Notes

Thinking on product strategy, design leadership, making better calls, and consumer product. Written when there is something worth saying. Not on a content calendar.

2026
Leadership

Teaching taught me how to manage

I did not become a better manager by getting promoted. I became a better manager by standing in front of a classroom.

2026
Making better calls

Most organizational problems are systems problems

When something goes wrong inside a product organization, the instinct is to find a person to blame. The more useful question is: what conditions made this outcome likely?

2026
Leadership

The difference between activity and progress

Busy organizations are not productive organizations. The hardest thing to build is a culture that can tell the difference.

2026
Leadership

How to evaluate a leader: scope vs. activity

The wrong question is "what did they do?" The right question is "what changed because they were there?"

2025
Making better calls

Why I made 100 hand-made gifts for my team

It was not about the gifts. It was about the message. And the message was: we build things here.

2025
Product strategy

Learning faster is not the same as moving faster

Speed is not the constraint. Clarity is. Most teams move fast in the wrong direction and call it progress.

2025
Leadership

What transparency actually looks like at the VP level

HR has a script. I deliver that, then I tell you what I actually think. Most leaders stop at the script.

2025
Making better calls

Diagnose before prescribing

The instinct is to solve. The discipline is to understand first. Most solutions fail because the problem was never properly diagnosed.