I’m Max, a father of two, Product Director & Product Coach from Sydney. I write about leadership, product management and life.
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  1. The Tech Debt Spiral

    Like a snowball rolling downhill, technology debt simply gets bigger.

    Cutting corners and patching things up work for a while. But eventually the codebase becomes a mess. Features take longer to build, and bugs pile up. The team becomes nervous about making changes. This triggers leadership demands speed, trapping everyone in a difficult cycle to break.

    The Tech Debt Spiral

  2. Mar 6, 2025

    Brian Chesky’s new playbook

    Everyone Must Row in the Same Direction
    Clarity beats compromise. Instead of negotiating how to run Airbnb, Brian made a clear call: unify under one roadmap, one set of priorities, and one way of working. Less micromanagement. More detail. Everyone moving together.
    In the Details Is Where Leadership Lives
    Brian rejects the stigma around micromanagement. He distinguishes it from “being in the details,” which he says is a sign of true leadership. Y... read more

  3. Feb 26, 2025

    Strategies evolve in action

    No one starts with a perfect strategy. That's just not how it works.

    You set a few goals, spot the obvious roadblocks and take your first steps. How about the rest you might ask? You figure it out along the way. Just keep an eye on the market and overall trends and adjust your strategy as needed. And yeah, unexpected problems will pop up. That's normal though. They aren't failures - just part of the process. Every setback teaches you something.

    A plan points you in the right direction, but real clarity comes from doing the work. The teams that adapt, adjust, and keep moving - especially when things feel uncertain - are the ones that make real progress.

    So don't wait for the “perfect” plan. Just start. You'll get there.

    Strategy: Planning vs Doing

  4. Feb 26, 2025

    Build Thinkers, Not Just Features

    To build great products you need to start asking great questions.

    A simple question: “What problem are we solving?” will shift a team's mentality from execution to purpose.
    And you can feel the exact moment when task-doers start to solve problems.

    It's when they talk less about delivery and shipping features and ask more about business challenges, user pain points and the market. That's when they stop taking orders - and start shaping work.

    Questions fuel curiosity and curiosity drives collaboration. Teams that ask deeply create better products.

  5. Feb 25, 2025

    Bob Moesta: How to find work you love

    Stop Making Progress, Start Job Hunting
    The moment career progress stops, job searching begins. Most people don't know how to find a better job because they don't know themselves. Moesta interviewed and coached over 1,000 people, discovering that without deep self-awareness, most land in roles worse than before.
    Jobcation: A Reset for Your Career
    After high-intensity roles - especially in startups - a “jobcation” can help. This is a low-effort jo... read more

  6. Feb 19, 2025

    Results First

    Your first responsibility as a manager is to deliver results.
    Not culture. Not vibes. Not endless check-ins. Results.
    Too many new managers fall in love with the performance of management. They build dashboards, run meetings, create documentation, set up Slack channels. It feels like work. It looks like leadership. But it doesn't move the needle. Teams can be busy all week and still achieve nothing.
    Being a manager isn't about activity. It's abou... read more

  7. Feb 16, 2025

    Let Go to Move Forward

    Centralised decision-making will always create bottlenecks. Sooner or later, this will prevent your company from growing.

    Traditional and rigid organisations value hierarchy, and leaders often think they need to control every decision.

    But this slows innovation, delays time to market, and prevents teams from learning.

    Create a culture of ownership at every level. Empower your team to make decisions within their areas of expertise. Trust fuels faster progress.

  8. Feb 12, 2025

    Starting Strong as a Leader

    Joining a new company as a leader is tricky and sometimes it does feel like stepping into chaos.

    There's so much for you to process – new people, culture, challenges, expectations, competing and unclear priorities and pressure to deliver results.

    I like to slow it down. I don't try to fix everything on day one. I focus on the context, the big picture first, understand the team and what they need my help with. Once I get where we are going and why, I can focus on the culture and processes to get to the destination faster with stronger teams.

    Starting Strong as a Leader

  9. Feb 7, 2025

    Know Your Team

    It's crazy how many leaders don't know much about their team. They are not curious about their motivations or aspirations, not only professionally but also on a personal level.

    Get to know your team. What are their hobbies? What are they exploring? How are their families? Where are they planning their next trip? What are they watching? What are they reading?

    Make it a weekly session. It takes just half an hour but builds a much stronger connection. This is important. Stronger connection = more trust. More trust = better feedback, better communication, higher quality of work and more motivation.

