Jason Knight

One Knight Consulting

I work with organisations and their product teams to help them get results. Whether you're setting up a new team, scaling an existing one, or it's all going wrong and you need to know what to do next, let me come and help as a fractional CPO, or as a group or individual coach.

Founder

Google for Startups

Startup Mentor

One Knight in Product

This is a podcast for people interested in building or designing tech products.

At least once a week, I speak to product managers, product leaders, product marketers, UX professionals, and anyone else involved in product management and product delivery.

Podcaster

ULTRA.VC

A core mentor for the ULTRA.VC accelerator, helping early-stage companies build a winning product strategy to find product/market fit

My Mentor Path

We started My Mentor Path with one simple goal: To make mentoring accessible and available for free to all product managers.

Co-Founder & CPTO

DICE

Since 2014, DICE has been reshaping the ticketing industry for fans, artists and venues – breaking down barriers that get in the way of a good time, and creating a fairer and more inclusive industry in the process. I am working with the product management, design and engineering teams in our push for excellence, as well as advising the leadership team on connecting vision to strategy and delivering on their scaling ambitions.

Fractional Product Leadership Consultant

Judge.me

Judge.me powers the product reviews for your e-commerce store. I am working with the team to help with the expansion of the product organisation, as well as advising the leadership team on their ambitious growth plans.

RiskScreen

Setting up and expanding the product management team, connecting to company strategy, improving ways of working and collaboration within the teams and ensuring operational efficiencies and revenue generation through thoughtful portfolio management.

Skiplevel

Advisor

Unmind

Product Director

Transforming your Product Teams: Fractional Product Leader | Coach | Podcaster | Community Builder

Struggling with Product? You’re not alone - but you don’t have to muddle through it.

I help product leaders and their teams make better decisions, build stronger products, and work more effectively together. Whether you need sharper strategy, better ways of working, or support navigating the messy middle of growth - I can help!


✅ Product Leadership

I will work directly with your product team to reboot delivery, strengthen team capability, and align product practices with business goals.

✅ Organisational Action Plans

I assess how your teams build and scale products, identify bottlenecks and blind spots, and deliver a clear, prioritised roadmap to unlock better outcomes.

✅ 1:1 Product Leadership Coaching

I coach product leaders to become the strategic business partners your company needs - with practical support tailored to their context.

✅ Group Coaching/Training for Product Teams

I help teams navigate shared challenges, build core skills, and align around what good looks like in your organisation.

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With over 20 years in tech and product - from early-stage startups to global enterprises - I’ve worked across fintech, regtech, e-commerce, ticketing, market research and HR tech.

I’ve been building data and AI-powered products since long before it was cool, and I bring that experience to help you make smart, human-centred decisions about strategy, value propositions, and where AI does (and doesn’t) create value.

Since 2022, I’ve partnered with B2B and B2B2C SaaS companies to scale product practices, support leadership, and build teams that actually work.

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🎙️ I also host a popular podcast and newsletter, sharing real-world insights to support the global product community.

🔗 Consulting: oneknightconsulting.com
🎧 Podcast: oneknightinproduct.com
📬 Newsletter: oneknightinproduct.substack.com

Product Coach & Curriculum Advisor

Occasionally, I get an email asking me if I want to do a paid partnership with a brand. The answer is always no. 

That's not to say that I'm against brands, or hate their tools, or don't like making money. I'm just neutral, value authenticity and don't like pretending to like things that I've never used. I've done a few read outs on the podcast, some of them made my teeth itch, and I probably won't do any more of those either. 

I do, however, see the influencers out there pretending to be enthusiastic about tools, with their ChatGPT written copy and a suspiciously regular cadence of new tools. I won't judge people for leveraging their following but, for your own dignity, at least disclose it's a paid-for post, pretty please.

🤔 But why can't I run the workshop myself? 🤔

This is a common question from talented product people who can't see the point of bringing someone external in. What's the point of the expense? How hard can it be? 

