Untrapping Product Teams Podcast

David Pereira
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  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED SEMIWEEKLY

Honest, unfiltered, real interviews with those brave to speak the truth. The participants are renowned experts from the product world who know what it takes to thrive. They share common mistakes, overlooked topics and real-world examples. No fluff, only real stuff. dpereira.substack.com

  1. John Cutler: Multi-Lens Thinking, Model Building, and the Copy-Paste Trap

    FEB 12

    John Cutler: Multi-Lens Thinking, Model Building, and the Copy-Paste Trap

    How many times did you hear about the feature factory? Maybe you feel that in your bones today - I feel that with the teams I coach. John Cutler coined this term 9 years ago, when he wrote a blog post, 12 Signs You’re Working on a Feature Factory. But there’s more to it than you imagine. The popularity of the feature factory term is undeniable, but John had a different goal when he wrote about it. He was talking to a researcher from Medium and wanted to make the point that even when he’d ticked all the engagement boxes, the post wouldn’t fly. The effect was completely different. Millions of reads. If you don’t know John Cutler, follow his work. Not because he will tell you what you should do differently, but because his ideas will help you broaden your perspectives. I don’t know anyone who’s written more consistently about product than John. It’s 10 years of sharing insights. And I had the pleasure of recording this amazing podcast with him. You will gain insights into product operating models, the power of looking from different lenses, overlooked realities of Silicon Valley, and why great leaders act as game designers and storytellers. Listen to it to amplify your perspectives. Here are the top 7 insights from our chat. 1. Leaders Are Model Builders (Not Framework Implementers) You’re a storyteller and game designer. Your job isn’t picking the right framework - it’s building models that stick in your company and trigger better decisions. 2. The Justs, Buts, and Cans Everyone has their “justs” (you just need A-players) and their “buts” (but you don’t understand our culture). The real question: what CAN we do today without oversimplifying reality or going in circles? 3. Dragonfly Thinking Move between multiple lenses - behavioral design, anthropology, politics, culture. The ability to shift perspectives is more valuable than having one “correct” view. 4. Frameworks Must Be Accessible AND Powerful Accessible-only frameworks are shallow. Powerful-only frameworks only nerds understand. You need both: easy entry point, deep layers to peel back when challenged. 5. Internal Product-Market Fit Your models and frameworks need PMF inside your company. The test: does the CEO ask to see that slide again? If people don’t pull for it, it’s dead. 6. Minimal Viable Consistency What’s the least amount of consistency you need across the enterprise so teams can make decisions? Every consistency choice has a cost. 7. The Big Bang Refactoring Reality Successful companies didn’t just adopt best practices. They swung between centralization/decentralization, project/product mode. Getting there requires messy transformation, not copying the end state. Do you feel you need any help in 2026? Here are a few ways I can be your guide to help you make the best of 2026. * 100X PM Mastermind: If you want to move from PM to Product Leader, this 3-week program will supercharge your growth. People from 15+ countries attended it already, and the feedback is inspiring. Join our upcoming program in January. * Private Coaching: When you have specific challenges like strategy, career growth, positioning, or simply defeating BS management. I offer 30-min or 60-min sessions. You bring the problem, and we sort it out together. * Product Leadership Advisory: If you’re looking for more in-depth collaboration, I can be your advisor. I’ve helped 50+ organisations so far, and I’m confident I can help your business grow. Reach out to contact@d-pereira.com * Product Workshops: If you want to level-up your teams’ expertise, I offer practicable remote and in-person workshops. Check it out here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dpereira.substack.com/subscribe

    56 min
  2. From 6 AM Meetings at Starbuck to Joining Amplitude, a Founder's Story with Enzo Avigo

    JAN 29

    From 6 AM Meetings at Starbuck to Joining Amplitude, a Founder's Story with Enzo Avigo

