AI has made building easier.

The Product Model

But building the right thing is still hard.

Ten articles every week on what is happening across product, research, design and engineering. Curated by Rory Madden to help teams decide what to build.

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The archive

Ideas for your next step.

311 published editions

The Product Model #305 - Better Tools Expose Broken Systems

How Leaders Get In The Way Of Organizational Change by Ron CarucciOrganisational change stalls when leaders underestimate the work, overload teams with disconnected initiatives and promote transformation without changing themselves, so progress depends on realistic capacity, inte

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The Product Model #304 - The Cost Of Pretending We’re Aligned

The False Alignment Trap by Julia Dhar, Kristy R. Ellmer and Philip JamesonTransformation efforts often fail because leaders mistake polite agreement for real alignment, so teams need to surface differences around why change matters, what success looks like and how it will happen

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The Product Model #303 - AI Makes The Loop Faster, Not The Judgment Easier

You Might Be A One-Company Manager by Karol WójciszkoGrowing into management inside one company can mask how much performance comes from context, trust and reputation, so switching environments becomes the real test that forces managers to build portable skills like influence, fe

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The Product Model #302 - When AI Makes Everything Faster, Judgment Matters More

Collaborative Steering by Luke WroblewskiAs teams start guiding separate AI agents, perspectives can drift faster than output improves, so collaborative steering creates shared context that helps design, product and engineering encode goals together instead of letting every agent

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The Product Model #301 - Faster Outputs, Hidden Costs

Before You Fire All Your Glue People Because Of AI by John CutlerAI can reproduce visible artifacts like updates, notes and roadmaps, but not the judgment, trust and social coordination that make them matter, so cutting “glue people” too early risks hollowing out the hidden capab

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The Product Model #300 - Faster Outputs, Harder Decisions

How C-suite And Board Roles Are Being Reshaped Around AI by Tomas Chamorro-PremuzicAI is not just changing frontline work, it is reshaping leadership itself, forcing executives and boards to rethink oversight, judgment and decision making as senior roles shift from authority and

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The Product Model #299 - Stop Optimising The Wrong Work

The Playbook For AI Transformation by John VetanAI transformation stalls when companies treat it as scattered pilots instead of a repeatable cross-functional system. Dedicated facilitators, small decision-making pods, and structured workflow sprints help teams kill weak ideas ear

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The Product Model #298 - What Teams Risk Losing To AI

The Science Of Social Loafing: Why Groups Kill Individual Effort by Joost MinnaarTeams work better when individual contributions are visible, coordination stays manageable, and people can see how their effort connects to a meaningful goal. Small teams, clear ownership, transparen

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The Product Model #297 - AI Won’t Fix Broken Workflows

Redesigning Workflows For AI by Jakob NielsenAI creates more value when teams redesign the whole workflow instead of just speeding up one task at a time. Removing handoffs, automating the glue work, and shifting people toward higher-judgment exceptions can unlock bigger gains tha

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The Product Model #296 - From Handoffs To Shared Systems

Finally, The Handoff Is Dead by Luke WroblewskiAI does not fix collaboration on its own. Teams work better when design decisions, development standards, and project context are carried in a shared system so people can contribute in parallel without losing alignment or creating ha

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The Product Model #295 - Who Owns AI Now?

Who In The C-Suite Should Own AI? by Toby E. StuartAI initiatives work better when companies stop treating them as the responsibility of one function alone. Clear ownership, shared accountability, and tighter coordination across technology, operations, risk, data, and finance hel

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The Product Model #294 - The Hidden Risks Behind Faster Teams

Demand Mix, Shaping, And AI As (Dys)function Multiplier by John CutlerOrgs spend a lot of time talking about dependencies, intake, predictability, “discovery,” capacity, and so on. But far less time talking about the harder questions around the mix of demand teams are dealing wit

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The Product Model #293 - From AI Hype To AI Quality

Organizational Silos: What The Titanic Teaches Us About Information That Never Arrives by Joost MinnaarSilos are usually created by structure, not bad intent, when teams optimize for local metrics instead of shared outcomes. Shorter paths between signals and decisions, more trans

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