I used to say, “Don’t let AI do your research.” I’ve changed my mind.

That shift started before this interview—after I ran a complex API exploration through an AI research assistant and got back a thorough, sourced report with working links.

But my conversation with Margaret-Ann Seger (who leads product and design at Statsig, the intelligence infrastructure platform for feature flags, experimentation, and analytics) turned that insight into conviction. And the timing makes this even more interesting: Statsig recently announced it’s being aquired by OpenAI.

If OpenAI sees enough value to combine forces, the way Margaret and her team work is worth studying.

Here’s the core change I’m making in my own work: let AI collapse the paperwork so humans can concentrate on judgment. When I dump a messy outline into a model and it returns a clean structure in minutes, I don’t feel threatened; I feel focused.

Margaret described a world where PRDs update themselves from meeting inputs and auto-ticket the next steps. That’s not cutting corners. It’s cutting ceremony. The value we bring isn’t keystrokes—it’s synthesis.

Synthesis shows up in how we decide what to build when shipping gets cheap. AI lowers the barrier to creation, which raises the bar on taste. It’s not enough to ship more; you have to choose better—distill the real pain, reconcile what users say with what they actually do, and shape solutions that feel right in the hand.

Margaret triggered a new habit for me: I now write a one-paragraph “taste test” before we commit: Why this problem? Why now? Why this approach? If I can’t explain it plainly, we aren’t ready.

The conversation also reframed “soft skills” as the durable edge. You can’t paste three years of team history into a prompt. Reading the room, sensing when engineers don’t buy a solution, remembering why a past decision failed—these are still human advantages. Margaret called out the friction every PM knows: users tell you one thing in interviews and do the opposite in product. Someone has to hold both truths at once and decide. That someone is still us.

One practice of hers made that human edge tangible: make customer support everyone’s job. At Statsig, support isn’t a silo. They rotate it. Designers answer confused tickets and see where the UI collapses. Engineers feel the frustration firsthand and often fix root causes quickly. It’s tempting to route everything through a bot for speed, but there’s a hidden cost: you lose the raw empathy that powers taste. We’re piloting a similar rotation and tracking the fixes it sparks.

Another theme was moving learning into production. Prototypes were born when shipping was expensive. As that cost falls, high-fidelity demos give way to small, live experiments that gather real data. Margaret’s ideal cadence is to spend more time on problem analysis and then release multiple small bets behind flags. I’ve started doing the same for ambiguous flows: define two or three minimal viable variants, ship them to real segments, and time-box the learning window. Data beats debate.

On the tooling side, Margaret pushed me to point AI at sources of truth, not just the documentation. Docs always lag. Code doesn’t. Her team is exploring agents that answer questions grounded in the codebase and SDKs. I loved the example of customers repurposing Statsig’s experimentation tool to benchmark models and prompts offline—a reminder that good tools get bent into new jobs in the AI era. We’re trialing a code-aware path for technical support and an internal agent trained on our repos for integration questions.

Something else I’m now normalizing: don’t hide your AI usage. Margaret hired a PM who clearly used AI on the take-home. That wasn’t a disqualifier; the deciding factor was his judgment. The stigma needs to go. Show your work, raise the standard, and trade playbooks. We’re adding a simple line to retros: “How did AI help?” When the practice is visible, everyone gets better faster.

Two moments from the interview keep replaying for me. The first was our “soft skills” segment, because it names what PMs actually do when the tools get powerful: we arbitrate between truths, people, and paths. The second was personal and small—Margaret and her husband use AI to make songs for everyday moments and stories for their kid. It’s a reminder that this wave isn’t only about efficiency; it can unlock more human connection at scale.

Here’s where I’ve landed:

* I no longer treat AI as a novelty or a threat. I treat it as an accelerant. It compresses the “what” so I can deepen the “why.”

* I’m biasing toward live learning and away from document theater: fewer perfect specs, more real outcomes.

* I’m putting empathy on the front line (support rotations), taste at the gate (the one-paragraph test), and code at the center of truth (repo-grounded agents).

If you’ve been skeptical like I was, start small: choose one active project, let AI handle the formatting and ticketing, and spend the saved hour with a customer or sharpening the problem statement. You may find your job doesn’t get smaller. It gets truer.

And in a world where a company like Statsig is merging with OpenAI, getting to that truer version of product work isn’t optional—it’s the edge.

