The motorcycle is a 1988 Ural with a sidecar. I bought it off a guy on Facebook who sources them from the military and restores them. I wanted a vintage Range Rover first. Same era and same stubborn machinery, but that Ural was just as beautiful and did it for a fraction of the price. I know nothing about motorcycles. I have no idea what I’m doing. But boy am I excited to troubleshoot my way through this.

Just me and the machine, and the particular frustration of learning something new at forty.

I know what you’re thinking: midlife crisis (ok fine I know). But there’s something underneath it.

Reading time: 4 mins

Growing up in the 90s, waiting was the default. You waited a week for the next episode. You waited until your friend got home to call them. You waited for a dial-up connection to finish its screeching. Friction was just another Tuesday.

Reward, when earned this way, resulted in a slower but more lasting gratification.

We’ve since optimized discomfort out of almost everything. First it was convenience: fast food, broadband internet, smartphones and social media. Now AI is doing the same thing to cognition.

Technology has made gratification instant, and in some ways it has robbed us of the joy of living.

Yeah, we can delegate repetitive work and buy back time for what matters. But it’s a slippery slope. AI is silently making it easy to delegate thinking itself.

And while there’s a strong argument to be made for productivity, I’m not willing to trade-off my cognition. Because in a world where machines can do almost everything, my sense of judgement is all I have left.

We don’t know the ceiling on what AI can do, but we do know what it still can’t. Look at journalism: AI can already research, write, and report from a warzone. But what it still lacks is judgement, reading a room, and having empathy.

So that tension is something I’m quietly sitting with most days. Getting sharper with AI on one hand. Deliberately keeping my own judgment in shape on the other.

—

Doing hard things is how we grow, and It has never been more important than it is today.

There’s a psychologist named David Bakan who described two fundamental modalities of human existence: agency and communion. Agency is the drive for power and accomplishment. Communion is the pull towards connection and belonging. A vintage motorcycle restoration gives me the slow-burn satisfaction of working through a problem with my hands, and it’s put me in touch with strangers doing the exact same thing and seeking to share experiences.

There’s a quiet rebellion in choosing the slow lane when a faster one exists.

—

People used to build breadth out of necessity. You learned to fix things because no one was coming to fix them for you. AI is extraordinarily good at pattern-matched work. But what it can’t do is know when the pattern is wrong, and that judgment is reserved only for you when you’ve put in the reps enough times to recognize what good actually looks like.

The people who get the most out of AI aren’t the ones who have mastered prompt engineering. They’re the ones who’ve built things themselves, more than once, across more than one domain and have the scars to prove it.

This might be the best era yet to be a generalist.

So I’m intentionally adding some friction back into my life, and I don’t care if I fail 100 times. AI can give me the answer, but it can’t give me the 100 reps that help me build judgment.

—

It’s late. The kids are asleep. I’m back in the garage with a flashlight, watching a camcorder video on Youtube by what looks like a German man in his fifties, explaining how to troubleshoot spark plug wiring on a vintage Ural.

And this gets me thinking, is fixing motorcycles the evergreen skill I’m really looking to build? I could argue that I should, but no. And maybe I’m wasting my evening. But despite how hard this is, I keep wanting more. And that is a signal that something good is happening.

👋 Hey, it’s Kareem, if you enjoyed reading this, let me know. I read every reply!

P.S. Follow me on LinkedIn for reflections during the week.

Thanks for reading!

Rehabbing my tennis elbow. Painting a miniature Yoda I’ve been neglecting. World building. Restoring a classic Land Rover. And building a second brain with Claude Code and Obsidian.

The world calls this being multi-passionate. It sounds like a superpower, but on most days it feels like noise.

I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve put in over the years, learning so many different things but never consistently enough to make it meaningful. Always overwhelmed with excitement, but frustrated with progress.

I spent years thinking it was a discipline problem.

What it really was, is a strategy problem.

Reading time: 3 mins

The system is designed for specialists.

School, career ladders, success stories… they’re all structured around people who pick one lane and stick to it.

That was never me.

So I’d try to fix it. Pick something and commit. For a while it worked, until the next interest showed up and I was back in the same cycle.

Switching in itself isn’t the problem.

The problem is I never had a plan. Every new interest had more pull than my ability to stay put. Never able to shake the feeling that I was doing something wrong.

The 3 part framework

Over time, I developed a framework. This –and an improved goal setting practice– is how I managed to hit 80% of my goals in the second half of 2025, after accomplishing none in the six months prior.

I take everything I’m interested in and sort it into three buckets:

1. Bucket 1: Career

   One skill you're genuinely good at that can reliably provide for you. This gets the majority of your productive energy, not your waking hours, your best hours. Career gets prioritized because this is what funds everything else.

   For me this is Product Management.

2. Bucket 2: Passions

   Whatever makes you feel alive. Schedule these like appointments and treat them as non-negotiable. The internet will tell you to monetize your passions. Maybe eventually, but don't force it. Some things are allowed to just be yours.

   For me these are Tennis, Star Wars, and dystopian sci-fi.

3. Bucket 3: Interests

   Everything else. Things you want to get to eventually but don’t have bandwidth for now. Give these a home, think of it as your backlog, review it every month and pick up one or two when you have space.

   For me this is books, courses, learning AI, Land Rover restoration, building a second brain… and other random projects.

The problem is most people with multiple interests try to give everything equal attention. I’m guilty of the same.

The most important thing is that you understand this is all fluid. Once you have stability, you reassess. Rotate something off the shelf. Combine two interests into something new. You’re not locked into this forever.

Show up for this week

The curse of being a multi-passionate is that you’re constantly being pulled in multiple directions but feeling crippled by the lack of progress.

I’m still curious about the 5 projects I mentioned earlier. But now I know where each of them fits in my life.

• Bucket 1: Building with Claude Code (I pulled this up from the interests bucket because it also aligns with my career bucket).

• Bucket 2: Exploring world building.

• Bucket 3: Everything else, for now.

The people who operate at a high level across multiple domains didn’t start there. They built one thing first. Got good at it. Then expanded from a position of strength.

That’s the sequence.

So, just for this week. Focus on your anchor, schedule your passions, and track your interests.

That’s it. Not forever, just this week, and see if it works out for you.

👋 Hey, it’s Kareem. I’m trying out something a little different with my newsletter. In an attempt to walk the talk and keep it fluid.

If you enjoyed reading this, let me know. I read every reply!

P.S. Follow me on LinkedIn for insights during the week.

Thanks for reading!

I’ll let you in on a secret, I rarely have all the information before making a decision.

This might sound reckless, but in my 17 years leading products, I made thousands of decisions with incomplete information.

I simply followed the right mental model that allowed me to move fast with a high degree of confidence.

In today’s newsletter, I’ll show you how, and you’ll walk away feeling more confident in your decision making ability.

Reading time: 4 mins.

In one of my first roles as a Product Manager, I was leading a highly technical project and I was way out of my comfort zone.

I needed to make a decision for a technical feature I didn’t understand and I was already behind on the project timelines.

Given the nature of the situation, I asked the engineers to weigh the options and make the recommendation.

I empowered them to unblock themselves, while I took care of risk management, stakeholder alignment and documentation.

By the end of the project, I had gained their trust and shipped the feature on time.

Till this day I don’t know how it technically works, but that didn’t matter. Most decisions don’t require certainty, they require the right framework.

Why should you care?

We face hundreds of decisions every day. What sets us apart, as high-performers, from other individuals is the quality and speed of our decisions.

