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Thank you. Um, also thank you to Lenny

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for running this and for inviting me

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actually to be a speaker. Um, I don't

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actually go to a lot of conferences. Uh,

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but when I do, um, I really enjoy them

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and I will tell you I can't I lost track

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of the people that came up to me and

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thanked me for content for books. People

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ask me to they have tattered copies of

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inspired and they ask for signatures and

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it's you know hugely uh flattering and

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humbling to see that. I did warn several

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of them that my talk was actually all

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about

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my regrets

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uh of which there are uh quite a few.

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So that is what I wanted to talk about.

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But I have been here with you all day

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listening to every one of the talks. And

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um I learned something really

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interesting from every single one of

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them. I observed and I'm sharing this

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for a reason, but I observed that there

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are two kinds of product in the world.

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Two kinds. I've always called them
the project model and the product model.

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About half the speakers were from each.

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Obviously, I'm highly biased, but my

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world is both of them. And so,
it's super interesting for me to hear, but

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hopefully you all can think back on the

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day and you saw dramatically different

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definitions of the job. Now,
the truth is, as I was listening, I

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was like, "Oh, I got to talk about
this and I got to talk about that. I don't

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want them to leave thinking this." But

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then Robbie from Google and Ki basically

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said what I would have said. loved it.

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Again, I'm biased, but loved them.

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What I want to talk about here is a
little different. Honestly, it's uh

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something I've known I've needed to do

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for a long time, but I kept sort of

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procrastinating on it because uh this is

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a really hard question, especially for

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me. I have spent decades arguing certain

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points. Now, for those that don't know

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my work, I am actually one of those
people. I'm not interested in the latest

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process. I'm not interested in the

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latest framework. I don't really care

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what you created an agent to automate.

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I don't care because that's not actually

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the job of product.

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That might give you some tooling to help

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you do the job, but that's not the job.

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The job of product is to solve problems

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for our customers and achieve outcomes

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for our business. That's what this is

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about. So that's what I'm interested in.

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And because I focus on principles, the

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truth is they're pretty durable. In

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fact, every time a new technology wave,

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you heard a very polite way of saying I

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must be very old to have seen all of

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these waves. But yeah, every wave
you're like, will this invalidate those

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principles? You don't
really know until you look at

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it. And of course, as as you know, all
those waves were actually a lot of fun.

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I am one of those. I mean, the reason
I'm a product person is because I love

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the fact that what's just now possible

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is changing all the time. That's what
makes it cool. Otherwise, I would not be

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doing this this area. I wouldn't have

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chosen this as a career. But with AI,

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I feel like I had to look at everything.

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Even the things that honestly I was

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taught are sacred. It's like you don't

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mess with this principle. I wanted to

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look at everything. That's what I did.

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Now, the first thing I had to figure out

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was where do I start? Because the truth

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is I treat my content as my product and

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I am literally doing product discovery

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every single week with product teams. In

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fact, a lot of many of you have been
with me to know that's what I'm doing.

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I'm learning. That's what I've been
doing here today is really discovery on

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product content. And it was very good

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for me to hear these other views, all
of the other views. But anyway, the truth

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is I have a lot of things I've learned.

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Now most of the time I just write

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articles and publish stuff on more minor

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learnings. But what I wanted to do

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was to identify what I thought that I

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mean honestly I started brainstorming a

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list and it's a big list. It's kind of

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depressing but there's a big list. I

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wanted to pick the top 10 things that I

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genuinely regret. I genuinely if I knew

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then what I knew now now I decided to

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draw the line with the publication of

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the first edition of inspired which was

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in 2008 which I some of you weren't even

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born then but that's when I'm drawing

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the line but you have to realize I had

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been doing product for 25 years when
I wrote that. So I had been a product

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manager. I went through the whole

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engineering side and I was a product

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leader for two and a half decades. So I

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had learned a lot from amazing people at

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some, you know, honestly the anthropics

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of the day, really good companies. So I
decided let's draw the line there. Even

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though some of the things I'm going
to talk about are regrets that are less

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than six months old. Let's do that.