  10. Feb 6, 2025

    Emily Kramer - The Death of Marketing Channels

    📘 Most marketers are solving the wrong problem. You don't need a new channel. You need to know what makes you different. When you figure that out, the rest gets simple.
    📘 The conversation tackles the myth of dying marketing channels and reframes the problem. The issue isn't that SEO or LinkedIn is “dead.” The issue is everyone's doing the same stuff, copying the same playbooks, pushing the same noise. Even worse - AI is now generating that same n... read more

  11. Feb 5, 2025

    High Standards

    Set the Tone

    Push others. Push yourself harder.
    High standards beat perfection. They beat pressure. They are built on one thing - refusing to let average settle in.

    Raise the Bar Around You

    Call it out when your peers drift. Remind them what great looks like. Challenge your boss to reach higher. Hold the mirror up. Then hold yourself to an even sharper edge. Show them what it means to care - about the work, the craft, the outcome.

    Build Incrementally

    Pick one standard. Nail it. Then raise another. Layer it like muscle. Burnout comes from trying to change everything at once. Strength comes from building it piece by piece.

    Quiet Consistency Wins

    High standards are not loud. They are lived.
    Patience wins. But only if you refuse to lower the bar while you wait.

    Kindness Isn't Compliance

    Most people confuse kindness with acceptance. Being kind doesn't mean tolerating mediocrity. Great teams grow because someone had the courage to raise the standard when it was easier to stay quiet.

    Watch Out for “Good Enough”

    Average is always looking for a way back in. It hides in phrases like “good enough” or “we'll fix it later.” Kill that thinking. Make high standards the default - not the exception.

    Lead By Example

    Start small. One line of copy. One slide. One handover doc. Show the difference. Set the bar by example. Then hold the line. Hold it when no one's watching. Hold it when others let it slip.

    Make Quality Contagious

    That's how you lead without the title. That's how you make quality contagious.
    High standards are built in silence. But their results speak loud.

  12. Feb 1, 2025

    The Trust Battery Effect

    The concept of a Trust Battery is that it typically starts at 50% and then every interaction charges or drains the trust battery.

    It's interesting how, once you pass a certain percentage - let's say 80% (mind you, it's a bit abstract) - on the other person's Trust Battery, a shift happens. Walls drop. And suddenly the next level of collaboration unlocks.

    Love these moments.

  13. Progress motivates action

    Progress motivates action. It's not just the reward; it's the feeling of progress that drives commitment.

    Two groups of customers were given punch cards awarding a free car wash once the cards were fully punched. One group was given a blank punch card with eight squares; the other was given a punch card with ten squares that came with two free punches. Both groups still had to purchase eight car washes to receive a free wash; however, the second group of customers - those that were given two free punches - had a staggering 82 percent higher completion rate.

    Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

  14. Jan 30, 2025

    Engagement Isn't a Number

    Most engagement surveys don't measure engagement.

    They measure vibes.

    The problem isn't the intent - it's the output. You run a survey. You get a 67.8% “engagement score.” Someone builds a deck. Charts go up, comments stay anonymous, nothing changes.

    That number doesn't tell you who's struggling. It doesn't tell you why trust is low. It doesn't tell you where the rot is starting. It just tells you people clicked a box.

    Real engagement isn't a metric. It's a conversation.

    Ask them how they're feeling. Ask what's blocking them. Ask what's making their work better - or worse. Then shut up and listen. Not just in surveys. In 1:1s. In retros. In offhand comments. The signal's already there. You don't need a dashboard. You need ears.

    Pie charts don't build trust. Conversations do.

  15. Jan 29, 2025

    The secret to a message that sticks

    Success comes from repeating the right words, not just saying them once.

    The secret to a message that sticks

  16. Outsourcing kills your product instincts

    The best way to kill your product instincts is to outsource your customer research.

    When you get answers neatly packaged in a fancy PDF with cool graphs and slick design, you feel good about it. It looks like the hardest part has been done, and you just need to look at the numbers and insights. On the surface.

    As you go through the research prepared by someone else, you realise you only gain surface-level knowledge of the space.

    Real research is about developing a good understanding of what your customers are experiencing - the small problems they face, along with all the nuances and frustrations.

    You have to speak to them. No surveys or written responses will give you true insight into their challenges.

    When you outsource research, someone else builds that understanding - not you.

    Your product instincts start to fade over time.