Listen to The Way of Product: Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Margaret-Ann Seger, leader of product and design teams at Statsig, and after the acquisition from OpenAI, part of their Product Staff, discusses the evolving role of AI in product management on the latest episode of The Way of Product. While AI can automate many tasks, human judgment remains crucial. She shares insights on how AI can supercharge productivity and reduce drudgery, allowing PMs to focus more on strategic thinking and deeper customer understanding. Margaret also explores the idea that future PM tasks will blend with design and engineering roles, facilitated by AI tools. She remains optimistic about AI's impact on creativity and productivity.

Listen to The Way of Product: Apple Podcasts or Spotify

00:00 Introduction to AI and Human Judgment

00:33 Meet Margaret Ann from Statsig

01:16 Debating the Future of Jobs in Tech

02:45 The Importance of Taste in Product Management

06:34 Soft Skills and Human Empathy in Tech

12:33 The Role of Engineering Background in Product Leadership

15:46 AI's Impact on Research and Data Gathering

20:23 Embracing Technological Progress

20:42 The Joy of Creating with AI

22:18 AI in Product Management

24:32 The Future of Work with AI

25:45 Exploring AI Tools and Their Impact

31:23 The Role of AI in Knowledge Management

34:21 Optimism for the Future

35:25 Closing Thoughts and Encouragement

Thank you for reading this week's episode of The Way Product. This publication is intended to be free indefinitely.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

Declining MAU can be a product win,

depending on your product strategy...

Andrew Saxe, VP of Product at Smartling, joined me to unpack why.

When a system translates intent well and runs in the background, people don’t have to log in—and the work still gets done.

We discussed designing for “manage by exception,” placing guardrails where failure would be costly, and allowing automation to carry the load.

We looked at the feature request funnel too: why thousands of asks don’t equal thousands of tickets, and how building a few verbatim specs for large customers can still lead to unused features, tech debt, and wasted opportunities.

Listen to The Way of Product: Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Timestamps:

02:48 The niche translation industry and Smartling’s impact

11:28 The role of AI in translation

13:55 AI’s impact on Smartling’s product roadmap

16:38 Managing translations with AI and human oversight

22:00 Optimizing translation services for market expansion

22:47 Challenges and nuances of multilingual customer research

23:41 The art and science of requirements to spec translation

29:18 Feature requests and customer feedback

31:26 The importance of understanding user needs

34:27 The future of translation and AI

38:37 Concluding thoughts and contact information

24:56 AI and Translation: Balancing Automation and Human Touch

28:19 Feature Requests and Customer Feedback

30:27 The Importance of Understanding User Needs

35:42 Managing Translation Budgets and Quality

37:39 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

Michael Scully reviewed all 1,000 applications personally when he posted a product manager role last August. Every. Single. One.

That same obsessive attention to overlooked details drove him from coding in his dorm room to leading product at Summer, a public benefit corporation tackling America's $1.8 trillion student loan crisis.

In our conversation, Michael discovered something shocking: The majority of people defaulting on student loans qualified for affordable payment plans—they just never knew these options existed. During the pandemic payment pause, borrowers' loans got sold, addresses changed, autopay broke. Prime credit scores tanked overnight through no fault of the borrower.

"We're not dealing with edge cases," Michael explains. "These are normal people who did everything right, caught in a system that's surprisingly complex for what should be simple."

We cover:

→ Diverse teams catch problems homogeneous ones miss (hire for "culture add" not "culture fit")

→ Where there's confusion, there's opportunity to help at scale, and how to spot opportunities.

This episode covers student loan solutions. But it's really about building products that meet people where they struggle most—and the leadership philosophy that attracts top talent to mission-driven work.

Timeline:

03:01 FinTech Trends and Student Loans

04:07 Challenges in Student Loan Management

05:58 Summer's Approach to Solving Student Loan Issues

10:48 Employer Benefits and Financial Wellness

14:45 Navigating Regulatory Changes

17:37 Product Management Insights

20:09 Proactive Messaging and Customer Experience

29:06 Hiring and Team Building

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

Human-centered design, for all its merits, sometimes fails to consider what comes after the launch, after the product leaves our hands. We need a systemic approach: design that asks not only what people need now, but what the world will require in five, ten, or fifty years.

