A short post about unstoppable teams.

Weathering the Torpedoes

All teams will face this moment sooner or later.

Torpedoes hit and chaos erupts. This feels like the end.

You see those who freeze and are lost in analysis or despair. Others grab buckets, extinguish fires and patch the holes. Those who can't handle the shitstorm often leave or, worse, switch off - but the team that stays learns.

Each crisis builds resilience and over time, the screams fade, the paralysis lessens and the team grows steady.

One day, the torpedo hits again but nobody panics. Everyone acts, shoulders the load and trusts each other to hold the line.

That's the moment you know your team is unstoppable.

Lead with Problems, Not Solutions

Protecting Discovery: A Playbook for Product Managers

Why Rushing to Solutions Backfires

• Solution-first thinking kills curiosity. The instant you pitch a fix, the room defaults to critique rather than exploration.
• Creativity needs slack. When discovery is compressed, edge cases, fresh perspectives, and customer nuance vanish.
• Ownership drives quality. Teams fight for ideas they helped shape; they resist ideas handed down.

Common Scenarios Where Discovery Gets Short-Circuited

The Discovery-First Framework

• Clarify the friction: user pain, market gap, or workflow snag.
• Share constraints: budget, timeline, regulatory, tech stack.
• State the desired outcome: measurable impact or customer behaviour change.

• Use open prompts:
• “Where does this break for users?”
• “What edge cases worry you?”
• Embrace silence - ideas bloom in the gap.
• Capture themes, not verdicts.

• Engineers for feasibility checks.
• Designers for journey mapping.
• Sales/Support for frontline insights.
• Reference models like Atlassian's Team Playbook “Discovery Play” for facilitation.

• Draft thin-slice prototypes or assumption tests.
• Prioritise by risk vs. learning value.
• Track outcomes in a shared dashboard (e.g. Productboard, Jira).

• Keep goals visible: OKRs, North-Star metric.
• Let the team iterate on execution details.
• Step in only to re-align on purpose, not on pixel placement.

Quick Reference: Discovery-Boosting Questions

• “What's the riskiest assumption here?”
• “If we had unlimited time, what would we explore first?”
• “How might a power user break this?”
• “Which customer quote captures the pain best?”

If you're a Product Manager, let the Product Designer lead when they're handling tasks well.

Shift your focus to strategy or collaboration, stepping in only if quality slips - then step back again.

Agile Isn’t Chaos

Agility is misunderstood. True agility adapts to change without succumbing to chaos. It's never about rushing decisions.

The best teams balance flexibility and structure. Agility thrives on collaboration, iterative progress and responsiveness - anchored by clear direction. Without this balance, chaos replaces speed and quality falls victim to a mirage of progress.

Agile isn't a strategy. It's how strategies breathe.

Agile vs Strategy

Hyrox done! ✅

Happy that I finished but not quite happy with the time. I was aiming for ~1h 30m, but it was a bit heavy today.

Will do it again next year!

Using no-reply emails puts up a barrier and can leave customers feeling ignored.

Instead, businesses should use email addresses that invite replies and ensure responses. It's a simple way to build stronger relationships and gather valuable feedback.

Leadership Is the Ceiling

If your team isn't performing at its best, it may not be a talent problem - it might be a leadership ceiling.
“Why isn't my high-performing team delivering?”“How do I unlock my team's full potential?”“What's causing low team morale or execution delays?”“How to lead when your team is stuck or confused?”“What makes a great product leader?”
No matter how skilled your people are, they can only move as fast and as clearly as you lead th... read more

From Code to Product Manager: 7 Lessons

The transition from being a software engineer to a product manager wasn't swift or smooth for me. I stumbled, burned out, and had to dive into countless books and relentless practice.
Here are 7 things I wish I could have done better when I transitioned to Product Manager.
As a software engineer, you can see your day's work reflected in the code written and results displayed in the browser.
In product management, results or impact might not be ... read more

Managing My Week with a Notion Board

I use Notion to plan and manage my week and I'll take you through the process step-by-step. You can get the Notion Template here.
On Friday or Monday morning, I reflect on the priorities and goals that my team and I need to achieve. I then outline 1-3 of these goals and add them to my Notion Board. To ensure I have time and space to complete these goals, I often block out time in my calendar for them.
I add 🎯 to the goal cards so they are easil... read more

3 Quick Tips for Better Teamwork

So you want to build a stronger, faster team? Here are 3 quick tips for better teamwork that you can implement today:

Show the team that it's okay to make mistakes. A good place to start is with yourself.
Share your own mistakes with your team, especially when your boss is there too. When your boss suggests an idea in front of the team, share your perspective, even if it differs.
Soon you will start gaining insights from the team much faster ab... read more

TIL. Radio stations use the Radio Data System (RDS) to send song information alongside their broadcast. RDS embeds digital data into the FM signal without interfering with the audio.

