Posts
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Why I Prototype as a Product Manager
I’ve always used prototypes in my practice for all kinds of reasons: to communicate, explore ideas, elicit requirements, and more. My prototyping menu includes everything from manual, analog, and low- or no-tech right up through high-fidelity functioning and styled prototypes. Selecting and using appropriate methods fluently is central to how I work as a PM. (And now thanks to AI I can do this faster, better, easier, and more independently. I’m adding AI to my “menu.”)
Some of the reasons below deserve a little more discussion. For today, I’ll just offer this list. These are all things I need to as a PM. Prototyping of all kinds helps me do it.
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The code never lies.
But it doesn’t always know the whole story. And sometimes it doesn’t give up its secrets easily.
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The Billing Project: Being a True and Faithful Account of How One Manager Did Discover the Art of Collaborative Enterprise Through Divers Trials and the Benevolent Intervention of Sundry Colleagues
Six months in, nothing to show, and the steering committee is asking uncomfortable questions. The Billing project is running out of time and the steering committee is running out of patience. Jordan’s tightening grip only makes things worse while the ground shifts beneath Alex’s career. Meanwhile, Terry quietly guides them to discover what they need to learn. In their work on The Billing Project Alex and Jordan re-discover the joy of being human, together.
- In Creating: Alex’s Story, Alex discovers the power of working small.
- In Supporting: Jordan’s Story Jordan reconnects with their impulse to nurture, at work and at home.
- In Guiding: Terry’s Story Terry quietly guides them toward success.
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Supporting: Jordan's Story
The conference room felt smaller each month. The arms of Jordan’s chair seemed somehow tighter as the steering committee circled back to the same concern. Billing project. Six months. Nothing to show. The executive sponsor’s voice cut through stale air: “What’s your plan to get this back on track?”
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Guiding: Terry's Story
Terry listened as the monthly program review circled back to the same concern. Alex’s project - six months in, nothing to show, timeline slipping. One executive wondered aloud whether they needed “different project leadership.” Terry had seen this pattern before: good people trapped in a broken approach, about to become casualties of their own system. “Give me two weeks to assess the situation,” Terry said. “Before we make personnel changes.”
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Creating: Alex's Story
Alex stared at the project status spreadsheet one more time, hoping the numbers might somehow rearrange themselves. Six months in, and still nothing users could actually touch. Just expanding work breakdown structures and revised estimates that kept pushing delivery further into next year. Another milestone had quietly slipped last week. Jordan had stepped in to exercise more “oversight.”
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Plans Create Failure. Intent Creates Futures.
Every plan contains failure. Every intention contains a thousand futures.
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Turning Human Creativity Up to Eleven
Technology’s role is not to replace human creativity but to reveal new facets of it. This understanding offers a framework for evaluating new technologies like generative AI: Do they enhance our capabilities while respecting our agency? Do they serve our creative intent or demand we serve theirs? Do they allow our authentic voice to flow through them, or do they try to replace that voice with their own? How we answer these questions has everything to do with whether we encounter gen AI in a spirit of anxiety and skepticism or one of creativity and play.
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Confidence is the New Delight: Why Delight is Overrated
TL;DR: Tools that “come easily to hand” disappear into their work while today’s apps demand our constant attention. This piece explores how “customer delight” originated in Taiichi Ohno’s worker empowerment vision but has often devolved into today’s manipulative design patterns. Is it time to reclaim “delight”? What if software empowered us like a master craftsperson’s tools? What if apps faded into transparency, letting us experience not the shallow ping of notifications, but the deep satisfaction of creation and genuine accomplishment?
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Practical Guide to AI Collaboration for Different Thinking Styles
Working with AI can help support various cognitive styles that don’t always align with traditional workplace expectations. This guide offers practical prompting strategies that can benefit anyone, followed by specific guidance for those who choose to explicitly incorporate their neurodivergent identity into their AI interactions.
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