It is a question of stewardship. As we rush to integrate AI and other technologies, are we thinking beyond the next quarter, the next release cycle? Are we willing to accept responsibility for the unintended consequences?

AI, for its part, is neither savior nor villain. Ben Rennie sees it as an amplifier—a tool that accelerates the work but does not replace the worker.

For example, he used AI to help finish his book, but the ideas and the voice are his own. The lesson is clear: technology can be a partner, but it cannot do the hard work of thinking, of feeling, of connecting the dots that only a person can see. When I write, using AI as an editorial partner, primarily for packaging ideas rather than generating them, has been a game-changer in helping me express myself. To the world better.

So I'm happy to present Ben and his interview on the podcast, where we dive deep into where creative work is going in the age of generative AI.

-Caden

“80% of the world’s climate challenges today stem from the design phase of a product or service. We’re building things without recognizing the impact. Human-centered design means designing for people, but we often ignore the systems in which humans exist.”- Ben Rennie

Listen now on Apple and Spotify.

In this episode, I speak with Ben Rennie, co-founder of Reny®, about his career as a designer and entrepreneur spanning more than a decade. Ben shares how he started his consultancy in 2009, explains its evolution, and discusses challenges he has faced and lessons he has learned along the way.

The conversation explores systemic design and why understanding the broader impacts of human-centered design matters. Rennie introduces his book, Lessons in Creativity, in which he examines the creativity gap and explains how fear can stifle creative confidence as people grow older.

We also discuss the relationship between creativity and artificial intelligence, challenges in sustainable design systems, and stories from Rennie’s experience that highlight the importance of perseverance and bravery in creative work.

The episode offers practical insights for anyone interested in creativity, technology, and human-centered design from a veteran in the creative industry.

If you want to learn more about Ben Rennie, his work, or his thinking on creativity and design, check out the following:

* Ben Rennie on LinkedIn — Connect with Ben and follow his latest updates.

* Lessons in Creativity on Amazon — Explore Ben’s book for stories and strategies to cultivate your creative confidence.

* Reny® (Ben’s agency) — Discover the consultancy Ben founded and see their latest projects.

Timeline

00:12 Starting the Business Journey

00:28 Personal Reflections and Challenges

01:01 The Importance of Systems and Design

01:25 Balancing Personal Life and Work

02:45 Discussing the New Book

03:03 Exploring the Creativity Gap

07:07 Systemic Design and Environmental Impact

17:31 The Role of AI in Creativity and Work

27:04 Exploring Human-Centered Design

27:37 AI Tools for Enhanced Productivity

31:25 Transition Design and Future Innovations

34:33 Creative Confidence and Overcoming Fear

35:46 Personal Stories of Creativity and Bravery

46:07 The Importance of Meaningful Work

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

“The data leads you. It does not tell you exactly where to go, but it offers suggestions about the direction to take your product.

My business partner and I had a suspicion that we were prioritizing the wrong features. Instead of asking customers directly for feedback, we observed their behavior and used that data to inform our product decisions.

Historically, product managers have wanted product feedback, but it is often difficult to collect and use. The rise of APIs has made gathering feedback much easier, yet many product managers remain stuck in older ways of working.

It is tempting to say, “I want to build this,” and assign ten or twenty developers to work on pet features.

We believe that model of product management is fading. You will increasingly rely on data—both customer and qualitative data—because if competitors do so, they will be closer to the customer, serve them better, and you risk falling behind.

In a world where intelligence is widely accessible and anyone can build nearly any feature at minimal cost, what truly matters?

I am not one to make predictions, but a few factors stand out as difficult to replicate:”

-Kareem Mayan

Listen now on Apple and Spotify.

In this episode, we’re joined by Kareem Mayan, co-founder of Savio.

Savio.io is a product management platform that centralizes and organizes customer feature requests and product feedback, enabling B2B SaaS teams to build evidence-based roadmaps and prioritize features that matter most.

Kareem has more than two decades of experience in product management and entrepreneurship—including roles at ESPN and MySpace, and three successful startup exits.

Here’s what we cover in the episode:

* Transforming product management and SaaS operations with AI, machine learning, and automation

* Building user-centric products through deep customer understanding and feedback

* Centralizing and acting on customer feedback with integrated tools and platforms

* Making data-informed decisions by blending analytics with qualitative insights

* Preventing churn proactively using predictive analytics and early warning systems

Listen now on Apple and Spotify.

