strategic thinking across your product team a continuous habit.

Drop "strategy" in the comments or DM me for early access.

There's no better way for product managers to talk about their work than through "Money Stories."
And no one can tell a clearer and more compelling money story than Rich Mironov

40-year B2B product mgmt veteran with 3 exits, 15 interim CPO roles, 6 VC-backed start-ups. Wrote “Money Stories” and “The Art of Product Management.” Coach/mentor for scores of product leaders. Product Camp founder.

Excited to announce my new book, "Money Stories: Communicating the Value of Product Work"

It pulls together long-time thoughts about talking with executives in the Language of Money, framing estimates of financial value for products and features, earning our keep, and avoiding product/process discussions with folks who don't care.

Tagline: DON’T BRING A BACKLOG TO A GUNFIGHT!

https://lnkd.in/eVYZh8vv 

#productstrategy #organizations #leadership #executives #economics

I'll be adding this crucial update to my Gong strategy breakdown:
https://lnkd.in/ek8_RGMM

The US, China, Canada, and Mexico are collaborating—TARIFF-FREE—with Gong. 

Well, kind of. 😏

When we first rolled out translation in Gong, we thought, “Cool feature, nice to have.” 

Turns out, it’s a total game changer for global teams.

	•	No more language barriers. Managers can review and coach deals without speaking a word of the customer’s language.

	•	Teams can learn best practices from each other—across countries, across languages, across time zones.

	•	Hiring just got way more flexible. No need to limit yourself to one language—build the best team, period.

From now on, nothing’s Greek to you. 😉 Enjoy!

Product whisperer. Author of “AI for Product Managers” and “Deliver Great Products that Customers Love”. Product innovation training, coaching, and facilitation.

To all Product Leaders in my network: If you want to help your PMs foster AI competence - whether you build a traditional product or an AI-enhanced one - invite your team to join my "AI for Product Managers" course. 

It's a 2-week intensive bootcamp where PMs learn how to leverage AI tools to accelerate their PM workflow - from discovery to solution validation.
It's designed to be hands-on so that PMs learn first, and then bring home a repeatable workflow on how to use AI in their PDLC.

The benefit? Develop AI competency in your team, accelerate product development, and validate product ideas faster.
More info here:
https://lnkd.in/evu3sMrX
(reach out to me with questions)

Open article: AI for Product Managers by Valerio Zanini on Maven by maven.com

AI for Product Managers by Valerio Zanini on Maven

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