PRODUCTHEAD: Reflections on the art and science of product management

product flower #

every PRODUCTHEAD edition is online for you to refer back to

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tl;dr

With appropriate context, those closest to the problem should make the product decisions

Be outcome-focused and evidence-based regardless of what kind of product or service you work on

Be careful not to automatically balance out a conflicting behaviour in others (such as a founder’s bias)

“The obstacle is the way” – every setback is an opportunity to improve our condition

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hello

With most of the discourse at the moment around the transformative / soul-destroying nature of generative AI, I felt we would only benefit from some thoughtful reflections on the nature of product management today, as observed by luminaries of the field.

In conversation with Tobias Freudenreich, Martin Eriksson highlights that while AI can help to automate ‘busy work’, we have to be careful to maintain our intuition and critical thinking to avoid losing our roles as strategic problem-solvers. Product work involves constant change, so product managers have to become comfortable with that. Doing so requires a high level of adaptability and cultural sensitivity, often gained by embracing diverse perspectives within a team.

Continuing the theme, Scott Colfer argues that a product mindset is more important than a product operating model or framework. While frameworks can provide useful structure, they often break when dropped into complex organisations; a mindset, however, is portable and can adapt to the specific context. He also reminds us to make more visible the ongoing ‘invisible’ work of organisational change, such as aligning senior leaders, fixing policy or supporting users.

Next, Thor Mitchell draws on an analogy with quantum physics to explain why the best product leaders must exist in a state of superposition – maintaining sets of two seemingly opposing behaviours in tension until context reveals which is needed. Once that occurs, it’s important to inhabit that one behaviour fully or risk being seen as neither.

Finally, Begoña Sesé’s talk appeals to the classicist in me. She offers an ancient remedy for modern burnout, showing how Stoic virtues can help us distinguish between what we can actually control and the external noise of shifting stakeholder priorities. She also suggests a triple filter to check whether a statement is true, good and useful before speaking, something we could all do with a little more of in the world right now.

Speak to you soon,

Jock

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what to think about this week

Martin Eriksson on Produktmenschen

In this episode, I sit down with Martin Eriksson – the mind behind the iconic product Venn diagram, the Decision Stack, and Mind the Product – to explore what really drives great product work. We dive deep into the misunderstood nature of product roles, the evolution of product leadership, and why context matters more than ever. Martin shares candid stories from his global career, revealing the lessons he learned the hard way and the power of intuition in a data-obsessed world.

[AUDIO] When should you trust your intuition over your data?

[Also on Spotify]

[Martin Eriksson & Tobias Freudenreich / Produktmenschen]

The Quantum Nature of Product Leadership

While preparing a presentation for a conference recently, I found myself enumerating the behaviours that are unique to the highest performing product leaders. In doing so, I found that many of those behaviours seemed to contradict each other, or were at least in tension.

A superposition of behaviours in tension

[Also: video of his recent talk on this topic]

[Thor Mitchell / LinkedIn]

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Making “Product-Centric” Approaches Work in the Real World

It’s not about frameworks or buzzwords. It’s about what product actually looks like when you’re working with the real people, legacy systems, and power dynamics. When transformation means working with care, not just tech.

In this webinar, Scott Colfer, author of Product in Service: A Manifesto for Pragmatic Product in a Post-Framework World shares his practical tips and experience, and explains why generic product guidance rarely works.

[VIDEO] When frameworks help and when adaptability and a product mindset are better

[Scott Colfer / Blackmetric]

The Stoic Product Manager

How can Stoic philosophy principles create more effective product leadership? In this talk, we will discuss the four cardinal Stoic virtues and how they translate to Product Management practice. Through practical exercises, we’ll go over the key points that will help to create a framework that offers product leaders tools to remain calm, adaptable, honest, and focused on solutions while navigating the complex challenges of product development.

[VIDEO] Will any of this matter six years from now?

[Begoña Sesé / Product People]

recent posts

Canary in the mine: AAA game developers are unionising

Product management has had its own fair share of problems over the last few years. Nevertheless, there are early warning signs from AAA game studios that there may be another storm brewing in tech for us to weather.

Union-busting just isn’t a good look

[I Manage Products]

Startup to Scale-up Club Q&A – 13th Jan 2026

I joined Anton Kooll again, along with co-panellists Maarten Ectors, Mario Tomic and Eugenio Galioto for Startup to Scale-up Club. We covered topics including:

• recommendations for automated infrastructure monitoring;
• safe presentation of medical data in Femtech apps;
• trade-offs of cloud versus local AI deployment for agricultural technology;
• the risk of patronising, gender-based marketing in Fintech; and
• the value of building a trustworthy community over superficial personalisation.

“Do’s” and “don’ts” for startup founders

[I Manage Products]

Are developers vibe coding themselves out of a job?

And is the increasing reliance by junior developers on AI coding assistants storing up a generational skills shortage for the future – ‘professional debt’, if you will?

So simple, anyone could do it. Wait – don’t fire me

[I Manage Products]

PRODUCTHEAD is a newsletter for product people of all varieties, and is lovingly crafted from back muscles approximating to normal function again.