Where to find the topics:

00:53 Lessons from Mayan’s first startup experience02:39 Insights from subsequent ventures05:05 The importance of sales and marketing07:10 Product management and customer feedback08:01 AI and the future of product development13:34 Qualitative feedback in B2B SaaS17:01 Starting the current company18:49 Transition to a mid-market strategy19:05 Prioritizing customer feedback19:32 Savio’s approach to feedback management20:36 Founders’ journey and insights21:52 Challenges and solutions in product management22:13 Data-driven product development26:57 Balancing big wins and incremental improvements31:49 Steve Jobs myths around customer feedback

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

Hey Listener!

Communities are more than just support forums; If deployed correctly, they can be a fantastic channel for product teams to sift signal from the noise.

In the latest episode of Way of Product, I had the pleasure of chatting with Jake McKee, a seasoned community expert with over 20 years of experience working with companies like Apple, Lego, and clients such as Southwest Airlines and H&R Block.

In this interview, I chat with him about his journey in the customer engagement space, working with major brands like Apple Global Support, Lego Global Community, and more.

His expertise in creating community-driven product development strategies and operationalizing community feedback in large organizations like Apple offers unique insights for anyone looking to enhance their customer engagement programs.

Listen now on Apple and Spotify.

And if you like what you're listening to in this episode, I highly recommend checking out his work at jakemckee.com

Actionable Takeaways

✅ Bridging the Gap Between Customers and Companies

✅ Empowering Customers to Become Advocates

✅ The Power of Relational Customer Engagement

Time Stamps

02:45 An Introduction to Jake and His Journey in Community Development

06:22 Bridging the Gap Between Customers and Companies

13:10 Apple Community Insights

18:08 Operationalizing Community Feedback

27:45 Community-Driven Product Development

37:00 Challenges and Strategies in Community Engagement

46:30 Understanding Developer Needs Beyond the SDK

57:50 The Importance of Honest Communication

1:06:20 Creating Shared Success in Communities

1:15:05 The Power of Relational Customer Engagement

1:25:15 Final Thoughts and How to Get Started

Bridging the Gap Between Customers and Companies

"My work has always had some connection to bridging the gap between customer and company."

—Jake McKee

Jake emphasizes the importance of community programs over mere platforms. He believes in building long-term programs that foster genuine relationships between companies and their customers. This approach leads to better customer satisfaction and product development.

Takeaway: Focus on bridging customer-company gaps through meaningful community programs, leading to enriching customer relationships and better product insights.

For me, meaningful customer engagement means meeting them where they're at - at industry events—creating a third place where people could hang out at those events, like a lounge or a podcast. Apple invested heavily in SEO for its support community. So that if you looked up anything Apple-related, there would be a support community link.

Empowering Customers to Become Advocates

"You don't create fans without a relationship."

—Jake McKee

Jake discusses the power of empowering customers as advocates through transparency and open communication. He highlights how involving community voices in product development processes can lead to better products and product launches.

Takeaway: Empower your customers by involving them in your processes, building trust, and creating advocates who support and promote your brand.

To do that, customers need to feel seen, heard, and understood. They need to think that you're building on their behalf, that you're making their work possible, and that they feel empowered to share how fantastic your product is.

The Power of Relational Customer Engagement

"Think about relational activity, not just data gathering."

—Jake McKee

Jake shares that successful customer engagement relies on building genuine relationships rather than focusing solely on data collection. This relational approach encourages consistent and meaningful interactions with your audience, leading to long-term connections.

Takeaway: Build relational connections with customers, treating engagements as social conversations to foster trust and long-term loyalty. You create loyalty by giving and establishing a sense of reciprocity. Doing things that you don't have to do as a company are great ways to generate reciprocity.

That's another episode. Listen to the whole thing to get all the extra context that wasn't included in this post.

Again, thanks for opening and listening.

Cheers,

Caden Damiano

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

Hey Listener!

Today's guest is Steven Puri, CEO of The Sukha Company, which develops one of the most popular productivity and focus apps, Sukha.

Connect with Steven on Linkedin.

Listen now on Apple and Spotify.

Steven has a diverse background in both the film and tech industries.

As a former senior executive at major motion picture studios and a tech entrepreneur who has raised venture capital for startups, Steven brings a unique perspective on creativity and leadership.