The data travels on a subcarrier frequency - a portion of the FM signal reserved for extra information. This allows song titles, artist names, and station details to display on your car's radio screen. Simple, seamless and clever.

Clear Role Boundaries for Product Teams

TL;DR

1. Draw the Line Early

• Core focus: market and viability risk
• Typical questions: “Will people pay for this?” “Does it move the North-Star metric?”
• Key output: one-pager covering purpose, success metrics and trade-offs

• Core focus: usability and desirability risk
• Typical questions: “Can customers complete the task?” “Where do they stumble?”
• Key output: clickable prototype showing flow, copy and edge states

2. Guard the Calendars

• If the task changes product vision, it belongs to the PM.
• If the task changes product surface, it belongs to the PD.

3. Write First, Talk Second

• PM posts a succinct one-pager to Slack outlining problem statement, success measures and known constraints.
• PD replies with a Figma link showing interactive flow, micro-copy and empty-state behaviour.
• Only then schedule a 30-minute debate. Decisions lock in, iteration time halves.

4. Phase-Based Volume Control

• Framing / Discovery – PM's voice dominates; market-sizing memo appears.
• Ideation & Prototyping – PD leads; high-fidelity Figma frames drop.
• Build & Polish – PD still loudest; design-system tokens freeze.
• Launch & Iterate – PM turns the volume back up; KPI dashboard lights up.

5. Share One Scorecard

6. Outcomes You Can Expect

• 25–40 % faster time-to-decision (anecdotal data from five Aussie SaaS teams).
• Higher designer morale: fewer context switches, deeper craft.
• Sharper product bets: PMs stay market-obsessed, avoiding “feature museum” creep.

Recommended Tools & Rituals

• Figma for rapid prototypes (PD).
• Miro/FigJam for story mapping (shared).
• Amplitude or Mixpanel for the single metric (PM).
• Weekly 15-minute “Line-Check” stand-up: confirm who owns which decisions this sprint.

The Role Overlap Between PM and PD

Roles in product and design teams often overlap. Both product managers and product designers talk to customers, come up with feature ideas, and suggest UX improvements.
However, these overlaps can sometimes lead to conflict and frustration.
The solution is quite simple.
If you're a product manager and your product designer is doing a great job, take a step back. There are plenty of other things you can do without getting in each other's way - rev... read more

Scaling Skills in Small Teams

Working at a small tech business shapes your career differently.

You'll juggle strategy, customer service, product development and beyond. The small team demands versatility, immersing you in every aspect of the business. This hands-on experience accelerates learning and builds skills quicker than larger organisations ever could.

For ambitious minds craving growth and variety, nothing compares.

Why Do I Run?

I used to play soccer, where running was an integral part of both training and the game.
However, I never saw the appeal of going for a jog just for the sake of it. We had to run 6km as a warm-up before training started, and that was enough for me.
Now that I've retired from soccer, the desire to run has recently rekindled within me.
At first, running for more than 15 minutes seemed boring. What do you do? Listen to music or a podcast? As my ru... read more

Why You Should Join a Small Tech Business

When you work in a small tech business or a startup, one of the pros is that you are involved in all aspects of the business, from strategy to customer service.
In our team at Backpocket, when we make a change (any change, really), we have to consider the customer experience (both B2B and B2C), the impact on the team, regulations, copy/messaging, admin area, operations, financial impact, etc.
Do you want to improve a part of the business that you... read more

If the user experience needs explaining, it's not a good one.

Clarity should be baked into design. The best experiences guide users seamlessly, answering questions before they arise and making every interaction intuitive.

Explanations only highlight what's broken. A great user experience speaks for itself.

Pedestrian crossing or not?

Tactical decisions for short-term revenue often clash with long-term strategy. They're unavoidable in business. Balancing these moments without losing sight of the bigger picture defines strong leadership.

Love this quote from "Ego is the Enemy" by Ryan Holiday as it helps stay humble and open to feedback from others.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool.