May 2, 2026

RICE Is Not a Brain

When you have a decent structure and process, it does feel like you are making progress, so PMs grab (R)ICE, HEART or whatever the latest prioritisation framework is and push ahead.

A lot of decisions, however, are made without any frameworks, just with experience and judgement.

Strong PMs ask good, thoughtful questions (internally and customers) that are hard to dodge and they do reach for (R)ICE eventually, but by the time they do, the uncomfortable critical thinking is already done.

Frameworks serve as a sanity check, not a brain.

Nobody lets a spellchecker write the email but that's more or less what's happening today.

Anyway, you do not gain product perception by templating. I'm not even sure "perception" is the right word here, but you know what I mean.

The template, though, is never the best option.

The template is never the best option.

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Apr 28, 2026

On Workshops

This meme hurts because it's true. There's a thin line between guiding people and running workshops. And to be honest, most of us have already done it. A lot of...

About Max Antonov
I'm a father of three from Sydney, a Product Director and a Product Coach. I write about product management and run the Product Manager community.

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