Here’s his IMDB page; he’s worked on films like Independence Day, Godzilla, and Braveheart.

He shares some pretty awesome behind-the-scenes stories with directors like Roland Emmerich. He's a fantastic storyteller. I was hooked every time he told a story, and they were hilarious and entertaining.

During our conversation, we discussed:

✅ The parallels between launching films and tech products and the challenges of scaling creative projects.

✅ The application of remote and hybrid work models from film production to today's tech environments.

✅ The impact of flow states on personal efficiency and keeping your team productive.

Important Time Stamps:

- 03:15 - Steven’s transition from film to tech

- 12:30 - Adapting film production strategies to tech

- 25:45 - Cultivating flow states for better productivity with Sukha

Actionable Takeaways

Break Down Big Tasks: Flow Gets Unlocked by Tackling a Manageable Chunk of Work

Steven emphasizes the power of tackling big tasks by breaking them down into smaller, manageable steps. This provides your brain with a way to begin forming connections to the broader picture.

"And if you do put something crazy on there, like, I have to write this week's episode, it suggests like the estimate on that is probably 16 hours. You're probably not gonna do it before your brain blows up. What if, instead of writing the episode, you did an act one outline?"

- Steven Puri

Takeaway: My favorite thing to do before writing a PRD, or when I was designing, was to focus on creating a wireframe or writing an outline to get to a v0 of a work output deliverable. That v0 work informs the gaps in my thinking, which provides different paths forward to make progress.

Steven's approach here is influenced by decades of experience in the film industry, where phases are broken up into different levels of fidelity: storyboard, script, and logistical documents. The whole concept of pre-production is to break up the work into manageable chunks so that, if followed, you don't have to have as much thrashing in the production phase of a movie or TV show.

The film industry has been using remote and hybrid work for decades

Steven highlights the effectiveness of hybrid work, blending remote and in-person collaboration, as a way to adapt to current work environments.

We've long recognized the necessary balance of structured planning and creative freedom in filmmaking, from remote idea nurturing and production intensity to remote post-production work.Hollywood has been doing remote for a very long time. You're writing a script at your house. You're creating storyboards and logistical documents on your iPad in a café.

Hybrid work is when you're in the studio pitching a script or in the writer's room, roughing out final details.

And production is when you're in the office. You're showing up to work every day. Sometimes 12+ hours a day. The beautiful thing about Hollywood production is that it respects all the different work locations and styles, encouraging creative results.

"Belonging to a community enhances performance and motivation… Balancing remote and in-office work helps unlock creativity."

- Steven Puri

Takeaway: A hybrid model can maximize both focused independent work and team efforts. I'm a big fan of working from home to complete my IC tasks and collaborating on Zoom or Google Meet. However, those work trips, where we travel to a co-working space or fly out to an office, have been crucial in my experience for making those big strategic decisions.

Balance your work schedule to harness the strengths of both approaches.

Leverage Downtime for Creativity

Steven encourages using downtime or even multiple projects to access creative insights that might otherwise remain untapped.

He calls it the "other thing", and when managing teams, he tries to give writers, engineers, or designers another thing to work on so that if they're blocked in one area, they could go work on something else.

"The great ideas happen when you're thinking about something else."

- Steven Puri

Takeaway: Embrace moments of mental wandering during routine tasks. These breaks can lead to innovative solutions and fresh ideas.

I hope these takeaways provide you with actionable insights to enhance your productivity and creativity. Listen to the full episode to hear behind-the-scenes stories of films like Independence Day, Godzilla (the one with Matthew Broderick), and much more in the whole episode.

Listen now on Apple and Spotify.

Cheers,

Caden Damiano

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

Hey Listener!

Today’s guest is Thomas Payet, one of the co-founders of MeiliSearch, an open-source AI-enhanced Search API that is plug-and-play and can be deployed in just a matter of minutes. Smart presets let you start searching through your data with zero configuration.

Thomas explained how focusing on simplicity and accessibility in their search API aligns with their mission to empower developers and enhance user experience across applications.

Our discussion also touched on the value of the collective vision of the founding team in building a successful tech company.

Connect with Thomas on Linkedin.

Listen now on Apple and Spotify.

𝗠𝗲𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗙𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀:

* Out-of-the-box search experience that reduces integration time and complexity.

* Intuitive design that allows developers to enhance search capabilities without extensive customization, seamlessly.

