PRODUCTHEAD: Product in highly dynamic markets

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tl;dr

Product-market fit is more elusive than ever in a dynamic market

In deep-tech companies, it’s unrealistic to compete with your team on technical knowledge

‘Financial theatre’ occurs when the Board and product leadership aren’t communicating effectively

There is room for both concrete and abstract thinking

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hello

A few years ago, I wrote a piece highlighting how product-market fit needed to be continually re-evaluated because of evolving needs from emerging user segments. This week Elena Verna describes how AI has accelerated this shift from years to weeks. The ‘product’ bit of product-market fit is changing constantly as new LLMs leapfrog each other in capability, and the ‘market’ bit is accordingly also raising expectations. What was ground-breaking on Monday can be old hat by Friday. As a result, many companies deep into AI are sprinting simply to stand still. Elena illustrates in her article how this changes traditional thinking on go-to-market and growth activities.

For all the product people out there who feel intimidated by their team’s technical prowess, Louise Deason shares her survival tactics from her experience working at DeepMind. When everyone around you has a PhD, trying to be the smartest person in the room is unlikely to pan out. Her realisation was that her job wasn’t to compete on the same axis as her team. Rather her job was to be like a gearbox, converting the intellectual power of her team into forward motion.

Martin Eriksson draws on his investor experience to highlight a common problem: when the Board doesn’t understand (or trust) product strategy, and when product leadership fails to translate their strategy into terms more familiar to the Board. This breakdown in communication can often result in what Martin calls “financial theatre” – superficial control via budgetary controls and business cases, despite these mechanisms often destroying the value they seek to protect. To regain trust and understanding, product leaders need to learn to make their decision-making more transparent and intelligible, speak the language of investment differently, and choose a governance approach that enables good decisions in conditions of uncertainty.

To round up this week’s edition, John Cutler suggests that team misalignment isn’t always due to toxic culture or lack of autonomy. Sometimes it boils down to the clash between abstract thinkers seeking to explore, learn and adapt at a strategic level, and the concrete thinkers needing something tangible and specific to work with here and now. It’s not a question of whose style is superior, rather people need to appreciate these differing cognitive styles can coexist.

Speak to you soon,

Jock

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what to think about this week

The Product-Market Fit Treadmill: Why every AI company is sprinting just to stay in place

Do you ever feel like you’re flat-out sprinting, just to stay in the same place? That’s the current reality of growth in AI companies, where the core foundations of your value proposition are up for grabs every week. PMF used to be something companies would hit, maintain, and scale. You’d reach PMF, ride it for a few years, then invest in the next horizon when competitors or markets shifted.

That era is dead.

When each new tech drop redraws the market

[Elena Verna / Elena’s Growth Scoop]

The Dumbest Girl in the Room: Survival Tactics from DeepMind

Or: How to be useful when everyone around you has a PhD and you’re just trying to find a meeting room.

If you have never walked into a room, looked at a whiteboard covered in Greek letters, and thought, “I am going to be fired within the hour,” you haven’t worked in deep tech.

Ask the questions everyone else is too proud to ask

[Louise Deason / Technically Feasible]

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The Last Vestige of Command and Control: How Financial Theatre Replaced Organisational Hierarchy

Command and control hasn’t disappeared from modern organisations—it’s simply migrated. Where once executives controlled through organisational hierarchy and direct oversight, they now control through budgets, business cases, and elaborate funding models. This shift represents both a failure and an opportunity for product and technology leaders.

Mechanisms intended to protect value are destroying it

[Martin Eriksson / The Decision Stack]

You’re Not Misaligned. You’re Thinking Differently.

I’ve been thinking a lot about why some people are wired for concrete solution-thinking while others naturally gravitate toward more abstract, problem-focused, or strategy-level thinking. It’s easy to chalk this up to “command and control,” “HIPPO culture,” or a lack of autonomy and empowerment. And while those factors matter in some environments, the real story feels more nuanced.

Concrete and abstract thinkers

[John Cutler / The Beautiful Mess]

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PRODUCTHEAD is a newsletter for product people of all varieties, and is lovingly crafted from pretending to be an aeroplane.