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Product Thinking Newsletter by Melissa Perri

Subscribe to this newsletter if you are a product manager or product leader interested in leveling up your strategy, process, and insights into technology. I send out emails once a week on Wednesdays.

Featured Post

Engineers Need More Product Thinking

Hi Product people, This week on Product Thinking, I had an enlightening conversation with Matt Watson, founder and CEO of Full Scale, and author of "Product Driven." We explored how product thinking can transform the role of engineers and why it's essential for fostering innovation and ownership within tech teams. Matt shared his journey from being a software engineer to leading a company, emphasizing the value of understanding the bigger picture in product development. "The best developers...

Hello Reader, As Product Institute enters its 10th year in 2026, I've been reflecting on nearly a decade of training over 20,000 product managers, most of them at Fortune 100 companies whose products you use every day. Here's what I've learned: training isn't just about teaching frameworks. It's about fundamentally changing how people think, work, and make decisions together. With AI making it easier than ever to build fast, getting the fundamentals right matters more, not less. We can't...

Hi Product people, How can we streamline product operations and strategically integrate AI without losing the human touch? This week on the Product Thinking Podcast, I had an insightful conversation with Elaina O'Mahoney, Chief Product Officer at Mural. We explored the evolving landscape of product operations and how AI can be a powerful tool when used correctly. "I think they should really go back to some of the fundamentals of outcomes, customers and metrics, because if you're not looking...

Hi Product people, This week on the Product Thinking podcast, I had a fascinating conversation with Dr. Maryam Ashoori, Vice President of Product and Engineering at IBM Watson X. We delved into the evolving landscape of AI in product management, exploring how AI is transforming roles and processes within the industry. Maryam shared her insights on AI agents and their potential to revolutionize how we approach product development and strategy. "Boundaries between roles are going to dissolve....

Hi Product people, How do we leverage AI to enhance our products while maintaining the essential human touch? This week on the Product Thinking Podcast, I had an insightful conversation with Jody Bailey, the Chief Product and Technology Officer at Stack Overflow. We explored the complexities of integrating AI into product strategies and how Stack Overflow is redefining its role in the AI landscape. "Our approach is to build trust, have the team find ways that AI works for them, and then...

Hi Product people, How do we inspire and align teams to amplify their innovation potential? This week on Product Thinking, I had the pleasure of speaking with Keith Lucas, an author and former product leader at Roblox. Keith shared insights from his book "Impact," which focuses on building high-performing teams that can scale without losing their creative edge. Our conversation explored how visionary leadership and a mission-driven approach can drive team alignment and innovation. "Leadership...

Hi Product people, Ever felt like time is slipping through your fingers? This week on the Product Thinking podcast, we revisited the best insights about career growth with industry leaders. We discussed how to reclaim time and focus on what truly matters in product management. From leveraging AI for productivity to starting small with the "Convinced Do Loop," our guests share valuable strategies to drive impact without burning out. Here is a particularly timely insight shared on this episode:...

Hello Reader, We’re in a weird and exciting moment in Product. Prototyping and AI-powered development tools are evolving fast, meaning that engineering and design resources are no longer the bottlenecks. AI can now spin up polished screens, clickable flows, even fully functional apps with just a prompt. It’s honestly pretty amazing how far we’ve come. But it also has me asking: If we’re all using the same tools, trained on the same data, building the same patterns… how do we stand out? Let’s...

Hi Product people, This week on Product Thinking, we revisit conversations with some brilliant minds to explore the evolving landscape of product operations and its crucial role in scaling product management effectively. Quincy Hunt, Mark Rosenberg, Vivian Finney, Jessica Soroky, and Hugo Froes joined me to share their insights on how product ops can drive efficiency, align business and tech goals, and transform product teams into strategic powerhouses. Here is something that stood out from...

Hi Product people, How is AI reshaping the landscape of product management and cybersecurity? This week on Product Thinking, we have a special compilation episode where we're highlighting some of the best insights from industry experts about the transformative power of AI. We discussed how AI is not only enhancing productivity but also redefining expectations for product managers by offering real-time data analysis and strategy formulation tools. "Don't be scared of AI. Use it. Use it to make...