* How Meilisearch is a perfect example of the commoditization of most table-stakes functionality in software.

* Why create your search algorithm when you can buy one from MeiliSearch?

* Why should you worry about developing yet another technical solution for collaborative docs when other companies have solved that problem already?

https://www.meilisearch.com/

𝗔𝗱𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘀:

* The importance of the team's health in building the product lies in focusing on creating something bigger than yourself.

* How an open-source model fosters community-driven growth and accessibility in technology.

* Insights on scaling a company effectively while maintaining a focus on developer experience.

Actionable Takeaways

Table of contents

01:46 The Myth of the Lone Genius

03:01 Building a Company: Team Dynamics and Realizations

07:03 Journey to Open Source Search API

09:23 Developer Experience and API Design

20:05 The Role of AI in Development

23:14 Challenges and Future of AI in Development

31:18 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

1. Embrace the Power of Teamwork

"How can we build, as a team, something bigger than the sum of us?"

Thomas Payet

Thomas emphasized that his goal with building a company is to make something that can outlast the original founding team. Success is multiple generations of teams that continue to work on the business that the founding team initially started.

A successful company typically involves a founder willing to make something bigger than themselves and focus their efforts on recruiting, retaining, and building a high-performing culture of individuals who can work together in the same direction.

Takeaway: For me, it's realizing that you are most impactful when everybody on the team is doing their best work.

It may be easy to play hero ball and fill in the gaps in a start-up, but truly successful companies with thousands of employees require operational and management skills to support their culture.

It makes me think about Jamie Tartt in the Apple TV show “Ted Lasso”. At the start of the show, Jamie was a talented, young player who didn't see himself as part of the team, but thought that his contributions were the sole reason they won games. If you haven't seen the show, I recommend watching it. I believe it has many parallels with professional corporate life.

You could be a rock star individual contributor, but until you learn how to play your role in the larger team, it doesn't matter how many goals you score. If the team itself isn't winning, then your stats don't matter.

4. Cultivate a Developer-Friendly Environment

"You want developers to be impressed and feel that they can be powerful using your tool…

…So you can configure the search API for example, you can, push, fake data into MeiliSearch’s search."

Thomas Payet

Thomas emphasized the importance of designing APIs that are not only functional but also a pleasure to use. A good user experience in APIs can significantly improve developer productivity and adoption rates.

MeiliSearch is a developer tool, but the same lesson applies to any customer using your software. You have to make it feel like they're putting on the Iron Man suit, and you're augmenting their ability to do their job.

Takeaway: Specifically for the developer experience, if your Saas business is infrastructure and technology that devs can implement into their products, making sure that they have a great experience to quickly test out and play around with your APIs, be it through documentation or interactive demos on your documentation website, will go a long way in increasing conversions and usage of your API tool.

3. Democratizing Technology Through Open Source

"We did not realize how powerful it could be to make it open source."

Thomas Payet

Going open source wasn't just a technical decision but a strategic move to make innovation accessible.

Takeaway: Allowing developers worldwide to access and contribute to the platform accelerates growth and engagement. For me, when creating an infrastructure product, like a search API, and your primary customer is a developer, allowing them to contribute to the codebase is a great marketing strategy.

Listen to the full episode to gain all the context and additional insights not included in this summary.

Connect with Thomas on Linkedin.

Listen now on Apple and Spotify.

Cheers,

Caden Damiano

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

Hey Listener!

Today’s podcast guest is Marcelo Calbucci, the author of "The PRFAQ Framework."

Listen now on Apple and Spotify

Like many product people, I've read "Working Backwards," "The Everything Store," and even attempted to write strategy narratives using the Press Release-Frequently Asked Questions (PRFAQ) Framework to capture lightning in a bottle like Amazon without much success. Before this interview, I thought you could only do PRFAQs if you were at a company like Amazon.

Marcelo is a seasoned tech leader with over 25 years of product leadership experience in major companies like Microsoft and Amazon. Marcelo has led engineering, product, UX, and data teams, drawing from his rich background to discuss the intricacies of Amazon’s Press Release and Frequently Asked Questions (PRFAQ) writing framework and how it can be adapted beyond its Amazon Culture.Marcelo noticed my story throughout the industry. Although books discuss Amazon's strategic narrative process, none provide a tactical breakdown of implementing the framework or formating your PRFAQs to achieve the best results.