    What does it really take to found a company? Courage, guts, and a lot of hope. You've got to jump into the unknown and move fast because time is your biggest enemy. Today, we're learning from someone who lived this reality for five years. No shiny rainbow, just the reality of founders in the trenches. Former Intercom Product Manager, Enzo Avigo, knew what he wanted. He dreamed of having his own company. He spent over five years building June.so, a B2B SaaS analytics platform that started with 6 AM meetings at Starbucks and ended with joining Amplitude's team. What sets this conversation apart is Enzo's willingness to share the critical details most founders keep private. His story dismantles many of the polished narratives dominating startup advice today. Enzo openly shared his experience navigating Y Combinator, raising funding, and ultimately making the difficult choice to sell, which provides rare insight into both the entrepreneurial journey and the acquisition process. For anyone building a B2B product, struggling with market positioning, or curious about what really happens when startups join larger companies, this episode delivers practical wisdom earned through years of real-world experience. Here are some nuggets of knowledge you’re going to get from this episode. 7 Key Takeaways from the Episode 1. Find Your Co-Founder Through Direct Outreach "I remember watching a video from YC at the time that said that the best way to find a co-founder is to go through your network, maybe LinkedIn, and list five people you think you would be interested to work with and message them in the next 24 hours." Enzo's practical approach to finding a co-founder involved identifying five people from his network and reaching out within 24 hours. Surprisingly, his co-founder turned out to be a colleague at Intercom whom he already worked with daily, proving that sometimes the best partnerships are hiding in plain sight. 2. Most Startups Don't Segment Deeply Enough "We didn't niche down enough. We always assumed that a segment was a niche, while it wasn't for our product. Initially we're like, okay, let's focus on early stage startups. And then we're like, okay, let's focus on early stage startups that are product driven. And then we're like, startups, product driven, B2B SaaS. And then at the end we were like, B2B SaaS, Vertical SaaS." Enzo's biggest mistake was thinking basic segmentation was enough. It took years to realize they needed to go from "early stage startups" to "product-driven B2B vertical SaaS companies" to achieve true product-market fit. 3. Your Most Active Users Aren't Always Your Best Customers "The people that will pay for your product are not necessarily the ones that are the most active in your product. We found out that not all problems were equal." When June introduced monetization, they discovered that usage intensity didn't correlate with willingness to pay. B2B customers with bigger problems were willing to spend significantly more than highly active users with smaller pain points. 4. Moving Upmarket Requires Intentional Strategy "Unless you say like, no, this is the amount of work we're willing to put into owning the startup segments, and we're going to go intentionally to seed series A, series B, you're going to end up in some sort of depth loop where you stay in your existing market forever." Enzo learned that without intentional planning to move upmarket, startups get trapped serving their initial customer base forever. The endless feature requests from existing customers can prevent the focus needed to graduate to higher-value segments. 5. Social Media Trends Stop Working When Everyone Adopts Them "Now, if you look at videos done by startups, they're recorded by cameras that cost close to 10K. They were great three years ago because it was really uncanny, but now it's standard and everyone is doing it." Enzo warns against following visible trends on platforms like LinkedIn. By the time high-production videos became standard for startup announcements, they lost their power to capture attention because everyone was doing the same thing. 6. Choose Your Distribution Channel Based on the Message It Sends "The medium you're using already communicates something about your product. If you see a video of a startup that has raised money on LinkedIn, it's a whole different feeling than when I found out products like Linear on Twitter." Different platforms convey different messages about your product before users even hear your pitch. Finding Linear on Twitter felt like discovering a secret tool for early adopters, while LinkedIn announcements feel corporate and mature. 7. Acquisition Can Be About Impact, Not Just Exit Strategy "How many companies are going to be using June next year, in two years, in five years? How much can we change that inflection point? And how much impact would we have if we joined forces with someone who has realistically more impact than us?" Rather than viewing acquisition as a failure or simple exit, Enzo framed joining Amplitude as a way to increase their impact. Sometimes the most ambitious path forward involves joining forces with a larger player rather than going it alone. Share your thoughts in the comments. Let’s keep untrapping the product world together. Talk soon, David Pereira 100XPM Mastermind This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dpereira.substack.com/subscribe

