Director’s Fallacy

When the Wrong KPI Starts Making Sense
Measuring AI usage instead of results looks like a category error. Most of the time, it is. But sometimes, it is less about measurement and more about…
 • Arkady Pildes
The End of Product Management as We Knew It
It is not that AI is smarter. It is that it quietly made much of our work optional, and left us with the parts we usually try to avoid.
 • Arkady Pildes
Stop Planning the Future. Start Designing for Change
The problem with long-term planning is not that it’s wrong. It’s that it assumes the future will cooperate.
 • Arkady Pildes
“No One Reads Anything.” And Yet We Keep Publishing
We keep telling ourselves that articles matter. That nuance still lives somewhere past the headline. But for most users, the headline is the story…
 • Arkady Pildes

April 2026

From Running Clubs to Chess Clubs
Fifty years ago, jogging was something you only saw in movies. Now, it is a baseline expectation. It is not much of a stretch to picture a future where…
 • Arkady Pildes
Underdogs vs High Performers: When Improvement Beats Excellence
Organizations talk a lot about rewarding excellence. In reality, they reward change. One who moves from average to good gets more attention than one who…
 • Arkady Pildes
Stop Explaining Your Product to Everyone
At some point, a product manager tries to align everyone with one explanation. That is usually the moment users ignore it, stakeholders push back, and…
 • Arkady Pildes
Remote vs Office Is a Fake Debate
We have spent years arguing where people should work. Home or office. Freedom or control. Comfort or discipline. Meanwhile, the real question of "how…
 • Arkady Pildes

March 2026

AI in the Newsroom: Human Core, AI Support
“AI is writing the news now.” The sentence is convenient but compresses a complex reality into something misleading. AI is indeed in the newsroom today…
 • Arkady Pildes
Are you a Yes-Man or a Mister No?
In product organizations, stakeholder conversations usually get two main responses: an eager yes or a defensive no. One leads to chaos, the other to…
 • Arkady Pildes
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Translating Reality for Your Team
As a leader, your job goes beyond setting direction. You also need to help your team understand what is really happening.
 • Arkady Pildes
The Cult of the Weekend Hero
When someone proudly writes, “I will finish this over the weekend,” we tend to admire the dedication. We rarely ask why weekend work was necessary in…
 • Arkady Pildes
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