"The PRFAQ Framework" explores how the PRFAQ can be adapted for non-Amazon environments. It provides innovators a structured way to achieve groundbreaking goals without Jeff Bezos as their boss.

Exclusively for podcast listeners and newsletter subscribers, Marcelo has provided me with a link that offers a discount to get your own copy of the “PRFAQ framework.” Get a 20% discount on the PDF Edition with the code CADEN20 on www.theprfaq.com/buy"

Connect with Marcelo on LinkedIn

Actionable Takeaways

✅ The P-R-F-A-Q framework: A tool for innovation beyond Amazon.

✅ Emphasizing the power of writing to drive critical thinking and innovation.

✅ Recognizing the importance of testing assumptions and hypotheses thoroughly.

Time Stamps

02:10 Marcelo's Journey: From Small Startups to Big Tech

05:50 Adapting Amazon's Written Narrative Framework for Everyone to Use

11:34 The Power of Writing for Problem Solving

15:10 Using Big Ideas in Small Businesses

20:22 Writing for Smart Decisions

28:06 Fixing Mistakes Through Practice

32:44 Making a Strong Innovation Culture

36:18 Deciding Which Tech Projects Are Valuable

41:10 Final Thoughts and How to Connect with Marcelo

The P-R-F-A-Q Framework: A Tool for Innovation Beyond Amazon

"The PRFAQ framework is meant to encourage deep, strategic thinking about potential innovations, helping to filter out what might not work early in the process."

—Marcelo Calbucci

Marcelo Calbucci's framework transforms how teams develop ideas and make strategic decisions. A PRFAQ is a 4-6 page narrative document that helps you think critically, articulate clearly, and inspire action.

Structure Basics

The document includes a one-page Press Release (written as if your future product exists today), followed by Customer FAQs and Internal FAQs. This structure forces clarity about who your customer is, what problem you're solving, and how you'll deliver value.

Writing Approach

Write with precision. Replace vague terms like "many customers" with specific numbers. Use active voice. Avoid jargon and unexplained acronyms. Present concrete data instead of generalizations. This clarity builds trust and reveals gaps in your thinking.

Collaboration Tips

Designate one PRFAQ owner who controls the document, but gather input from diverse perspectives. Hold structured review sessions with built-in silent reading time. Listen to feedback with an open mind - you're seeking truth, not validation.

What Makes It Work

The PRFAQ helps you discover what you don't know. By writing about a future state in the present tense, you identify assumptions that need testing. The document evolves through iterations, becoming stronger as more perspectives shape it.

The power of this method isn't just in the finished document it's in how the process transforms your thinking and aligns your team around a shared vision worth pursuing.

Takeaway: The framework helps innovators articulate clear, strategic objectives, enabling thorough pre-execution evaluation, which is crucial for decision-making. It's important that there isn't a documented author in the document. The goal isn't to take credit but to seek truth through using this collaborative artifact as a framework.

Emphasizing the Power of Writing to Drive Critical Thinking and Innovation

"Writing helps in thinking critically and articulating ideas more clearly. It's a powerful exercise to drive innovation."

—Marcelo Calbucci

Marcelo discusses the three superpowers of writing: it forces critical thinking, improves articulation, and inspires collaboration. Unlike slide decks, which often rely on visuals, narratives push you to engage deeply with your concepts, offering a clear understanding and direction.

Takeaway: Writing should be an integral part of strategic planning as it refines thinking and strengthens the clarity of your ideas. Writing also unlocks what Daniel Kahneman calls "slow thinking," which forces your brain to stress every articulated idea. This is critical for big strategic bets—you don't want to be spending millions of dollars on assumptions and biases.

Recognizing the Importance of Testing Assumptions and Hypotheses Thoroughly

"Most P-R-F-A-Q efforts lead to a decision not to proceed, which is a valuable outcome in itself."

—Marcelo Calbucci

In exploring the P-R-F-A-Q process, Marcelo reveals that most efforts conclude with a “no-go” decision. This rigorous scrutiny is intended to refine ideas by eliminating those that do not stand up to thorough investigation.

Takeaway: Resilience in product management and innovation often comes from recognizing when not to proceed with a project, saving resources, and aligning focus on more promising opportunities.