Here are some reasons it's better to bring in an external facilitator: 

⚠️ You’re too close to the internal politics to get fully honest, unfiltered discussion from the team

⚠️ You can’t easily participate and facilitate at the same time - one role always steals oxygen from the other

⚠️ An external expert spots patterns, tensions and blind spots that people inside the system stop noticing

⚠️ An external facilitator can challenge assumptions without any social or organisational risk to the team

⚠️ The session can carry more weight when it’s run by someone independent, turning it from “just another meeting” into purposeful work

Yes, I offer workshop facilitation so, yes, I would say this, but it doesn't make it not true. Whether you want me to come do it for you (drop me a line, I have workshops ready to go!) or someone else, make the right choice

I've not read a business book in a while, but I've consistently recommended a handful during workshops and coaching calls:

📖 "User Story Mapping" - Jeff Patton 

Probably the best book for product people struggling to carve out value from a disconnected wish list of features. USM workshops are incredible ways to get even sceptical non-product people on board

📖 "Crossing the Chasm" - Geoffrey Moore 

Essential reading for entrepreneurs and product people trying to be all things to all people rather than picking a winnable niche and actually winning it. So many teams struggle with focus and it's killing their product.

📖 "Obviously Awesome" - April Dunford 

The classic book on product positioning and selling your value proposition properly. I'm looking forward to digging into April's new work on differentiated value, and helping companies get out of "us too" commoditisation.

📖 "Product Management in Practice" - Matt LeMay 

For all the deserved love lavished on his second book, PMIP is still the first book I recommend to product managers trying to make sense of the role. Gritty and realistic, but also aspirational.

📖 "Continuous Discovery Habits" - Teresa Torres 

Product teams aren't speaking to customers or users enough, and their products are suffering. Teresa exhorts product trios to go speak to them every week! But, even if you can't, at least speak to them more often. Using Opportunity Solution Trees to map out potential options is a great visual method to help you decide too.

Other stuff I consistently recommend:

🌐 Rich Mironov's content - all of it, especially relevant for B2B product people trying to make sense of it all in their organisation. Worth a special mention is the "money stories" stuff he's been working on.

🌐 Martin Eriksson's "Decision Stack" for connecting vision to execution via good strategic thinking and principles. 

🌐 Gibson Biddle's strategy stuff and all of his stories about leading product at Netflix (did you know he used to work for Netflix?) 

There are obviously plenty of other authors and thought leaders out there, but these come up often. I'm not going to link anywhere, because of algorithms lol, but their stuff is easy to find (and I've had the privilege of speaking to many of them on my podcast).

Now it's your turn... which books or content creators do you recommend, and why?

As B2B products mature, it's common for teams to build new, upgraded versions of old features. Often, they'll leave the old ones around for some time, rather than aggressively forcing customers to upgrade. 

The name you choose is important:

👴 Legacy = the old version is bad and old-fashioned and you should get off it as soon as possible. Actually, we can't believe you ever used it!

🏛️ Classic = the old version is still good and harks back to a simpler, more comfortable life. Keep using it as long as you like, it's sturdy and reliable.

Eventually, all features die but, the larger the contract, the more the wind down time. Just make sure you set expectations and stick to them.

👋 The hardest thing about fractional consulting 👋

Yes, sometimes it's hard to find clients, and the context-switching can be brutal but, for me, the hardest part is always the end of a contract. You've been working with a team for months, have gotten to know a bunch of really smart, passionate people, and done your very best to help them.

And then it's time to leave. Sometimes, because your work is done, sometimes because they want to go in another direction. But, often, there's a "But I could just stay!" reaction. Stick around, take a job, double down on what you started.

Yet, kind of like the The Littlest Hobo, that is not your fate, and there's always a new company that needs you, a new team to help.

Apropos that, I'm currently busy creating some AI training materials, but I'm available for chats if you're a B2B SaaS company that needs:

🔥 Fractional product leadership - help connect strategy to execution and revitalise your product team
🔥 Organisational assessments - dig deep in how your company works and get actionable advice about where to focus your transformation efforts
🔥 Group workshops - training for teams that need practical, context-aware guidance on how to deliver impact as product teams
🔥 Product leadership coaching - ideal for leaders trying to make a difference and become a true partner to their business

Hit me up for a free chat if you'd like to sort your product team out in 2026!

