All Things Product with Teresa and Petra

Lost in the Woods


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What we cover:

  • Settle in place (freeze): When doing less is smarter—especially if the team lacks context/authority and needs to raise the alarm instead of improvising fixes.
  • Chase shortcuts: Shortcuts can be smart… or overconfidence. The key move is testing whether the “road” is actually where you think it is (with examples like Spotify’s bet on podcasts).
  • Follow the first visible path: The obvious option isn’t always the best one—so the real job is making multiple paths visible before choosing.
  • Use your own navigation (intuition/taste): Judgment matters, but not as a replacement for evidence—especially when your “compass” and what you observe conflict.
  • Retrace your steps: When you’re drifting, go back to what used to work—principles, quality practices, and discovery habits as built-in feedback loops.
  • Team prompt to try:

    If your team is “lost” right now, which pattern are you defaulting to—and what’s the smallest move you can make this week to get oriented (escalate, test a shortcut, map options, validate intuition with evidence, or retrace to a principle)?

    Resources & Links:

    • Follow Teresa Torres: https://ProductTalk.org
    • Follow Petra Wille: https://Petra-Wille.com
    • Mentioned in the episode:

      • Lost Person Behavior: A Search and Rescue Guide on Where to Look - for Land, Air and Water
      • Robert J. Koester
      • Examples referenced: Xerox, Nokia, Kodak, Volkswagen emissions scandal, Spotify podcasts, large-org tooling contexts like Oracle and SAP
      • Opportunity Solution Trees: Visualize Your Discovery to Stay Aligned and Drive Outcomes
      • KPI Trees: How to Bridge the Gap Between Customer Behavior, Product Metrics, and Company Goals
      • Let's Read Continuous Discovery Habits Together (January 2026) for Continuous Discovery Habits (and the idea of habits as feedback loops)
      • Shifting from Outputs to Outcomes: Why It Matters and How to Get Started
      • ...more
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        All Things Product with Teresa and PetraBy Petra Wille & Teresa Torres