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Let's talk about it. 10 big things.
The first one I want to start with is

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business viability because that's
honestly the most embarrassing of them.

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There is no way for me to get around

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this. I completely understated the

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importance of business viability. Just
so that everybody knows what I'm talking

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about here. Business viability. This is

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a product manager's job is to make sure

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at least in the product model is to make

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sure that the solutions are both
the customer will buy it and it works for

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the business. That means you can afford
to market it, you can sell it, you can

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service it, it's legal, it's compliant,

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it respects privacy, safety, ethics.

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This is a big thing even before AI. It's

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big. Those of you working on AI

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products, you know it's even harder.

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Business viability is a really big area.

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But the embarrassing truth is

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in the first edition of Inspire.
I didn't even talk about it as a risk.

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Value, usability, feasibility. There
were three risks that we talked about.

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Viability was buried in there. I'm
embarrassed to say that. Now, I fixed it

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in the second edition, but that was 10
years later. This is one of those I had

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a lot of introspection because the truth

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is I kept asking how could I have gone

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so long with such a huge

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blind spot around products and I believe

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I know the answer to that and I want
to share it with you because it's very

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relevant even today maybe even

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especially today because in my career

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for those that might know I almost all

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of my career I was working on developer

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tools and platforms

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which I still absolutely love that

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space. Who doesn't love claude code? I

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mean I love that space. However, you
need to understand this. It's one of the

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few areas

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where a product manager can get away

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with pretty weak skills. Now, that's not

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the only one, but it's one of them. Now,

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that's not a a criticism. It's kind of a

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an advantage for those kinds of

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products. It's a much simpler space for

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viability. But for most products,

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especially for AI products, that is not

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true. And in fact, I used to be
very excited about my um knowledge of

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engineering because I felt like it
helped me learn new technologies. I came

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from an engineering background.
That's what I studied. And it was like big

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advantage. I felt like that was my my

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sort of superpower. But today

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I would argue going forward and for all

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of you to succeed at every level,

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business viability,

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especially from a holistic systems

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thinking perspective. Second, problem

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discovery. Now the tr you know,
I've always talked about product discovery

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has got problem discovery, figuring out
what problem you're going to solve and

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solution discovery, solving that

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problem. The truth is the mistake I made

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was I just did not understand

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how strongly people would be drawn to

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the problem discovery side of that

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equation. In fact,

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a lot of people view themselves as the
gatekeeper. That's their job as product

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managers to make sure they agree this
is a problem to solve. Yes, you obviously

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need to make sure you understand the
problem, who you're solving it for, and

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what the definition of success is. But

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honestly, that's not very hard. It's not

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very hard. And if you spend a lot of time
on that, you're not going to do the

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real part you're paid for, which is

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solution discovery. You might think when
a product fails, it's because you didn't

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um you know, it wasn't a big enough
demand, not enough people had that

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problem. you're almost always wrong
because what's going on is as soon as

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somebody else comes out with a better
solution all of a sudden we know that

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that was never the issue. So problem

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discovery I should have emphasized yes

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problem discovery important little bit

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of time save time for solution discovery

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that's the essence that's where

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innovation happens the next big issue um

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and this is another one all of these

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kind of have uh you know good and bad

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sides but um I spent a lot of time

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talking about how important it is to
understand the reason why we're working

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on whatever we're working on, whatever
problem we're working on. I didn't make

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this phrase up. John Door did, but we

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need teams of missionaries, not teams
of mercenaries. If you want missionaries,

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you have to make sure they understand

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the reason. And yeah, that is important,

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but that's so easy. And in fact, if you

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have a product strategy, which you

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should, we'll talk about that in a
little bit. the reasons you're working

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on these problems is spelled out for the

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whole organization to see. So there's no

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big mystery. So what I want to talk

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about and I was really happy to see that

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Robbie called this out. There is a much

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more important why than why are we

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working on this problem and that is why
are people not using our product. He

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called that out. I would love seeing that.
And honestly that's kind of a

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surprise for Google. for for a while
they thought it was all based on data

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and we're not going to talk to No, we

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need to actually talk to our customers
to figure out why. I try products

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constantly. I bet most of you do too.