At work, we’re assessed based on the value we bring to our organization and teams. At home, we’re assessed based on how we contribute to our family, friends and community.

If we deliberate for days on every single decision, we become a liability. The opportunity cost of indecision when our contribution matters most is too high. And relying on certain mental models that we can fall back to becomes immensely valuable.

The Framework

Personally, I have relied on this decision matrix for years. For every decision I make, I ask myself two questions:

1. What is the potential impact? (High/Low)

2. Is this a one-way door or a two-way door decision? (Irreversible or Reversible)

This puts the decision in one of four quadrants:

1. High-impact, irreversible:

   Example: pricing changes, sunsetting products

   Slow down. Gather the right information. Deliberate carefully. These decisions are rare, but they matter most. Don’t rush them.

2. High-impact, reversible

   Example: quarterly OKRs, roadmap priorities

   This is where most of your decisions happen. Use the 70-30 rule: If you’re 70% confident, move forward. Don’t wait for 80% or 90%. If it doesn’t work, you can roll it back.

3. Low-impact, irreversible

   Example: API design, product naming

   Leverage existing best practices or consult someone with more expertise. Don’t spend too much time on this.

4. Low-impact, reversible

   Example: minor feature designs, bug prioritization

   Delegate immediately. Use this as an opportunity to empower your team members to make low-risk decisions. Make better use of your time.

Most individuals spend too much time on quadrants 3 and 4, and not enough on quadrants 1 and 2.

High-performers flip this ratio. They obsess over high-impact decisions and move fast on everything else. They understand that speed on low-impact decisions unlocks time for thoughtfulness on the high-impact decisions that matter most.

The story I shared above was a quadrant 3 decision. The technical approach didn’t matter as much as launching the feature itself. So I borrowed the expertise of the engineers and focused on risk assessment and stakeholder management instead to de-risk the decision and meet the timelines.

What quadrant are you spending too much time in? Reply and let me know—I’d love to hear what challenges you’re facing.

Thanks for reading, I’ll be back in your inbox in two weeks!

Kareem

P.S. If you enjoyed reading this, follow me on LinkedIn for insights during the week.

Getting your stakeholders to agree with you is not easy. It’s tempting to think that a good idea should automatically win approval, but that’s often not the case. Behind every decision lies a web of intricacies that demand a deeper understanding of your stakeholders.

This week, I’ll share with you the most impactful tip that turned around how I get buy-in from stakeholders.

• The biggest tip my mentor told me about influence

• The template that helped me secure buy-in (every single time)

• The FONGS cheat sheet that ensures your message resonates

Reading time: 4 mins.

No matter what I did, I just couldn’t get through.

I would walk into meetings thinking my presentation would sell itself, but it turns into a competition of who has the loudest voice in the room.

Over time, I started to doubt myself and my confidence levels were at an all time low.

Until one day, I brought this up with my mentor and he said something that stuck with me ever since:

You need to understand what motivates them.

He helped me develop a framework for securing buy-in from my stakeholders in the days that preceded the main meeting, as opposed to in the meeting itself.

He made me realize that the real work happens before the meeting.

By the time decision-makers gathered, alignment was already in place. This way they could shift their focus from debating the decision, to critiquing the execution.

How to Secure Stakeholder Buy-In

With the right preparation, you can turn even the most skeptical stakeholders into champions for your ideas.

It’s not that you’re being manipulative, on the contrary, you’re showing them that you put their priorities and perspectives first.

Here’s the approach that worked for me:

1. In a blank document, list all key stakeholders to the decision making process. Those who:

   1. Can make the decision: These are your approvers or veto-holders, like executives or senior leaders.

   2. Have strong influence: Those whose opinions are highly respected and could sway the approvers.

2. In front of each one, mark if they will be present in your meeting. If yes, book a pre-alignment meeting or request their feedback offline.

   1. Find out what motivates them: Is it revenue growth, customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, profitability… ?

   2. Incorporate their suggestions: Adjust your proposal to reflect their insights. This signals respect for their expertise and gives them a sense of ownership in the final recommendation.

   3. Ask clarifying questions: Use this time to uncover any objections or hidden concerns and deeply understand them.

3. For those who will not be present in the meeting, ask for a quote you can include if they're inclined to support.

4. Now that you know what motivates your stakeholders, frame your message to align with their priorities:

   1. Lead with what they care about: Start with the benefits that speak directly to their goals.

   2. Frame the risks as manageable: Show how you’ve accounted for their concerns and built safeguards.

   3. Highlight mutual wins: Emphasize how your proposal creates value for the broader organization while addressing individual motivations.

It’s meeting time!

Now imagine walking in with confidence, knowing your key stakeholders are already aligned with your recommendations… and cross your fingers no one hits you with any curve-balls you didn't anticipate!

Cheat Sheet: FONGS

To ensure your message resonates with every stakeholder, use this cheat sheet!

1. Framing: Position your idea from their point of view.

2. Ownership: Encourage feedback and integrate their suggestions so they feel that they have influenced the final recommendation.

3. Narration: Use stories to create emotional connection. A compelling customer anecdote or success story can make your case irresistible.

4. Goals: Align your idea with their objectives and show how it helps them deliver against their goals.

5. Social Proof: Bring in support from respected leaders. A well-placed quote or endorsement can tip the scales in your favor.

This approach may take a little extra effort, but the payoff is massive.

How do you influence your stakeholders? Reply to this email and let me know–I read every email!

Kareem

P.S. If you enjoyed reading this, here are more ways I can help:

1. Subscribe to my newsletter and get actionable tips in your inbox every Wednesday.

2. Follow me on LinkedIn for insights during the week.

3. Download my free Product Templates and kick-start your first draft.

4. Download my free High-Velocity Decision Making PDF guide to help you make faster, more effective decisions.

Today’s letter is a slight deviation from my regular format. Shorter, more opinionated, less educational. I haven’t been able to find as much time to write lately, and I don’t want this to stop me entirely from writing. So I might do more of these, if you like them, and venture into other topics as well that are still related to driving impact and high performance, but not necessarily product management related.

Reading time: 2 mins

I just experienced Apple's haptic feedback trailer for their upcoming F1 movie (which looks great btw), and while it was amusing, I was left feeling underwhelmed.

The experience was inconsistent, overwhelming at times, and lacked user control. But the moments it worked well? They were genuinely immersive.

Mind you, I’m a gamer… occasionally, so this isn’t the first time I experience haptic feedback and probably already have a very high bar of expectations.

What I didn’t like – At times it felt out of place and distracting from the moment. Brad Pitt putting on his helmet didn't need tactile feedback. There were also no controls to reduce or increase intensity.

What I did like – At the right moments it was very immersive, and the timing was impeccable.

What can be improved:

1. Intentionality: In the trailer, haptic feedback occasionally triggered during dialogue-heavy or emotional scenes where it added no value. Features that are always-on or activate constantly, lose their impact and become noise over time.

   1. What's the minimum effective frequency that maintains impact without creating fatigue?

2. Adaptability: Haptic feedback felt continuous, almost like it never stopped, with no intensity controls or user customization options.

   1. I would’ve liked to see intensity and frequency controls which would personalize the experience further.

3. Context awareness: Haptic feedback makes perfect sense for action sequences but feels out of place in character-driven drama.

   1. Content-aware presets or adapting to content types (action, drama, sports… etc) would elevate the user experience.

Final notes – I can’t see this as a feature Apple builds into every single movie or series. I wouldn’t watch Grey’s Anatomy with haptic feedback, but I would absolutely want to experience it in full with Top Gun (with emphasis on context).

