"The goal isn't shipping. The goal is learning whether your bet was right."

product-strategy

product-discovery

product-architecture

ai-native-product

product-leadership

• Planning how to roll out a new feature or product
• Designing a metrics hierarchy for a bet or product
• Running bet retrospectives after shipping
• Executing GTM launches
• Setting up dual-track development rhythm
• Deciding when to scale, iterate, or kill a bet

1. Ship features and never measure impact
2. Measure vanity metrics that don't connect to outcomes
3. Do "big bang" launches that create risk
4. Never officially conclude bets—zombies live forever
5. Treat GTM as marketing's problem after PM ships

1. Discovery and delivery run in parallel — Don't pause discovery to deliver
2. Staged rollouts are the default — Ship to 10% before 100%
3. Metrics exist in hierarchy — Leading → Core → Lagging
4. Every bet gets a retrospective — Explicit scale/iterate/kill decision
5. GTM is a product responsibility — PM owns adoption, not just availability

• Ship and forget (no measurement)
• Big bang launches (maximum risk)
• Vanity metrics (activity without outcome)
• Zombie bets (never concluded, never killed)
• Throwing features over the wall to marketing

Week 1    Week 2    Week 3    Week 4    Week 5    Week 6
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[  Discover Bet B  ][  Shape Bet B  ][  Discover Bet C  ]
         [    Build Bet A    ][   Build Bet B   ]
                    [ Ship A ]        [ Ship B ]

• Weekly sync: What's in flight on each track
• Handoff moment: When a bet moves from "shaped" to "building"
• Learning moment: When shipped bet results inform discovery

• Every significant feature ships behind a flag
• Flags enable instant rollback
• Flags enable % rollout control
• Flags are cleaned up after GA (don't accumulate debt)

• Guardrail metric breached
• Error rate > threshold
• Customer-reported critical issue
• Leading metrics trending wrong

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 LAGGING METRICS                     │
│         (Revenue, Retention, NPS)                   │
│         Move slowly, hard to attribute              │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                  CORE METRICS                       │
│       (Activation, Engagement, Conversion)          │
│       The outcomes your bets target                 │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                LEADING METRICS                      │
│         (Feature adoption, Task completion)         │
│         Move fast, early signal                     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Lagging:    Revenue growth (quarterly)
               ↑
Core:       Activation rate (weekly)
               ↑
Leading:    Onboarding completion (daily)
            First value action (daily)
               ↑
Guardrail:  Support tickets (daily)
            Error rate (real-time)

• Leading metrics: Real-time or daily
• Core metrics: Weekly view with trend
• Lagging metrics: Monthly/quarterly view
• Guardrails: Alerting, not just reporting

BET RETROSPECTIVE: [Name]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Timebox: [Duration] | Shipped: [Date]

HYPOTHESIS REVIEW
Original: "We believed [X] would result in [Y]"
Result: [ ] Confirmed  [ ] Disproved  [ ] Inconclusive

METRICS REVIEW
| Metric    | Target | Actual | Verdict |
|-----------|--------|--------|---------|
| Primary   | [X]    | [Y]    | ✅ / ❌  |
| Secondary | [X]    | [Y]    | ✅ / ❌  |
| Guardrail | [X]    | [Y]    | ✅ / ❌  |

KEY LEARNINGS
• [Learning 1]
• [Learning 2]
• [Learning 3]

DECISION: [ ] SCALE  [ ] ITERATE  [ ] KILL

NEXT STEPS
• [Action 1]
• [Action 2]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

• Maximum 2-3 iteration cycles before forcing Scale or Kill
• Each iteration must have a new hypothesis
• Time-bound iterations (don't let them drag)

• Run at timebox end, regardless of "completion"
• Include full trio + relevant stakeholders
• 30-60 minutes maximum
• Document in central repository

templates/

• rollout-plan.md

  — Staged rollout checklist

• metrics-hierarchy.md

  — Metrics design template

• bet-retrospective.md

  — Retrospective format and decision framework

• launch-checklist.md

  — GTM execution checklist by tier

1. Design rollout plan: "Create a staged rollout plan for [feature]"
2. Build metrics hierarchy: "Design a metrics hierarchy for [bet/product]"
3. Set success criteria: "What metrics should determine success for [bet]?"
4. Plan retrospective: "Create a retrospective agenda for [bet] that shipped [X]"
5. Analyze results: "Given these metrics, should we scale, iterate, or kill?"
6. Design launch tier: "What launch tier should [feature] be? What GTM is needed?"
7. Create launch checklist: "Build a GTM checklist for [Tier X] launch"
8. Identify guardrails: "What guardrail metrics should we watch for [bet]?"
9. Plan dual-track: "Help me design a dual-track rhythm for [team size]"
10. Write changelog: "Write release notes for [feature] at [tier]"

• Rollout staged — Not shipping to 100% first
• Feature flagged — Can roll back instantly
• Metrics instrumented — Can measure leading/core/lagging
• Guardrails defined — Know what triggers rollback
• GTM prepared — Docs, training, comms ready
• Retrospective scheduled — Date on calendar at timebox end
• Success criteria agreed — Team knows what Scale/Iterate/Kill means

• Marty Cagan — INSPIRED, EMPOWERED
• Eric Ries — The Lean Startup
• Teresa Torres — Continuous Discovery Habits
• April Dunford — Obviously Awesome (for GTM)