  17. Jan 24, 2025

    Write It Down Before Misalignment Costs You

    Misalignment is one of the most common (and costly) issues in product development, project planning and team collaboration. Whether it's about the problem you're solving, the solution you're building or simply the language you're using, assumptions often go unnoticed until it's too late.

    User Story Mapping: Shared Understanding


    Who This Is For

    • Product Managers, Product Designers, engineers and team leads who are struggling with unclear priorities or conflicting understandings.
    • Anyone working in cross-functional teams who wants to reduce rework, missed expectations and confusion.

    Common Questions This Addresses

    • “Why does everyone think we agreed, but we all had different ideas?”
    • “How can I surface misalignment before it causes delays?”
    • “What's the fastest way to get everyone on the same page?”

    Why Writing Down Your Thinking Matters

    1. Surface Hidden Assumptions
    People often agree verbally, but are visualising completely different things. Putting ideas into writing reveals these mismatches early.

    2. Create Shared Understanding
    Writing clarifies your own thinking and gives others something concrete to react to, challenge, and align with.

    3. Enable Asynchronous Collaboration
    Not everyone is in the same room or timezone. A written artefact (like a user story map or brief) allows everyone to engage in their own time.

    4. Reduce Future Friction
    What feels like a tiny misunderstanding today can snowball into big problems later. Written alignment now prevents costly rework down the line.

    Practical Tip: Use User Story Mapping

    User story mapping is a collaborative visual exercise that helps teams define the user journey and prioritise features. More than just a diagram, it's a tool to:
    • Capture what users are trying to achieve
    • Break down features into meaningful slices
    • Highlight disagreements early

    How to Start

    • Write it down. Even a rough sketch or bullet list is better than nothing.
    • Invite collaboration. Ask others to review, question, and contribute.
    • Don't assume agreement. Check for true understanding, not just nodding heads.

    If no one has written it down yet, that's your cue. Misalignment loves ambiguity. Writing brings clarity and saves time, money, and trust later.

    Document early. Share often. Align before you act.

  18. The Two Types of Product Teams

    There are two types of product teams - the slow-learning and the fast-learning.

    The slow-learning team wants to deliver. They manage projects, write tickets, attend internal meetings and ask colleagues for design feedback. They mostly care about delivery and managing expectations.

    The fast-learning team wants to learn. They talk to customers, read market news, push hacky code to production, and sometimes break things. They embrace ambiguity, but they learn fast.

    The difference? The slow-learning team builds products for their bosses, and the fast-learning team builds products customers actually need.

    Shift your focus. The best products come from deep insight, not just efficient delivery.

  19. Jan 21, 2025

    Framing is Everything

    Recently I wrote about the most important skill for Product Managers.

    Regardless of whether you are a Product Manager or not, the communication will help you with all aspects of your career. If you want to manage or be a leader, you have to be a good communicator. Specifically, you need to get better at framing.

    What's your goal? Are you looking for feedback, sharing information, wanting to influence, asking for approval or something else entirely?

    What are you sharing? Is it a problem? Maybe a solution? A vision? Or a mix?

    How much detail are you planning to share? Is this a helicopter or detailed view? Or perhapse, both?

    Who's your audience? Your team, the entire organisation or the executive group?

    Your communication needs to be adjusted depending on the answers.

    Early in your career, you use the same message no matter the context.

    To grow, you need to get better at tailoring your message - what you say, how you say it and when to say it.

  20. Jan 20, 2025

    The Cost of Indecision

    Misaligned leadership doesn't announce itself. It creeps in. Slowly. Quietly. Then it wrecks your team.

    Leaders think the damage is minor. Temporary. Invisible. But it's not. It's heavy. It's real. It shows up in whisper networks, in backchannel Slacks, in passive standups where nobody commits because no one knows where things are going.

    You see it when smart people play it safe. When the loudest voice wins. When meetings drag on because no one wants to be the first to say what everyone's thinking. You feel it in the hesitation. That's the real killer.

    Disagreement isn't the problem. Lack of alignment isn't even the real issue. Teams can live with that. What they can't survive is hesitation. Leaders who won't commit. Who won't decide. Who stay neutral until it's too late and now the team's solving the wrong problem. Again.

    Indecision isn't neutral. It's destructive. Especially when disguised as “consensus-building” or “being thoughtful.” Teams need a decision. Even the wrong one. Because wrong moves can be corrected. Hesitation can't.

    Leaders, pick a path. Say it out loud. Then stand behind it until you know it needs to change.

    Make the fucking decision. Your team's already waiting.

    The Cost of Indecision

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