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 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?
June 16, 2025
Essay

About The Dragon in the Basement …

Nobody should care about this, but one of the reasons I haven’t focused on ‘The Dragon in the Basement’ is because my dad died a few days after we wrapped the pilot in October 2022. Spotify also told me soon after that the kids and family program was cut so there’d be no pickup for […]

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