Writing

Product & Craft

Essays on building products and the business of media — product thinking, craft, and strategy.

Kindred sites worth your time: Stratechery · Silicon Valley Product Group · Lenny’s Newsletter · First Round Review.

July 3, 2026
Essay

Language without Mind

Humans have existed roughly 300,000 years, and we’ve had language for approximately 135,000 years. And we generally say that writing as langauge started with cuneiform script in Mesopotamia in 3200 CBE, which means humans have had language for roughly 45% of our existence, and only 1.7% of our existence has included written language. And over […]
July 2, 2026
Keynote

Kaizen

The historic origin of Kaizen — Japanese ethos meeting American management methods not in favor in the U.S. at the time.
July 2, 2026
Workshop

Affinity Mapping

Osborn’s top-down brainstorming, inverted into a bottom-up method by Prof. Jiro Kawakita — build structure on top of disparate ideas.
July 2, 2026
Keynote

Nintendo, 1889–1989

Nintendo’s 30-year pivot from playing card company to video game leader — the oldest continuously operating corporation on Earth.
July 2, 2026
Keynote

7-Eleven Japan

How a struggling American franchise deal became one of the most unlikely corporate turnarounds in retail history — and what long-term thinking actually looks like in practice.
July 2, 2026
Workshop

Presentation Power

Start with the main point, then use Affinity Mapping and timed edit sessions to build a presentation from the bottom up.
July 2, 2026
Workshop

Design Your Day

Pairs map their morning routines and advise each other to design a better day — part ice-breaker, part PM user exercise.
July 2, 2026
Workshop

Pillars of Support

How small groups facing impossible odds prioritize, simplify, and focus — via Philadelphia strikes and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
July 2, 2026
Workshop

Fundamentals of Product Creation 1 – Understanding Product Management

Part of the Product Development Fundamentals workshop series (19 independent workshops across 6 modules; 5–20 participants). Each sub-item below is deliverable standalone or as this full module. (~2 hrs as a module)
July 2, 2026
Workshop

Fundamentals of Product Creation 2 – Understand People, Develop Requirements

Part of the Product Development Fundamentals workshop series (19 independent workshops across 6 modules; 5–20 participants). Each sub-item below is deliverable standalone or as this full module. Modules 2, 3, 4, and 6 include hands-on exercises. (~2–2.5 hrs as a module)
July 2, 2026
Workshop

Fundamentals of Product Creation 3 – Product Ownership & Requirements

Part of the Product Development Fundamentals workshop series (19 independent workshops across 6 modules; 5–20 participants). Each sub-item below is deliverable standalone or as this full module. Modules 2, 3, 4, and 6 include hands-on exercises. (~3–4 hrs as a module)
July 2, 2026
Workshop

Fundamentals of Product Creation 4 – Backlogs & Roadmaps

Part of the Product Development Fundamentals workshop series (19 independent workshops across 6 modules; 5–20 participants). Each sub-item below is deliverable standalone or as this full module. Modules 2, 3, 4, and 6 include hands-on exercises. (~2.5–3 hrs as a module)
July 2, 2026
Workshop

Fundamentals of Product Creation 5 – Iteration & Improvement

Part of the Product Development Fundamentals workshop series (19 independent workshops across 6 modules; 5–20 participants). Each sub-item below is deliverable standalone or as this full module. (~1.5–2 hrs as a module)
July 2, 2026
Workshop

Fundamentals of Product Creation 6 – Customer Development

Part of the Product Development Fundamentals workshop series (19 independent workshops across 6 modules; 5–20 participants). Each sub-item below is deliverable standalone or as this full module. Modules 2, 3, 4, and 6 include hands-on exercises. (~1.5–2 hrs as a module)
July 2, 2026
Keynote

Finding Viable Products: The Viability Principle

Why one of product management’s most-repeated conference stories is completely wrong — and what that gets you when you finally understand it.
July 2, 2026
Keynote

The Voiceless Echo

The AI/ML era’s chief ontological problem began with an anthropomorphized metaphor — grounding machine capabilities back in reality.
July 2, 2026
Keynote

Memorandom — The Last AI Lecture You Need

The last AI conversation you need — how machines actually work, what lock-in costs are, and why a literate mind is the real defense.
July 2, 2026
Keynote

Resilient Leadership

What history’s most demanding survival situations teach about the difference between authority and resilience — built into a practical leadership framework.
August 30, 2025
Essay

I tell stories about the improbability and inevitability of meaningful connection

In December 2023, I was in year 5 of my CPTSD therapy. I weighed 361 pounds. I’d been diagnosed with pre-diabetes. I had trapped myself in a miserable story of self-destruction. And worse? I spread the misery around me.  I needed to change my story. I read everything I could find about what happens to […]
July 1, 2025
Essay

Obnoxious AI Epiphany

This is obnoxious. But also?

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