🚨 Our PMs suck, let's fire them all and get new ones! We need to raise the bar 🚨

I've heard this from more than one founder, so let's unpack.

Firstly, no one "sucks" per se, but it's also true that organisations can pick up poor-fit hires over time, or the organisation evolves around a formerly good hire who didn't evolve with it. This is natural, and it does need to be managed.

What tends to happen is that leaders leave it far too long, avoiding difficult performance-related conversations because they're difficult, and spending far too long complaining behind the scenes. Eventually, frustrated at what they see as a lack of progress, they feel compelled to make a statement and blow it all up.

A couple of points here: 

1. It's absolutely OK to want higher standards, and it's possible that some people won't meet them
2. It's absolutely unfair to fire people for not meeting standards you've never told them about

It's important to tackle this in a structured, fair way. Ideally, collaborate on the standards with your product team; don't just sit there and dictate, especially if you've never "done" product management. There are plenty of frameworks out there like Petra Wille's PMWheel or Ravi Mehta's PM Competency Framework, that have been written and used by excellent product people. Assess team members against those standards.

For those who don't meet the standards, assess whether they *want* to meet those standards. If they do, come up with a fair plan to move them in the right direction. If they don't, maybe they're best suited to a different role, and have that discussion openly and honestly.

In whatever time period is suitable for your context, give people a chance to improve. If they are heading in the right direction, double down! If you don't think they're going to make it, have that discussion openly and honestly.

I've long believed that there's no such thing as a "bad product manager", just an under-coached product manager left dangling in a system that tolerates underperformance and does nothing about it. Leadership is a big part of this, and is often lacking.

--
If you're affected by any of the issues in this post, hit me up for a free advisory chat and let's see if we can get your PM team humming in 2026

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.

Michael Goitein

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:

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

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?

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

As you stare at your data dashboards, you still have no confidence in your direction.

Every metric suggests something different. Acquisition up 12%. Retention dipped. NPS moved 3 points. All true. All conflicting.

More data won't resolve these conflicting data points. It only amplifies it.

So you dig deeper. Segment cohorts differently. Run another query. Look for the insight that will finally break the tie.

I've watched teams with the best data infrastructure get dragged down to become the slowest decision-makers because they chased certainty that the data could never provide. 

Face it: Data can only tell you one thing: what happened in the past.

Teams that move fast are the ones that make hypotheses and choices using data as an input to, but never a substitute for, logic, creativity, and deep thought.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂?

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.

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.

You might have heard people talk about “moats” in strategy before. 

It’s an interesting concept, and it’s cool to say.

But it’s not an idea that’s going to help you build and sustain competitive advantage in SaaS software.

Warren Buffet, 95, came up with the term in one of his famous investor letters, and it made sense for his business.

Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway acquired companies that had created some kind of defensible advantage over rivals in the market through some mix of brand, leadership, technologies, or capabilities. But Buffet has focused on solid consumer-goods companies like Fruit of the Loom textiles, Benjamin Moore paint, Duracell batteries, Dairy Queen ice cream shops, and See's Candies.

But the pace of change in software has accelerated to the point that a medieval metaphor made of stones and water may not be your best mental model.

Fortunately, there’s a very different model to help guide building product strategies in the age of AI, courtesy of one of the world’s leading strategists, Roger L. Martin.

Subscribe to “Product Strategy Decoded” today to find out why “moats” won’t help you design better AI product strategies, and what to do instead.

Roger Martin’s insight is that companies don’t compete on answers. They compete on questions.

Taking this one & running with it to challenge the modern startup founder's obsession with finding a defensible “moat.”

You won’t find it.

But there’s a better way to create competitive advantage.