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That's what product people do. We're
early adopters. We try it out. Most of

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them are crap products. You know this,

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right? We try it. We're not good. So, I

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churn. Almost nobody follows up anyway.

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Nothing. Not a survey, not a email,

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nothing to ask me why I churn. Probably

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the single most important question is

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why are people using our product or not

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using our product? And the part that

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really gets me is that's the key to

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unlocking so much innovation. And yet

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most teams never ask that question. The

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next one, humility. You know, the longer

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I go, the more important I realize that

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humility and a a truly open mind is so

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important to product people at every
level. What does that really mean?

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Humility. It means knowing what you

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can't know and admitting what you don't

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know. Many of you know this, but instead

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most people the message they took away

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from my books was the C the product

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manager should be CEO of the product,
which is kind of the opposite of a

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humility message. And

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yeah, this might sound like a

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personality trait to you, but it's not.

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I would argue this

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contributes directly to the root cause

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of so many failed products, which really

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leads me to maybe my single biggest

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regret.

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I honestly had no idea and I just didn't

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appreciate how powerful and deeply

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rooted the desire for predictability

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was. And that's from both product people

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and senior executives and how at odds

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that desire for predictability is with

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not just humility but innovation and

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outcomes.

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Consider for a second I'm opening a can

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of worms here. I probably shouldn't but

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consider for a second the two big

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artifacts in the product world maps and

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PRDS. So road maps of course the

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prioritized lists of features we think
we need to build and when and the PRDS

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which is how we describe the requirement

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of those features. Now for a second

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consider how much of an enabler

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those artifacts are for thinking that we

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know more than we really do. This is

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such an important point and so many

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people misunderstand this. You know,

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people keep asking the question, do you

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still need PRDs? Do we still need road

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maps? I I never heard that one posed

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till this morning. Uh despite Claire's

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optimism, I guarantee your road maps are

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not going away.

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We all know that the issue is not

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whether they are there. And it's never

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been whether they are there. The issue

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is what are you using that PRD for? If

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you're using it because you're forgive

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me arrogance and you think you know the

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answer so you're putting it in terms of

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requirements for your engineers to build

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that's the project model that's the root

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cause of so many failed products. If

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however you have learned and tested and

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and gathered the evidence you need to

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know what's going to be built is going

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to achieve the outcome then the PRD is

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just your communication device. It's not

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only harmless, it's actually useful. The

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same is true with road maps. If you put

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a bunch of features that are somebody's

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idea of what might work and you put

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dates there, you're going to waste most
of your time. you're going to end up

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wasting most of the engineering capacity.
And yes, the engineering time

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has gone way down. You're still wasting
it. And the tokens aren't free. So

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predictability is at the root of this. And

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predictability is important, but it's

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not as important or worth uh trading off

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outcomes or trust.

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Politics. The truth is I I we all know

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politics is important, but I thought
good product work will carry the day.

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That was of course naive.

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And the truth is politics are

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everywhere. They're in the fabric of

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every company. And I now if you look at

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the last three years of my content, half
of it is with dealing with politics and

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the other half is dealing with the

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impact of AI. It is a big topic. This is

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probably the one with the long long most

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damage created from uh like the book

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inspired. My initial work was all about

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product teams and product discovery

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because to me I what I really love is

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the craft of products and I wanted to
write about the craft of product because

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there's a lot of principles and a lot
of techniques and most people were just

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building stuff and shipping it and seeing
what sticks and that's still true

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today. And that was an intentional

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choice to focus on the on the teams and

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the craft of product discovery. What I

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didn't appreciate was I I almost hardly

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mention product leadership, but I didn't

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realize the consequences of that choice.

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And the result is so many companies and

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I'm I'm sad to say this, this is still
true today because by far somehow all

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these years later, Inspired is still
selling like crazy. A lot of teams just

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read inspired and they think all they
need to do is set up product teams,

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empowered product teams, a strong
product manager, you can be awesome, and

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they think that's all they need to do
and they'll be good. And of course, what

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so many companies have learned is that
in empowered product teams, you don't

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just need less management, you need

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better management. And the role of

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product leadership is so critical. You

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just heard from Kyrie the point about
context. That is what's so critical. At

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a minimum, it's the product strategy,

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which is your your prioritized list of

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problems to be solved. Another one that

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just um it's tough corporate governance.