Have you tried Apple’s haptic trailer yet? What did you think? Leave a comment or reply to this email with your thoughts—I read every response.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back in your inbox… soon.

Kareem

Connect with me

If you enjoyed reading this, here are more ways I can help:

1. Follow me on LinkedIn for insights during the week.

2. Download my free Product Templates and kick-start your first draft.

Share Driving Impact

A quick personal update – I’ve had a few major changes in my life that have kept me away from writing for a little over a month. I’ll share one now, and will keep the other for the next issue.

First, our second son was born on the 5th of February – ironically the last essay I sent out was on the 4th as if I knew I wasn’t coming back for a while. Now this is not my first time as a parent, but it sure as hell felt like it was. With our first born, Zeina and I shared responsibilities which allowed us to each be kid free at different times in the day and regain our mental wellbeing. When our second was born, I found that my way of helping was to completely take over responsibilities of our older son. Which meant every day drop-off and pick-up, morning and bed-time routines, baths, food, play, play, and more play… whatever you can think of. It quickly became overwhelming. So while, yes having a second child isn’t as daunting because you know what to expect – the overwhelming increase in responsibility, overnight, was definitely unexpected.

If you’re a parent of multiple kids, can you relate? please tell me it gets easier…

Now onto today’s newsletter.

At Amazon, I saw how first principles thinking and customer obsession allowed people to solve complex problems outside of their domain expertise.

When I led the launch of Amazon in Egypt, I was way in over my head. As a PM with no platform experience, I was suddenly tasked with building foundational marketplace systems—pricing engines, catalog infrastructure, inventory management—the core systems that make a marketplace function.

I immediately felt overwhelmed and filled with self-doubt.

But instead of panicking, I mapped the domain to first principles:

• What core problems were we solving?

• What fundamental constraints and dependencies existed?

• What key risks needed mitigation?

In retrospect, my career has thrived precisely because of my ability to excel across domains—from finance to marketplace operations to product management.

I always wondered: Is there a formula others could follow to build broader skillsets and thrive in ambiguity?

And I think... I've found one.

David Epstein author of “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World," argues that while specialization matters in certain fields (like medicine or engineering), generalists often succeed in complex, unpredictable environments.

But the challenge isn't just acquiring broad knowledge—it's creating disproportionate impact with it.

Too often, generalists find themselves valuable but not indispensable, interesting but not influential.

From my experience, the most impactful people are those who combine a generalist's ability to connect ideas across different fields with a specialist's focused understanding of particular subjects.

Deep Generalists are the combination of a generalist's ability to connect ideas across different fields with a specialist's deep, focused understanding of particular subjects.

The Framework

After working with hundreds of product managers and operators at Amazon and beyond, I've developed a framework that transforms how generalists create value by applying product thinking principles across domains:

1. Domain Mapping – Can you identify fundamental elements in new areas and connect them to your existing knowledge?

2. Value Discovery – Where can you contribute meaningfully and align your contributions with stakeholder needs?

3. Knowledge Filtering – Are you able to identify high-quality information efficiently and separate signal from noise?

4. Impact Optimization – Can you evaluate impact and communicate insights in ways that drive appropriate action?

5. Continuous Refinement – Do you engage in deliberate practice to refine your execution and build feedback mechanisms that accelerate your development?

Putting It Into Practice

Here's how to start implementing this framework:

This Week:

• Create a "domain map" for your current project

• Identify your highest-value contribution opportunity

• Audit your information sources for signal-to-noise ratio

This Month:

• Develop templates for different communication needs

• Start a work journal to track patterns across projects

• Schedule your first personal retrospective

The most successful Deep Generalists I've observed share a common trait: they approach new domains with genuine curiosity.

They're not trying to become subject matter experts overnight (maybe even never), but they're looking for the underlying patterns and principles that govern their domains.

I'd love to hear which part of the framework resonates most with you, or what aspects of being a Deep Generalist you're already practicing. Leave a comment or reply to this email with your thoughts—I read every response.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back in your inbox next Wednesday.

Kareem

Connect with me

If you enjoyed reading this, here are more ways I can help:

1. Follow me on LinkedIn for insights during the week.

2. Download my free Product Templates and kick-start your first draft.

Share Driving Impact

Yesterday I shared a post on LinkedIn with some of my favorite product leadership resources, and it was an instant hit. So, I thought I’ll come here and share it with you too in case you missed it.

Reading time: 1 min.

I keep a running list of educational resources on Product Leadership I want to consume.

This includes videos, articles, and courses – I refer to it as my 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘙𝘰𝘢𝘥𝘮𝘢𝘱.

Here are some of my favorite resources so far:

📺 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵

1. How to Lead by Shreyas Doshi

2. Influence Without Authority by Satish Mummareddy

3. A Product Leader’s First 90 Days by Madhu Muthukumar

4. Continuous Discovery & Delivery by Ant Murphy

📖 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱

1. Strong Product People by Petra Wille

2. High Agency by Shreyas Doshi

3. Growth Playbook by Kate Syuma

👨‍🏫 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝘆

1. Persuasive Storytelling by Roshan Gupta

2. User Centric Product Led Growth by Kate Syuma

3. Executive Communication & Influence by Wes Kao
   

Anything else you would recommend?

Connect with me

If you enjoyed reading this, here are more ways I can help:

1. Follow me on LinkedIn for insights during the week.

2. Download my free Product Templates and kick-start your first draft.

Share Driving Impact

I was copied in an email with almost 10 other PMs in the “To” field.

The sender had written a nicely worded email requesting help on three different projects, without identifying who the individual owners were.

Two weeks later, she sends a reminder on the same thread “kindly requesting support.”

Still… crickets.

This week, I want to address why shared accountability fails, and attempt to give you a plan for how to fix it.

Reading time: 3 mins.

You need to step up

Problem #1: The Co-ownership Trap

Here's what typically happens when you assign two people to own something:

Person A thinks: "Person B will handle it since they have more expertise in X."

Person B thinks: "Person A is the project owner, I will wait for them to lead this."

Maybe they’re being lazy, but the bigger problem is that there’s a fundamental flaw in how our brains process shared responsibility.

Psychologists call this "diffusion of responsibility"—the more people involved, the less responsible each person feels.

Problem #2: The Control Paradox

"I can't be responsible for something I don't fully control."

I've said this. You've probably said this. Most PMs have said this at some point.

This is a cop-out.

In complex organizations, you'll never have full control. That's not a bug—it's a feature. It pushes us to influence, negotiate, and lead without authority.

In my product launches, I never had full control over everything:

• Tech team capacity was out of my control

• Legal approval timelines were excruciatingly long

• Partner integration timelines were consistently off-track

But I was still accountable for the launch.

Avoiding Accountability

Let's be honest about why we avoid accountability:

1. Fear of failure

   1. If we're not officially responsible, we can't officially fail

   2. It's safer to be the person who "helped" than the person who "owned"

2. Control comfort

   1. We've been trained to only accept responsibility for what we can fully control

   2. This mindset keeps us safe but small

Did I miss anything? Let me know what other patterns you observed.

Breaking these patterns isn't easy, but it is possible.

Here's what has worked for me and my teams over the years.

What you can do today

For projects with multiple owners

1. Designate a STL (Single-threaded leader) – You don’t want to chase 10 different people who are not regularly speaking to each other. Designate a STL who is responsible for disseminating information and keeping everyone on track.