Open article: Forget Building Moats. Here’s Your Real Key To Crushing The Competition With AI. by open.substack.com

Forget Building Moats. Here’s Your Real Key To Crushing The Competition With AI.

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..."?

Startup founders have lots of things to worry about– Logos, runway, funding.
Unfortunately, strategy doesn't always make the top of the list.
Fortunately, if you're a founder looking to up your strategic game, Shreyas Doshi has your back.

ex-Stripe, Twitter, Google, Yahoo. Startup advisor.

✨ New launch for Founders: I’m starting a new weekend-only Product Strategy accelerator for growth-stage startup Founders and Executives at mid-sized to large companies.

1 intensive weekend, 16 hours, we‘ll cover the correct ideas and approaches to conceive and communicate winning Product Strategy. The inaugural cohort is Nov 22-23.

This is based on feedback from 100+ Founders in my Product Sense course who emphasized to me the need for a practical, strategy-focused program for busy Founders.

I am still teaching the 8-day Product Sense course (which also includes all of the Product Strategy material). The Product Sense course continues to be the default choice for everyone working on products. This new program is just a more focused, 2-day Product Strategy accelerator specifically tailored for Founders and Executives.

Link is in the comments. I’d very much appreciate you sharing this new program with growth-stage Founders & Executives in your network 🙏

Christina Cacioppo built a demo that closed $500k in deals from someone who'd only ever sold Girl Scout cookies.

Christina used a “Wizard of Oz” style-demo —it looked real, but there was nothing behind the “curtain,” technically speaking. All just visuals & mockups. 

But the promise was compelling: Compress nine months of audit readiness into a 2–4-week window, right in front of the buyer's eyes.

Founders walked into that demo grappling with their own spreadsheet and compliance anxiety. They left knowing they could meet an audacious audit timeline. 

The awareness of the possibility was exactly where revenue lived.

The first $500k in Vanta revenue came from solving the constraint founders actually felt.

When you remove the thing blocking revenue opportunities, selling becomes frictionless.

Your best demo solves the constraint that’s been keeping your target customer stuck.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀?

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

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.

Such an incredibly strong lineup of AI product leaders.
This is the part I'm most interested in:
𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲-𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆: Watch five real AI products being reviewed. Understand their full journey, from concept to trade-offs.

Linkedin Top Voice | CEO, Product Faculty | AI PM Training for Senior PMs | 100K+ Sr. PMs Trained

Ever wondered what happens when your AI product is judged by executives from OpenAI, Shopify, and Atlassian?

Now you don’t have to imagine because you can see it LIVE.

For the past 1.5+ years, Product Faculty’s AI PM Certification Capstone Showcase has been a private event, exclusive to our students.

It’s where five AI products, built by our students from scratch, are presented live to a panel of top product leaders.

This year’s panel?

 🔥 Miqdad Jaffer (Product Lead, OpenAI)
 🔥 Joff Redfern (Chief Product Officer, Atlassian)
 🔥 Mani Fazeli (VP of Product, Shopify)
 🔥 Hosted by Jennifer Liu (Sr. Director of Product, Google)

What happens inside:

- You’ll watch these leaders grill builders live, unpacking real strategies, trade-offs, and product thinking.

- You’ll see how they evaluate AI products: what they praise, what they question, and what they’d do differently.

- And you’ll get a rare look at how the best minds in product make decisions in real time.

It’s truly a masterclass in how AI products are judged, refined, and built to win.
And for the first time ever, you’re invited.

Sign up here (for free): https://lnkd.in/gmf-QCgh

What you’ll learn:

1. Steal the Frameworks of AI Experts: See OpenAI, Shopify, and Atlassian leaders grill builders. Learn their frameworks and the exact questions they ask.

2. Reverse-Engineer Their Product Strategy: Watch five real AI products being reviewed. Understand their full journey, from concept to trade-offs.

3. Hear What Top Builders Would Say If They Were on Your Team: Get live, unfiltered feedback that product veterans usually charge thousands for.

This is a once-in-a-year opportunity to learn from the best for free.

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