Instead of forecasting outputs based on what stakeholders are asking, product teams need to start with what stakeholders hope to achieve and then back-cast from those outcomes to chart possible paths forward.

This issue runs deep. It is at the very root of how we talk about products: the framing that products are “desirable” to customers has influenced product thinking for over 20 years

Then instead of prioritizing features, you can choose a single bet without compromising your flexibility: which next step will help us learn the most about what a viable path forward looks like?

In reality, no products are desirable to customers. Customers have desirable outcomes, which products can help them reach. And while any successful product strategy must ultimately pick a level of outcome at which it wants to play, choosing to play at the widget level and then flailing for product-market fit before your funding runs out is the least effective level to play at.

Coming up with new ideas is difficult and requires specialist knowledge. Moreover, it requires specialist knowledge to understand what those specialists are doing and therefore manage them.

And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

4 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.