2. Weekly Sync – Deadlines can be a great tool for getting people to commit. Put this weekly meeting on the calendar. Directly responsible people should be there and speak to their parts.

3. Document next steps with owners – Self explanatory, the person whose name is on there is expected to give an update the following week.

4. No action item leaves the room without a single owner and an ETA.

For initiatives with cross-functional dependencies

1. Own the outcome, not just your part – This will teach you to lead with influence and care about the team’s success, not just yours.

2. Create a dependency map – Track this every week with your stakeholders and make sure everyone knows how their roles impacts the others.

3. Have a backup plan for critical paths – If you can’t control it, you might as well plan for it.

4. Overcommunicate progress and blockers – This is a great way to pull in support from leadership and others who may have more expertise. Speak up and don’t by afraid to flag risks.

P.S. This is not a magic pill.

What strategies have you tried that worked (or didn’t)? Leave a comment or hit reply (I read every email), I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back in your inbox next Wednesday.

Kareem

Connect with me

If you enjoyed reading this, here are more ways I can help:

1. Follow me on LinkedIn for insights during the week.

2. Download my free Product Templates and kick-start your first draft.

Share Driving Impact

Disagreements are inevitable. It gets frustrating when we’re unable to convince stakeholders of our ideas, but it’s often an opportunity to uncover gaps in our thinking.

This week, I'll share the steps I took to turn my manager’s “no” into a “yes” and agree to a major decision I made during the launch of Amazon Prime in Egypt.

What you will learn:

• How to approach disagreements strategically

• The framework I used to get buy-in

• Why preparation beats persuasion

Reading time: 6 mins.

Early in my career at Amazon, I thought having a good idea was enough, but after one too many “No’s” I realized I had to change my approach.

I learned this the hard way during the launch of Amazon Prime in Egypt.

I had proposed a feature that I believed would be critical in achieving our launch goals. This feature was exclusive discounts for Prime members.

My manager pushed back hard. His concerns were valid—we had a tight launch schedule, and any additional scope could put our timelines at risk.

But I had conviction. Our customers were motivated by deals and were extremely price sensitive due to Egypt’s inflationary environment at the time. This wasn’t just a hunch, I had the data to prove it.

That said, my manager’s message was clear. We are to stick to the initial plan and focus on meeting our launch timelines which were already at risk.

Let’s dive into the steps I took to change the narrative, launch with this feature, and get recognized by my manager for having backbone and making the right decision.

Oh and in case you’re wondering… we exceeded our launch goal by 40%!

Step 1: Start with understanding

The biggest mistake I see PMs make is jumping straight into defense mode when faced with pushback. I've been guilty of this too.

Instead of immediately trying to prove my point, I took a step back and tried to understand my manager's perspective. His concerns weren't arbitrary—they were rooted in:

1. Launch timeline risks

2. Resource constraints

3. Previous experiences with scope creep

Early in my career, I saw disagreements as roadblocks, but I’ve learned to view them as signposts instead. Rather than seeing his pushback as opposition, I saw it as valuable input that would help me better understand his concerns and put together a plan to address them.

Action item: Start by asking open-ended questions to uncover the underlying concerns. This not only shows that you value the other person’s opinion but also gives you the information you need to address those concerns effectively.

Step 2: Build your case with data

With a clear understanding of the concerns, I needed to build a compelling case—one that spoke directly to the risks and concerns raised.

For me, this meant gathering data to support my proposal and demonstrating how it aligned with our broader goals. I focused on mitigating risks and showing that my feature wouldn’t derail our launch but enhance it.

I did three things:

1. Gathered data showing the potential impact of this feature

2. Outlined clear mitigation strategies for each identified risk

3. Created a detailed implementation plan

The key was showing that I had thought through not just the benefits, but also the potential challenges and how to address them.

Action item: Tie your proposal back to the objectives of the launch. This shifts the conversation from a debate over opinions to a discussion about achieving shared goals.

Step 3: Get early alignment

Before going back to my manager, I did something that proved to be a game-changer: I got buy-in from key stakeholders who would be impacted by this feature.

I scheduled 1:1s with:

• Tech leads to validate the implementation timeline

• Marketing to align on the customer messaging

• Commercial to confirm deals readiness

I reached out to team members who would be positively or negatively affected by the feature and incorporated their feedback into my proposal. This helped me close any gaps in my thinking, strengthened my case and built social proof among other leaders in the organization.

By the time I presented to my manager, I wasn't just sharing my conviction—I had a coalition of supporters who could validate different aspects of the proposal.

Action item: Start building alliances as soon as you have a rough idea of your proposal. By the time you’re ready to present, you would’ve already laid the groundwork for approval.

Step 4: Present with clarity

With my document ready and stakeholder support in place, I prepared a detailed document and presented my proposal to my manager.

I wrote a clear document that:

• Started with the objective

• Explained how we will achieve our goals

• Outlined the customer benefits

• Addressed key concerns

• Included supporting data

• Provided UX mock-ups

The purpose of the document was to one of two things:

1. Convince him my idea was validated and viable; or

2. Prove that I had thoroughly covered his concerns that the risk of letting me try was very low.

Action item: When presenting, focus on the key points that matter most to your audience. Be concise, clear, and open for feedback. There are many ways to influence your stakeholders if you truly learn their concerns and motivations.

Step 5: Measure and iterate

After getting approval, I knew the real work was just beginning. I set up clear metrics to track the feature's performance post-launch and kept stakeholders updated on the progress.

I had taken a lot of time from my stakeholders to get this approved, so I wasn’t going to lose their trust now.

Decision loops are incredibly important as it allows us to learn faster and drive better decisions.

A Decision loop includes:

1. Documenting the decision

2. Defining success metrics

3. Reviewing decision outcome

4. Maximizing with repetition

The result? The feature exceeded our expectations, driving higher acquisition than we had initially projected.

Action item: When you make a decision, don’t just move on to the next task. Follow up on your decisions, measure their outcome, and communicate the results to your stakeholders. This help gains their trust, and improves the quality of your decisions over time.

Closing Reflection

The feature exceeded our expectations and my manager recognized me for having backbone and pushing it through. But the real lesson here isn’t about influencing and getting the approval, it’s in embracing disagreements.

When we’re challenged, we’re forced to validate our assumptions and build stronger arguments for our ideas, and ultimately raise the bar on the quality of our work.

This experience taught me to:

• Build stronger cases backed by data

• Navigate complex stakeholder dynamics

• Think more holistically about my decisions

As Product Managers we should not fight disagreements, but learn to use them to build better products.

May the Force of influence be with you!

What strategies have you used to navigate disagreements with leadership? Reply directly to this email (I read every email) or drop your thoughts in the comments!

I’ll be back in your inbox next Wednesday.

Kareem

P.S. If you enjoyed reading this, here are more ways I can help:

1. Follow me on LinkedIn for insights during the week.

2. Download my free Product Templates and kick-start your first draft.

It's that time of year again. Your social feed is flooded with posts about resolutions and SMART goals, and you're feeling the pressure to map out every detail of your 2025 goals.

I take an unpopular approach when it comes to my annual goal planning… clear on direction, loose on execution. Come to think about it, it reminds me of how roadmap planning happens at most Series B startups.

This week, I'll share why treating your personal goals like a startup roadmap might be exactly what you need to make 2025 your best year yet.

• Why SMART goals aren't always smart

• Define clear directional goals for each theme

• A framework for balancing clarity with curiosity

Reading time: 6 mins.