    41 min
  3. Why Frameworks Fail: Treating Product Management Like a Product

    JAN 15

    Why Frameworks Fail: Treating Product Management Like a Product

    What’s real progress? Is adopting a framework a sign of evolution?Is shipping features faster a solid progress sign?Is making your strategy clearer than ever the way of accelerating? Maybe yes, maybe not. Every team has different challenges, and your context matters most. Yet, every team would benefit from starting with their challenges and then choosing what to bring to the party to improve their situation. To bring some clarity to this challenge, I got Tim Herbig to our podcast, and you’re going to enjoy a lot this chat. It’s honest and insightful. You will for sure get knowledge bites you can apply right now. I got to know Tim a few years ago in Cologne, Germany at the DL Summit 2022. He’s inspiring and a great storyteller. His content impressed me because it’s well presented and designed (I even got jealous about it). And the insights per minute are incredible. As Tim released his book, Real Progress, I couldn’t ignore it. I got my copy, read it, and got him to the podcast to get beyond it. This episode is brought to you by Productboard, the intelligent product management platform. See how Productboard can help your product teams ship faster and deliver high-impact products. Head to productboard.com/spark. This episode is 39 minutes. And here are a few things you’re going to get from it. 1. The Pragmatism Principle “Do what is needed, not what is expected. Whatever scrappy non by the book way makes the customers happy and increases the business value. Who is there to say that’s not the right way.” 2. AI Gets You to the Hard Part Faster “AI allows you to get to the hard part faster. Use it to take the shortcuts that are limiting yourself and then face the hard questions that are still in front of you.” 3. Frameworks Are Not Universal Truths “Every framework should have washing instructions. This is a snapshot of what has worked for one company in a specific context in a specific point in time. It’s nothing more. But don’t treat it as this is the way.” 4. OKRs Expose Problems, They Don’t Solve Them “OKRs don’t solve your problems per se. They make the goals more visible, more painful. And then you have to make a decision as a company how you want to deal with that.” 5. Use What You Already Have “There’s so much there. Look at the other things, artifacts you have around you. You don’t necessarily always have to go deeper into a practice, but you can look sideways.” 6. Discovery Is Risk Reduction, Not a Ritual “If you think discovery is talking to 10 people every week and nothing else, you might think you can’t do discovery with this feature idea of the CEO. If you think discovery is everything that reduces uncertainty, there’s probably stuff you can do.” 7. Product Management Should Be Treated Like a Product “Tell me, a year from now, what has changed? How do the product teams operate differently? How would you know? It’s embarrassingly simple. That’s what we’re doing with our products. We describe changes in behaviors for customers, but many companies struggle with doing that for the people they have on the payroll.” 8. Velocity Measures Shipping, Not Value “Velocity is not bad. It’s bad when you confuse it and you think that velocity shows you progress. It just shows you can deliver something at certain speed. But then what do you do next?” 9. More AI Features Doesn’t Mean Better Product “You can produce more LinkedIn posts, but they all read the same now. So what’s the point? More features means more support requests, more technical debt, more UX questions. Can you maintain it or is your product very quickly full of features you quickly produce?” 10. Match Goals to Team Capabilities “You give a team an outcome goal, but maybe the team doesn’t even have the capabilities to measure that goal. You have a great outcome metric, but you can’t measure it. So is that better? I would say it’s not.” Do you feel you need any help in 2026? Here are a few ways I can be your guide to help you make the best of 2026. * 100X PM Mastermind: If you want to move from PM to Product Leader, this 3-week program will supercharge your growth. People from 15+ countries attended it already, and the feedback is inspiring. Join our upcoming program in January. * Private Coaching: When you have specific challenges like strategy, career growth, positioning, or simply defeating BS management. I offer 30-min or 60-minsessions. You bring the problem, and we sort it out together. * Product Leadership Advisory: If you’re looking for more in-depth collaboration, I can be your advisor. I’ve helped 50+ organisations so far, and I’m confident I can help your business grow. Reach out to contact@d-pereira.com * Product Workshops: If you want to level-up your teams’ expertise, I offer practicable remote and in-person workshops. Check it out here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dpereira.substack.com/subscribe

    40 min
  4. A Rough Conversation About Hope In AI Era And Why Your Future Is Bright, Not Lost.

    12/23/2025

    A Rough Conversation About Hope In AI Era And Why Your Future Is Bright, Not Lost.

