Welcome to Jeff On Product: A Journey Through the Belly of the Beast
Notes from the Trenches of a Product Life
AI isn't just changing the game; it's flipping the board. Everyone's suddenly a "product manager" now that they can prompt their way to wireframes, specs, and maybe even production code. In the meantime, a cataclysmic explosion of templates and frameworks has become a crutch that bypasses critical thinking and creativity.
If you’re fed up with the buzzwords, the frameworks, and the AI-generated roadmaps that promise salvation but deliver jack squat, you’ve landed in the right place. Welcome to Jeff On Product, a Substack for those who crave depth in a sea of templates.
The Road to Here: Scars, Stories, and a Few Wins
I’ve worn every hat in the game: founder sweating over whether to keep building or sell, CEO making the tough calls and managing a board, CTO building and breaking things in equal measure, Data Scientist wrestling truth out of chaos, and Product Leader playing translator between the suits and the coders. I’ve sat in boardrooms so tense you could hear the desperation behind every “strategic vision,” knowing full well it was just a plea for more time before the money ran dry.
My road’s been a long one with tours at VC-backed startups, private equity pressure cookers, and public companies, crisscrossing the US, Canada, Europe, and beyond. I’ve done time on corporate boards and tech associations, worked the B2B grind with some marketplace adventures thrown in for good measure. I’ve run with the champs and the chumps, and the chumps showed me more about how shit really works.
I've consulted on product strategy for the tech giants you know, back when they were FAANG, not whatever alphabet soup they’re calling themselves now. I’ve helped global brands crack open new markets, and mentored hundreds of startups as an Entrepreneur in Residence across multiple accelerators. For good measure, I even had a hand in architecting a global financial standard. Oh, and I once took down AWS SQS with a deployment so innocent yet devious that it deserves its own cautionary tale. I only write code for fun these days—the world is safer that way.
Through all the chaos, one thing never blinked: my obsession with building products that don’t suck.
The Ugly Truth About Product Management
I’ve spent twenty years watching Product management evolve from "that thing engineers tolerate" to whatever the hell it is now, where frameworks and templates are choking the life out of Product Management, turning craft into equal parts paint-by-numbers exercise and soul-crushing assembly line.
Why this Substack? Because I’m done with the bullshit. And you should be, too. The world of Product has never been more critical—or more flooded with noise. AI can crank out a roadmap before you’ve finished your coffee, but it’s got no clue why you’re even bothering. And while we’re all busy worshipping at the altar of the latest framework, the real juice—critical thinking, guts, imagination—is leaking out the cracks.
There’s a library’s worth of books, podcasts, and Medium posts on product strategy, yet it remains woefully misunderstood. Or perhaps worse: understood in theory but abandoned in practice. We get the theory, sure, but when the quarterly crunch hits or the next big deal hinges on a feature we don’t have, we’re still pumping out features like drones on autopilot. It’s time to reclaim the soul of this gig, and I’m starting right here.
What to Expect: The Good, the Raw, and the Real
Don’t expect another “7 frameworks to prioritize your backlog” snoozefest. I’m not pumping templates or promoting certifications. What you’ll get is:
Raw, unfiltered takes on product strategy in this AI-drenched age
Trench tales from the front lines of product leadership—the wins, the flops, and the ugly in-between
A cold, hard look at industry trends, stripping away the hype and buzzwords
Real advice for navigating the shitstorm of building products that matter
I’ll aim to drop something weekly, but full disclosure: if the mountains are calling or the trails are prime, I might ghost you for a bit. I’m a human, not a content-spewing robot.
Why You Should Subscribe
Because you’re sick of the crap, too, you’ve sat through enough PowerPoint sermons that sound brilliant until they hit the real world and shatter like cheap glass. You know there’s more to this game than filling out a canvas or marching to someone else’s playbook. You want the voice of someone who’s been in the muck, screwed up royally (and not just once), and still came out swinging.
Or maybe you’re just here for a skeptic who’s taken too many hits to buy the hype, but still gives a damn enough to cut through the noise. Either way, I won’t waste your time or clog your inbox with fluff. No jargon, no fluff, just the kind of jagged, hard-won truth I’ve scraped from the wreckage.
Hit subscribe to get new posts dropped straight to your inbox. Pass this along to your crew, your rivals, or that coworker who needs a wake-up call. And if something I say lights a fire, or pisses you off, drop a comment. I’m here for it.
Until next time, keep your eyes open, your bullshit detector on, and never let a template run your life.