On Goal-Setting

How many times have you sat down with a fresh notebook at the beginning of the year, carefully turning each resolution into a specific, measurable goal?

While this works for some, forcing everything into the SMART framework can actually limit your potential. Why? Because some of your most transformative opportunities haven't revealed themselves yet.

Think about how startups plan their product roadmaps. They don't—and can't—plan every feature a year in advance. Instead, they set clear objectives and let discovery guide the way.

Let's say a startup aims to increase Active Users. While this can happen through acquisition, better conversion, or better retention, sometimes the specific features and initiatives have yet to be defined.

Your personal goals can work the same way.

A Better Approach

I organize my goals around themes: career, family, finance and more.

Some goals within these themes are clear (e.g. save a 6 month emergency fund). Others? They're more like aspirations (e.g. build a resilient body).

Here's an example: Last year, I had a goal to “start a side hustle.” Pretty vague, right? But I had a direction and followed my curiosities.

Over time, that general goal evolved into something specific: helping product managers drive more impact and become unstoppable. This led to identifying key concepts, building a presence on LinkedIn, learning about newsletter publishing, and launching this newsletter. With more milestones to follow.

I couldn't have planned these specific steps in January. They emerged by following my curiosities—just like how product teams discover the right features through research and experiments.

Having goals wasn't enough for me though. I needed a framework to turn them into reality.

Annual Goals

Under each of my five themes, I set 2-3 goals for the year. Some are specific “run a 10K”, others are directional “start a side hustle”. Keeping it loose helped me avoid analysis paralysis by trying to turn everything into a SMART goal. Clarity can sometimes come through action and experimentation.

Like I said earlier, I organize my goals around themes. An easy way to start understanding yourself and choosing which themes are most important to you is the wheel of life.

Taking on every single theme in the wheel of life was overwhelming for me, so the ones I have prioritized for myself are:

1. Career

2. Family

3. Finance

4. Health

5. Self

Monthly Milestones

Every month, I plan one milestone that will bring me closer to each one of my goals.

For specific goals, these milestones flow naturally. For example, for that 10K run goal, January became “run 1K three times a week.”

For directional goals, I treat milestones as experiments. When I started my side hustle journey, my first milestone was to simply explore my curiosities. This gradually evolved to launching this newsletter and will continue to evolve as I gain more and more clarity through action.

Weekly Check-ins

These quick check-ins help me stay on track. I use this time to:

• Look at progress on specific goals.

• Note what I'm learning from experiments.

• Adjust course when needed.

• Reconnect with my bigger vision.

It's my version of an agile process—enough structure to keep moving, enough flexibility to adapt along the way.

The easiest way to do this is with a habit tracker. Track your runs, your food choices, your learning time, and other key habits that help you get closer to achieving your goals.

What This Means for 2025

As you think about 2025, consider starting with your own themes. What matters most to you? Which goals feel clear, and which need room to develop?

In my experience, both types of goals can be meaningful—what’s most important is continuous progress.

How are you planning your goals for 2025? Hit reply and let me know—I respond to all my emails.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back in your inbox next Wednesday.

Kareem

P.S. If you enjoyed reading this, here are more ways I can help:

1. Follow me on LinkedIn for insights during the week.

2. Download my free Product Templates and kick-start your first draft.

Have you ever found yourself stuck in analysis paralysis, endlessly gathering data for a decision that should have been made weeks ago? Or maybe you've rushed into a major product decision only to regret it later?

This week, I'll share a framework that transformed how I make decisions as a PM, helping me navigate everything from minor design choices to major strategic shifts.

• Why most PMs get stuck between analysis paralysis and reckless speed

• The decision matrix that will change how you think about product decisions

• A simple framework to determine your decision investment

Reading time: 6 mins.

Before breaking into product management, I spent 6 years in finance.

As I moved into tech, data was my super power. I dove deep into excel sheets and came up with great findings.

But, as I moved into product management at Amazon, I was frequently being called out by my manager for being slow. I would get caught in endless analysis loops always chasing the next data point.

It wasn't until I was leading the Amazon Egypt roadmap that I realized this approach wasn't sustainable. With hundreds of decisions to make and a tight timeline, I needed a better way.

Decision-Making Trap

Jeff Bezos speaks about decisions as doors:

"Some decisions are consequential and irreversible – one-way doors – and these decisions must be made with careful deliberation and consultation from senior executives. Most decisions are two-way doors, and these should be made quickly with the understanding that you can always go back."

As PMs, we often think we need to choose between two poor options:

1. The "paralysis" route: Endless stakeholder consultations, countless data points, and still feeling like we need more information.

2. The "reckless" approach: Quick decisions based on gut feel, often missing critical risks and stakeholder input.

Both paths lead to the same destination: lost trust from your team and stakeholders.

The Better Way: Decision Budgets

Good decision making is not about choosing between speed and quality – it's about matching your investment to the decision's importance and reversibility.

Think of it like this: You wouldn't spend the same amount of time choosing lunch as you would buying a house. Yet many PMs invest the same energy in every product decision, regardless of its impact.

Let's expand on one-way and two-way doors into a matrix that considers both impact and reversibility.

Here are some guidelines for how to use the decision matrix:

1. High-impact, irreversible:

   Example: pricing changes, sunsetting products

   1. Buy yourself time by making it reversible

   2. Run A/B tests

   3. Rollout gradually to users

2. High-impact, reversible

   Example: quarterly OKRs, roadmap priorities

   1. Focus on speed to learning

   2. Set clear evaluation criteria

   3. Plan for iteration cycles

3. Low-impact, irreversible

   Example: API design, product naming

   1. Leverage existing best practices

   2. Consult experienced team members

   3. Borrow expertise

4. Low-impact, reversible

   Example: minor feature designs, bug prioritization

   1. Delegate when possible

   2. Make quick decisions

   3. Empower your team

The biggest mistake most PMs do is they spend too much time on quadrants 3 and 4, and not enough on quadrant 1. Remember, great PMs spend more time on high-impact decisions and less time on low-impact decisions.

The 70-30 Rule

You don't need 100% certainty to make a good decision. In fact, waiting for complete certainty often leads to missed opportunities.

Instead, aim for 70% certainty. If you have 70% of the information you think you need, and it’s a high-impact, reversible decision, move with confidence. The remaining 30% often isn't worth the time investment to acquire.

But, how do you handle urgent requests? That urgent email from leadership about an unhappy customer or a "can't-miss" partnership opportunity.

Here's how to handle these:

1. Is this new information?

   1. Yes → Evaluate using the decision matrix

   2. No → Stay the course and communicate your existing plan

2. Does it fit your current strategy?

   1. Yes → Incorporate within existing priorities

   2. No → Evaluate the opportunity cost

Making It Work

Here's how I put this into practice:

1. Evaluate Impact

   1. Will this affect a large subset of users?

   2. Is the financial impact significant?

   3. Could this damage our brand?

2. Assess Reversibility

   1. Can we roll this back easily?

   2. What's the cost of reversal?

   3. If it’s irreversible, can we make it reversible?

3. Set Your Budget

   1. Which stakeholders need to be involved?

   2. What data do you absolutely need?

   3. How much time will you invest?

Remember: The goal isn't to make perfect decisions – it's to make appropriate decisions at the right speed with the right investment.

What's your approach to making product decisions? Reply directly to this email or drop your thoughts in the comments—I'd love to hear what works for you!

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back in your inbox next Wednesday.