    What makes you roll your eyes? Another wild claim about AI coming for you. Not what we’re going to talk about today, this is about hope and inspiration. I sat down with Gagan Biyani, Maven CEO and Co-Founder of Udemy, for one of the most honest conversations I’ve had about AI, education, and what it really takes to build something meaningful. Here’s what struck me most: While everyone’s racing to replace humans with AI, Gagan is doubling down on human connection. While others promise exponential growth curves, he’s sharing the messy reality of wandering in the wilderness for three years before finding product-market fit. This isn’t your typical founder story of overnight success. It’s the raw truth about building in uncertainty, staying stubborn about your vision when everyone else pivots, and why motivation matters more than perfect content. If you’re building products, managing teams, or just trying to stay sane in the AI chaos, this conversation will ground you in reality while giving you hope for what’s actually possible. My brain is still pumping hard after this 50 minutes of insightful conversation. Here are a few things you’re going to get from our talk. 7 Key Takeaways That Will Change How You Think 1. Motivation Trumps Content Every Single Time “I think in education, the big insight that I have is that motivation is actually more important than the content. It’s more important than the personalization, it’s more important than anything AI can provide.” Most product teams obsess over features and functionality. Gagan learned that 90% of the challenge is getting people to actually care enough to engage. The lesson for any product builder: solve for motivation first, everything else second. 2. AI Won’t Replace You, But It Will Supercharge You “AI is not as smart as everyone makes it sound. And it’s not improving at the speed that people make it out to be... I can’t just feed it Maven and say, why don’t you go run Maven for me? It’s not even close.” The most refreshing take on AI I’ve heard. While his engineers ship 50-80% of code via AI, Gagan can’t trust it to write a single LinkedIn post without heavy editing. Reality check: you’re not losing your job, but you’d better learn to dance with the robots. 3. The Platform Shift That Changes Everything “Zoom is really the bedrock of Maven, right? It’s the platform change, it’s the iOS to Uber, Zoom is to Maven.” Every breakthrough product rides a platform wave. Uber needed smartphones, Netflix needed a powerful connection, Maven needed Zoom’s ability to create intimate learning experiences with 50-2000 people. What platform shift are you missing? 4. Why Most Companies Die in the Wilderness Years “We actually had a big crash at the company... It took us many years of just sort of wandering in the wilderness, trying to figure out if we still had something.” Maven struggled with retention for years while every competitor pivoted. Yet, Gagan believed in his vision and didn’t give up, which clearly paid off. Today, they have tens of thousands of students. That’s a stunning achievement. 5. Technology Adoption vs. Innovation Reality Check “There is rarely an exponential curve of technological innovation. You know, there is often an exponential curve of technological adoption.” The S-curve truth bomb: breakthrough moments are rare and short. Then society spends decades actually implementing the change. I live in Munich, Germany, and I still receive letters from the tax office, and they like it when I send letters back. I think AI will be around in 2179, according to my forecast. 6. The Amazon Principle for Any Product “If you can figure out what the number one and number two criteria are for your user in your market and just focus on that, you’re much more likely to be successful.” Bezos built Amazon around three things customers wanted: low prices, wide selection, and fast delivery. Everything else was noise. What are your customers’ top two criteria? Everything else goes in the trash bin. 7. The Cultural Shift That Beats User Numbers “If you ask an average product manager in tech today, where do you go to learn new things? ...it’s probably like double digit percentages of product managers will tell you, I took this course on Maven.” Revenue and users are just numbers. Cultural mindset shift is what truly motivates. When your category becomes the default answer to “where do I go for X?”, you’ve won before the numbers show it. This conversation reminded me why I love honest founders who share the messy reality behind the polished success stories. The future belongs to those who build with humans at the center, not in spite of them. What resonated most with you? Hit reply and let me know. Talk soon,David This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dpereira.substack.com/subscribe

