Articles

Career/Leadership/People/Scaling Yourself

You've already said no to most things. So why does the wagon still feel impossible to pull? The Pumpkin Patch Moment I have this photo of my daughter at a pumpkin patch. She's maybe three years old, determinedly pulling a wagon with a few pumpkins in it. Her whole body is leaning into it. She's […]

Hypothesis Mindset/Leadership/Performance/Team/Team Acceleration

They told me I’d be fine in 72 hours. It took 3 years. Two prescription pills triggered a brain injury that turned my world sideways. Doctors called it a rare side effect. They said the symptoms would fade once the drugs were out of my system. They were wrong. Progress during my recovery came unpredictably: […]

Leadership/Natural Authority/People/Talent Magnetism/Team

I used to preach that solo work was the future. Then I built a team I’d stake my career on, and it changed how I see leadership forever. Every leader’s real job is this: Build the best team you’ve ever been a part of. Anything less is falling short. So the question becomes: What would […]

Leadership/Operating Rhythm/Performance/Tips and Tricks

You know you need to innovate faster, but you feel trapped in systems that demand certainty for breakthrough decisions. What’s worse, these systems were built with the best intentions and stifle breakthrough innovation while keeping people feeling productive and responsible. I’ve seen this play out in my own teams, and in dozens of leaders I’ve […]

Career/Inspiring Peak Performance/Leadership/People/Team

I built my career on grit and strategy. But the biggest breakthroughs came when joy was in the room, and my team actually enjoyed the climb. Early in my leadership journey, I championed 3 principles: That third one? I'd completely lost sight of it. This weekend, reconnecting with old friends reminded me: the best conversations happen […]

Career/Leadership/People/Scaling Yourself

If your team can’t think strategically without you, that is not a compliment. It is a warning sign. This is the essence of what I call The Context Keeper Trap, one of the most common ways capable product leaders unintentionally limit their impact. On the surface, it looks like leadership: you are in every pivotal meeting, […]

Career/Leadership/Passion/Passion Sustainability

Autopilot doesn’t look like failure. It looks like plateaued growth, endless meetings, and a calendar so full of escalations you can’t remember the last time you shaped the market instead of reacting to it. You’re not broken.You’re not failing.You’re not even underperforming. You’re hitting quarterly targets.Your team respects you.Stakeholders know they can count on you. […]

Framework/Innovation/Leadership

Beyond Incremental: The Journey Revealed A Behind-the-Scenes Look at 12 Weeks of Writing in Public For the past 12 weeks, you’ve been receiving newsletters about leadership breakthroughs, scaling yourself, and creating category-defining impact. Last week, I mentioned I was writing a book. Today, I want to show you what we’ve built together. Every newsletter has […]

Entrepreneurship/Framework/Innovation/Leadership/Tips and Tricks

You don’t win by building a better product than the competition. You win by creating a space where competition doesn’t exist. That’s category creation: not improving what's already there, but building the market around a problem only you can solve. Most product leaders aren’t doing this.They’re professional optimizers. Making things faster, cheaper, prettier… and call […]

Leadership/Natural Authority/Passion/Passion Sustainability

Most senior product leaders are one promotion away from losing the passion that made them successful. In over 100 leadership coaching sessions, I’ve seen the same shift: more meetings, less making. Here’s how to break that cycle. When I was a first-time founder learning about venture capital, I dove into pre-money and post-money valuations, cap […]

Career/Leadership/Natural Authority/People/Scaling Yourself/Team/Tips and Tricks

Ever feel like you’re doing great work but still not getting noticed? You’re not alone, and the fix isn’t a new title. It’s something deeper. I once had a mentee who wanted a promotion and a bigger team. I asked why. What about his current role wasn’t satisfying? Was it the pay? What was driving […]

Hypothesis Mindset/Leadership/Performance/Team

Most product leaders think their job is to have answers. It’s not. Your real job is to ask better questions: the kind that unlock ideas your team hasn’t thought of yet. You’ll hear some version of ‘test your ideas’ from entrepreneurs, scientists, and product leaders alike. It can come in many forms: Different voices. Same […]