Listen to the full episode to discover how to leverage narrative-based planning tools to enhance your strategic impact. Then, use the link below to get your copy of Marcelo's book. I read it before releasing this episode, and it's been highly influential on my personal writing style.

Connect with Marcelo on LinkedIn

Listen now on Apple and Spotify

Exclusively for podcast listeners and newsletter subscribers, Marcelo has provided me with a link that offers a discount to get your own copy of the “PRFAQ framework.” Get a 20% discount on the PDF Edition with the code CADEN20 on www.theprfaq.com/buy"

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com

Today’s guest is John Tarnoff, a former film studio executive turned executive and career transition coach.

Transitioning from a corporate film executive to a career coach, John has spent over a decade sharing insights and strategies to help individuals better uniquely position themselves, curate their messaging, and land roles tailored to their unique skills and strengths.

He also helps individuals transition into a different career track, and in this episode, we discuss how to make a successful career transition.

His unique approach draws heavily on entertainment industry metaphors, which I've been talking about for a while as a great analogy of a career in tech, where a lot of success comes from leveraging your relationships.

You can connect with John on LinkedIn or visit his website at johntarnoff.com

Listen now on Apple or Spotify

Time Stamps

02:00 Networking and Career Transitions

12:30 The Role of LinkedIn in Modern Careers

23:15 Strategies for Standing Out in Job Interviews

32:40 Building Relationships and Thought Leadership

40:05 Embracing AI and Originality in Your Work

51:45 Final Thoughts and Career Development Advice

Actionable Takeaways

Networking and Career Transitions: Handling a Career Pivot

"What I've discovered is that the rest of the world has become like entertainment, where it is all about networking."

—John Tarnoff

John highlights that navigating through career ups and downs requires a strong network.

This now applies to all industries, not just entertainment. The message is to avoid being a "supplicant" in the job market and to leverage your strengths comprehensively on platforms like LinkedIn.

Takeaway: One thing I've observed in the age of AI is that data is no longer the oil; it's a judgment. Very soon, knowing a skill isn't going to be enough to hold down a job. Your reputation and trust with the people you work with will provide you with more career opportunities.

Resumes are Irrelevant: How to Use LinkedIn in a Modern Career

"My philosophy is that you have to make LinkedIn your master resume."

—John Tarnoff

John stresses the importance of crafting a LinkedIn profile that isn't just a digital copy of your resume.

Instead, it should serve as a master document showcasing who you are, your values, and the unique qualities you bring to the table.

Takeaway: All strategy is just segmentation and positioning. Your LinkedIn should filter away potential job prospects by highlighting your values.

If you're not attracting work through an authentic LinkedIn portfolio, you might want to reconsider the market segment you're targeting for your LinkedIn profile.

Strategies for Standing Out in Job Interviews

"The goal is to present an option, a set of choices, and not necessarily to get the part."

—John Tarnoff

The podcast explores the parallel between auditions for actors and job interviews for professionals. It’s about participating in a conversation to find mutual fit rather than desperately vying for a role.

Takeaway: Use interviews as opportunities to demonstrate how you can help solve the potential employer's problems, showcasing your unique perspective.

Building Relationships and Thought Leadership

"It's not just having a good LinkedIn. You need to demonstrate thought leadership."

—John Tarnoff

Developing a personal brand and thought leadership through consistent engagement is pivotal. It’s about positioning yourself as a professional with a unique point of view and using platforms to share insights that reflect your expertise and interests.

Takeaway: My first big job at a college came from using this strategy: Engage regularly on platforms like LinkedIn. Contribute thoughtfully to discussions, publish content, and participate in community events to build your professional reputation.

Embracing AI and Originality in Your Work

"You have to double down on being more original, nuanced, smarter, more relevant."

—John Tarnoff

As AI becomes more integrated into professional landscapes, John discusses the importance of maintaining authenticity in your outputs and interactions. Use AI as a tool, but don’t let it overshadow your unique contributions and voice.

Takeaway: Authenticity in your work will differentiate you in a landscape where AI can generate content at scale. Strive for original thought and genuine human connection.

Thanks again for reading. If you liked this episode, connect with John on LinkedIn or visit his website at johntarnoff.com

Listen to the full episode to hear the great behind-the-scenes stories behind these takeaways in the context that John added to make this advice more valuable.

Listen now on Apple or Spotify

Have a good one!-Caden

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wayofproduct.com