    52 min

  5. 12/17/2025

    Why Context Beats Technology with ProductBoard CEO Hubert Palan

    “Everyone has their own agenda. They’re not telling you the truth, or they’re telling the truth in a way that benefits them.” When I heard this sentence from Hubert Palan, Productboard Founder & CEO, I became speechless, and that’s when I realized how valuable critical thinking is. This conversation is real, human, and rare. Hubert shared lessons that you will benefit from regardless of whether you’re a product manager, software engineer, designer, or leader. Such insights will help you grow. Let me give you some blunt insights from our conversation. The Three Brutal Decisions That Built ProductBoard Hubert shared the choices that shaped ProductBoard’s journey to $1.7 billion. The first hit during the 2022 recession when they dramatically shifted from SMB to enterprise. That meant walking away from existing business. The second was the classic enterprise pressure. Big customers bring big revenue and bigger demands. ProductBoard drew boundaries. They said no to customer-specific features that wouldn’t advance the roadmap for everyone else. Even when it meant losing those customers. The third decision came recently. They moved resources from the traditional roadmap to AI. Existing customers complained about missing features. But Hubert knew: “If we don’t make the investment today, you’re going to be screaming at us two years from now that we’re not the leaders with AI capabilities.” You’ve got to listen to signs and separate customer wants from needs. That’s the difference Hubert nailed. Conviction backed by understanding versus conviction backed by hope. Stop Pretending AI Will Do Your Thinking For You Here’s the part that will piss people off: AI isn’t going to save you from bad product thinking. Hubert tested this with his co-founder. They spent a whole day going through discovery to delivery using Cursor and Claude Code. The efficiency gains weren’t in coding. They were in specification. Understanding the problem. Identifying edge cases. Making sense of dependencies. Activities that used to take weeks now take hours. But only if you know what you’re building and why. The lines between product, design, and engineering are blurring. Hubert calls it compression. Like smartphones crushing cameras, MP3 players, and GPS into one device. Product managers are building with AI. Engineers are diving deeper into user research. The roles are merging. But the fundamental question remains: are you building the right thing? ProductBoard Spark, their AI agent, doesn’t just generate PRDs. It helps product managers maintain context across massive organizations. When Salesforce has 20,000 people in R&D, context sharing becomes critical. The agent knows your customers, your competitors, your market positioning, and your internal principles. You won’t get that from ChatGPT. The context is missing. And without context, you’re just generating slop. The Uncomfortable Truth About Success Stories When Hubert started ProductBoard, Steve Blank gave him advice. Ask potential customers: “Do you understand jobs to be done?” If they don’t, move on. They’re not your target segment yet. That’s focus. Start with a small segment that has high pain and high maturity. Nail their needs. Then expand. Most teams do the opposite. They try to serve everyone. They compromise for big customers. They chase every shiny feature request. But here’s what Hubert said that made me pause my notes: “You can’t just read something on Reddit that someone did and assume it’s going to work for you.” He called a friend at Uber to verify a glowing blog post about their tech stack. Turns out the solution completely failed. They had to re-architect everything. But you wouldn’t know that from the blog post. “Everyone has their own agenda. They’re not telling you the truth, or they’re telling the truth in a way that benefits them.” That includes Sam Altman on podcasts. That includes blog posts from successful companies. That includes the framework someone swears by on LinkedIn. The bigger and later-stage the companies are, the better trained their executives are at telling stories that benefit their businesses. It’s all planted. Rehearsed. Strategic. Take it with a grain of salt. Apply first principles thinking. Figure out what works for your context. What Actually Separates Winners From Losers The AI boom has accelerated the birth of many startups. Everyone’s building with the same technology. The differentiator isn’t technical skill anymore. It’s domain expertise. Understanding the market. Knowing customer pain points deeply. Sharing those insights across your team. Creating forums for uncomfortable conversations that last four hours because people need time to think and align. “The knowledge of the industry and the domain is the most important thing in your overall success,” Hubert said. Good product managers understand the product. The best ones master the market. That hasn’t changed. AI just made it more obvious. So here’s the question: when was the last time you spent four hours in an uncomfortable workshop, actually understanding your market instead of asking AI to summarize it for you? Whenever You Want to Grow Further, I Can Help You Out There are 3 ways I can help you out even further: * 100X PM Mastermind: If you want to move from PM to Product Leader, this 3-week program will supercharge your growth. People from 15+ countries attended it already, and the feedback is inspiring. Join our upcoming program in January. * Private Coaching: When you have specific challenges like strategy, career growth, positioning, or simply defeating BS management. I offer 30-min or 60-min sessions. You bring the problem, and we sort it out together. * Product Leadership Advisory: If you’re looking for more in-depth collaboration, I can be your advisor. I’ve helped 50+ organisations so far, and I’m confident I can help your business grow. Reach out to contact@d-pereira.com * Product Workshops: If you want to level-up your teams’ expertise, I offer practicable remote and in-person workshops. Check it out here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dpereira.substack.com/subscribe