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I I'm not talking about PMO, which is

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process governance governance. I'm

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talking about corporate governance here.

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Oversight of the company. I I we've own

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all known that's a problem, but um I
said this isn't something product can do

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anything about. And uh one of the most
painful lessons over the years is

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helping so many companies actually get

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better at shipping great products only

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to see they become a target for

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people with very different motivations

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that are pro going to pull the product

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in a different direction. So that's sad.

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If you've I would encourage everybody
to read Eric Reese's new book

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incorruptible.

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You know that this is a funny one.

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product is just not as gental as I made

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it sound in my books. It almost sounds

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academic, right? Where okay, your job is
to solve problems in ways your customers

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love but work for your business. Yes,

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that's true. But it kind of hides the

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fact that it's not enough. You actually

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have to solve problems in ways
that are dramatically better than your

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competition if you're going to get

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people to switch. And the truth is that

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product today a comp in the competitive

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open market product is a full contact

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blood sport and most people from my

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content you would not get that and a lot

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of teams aren't prepared.
And the last point

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uh and you know I uh this is a point a

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few people have brought up which I'm

362
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thrilled to see but fundamentally good

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product work is about thinking.

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It's about thinking and I here's what's

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the the mistake. I did not appreciate

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the lengths that people would go to in

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order to avoid thinking.

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Uh, I wish I was joking. Uh, what does

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it show up as? It shows up as a craving

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for process, frameworks, and

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predictability. I structured inspired as

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people, process, and product.
Big mistake. And I am worried that large

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language models will be used as an
alternative to thinking, but the truth

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is that's already happened

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with process. And the truth is Elon Musk

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was right about this. In many companies,

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process is used as a substitute
for thinking. So, please don't fall. I

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should have called that out. Called out

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thinking, called out the necessary

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foundation of product sense much more

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loudly and clearly. All right, those are

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the 10 big things that um I really

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genuinely regret.

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However, I will tell you, funny enough,

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ironically, I am feeling really good

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about the content overall, but more

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importantly, about all of our future as

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products. And I want to try to explain
why. The main criticism that I've

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received on my content, honestly, over

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the last 20 years is that um people wish

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they could work like is described
in Inspire. They wish they could. And they

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tell me there are two problems. One,

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their company is addicted to output

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and the predictability of that output.

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And two, it's hard. They think it's

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going to be hard to work that way. But

397
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look, in no small part, thanks to AI

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today, more places than ever understand

399
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the need for outcomes and not just

400
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output. And also, it is dramatically

401
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easier. You know, we talk about product
discovery is build to learn. Everybody

402
00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:17,917
in this room, I hope you don't leave

403
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this session without an understanding

404
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that there's two kinds of building.

405
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Building to learn and building to earn.

406
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I that comes from many of you know a guy
named Jeff Patton as a term, but we have

407
00:21:31,280 --> 00:21:34,717
lots of terms for this. But it's the
difference between product discovery and

408
00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:38,957
product delivery. If you want to spend
your time doing some pull requests on

409
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the front end, fine. Maybe you
should just go be a developer.

410
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But if you want to make sure that what

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your engineers do build and provide to

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your customers, you should be building

413
00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:56,157
the learned, it's a totally different
approach, totally different job. Your

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00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:59,197
job is to make sure that when they
do build that thing, you achieve the

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outcome you need. So here's the thing.

416
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Thanks to AI, the principles of the

417
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product model, the craft of product

418
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strategy and product discovery

419
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have never been more important. All right,
I really hope this was useful to

420
00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:17,277
everybody. I do want to thank Shri Doshi

421
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and Teresa Torres who gave me feedback
on early versions of this. And I again I

422
00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:23,997
want to thank Lenny for putting this

423
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party together. I hope this was useful.

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Thank you very much.