Kareem

P.S. If you enjoyed reading this, here are more ways I can help:

1. Follow me on LinkedIn for insights during the week.

2. Download my free Product Templates and kick-start your first draft.

Today, I’m bringing you a guest post by , author of . Colette has worked in data analytics for over a decade and I find her writing to be very engaging. In this post, Colette shares actionable insights on how to calm down your stakeholders in under 5 mins.

• Defensiveness fuels the fire

• Allow them to process their thoughts

• Give more context upfront

• Tips for cool-headed conversation

If you enjoyed reading this, make sure to subscribe to !

Reading time: 6 mins.

At one point, clients, senior leaders, or even your own team will inevitably look at you with a pained face of confusion.

Following their confusion and self-righteous rage might emerge, directed at you.

It's not fair, but it happens. I've been there - on the other side of the screen or table, where my spirit is beaten down. But in truth, I did nothing wrong. All of the requirements were met, and the product I am showing is behaving as expected.

The impulse is to defend yourself first - don't.

Instead, pause and focus on clarity of thought. Consider how the confusion arose and how you can reframe the message to resonate with your audience's perspective.

Let's review how you can calm your non-technical stakeholders in just a few minutes and then stand your ground! The end goal here is to drive impact, not to distract.

This approach isn't just about diffusing tension; it's about demonstrating a high bar of professionalism through effective communication and influencing stakeholders toward a shared understanding.

Trust me, your words will be forgotten faster than Perl 6 became popular.

We've Done this before, Believe it or Not

I once knew a stakeholder who always had a complaint. The first time I interacted with him, his complaints were directed at me; my first inclination was to defend myself. After all, how dare he insult my baby! He nitpicked things about the sort order on a graph, the shade of blue, the spacing above the text, etc. I needed to level set with him quickly to get past this unproductive conversation. No decisions can be made in this current state of frustration.

Research indicates that anger elevates physiological arousal and disrupts neural activity in regions critical for cognitive processing, impairing the brain's ability to make rational decisions. In his fit of rage, his feedback was not rational. This feedback was not purposeful but rather an expression of what seemed to be unhinged emotion. This is not to say emotion is bad, but in this case, there was no apparent end goal other than berating the end product. I was naturally feeling defensive.

But here's the thing - defensiveness just fueled the fire. This first go-around with his complaint fest could have gone better. I got advice from a colleague who had had issues with this before. They advised him to let him talk but not commit to the changes. This was advice rooted in clarity of thought and operating at a high bar: hear the concerns, but keep sight of the broader goals and cave to every detail. It's okay if he had a different vision for the end product. It did not mean I had to drop all of my progress or do a 180 to conform. He was one of many stakeholders!

Next time, I let him talk and then took time to filter through what made sense to change or not. I did not commit to changing anything while on the call with him; I just acknowledged I was rotating. This is truthful. This approach exemplifies excelling as a generalist: balancing stakeholder input while maintaining focus on the product's core objectives.

You see, I recognized this was how we were. It was not personal. No end product was going to satisfy him. Nothing was perfect. But I could make the conversation less obnoxious. This is how I could excel in a tough situation.

Just think of me as your Project Therapist

I witnessed on a call not too long ago when a senior leader began speaking his thoughts on the direction of a project and some critical choices to be made. Most sat in silence, but one architect kept interrupting and attempting to find a solution.

This made the senior leader lose track and then pivot into new rabbit holes or, at times, be defensive. You see, his talking was not due to decisions being set in stone but rather an exercise in thinking out loud. This is like a project therapy session. The architect was a rude therapist who kept interrupting their patient. This interrupted the decision-making process for the senior leader. They needed to get their thoughts out in the open for further clarity. It's important to remember that part of driving impact is knowing when to let ideas unfold. Allowing the senior leader to process their thoughts enables better, more informed decisions to emerge.

Let someone finish their thought. You need it to have the full context. This interruption might come back to bite you. Excelling as a communicator requires discipline - not just in expressing ideas but also in knowing when to stay quiet and actively listen. Whether their out-loud thoughts are logical, you must get to the root of their feelings before taking rational action. This will determine how you later present the logical action that was taken.

Listening is a key part of better relationship management. Really listening shows empathy, which is a win for building the trust you need with stakeholders. Effective listening isn't passive - it's a deliberate strategy to facilitate clarity, guide decisions, and foster peak performance across the team.

We're speaking the same language - promise!

Picture this: an irate business leader frantically clicking around an Excel workbook and repetitively mumbling, "This makes no sense."

This happened early in my career when I sat in a conference room, frozen in my tracks, not just from the chilly AC. The end product was not working as this leader had envisioned.

I had handed over the Excel workbook with my findings and a How To tab in the front, assuming she had read it. I let her dig in, which was a type of demo. I had made the assumption that since she was slightly more technical, she would "get it," but she did not.

There was frustration on both sides. From her, she truly did not understand what she was doing. I felt I could not get a word in edge-wise to tell her, "Don't do that - it is not designed to do that!" The workbook was going to perform differently with the clicks she was maneuvering. But I did not shout that out.

A key component of emotional intelligence and social awareness is knowing when to say something. In this case, I needed to let her calm down before I could say anything. It would be unproductive to get a word in edge-wise until the calm moved in like a gentle wave. Right now, the waves were crashing against jagged rocks. This approach also ties back to effective decision-making. By stepping back and giving the leader space to process her frustration, I positioned myself to re-enter the conversation with solutions, not reactive responses.

For the future, I knew I would need to give more direction upfront, like a demo of the ins and outs of the workbook I was presenting. We did speak the same language, but this particular use case was unknown to her. Without that understanding of the use case, the emotion of frustration would take over, and this would be a fruitless meeting.

Cool Heads = Open Ears

After your stakeholders have finished word-vomiting their frustration at you and there is a brief moment of silence, this is your opportunity to jump in with a cool head and open your ears on the other side.

You see, people will not listen to you, no matter how logical or factual, if they are pissed off. Frustration does not have to last long. Generally, it can be quieted in under 5 minutes if you let them talk. First, get your stakeholders or stakeholders into a calmer state if you want to have any level of influence over them. Suppose you are trying to connect with logic while in this state, which will frustrate them more and lengthen the already miserable conversation.

You can kick off the cool-headed conversation with phrases like:

"I hear you" - acknowledges their feelings, and they feel heard.

"I understand," - you acknowledge, but this does not mean you agree.

"I have notated your concerns and will review them" means you listened and will look into it.

"I will look into that and get back to you tomorrow." - this gives a time frame for when you will get back to them, which is soothing.

Facilitate the calm by listening and then acknowledging.

That's it.

It usually takes under 5 minutes.

It sounds easy, but I challenge you to practice it next time you are faced with a rowdy non-technical stakeholder. It will feel a little uneasy for you at first. That is perfectly okay! To be able to calm down your stakeholders through more effective communication takes practice! You may feel like you are being a pushover, but I assure you, you are not. I like to lead with facts and rational statements. I am a data-oriented person. I can't do that in this situation, nor can you. Let the emotions flow first, then get down to business.

I believe in you. You can do this!

You know that feeling… you’ve just launched a new feature, you open a blank email to share the news, and you’re unsure where to even begin? Or worse, you pour every thought into it and end up with a jumble of emotions that have no sense of clarity?

This week, I’ll share with you the biggest mistakes people make in writing, and my template for writing internal launch announcements to help you close on that winning streak 🚀

• Two biggest mistakes in writing

• My structure for internal launch announcements at Amazon

• Internal launch announcements template

Reading time: 6 mins.