    44 min

  6. 12/04/2025

    What 15 Years in Skype, Microsoft, Spotify and Google Taught Nesrine Changuel

    Why do some products succeed while most fail? Think about your favorite products, what’s your connection with them? Nesrine Changuel argues that emotional connection is what increases retention, referral, and revenue. She wrote a very needed book in the era of AI, where we focus on functional needs often ignoring the emotional connection. Her book’s called Product Delight. This episode isn’t about techniques that apply only to big tech. This is something really necessary for everyone. Nesrine is an outstanding product professional, formerly at Skype, Microsoft, Spotify, and Google, she’s practical and down to earth. I had the pleasure of meeting Nesrine a few years back at Productized, her drive and eager to help inspired me. And this episode will inspire you. It will give hope on the value you bring to creating great products. Here’s how you can learn more from Nesrine: * Product Delight Book * Delight Tips (Substack) * Nesrine’s Website * LinkedIn This episode is brought to you by Productboard, the intelligent product management platform. See how Productboard can help your product teams ship faster and deliver high-impact products. Head to productboard.com/spark. Beyond B2B & B2C debate “Slack didn’t win because it had better chat features. It won because seeing your team’s emoji reactions made work feel human.” Nesrine How many times did you hear something like: Is this a B2B or B2C thing? I’d probably be richer than Musk by now if I got a dollar every time I hear this question. And honestly, it’s not easy to answer. We try treating both B2B and B2C as different worlds. And I think we got it all wrong. Nesrine surprised me with a new term, B2H, Business to Humans. Build products for the human behind it. If there’s a human using it, that’s B2H, and as humans we deserve delightful products. Of course, if you’re building a product where AI agents are your target audience, that doesn’t apply. But, as of now, most products have a human using it. Think about it. Why Should You Care About Delight? Everyone now talks about AI, and even how AI-PMs are making 500K+ USD per year. So why should you even bother listening to Nesrine about Delight? Let’s be honest. We’re going nuts with AI and sometimes forgetting the essence of great products. We don’t build products for its sake. We build products to supercharge users. What’s happening today? We’re using AI to ship faster. But faster doesn’t matter if we’re building products people tolerate instead of love. That’s not progress. That’s just expensive noise. Many companies are building soulless products without noticing it. And we should challenge that. We should act differently. Whatever we choose to build is something that should improve people lives, ultimately enabling business value. That’s when delight is your ally to the madness we live in today. Nesrine will equip you during this episode, and you will leave it inspired. You may wonder if you should drop AI altogether. No, you shouldn’t. But you should use AI to delight people, not to create noise. Bringing Delight to Life Shall We Talk About the Elephant in The Room? You’re busy, how will you find time to delight your users? Nesrine called me out on this one. I told her it’s not easy to do that, and teams receive unbearable pressure, how can they do it? Bluntly, she completely disagreed with me. Nesrine said: “Delight isn’t a framework. It’s a mental model.” You can ask yourself, “Which emotion do I want the user to feel while using it?” Then, you use the product and feel your emotions, how does that match with your intentions? Delight is what makes product hard to replace because we connect to them beyond their functional needs. A Question for You: How are you delighting your human users? Take action today for a better tomorrow. Only when we try something new, can we grow beyond our imagination. This kind of thinking - moving from features to impact, from busy to strategic - is exactly what separates silent executors from product leaders. Which brings me to something I’m proud of. A few months ago, I started running my mastermind, 100XPM, and I couldn’t have expected better results. A few participants already grew into leadership, and I continuously get messages like this: * “I’m more confident because I have what I need to overcome my challenges.” * “I shaped my mindset. Now, I’m not a silent player anymore. I have influence in important topics.” * “I got the courage I needed to step into new adventures, and I couldn’t be happier.” This mastermind is for the game-changers, those who want to transform the product world. Those who dare to challenge the status quo. We’re opening another round in January, we will kick it off on the 26th at 7 pm CET. Do you want to become the Product Manager that earns respect? Join us This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dpereira.substack.com/subscribe

    39 min
  7. Why OKRs Are Killing Your Team's Performance with Radhika Dutt

    11/12/2025

    Why OKRs Are Killing Your Team's Performance with Radhika Dutt

    Do you love or hate OKRs? Be honest with that, your boss isn’t listening to your answer. Even after 17 years of playing the product game, I haven’t found teams longing for OKRs, but I have seen too many despising it. Yes, we can blame the player instead of the game. But is it so? If you've ever felt like OKRs are more of a burden than a benefit, you're not alone. In my latest podcast conversation with Radhika Dutt, author of "Radical Product Thinking," we dug deeper into why this beloved framework might be hindering your team's success. Radhika shares how she helped Signal Ocean double their sales twice while reducing churn from 26% to 4% by ditching traditional goal-setting for something revolutionary: puzzle-solving. You can download the OHL slide deck for free here. VelocitiPM: The AI platform for discovery and actionable insights to supercharge results, not backlogs. Try VelocitiPM now Limited offer: First month free, then 50% off the next 6 months (+ lock in current pricing before we increase monthly subscription from $59 to $79 monthly) Promo code V50 A question for you: What are you up to in 2026, the year is already knocking on your door. And I want to give you the best content I can, would you take 2 minutes to share your objectives with me? I promise to read all answers and reflect on them to give you the best content I can. 10 Key Takeaways from Radhika Dutt 1. OKRs Haven't Evolved in Decades "We haven't challenged this concept of OKRs or goal setting since it became entrenched in business culture. It's a 75-year-old idea... the same ideas relabeled and repackaged, they date all the way to 1940s." The framework that worked for unskilled assembly line workers doesn't fit today's knowledge work. 2. Goals Create Performance Theater, Not Performance "What goals and OKRs do is create performance theater... you're trying to figure out how do I show these numbers? Even if you're not being malicious, even when you're not trying to spin numbers, it kind of biases you because you want to see the good numbers." Teams focus on looking good rather than being good. 3. OKRs Kill Collaboration "It reduces collaboration because you want to hit your numbers because you want to look like a high performer, whereas by helping someone else, your own numbers might not look good." When everyone owns different metrics, teamwork becomes competition. 4. The "Set Better Goals" Advice Is Wrong "If it didn't work for you, [OKR experts say] it just means you set the wrong goals. Whereas I think... it's not just a matter of if you just set the right goals, then everything works well. It's a much bigger problem than that." The problem isn't execution; it's the framework itself. 5. Goals Focus You on the Wrong Things "Whatever numbers you set, I realized that it's focusing you on the wrong area because you discover as you're executing where the actual problem and bottleneck lies." Real insights emerge through work, not planning. 6. People Are Naturally Motivated by Puzzles "We all like puzzles... When I asked you what puzzles do you want to solve this year? Look at that. It's like you had a flood of ideas for it instantly." Curiosity beats quotas every time. 7. The OHL Framework: Objectives, Hypotheses, Learnings "A framework I call OHLs... it's a framework for puzzle setting and puzzle solving. And so as a leader, when you set direction, you're setting direction around the puzzle you're solving." Replace rigid targets with flexible investigation. 8. Three Questions That Drive Real Performance "How well did it work? What did we learn? Based on how well it worked and what did you learn, what would you try next?" These questions create continuous improvement loops that actually work. 9. Learning Speed Matters More Than Experiment Speed "The pace of that learning is so important. I think that is much more important than how quickly are you experimenting." Quality insights trump quantity of tests. 10. Reflection Is Where Real Learning Happens "We don't learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience." Without reflection, experience is just activity. Are you ready to escape the performance trap? Listen to the full conversation to hear how Radhika's team achieved remarkable results by solving puzzles instead of chasing numbers. Plus, download her free OHLs toolkit at radicalproductthinking.com to start implementing this approach with your team immediately. The question isn't whether you can afford to change your approach. It's whether you can afford not to. Let’s keep untrapping product teams together, David This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dpereira.substack.com/subscribe

    46 min

  8. 10/30/2025

    Beyond Frameworks: Six Years of Testing Business Ideas with David J. Bland

    What worked yesterday to re-risk ideas no longer works today. David J. Bland used to say, “Building is the most expensive part.” In the age of AI, that’s no longer true. And many teams are shifting from learning first to building first. Either you like it or not, that’s what’s happening. The question is, how do we deal with our new reality? If you care about building what matters faster, you will find this podcast insightful. This episode is brought to you by Productboard, the intelligent product management platform. See how Productboard can help your product teams ship faster and deliver high-impact products. Head to productboard.com/spark. Before jumping to this podcast, I have an invite for you. 2025 is getting to the end, and I will be running two more public workshops, which you can gain applicable insights from: * How to Craft Product Strategies that Work: DL Summit Cologne, Germany, November 12th. 10% Voucher for you DLS25DAVID10. Grab your spot. * 100X PM - How to Move from Backlog Manager to Product Manager. Vilnius, Lithuania. November 20th. Check it out. — Having David J. Bland on the podcast was an honor. His book Testing Business Ideas has a special place on my shelves, travels to workshops, and has genuinely changed how I think about testing ideas. So, when he agreed to talk, I expected to gain insights. What I got was something better: honesty. David admitted his thinking had evolved, and he wished he could change a few things in his book. He talked about being conflicted by his own framework. He shared stories of teams he coached that got stuck testing forever. This wasn't a polished thought leader performance. This was a practitioner reflecting on six years of real work since his book launched. The conversation reminded me why I respect him. He's still learning, still questioning his own methods, still trying to solve the messy reality of how teams actually work. If you've read his book or tried business experiments, you need to hear this conversation. David's thinking has evolved, and so should yours. Even if you haven’t read the book, the benefit you will have from these 40-minute lessons will quickly pay off. Learn more about David J. Bland: * LinkedIn * Website * Testing Business Idea What David Taught Me (And What Might Surprise You) 1. Teams aren't the problem. Systems are. "Your teams are going to figure out how to work this way. Now it's becoming, okay, do we have an environment that allows us to work this way?" We keep training teams on experimentation while ignoring the organizational barriers that kill experiments. David now spends most of his time on strategy and leadership because that's where the real constraint lives. 2. Light evidence is still evidence "I've stopped using that weak language, as I said, so now I'm using light and strong. I feel like when you say the term weak, and you go to an executive or a sponsor, they almost have a reaction to that word." Even David's language has evolved. He learned that calling evidence "weak" made executives defensive. "Light evidence" frames it as directional rather than inadequate. 3. The say-do gap will fool you every time "I wouldn't spend a lot of money on just what a customer tells me. I want a little more skin in the game." Customers lie. Not intentionally, but they do. What people say they'll do and what they actually do are different things. Design experiments that reveal behavior, not just opinions. 4. B2B experimentation works better than most think "I would say almost all of my customer base is B2B companies right now." David's client base shifted from B2C startups to B2B enterprises. Which experiments work best? Preference and prioritization tests. Things like card sorting customer jobs or using "buy a feature" to force real trade-offs. 5. Over-testing is a real trap "I just vividly remember sitting down with the VP of product and she was like, why are they still testing this?" Early in his career, David got teams excited about testing, but didn't teach them when to stop. Teams continued to test safe assumptions while overlooking risky ones. His framework now includes systematic assumption mapping to prevent this. 6. AI changes the building equation "I don't know if I could go and say building is most expensive way to learn because I'm like, no, it's not. I can build this in a couple hours." AI tools let you craft functional prototypes quickly. This changes David's core message. Building isn't the most expensive way to learn anymore. Building the wrong thing still is. 7. Keep humans in the loop "I've been really trying to evangelize this human in the loop. If you're not in the loop, sometimes you get a list and you're like, wait a second, these assumptions are for experiments for assumptions that don't even really apply to me." AI can help generate assumptions and experiments, but you need to stay involved. David learned this from his own AI tools when people got generic results from vague inputs. 8. Most empowered teams aren't actually empowered "I feel like we're following this advice where we're sort of like checking the box and following steps of a process. But when this process was initially created, it meant we were critically thinking about things." Teams follow experimentation frameworks, but can't question why they're building something. That's not empowerment. That's process theater. 9. Start where you're stuck "I would look for areas where there were things that we were trying to solve for and we weren't able to. And so being able to say, well, why don't we just go check?" Don't try to change everything. Find problems your organization can't solve and suggest checking assumptions. Use language like "I'm sure you're right, but can we go check?" to reduce defensiveness. 10. Mindset beats methods "I can find probably within the first 60 seconds, whether or not they're going to be coachable." David can tell immediately if someone will succeed with experimentation. It's not about intelligence. It's about being open to being wrong. Fixed mindset kills every framework. The Real Takeaway David spent six years watching teams apply his book. Some succeeded. Others got stuck in the process without progress. The difference wasn't the tools. It was the environment, the mindset, and the willingness to actually change based on what they learned. This conversation isn't about perfect frameworks. It's about the messy reality of trying to build things people want in organizations that resist change. Worth your 40 minutes. Trust me on this one. Do You Want to Become a More Valuable Product Professional? After 17 years on the road, I crafted the 100X PM Mastermind. It’s the best cohort you can get to help you move from product manager to product leader. 10 live lessons, including unscripted talks, and 30 minutes of free advisory after each lesson. You bring the challenge, we solve it together. Join our upcoming 100X PM Mastermind. Here’s what people say about it: And this is our program to transform you into a product leader. Have a lovely day, David. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dpereira.substack.com/subscribe

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Honest, unfiltered, real interviews with those brave to speak the truth. The participants are renowned experts from the product world who know what it takes to thrive. They share common mistakes, overlooked topics and real-world examples. No fluff, only real stuff. dpereira.substack.com

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