I’ve been there.

In fact, I once spent two weeks crafting a six-page document at Amazon, only to have the VP tell me within the first five minutes of the meeting that he had no idea what it was trying to say.

Now, I recognize how much leverage well-crafted communication can provide—not just at work, but in my personal life too.

So, today I am going to give you a simple template for writing internal launch announcements that sets you up for success. 

Why should you care? Because good writing doesn’t just convey information—it establishes your authority, builds trust with stakeholders, and helps secure the decisions you need to drive progress.

Before we jump in, let’s look at the post from LinkedIn that inspired me to write this newsletter:

While this is a nice social media update, it falls short of delivering real value to the audience (and potential customers). It doesn't clearly explain what the app does or provide any context for why this experience is described as "surreal" or an "uphill battle against all odds." Even the screenshot below this post was only of the app’s page on the app store, rather than showcasing the user experience.

So, while I'm excited for him experiencing his first launch milestone, I am really here to talk to you about how you can write more impactful launch announcements.

To start, let’s take a look at two of the biggest mistakes most people make when writing stakeholder updates:

1. Lack of structure

2. Poor readability

Structure

Good structure reflects clarity of thought and makes it easier for the reader to quickly grasp your message. My favorite framework for writing structure is the Pyramid Principle. Start with the main idea, follow with your supporting argument, and then back it up with data or insights. Here’s an example:

❌ Without Pyramid Principle:

Hi John,

I was looking at the product page earlier, and I realized that something might be wrong. You know how we have been working on the pricing strategy for the new software product? Well, I was going through some of the details and noticed a discrepancy with the price that’s showing on the site. It’s currently listed at $29.99, which I found surprising because, according to the spreadsheet we have, it should actually be $39.99.

This could be problematic because it’s not in line with our internal pricing documents, and I think it might lead to some confusion for customers who are expecting to pay a different price. I’m not sure how this happened, but we should definitely get this fixed as soon as possible. I think we might want to get the tech team involved to look into it and make the adjustment. Let me know what you think!

✅ With Pyramid Principle: 

Hi John,

The price for our new software product is incorrect on the website—it’s listed as $29.99, but it should be $39.99.

Can we work with the tech team to fix this right away? This discrepancy could cause confusion among customers and lead to a -34% loss in revenue. It’s important to align the website with our internal pricing, as documented. I’m available to help if needed.

Did you notice the difference?

1. Main Idea First – In the Pyramid Principle example, the main point is communicated immediately: the price is wrong, and not buried in the middle. This allows the reader to understand the key issue right away and then dive into supporting details if needed.

2. Clarity and Focus – The Pyramid Principle message is concise and direct. Each sentence builds on the core idea, offering the issue, the consequences, and a proposed action in a logical flow. In contrast, the poorly structured message starts with irrelevant details ("I was looking at the product page earlier") and unnecessary background ("You know how we’ve been working on the pricing strategy").

3. Actionability – The Pyramid Principle version has a clear call to action: "Can we work with the tech team to fix this right away?" The reader knows exactly what needs to be done. In the earlier example, the call to action "Let me know what you think!" is vague and indirect.

4. Efficiency – The Pyramid Principle message saves the reader time by immediately stating the problem, the impact, and the solution.

Readability

It doesn’t matter how much you write; what matters most is how easy it is to read and understand your writing. Using clear, simple language helps stakeholders quickly grasp your message, leading to more productive discussions and better outcomes from your meetings.

A good rule of thumb is to aim for an 8th-grade reading level, though this can vary depending on your audience. For instance, technical documents naturally tend to be more complex.

To check your writing's readability, you can use tools like the Hemmingway App. Here’s an example of writing at different grade levels:

❌ Writing at a Grade 12 level:

Hi John,

I wanted to bring to your attention an inconsistency we’ve encountered regarding the pricing of the new software product on the website. Upon reviewing the product listing, I noticed that the price is erroneously displayed as $29.99, when our internal documentation specifies that it should be $39.99.

This discrepancy is likely due to a miscommunication during the product setup process, and if not rectified promptly, it could result in revenue loss and potential confusion among customers, particularly given the pricing tier we’ve established for similar offerings. Could we coordinate with the tech team to investigate and correct this issue as soon as possible? Let me know if I can assist in any way to expedite the resolution.

✅ Writing at a Grade 8 level:

Hi John,

I noticed a mistake with the pricing for our new software on the website. The price says $29.99, but it’s supposed to be $39.99.

This was due to a miscommunication during the setup process, but it risks confusing customers and losses in revenue. Can we ask the tech team to fix this right away? I’m happy to help if you need anything from my side.

Did you notice the difference?

1. Tone and Complexity – Grade 8-level writing is simpler, more direct, and avoids weasel words (e.g. likely, promptly).

2. Sentence Structure – In the grade 8-level example, the sentences are short and to the point.

3. Ease of understanding – The grade 8-level example is easier to understand with a quick glance, but the grade 12-level example might require re-reads to fully grasp the message.

Ok, now that you understand the importance of structure and readability in your writing, let’s shift back to the topic of this newsletter: writing an internal launch announcement.

What we covered above are examples of what not to do. So how do you actually structure an internal launch announcement?

Take a moment to consider your audience. Who are they? What do they need to know? What specific questions might they have?

Here’s the general structure I used for most of my internal launch announcements at Amazon. Feel free to adapt it to your specific situation:

1. Headline – “[Feature name] is live”

2. What did we launch? – Briefly explain what feature you launched and what it does.

3. Why does this matter? – Explain the customer and business impact. Why is this launch important, and how does it align with your broader goals?

4. What is the user experience (UX)? – Your stakeholders want to visualize what the experience looks like. Share mockups, screenshots, or photos of the user experience.

5. What are the results? – Share any early results and metrics to update stakeholders on how the launch is performing. Is it meeting its goals? Provide context for how the launch is performing compared to expectations.

6. What are the next steps? – Now that this is launched, what’s next? Are there pending decisions or future enhancements on the roadmap? Any P1 features that haven’t launched yet? Be specific and give a timeline where possible.

7. [Additional questions specific to your audience] – Depending on who your audience is, you may want to address specific questions. Address any specific concerns, such as major technical trade-offs, potential P&L impact, or key areas of interest unique to your audience.

Template 👇

Launch Announcement: Automated Pricing is Live!

What did we launch?
We launched an Automated Pricing feature for our retail team. This feature dynamically adjusts product prices in real-time based on demand patterns and cost structures. By optimizing pricing automatically, we can minimize margin loss while ensuring our products are priced competitively to meet customer demand.

Why is this important?
Previously, pricing adjustments required manual updates, which often resulted in delayed reactions to market changes, leading to margin loss and missed revenue opportunities. The automated pricing system continuously analyzes key factors—such as product demand, seasonality, and cost fluctuations—to ensure prices are always optimized. This ensures we stay ahead of market trends and maximize profitability, all while reducing the likelihood of pricing errors.

What is the business impact?
This feature will help us reduce $100K/month in margin loss and increase revenue by ensuring that our prices reflect real-time demand. Early tests have shown a 10% increase in revenue for high-demand products and a 15% reduction in underpricing across our catalog. The system also reduces manual effort, saving 10 hrs/week for the Operations and Pricing teams.

What is the UX?
[Insert design mockups] 

What are the results?
Though the feature was just launched, we’re already seeing positive results. Since the rollout last week, we've observed a 2% increase in average margin per product and an 87% decrease in pricing errors. There is negative sentiment from customers on social media that our customer service team is managing, though not a concern as it represents 2% of daily orders.

What are the next steps?
Over the next two weeks, we’ll be refining the pricing algorithms to account for additional factors such as competitor pricing and seasonal trends. We’re also planning to integrate this feature more closely with our promotional campaigns to offer dynamic discounts without sacrificing profitability.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back in your inbox next Wednesday.

Kareem

P.S. If you enjoyed reading this, here are more ways I can help:

1. Follow me on LinkedIn for insights during the week.

2. Download my free Product Templates and kick-start your first draft.

3. Download my free High-Velocity Decision Making PDF to help you make faster, more effective decisions.

Have you ever felt like you’re bogged down with day-to-day work and with never enough time to step back and think more strategically?

This week, we’ll cover how to identify needle-moving work that helps you focus on the right things and drive impact.

• Understand the problems you’re trying to solve

• Validate your assumptions with data

• Prioritize your initiatives based on impact

• Collaborate with others who share the same goal

Reading time: 6 mins.

As Product Managers we love to grind, but often our time is spent on the wrong things.

We hear the gurus talk about “needle-moving work,” and while we agree, on Monday we’re back in the weeds, just trying to keep things moving.

This is also how I operated as an early PM. I was great at powering through challenges, relying on that strength to grow and get more done.

This was until I met the boss of all challenges.

When I was chosen to lead the launch of Amazon Egypt after the Souq acquisition, I was faced with complex technical challenges that pushed me out of my comfort zone.

In the first few meetings with tech, I started to panic from all the questions being thrown at me that I had no answer to, and I quickly realized that using brute force to power through wasn’t going to work this time.

I didn’t have a good understanding of the systems and how they worked together. “I need to figure out which areas to focus on that would yield the highest impact” I thought to myself.

So I set out to gain clarity, understand the long-term goals and figure out how to unblock my stakeholders. By working backward from the future objective, I honed in on the key problems to solve that would unlock meaningful milestones.

This is what needle-moving work is all about.

Seek first to understand

High-performers always seek clarity. It gives you an understanding of your north star and a sense of purpose.

“Where do I start from?” is a question I used to always ask myself. When faced with so many choices and too much data, it’s easy to feel helpless.

One of the most obvious -but overlooked- places to start is the company vision and goals. We’ve gotten so used to looking under our feet trying to hit personal/team goals, and we often forget to look up at a company level.

When you know what the end goal is, you become more empowered to make better decisions. Clarity not only gives you direction, it empowers you to make better decisions. When you know the end goal, you can act with autonomy and purpose.

Here are some questions to help:

1. What are our biggest challenges as a company?

2. What is the single biggest problem we need to solve?

3. What is the long-term objective behind this initiative?

4. What are the company goals/OKRs for this quarter/year?

5. What are all the options I can think of that would lead to this goal?

6. What solutions have we previously considered and why have they failed?

Use data to validate assumptions

When you spoke to your Head of Sales s/he said that they’re tapping into a younger segment which mostly uses buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) as a payment method. So you go build that, before you realize that what this segment actually needs is mobile payments.

How do you validate what’s true and worth pursuing?

Let’s stick with the same example where the company wants to penetrate a younger customer segment and Sales thinks enabling BNPL is a sure path to success. Your research also suggests the same segment uses mobile payments and prepaid cards.

Some key considerations might be:

1. What is the degree of usage of each payment method? Is BNPL truly the most popular?

2. What is the tech effort behind building each one of these features? Are there any dependencies or complexities that need to be considered in the development plan?

3. How does each one of these methods impact the business financially? What is the impact on P&L and cashflow?

You need both qualitative and quantitative data to help you piece things together. Here are some ideas:

1. Pull data from your dashboards and look at engagement rates for your current payment methods. How is the younger segment paying for their transactions in the absence of BNPL, mobile payments and prepaid cards?

2. Pull up industry research and look at shift in trends over time. Has one payment method grown significantly in the past year?

3. Speak to customers to understand their usage patterns and the rationale behind their decisions. Why do they prefer one payment method over the other?

4. Speak to partners and merchants who are ahead of you. Can they validate your research findings? What can they tell you that you don’t already know?

Prioritize based on impact

With your assumptions validated, it’s time to prioritize.

There are many prioritization frameworks out there but the specific framework you choose is less important than what you're solving for: Business impact.

The goal is to align initiatives with broader company objectives, your team’s capacity, and available resources. High-impact work drives both your product and the company forward.

Your work so far should have helped you define your north star, this could be:

• A company-wide OKR like customer acquisition or revenue growth,

• A feature-specific success metric, such as improving conversion rates or increasing engagement,

• A binary goal, like launching a new feature by a certain deadline.

This clarity helps you assess multiple opportunities. Prioritization becomes easier when you are clear on what you’re trying to achieve.

Here are some factors you may want to consider in your prioritization:

1. Business Impact: Which feature will directly impact your KPIs? – A feature that improves conversion rates by 10% may be a higher priority than one that enhances an edge-case functionality, even if both are customer requests.

2. Revenue Generation: Which feature will drive higher revenue / lower costs? – Launching a feature that enables customers to purchase higher-tier plans, or improving an internal tool to decrease support costs by 20%.

3. Effort (Time to value): Which feature will cost more resources or time to build? – A feature that requires 2 weeks of development but has the potential to increase revenue by 15% vs a feature that will take 3 months to build for only a marginal improvement in user experience.

4. Customer Impact: Which features matter most to your customers? – Prioritizing a feature that resolves a long-standing customer pain point and could reduce support tickets by 30%.

5. Strategic Alignment: Which initiatives align with your long-term company/product vision? – Investing in a scalable infrastructure improvement today to support the product’s growth over the next two years.

6. Risks & Dependencies: Which features can be delivered with the least risk and fewest dependencies? – Prioritizing a quick-win feature that only requires internal resources vs one that depends on an external vendor with unpredictable timelines.

Collaborate with stakeholders

You can’t do needle-moving work on your own. Often times, you need the help of others.

But asking for help isn't always straightforward. When you approach stakeholders, you’re essentially asking them to:

• Shift their priorities.

• Spend effort and time.

• Take a chance on your idea.

This makes needle-moving work inherently complex and challenging. Success requires not just a good idea, but also a high level of trust, influence, and strategic thinking to rally others around your objective.

You must understand the motivations of different teams and communicate the value of your initiative in a way that resonates with each stakeholder.

If that wasn’t enough of an uphill battle, it gets even harder when you face resistance or rejection. Stakeholders may push back for various reasons:

• Their bandwidth is limited.

• Your project doesn’t align with their goals.

• The risk seems too high or the payoff too uncertain.

One mistake I see PMs do is walking up to their stakeholders and just throwing their request out there, without preparation. This leads to rejection and, worse, a lack of trust.

Instead, frame your ask around the stakeholder’s priorities. Ask yourself, How can I make this their problem, too?

When the problem is shared, others are more invested in solving it. This gives it more weight, and accordingly, more impact.

Here are a few tips:

1. Understand their goals and priorities.

2. Build relationships before you need them.

3. Break down your request and make it easy to say yes.

4. Build trust by demonstrating that you’ve done the legwork.

5. Frame your request in a way that highlights mutual benefits.

6. Gauge the right moment and be strategic about the timing of your ask.

What strategies have you used to focus on needle-moving work? Reply directly to this email or drop your thoughts in the comments—I’d love to hear what’s worked for you!

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back in your inbox next Wednesday.

Kareem

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