One Year In - Humanity for the Win.
If someone told me, the younger me, who accidentally fell into product and instantly loved it, that after fifteen years in this space, I’d still be learning as fast as I’m teaching, I would have laughed very awkwardly. But here I am, one year into leading product at Userflow - a company in the thick of its own transformation, and it turns out, the old cliché rings true: the more you know, the more you realize you’ve barely scratched the surface.
These are some thoughts from the past year and just what’s built up over time in my product heart. When I signed up for this adventure, I (like many of you) had no idea what AI would be capable of. So taking on a leadership role where there’s natural company change on top of managing external changes was a wild decision, but not one I would change.
Industry-wide, between October 2024 and October 2025, we’ve seen Gpt 4-0 upgraded to Gpt-5, with reasoning, accuracy, and more complex thinking abilities take the helm. The number of AI native companies rise from 30k to 33k+, with funding that went from $108B to $118B. And of course, the introduction of hundreds of LLMs sent us into a spiral. Building today is not what it used to be. BUT, this is the fun bit, if you embrace it.
If I can summarize the last year in this seat, I’d say I feel both immense pride, and a feeling of hope for the next generation of product people. Pride from what I’ve been able to learn and accomplish, and hope that there are enough of us who have been at this long enough that we try to help keep the humanity in tech through the core of product management: meaningful engagement through all of this change.
Empathy is not a buzzword
My life in product management has taught me to do three things well: listen to feedback, admit when something’s broken, and, when necessary, rebrand failure as a “strategic learning opportunity.” (Picture me doing air quotes.)
Empathy for us in product is really just being human in the face of change. This is especially true when the change means tough conversations and bigger ripples than you’d hoped for. Your team is not just looking for guidance on shipping features. They want reassurance that they’ll survive the next org change, or the next tool that promises to automate them away. Sometimes a hard decision lands, and what people remember isn’t just the message. It’s how you delivered it.
Trust Is Real Currency
There’s no shortcut to building trust with your fellow leaders and your organization at large. The awkward icebreakers during company zoom meetings don’t count. You have to show up enough, share the tough stuff, and celebrate the wins without taking all the credit. It’s about having enough humility to admit what you don’t know - which, in an AI-soaked world, can be plenty - and inviting your team to be curious right alongside you.
I’ve found vulnerability is what furthers this trust across all types of teams - from your peers in leadership to those you manage. Yes, there are moments where it’s not safe to be vulnerable - I’d be lying if I said otherwise. But as with any good product heart, our gut builds that sense up over time, and more often than not I’ve seen it’s ok to let down a bit to understand each other enough to make space for trust which ultimately leads to that outcome you all wanted.
Stay Customer Centric, Even When It Gets Scary
Some days, the only thing keeping me and my team grounded is a really good story from a customer - maybe even a hard or weird one. The more the world shifts, the more precious direct feedback becomes. Nothing replaces that 1:1 and feedback with your customers. Even if the NPS verbatim says ‘please stop sending me surveys’, it’s real. And I know you’ve been waiting for someone to actually write in that little box after they clicked that detractor number. Sorry, most of us won’t ever see the verbatim ratio higher than non. ;)
My customers are learning right alongside me and my team, and there’s not been one who has not been willing to have a detailed conversation that feels cathartic at the same time for all of us. We’re sharing what our organizations are facing, we’re evolving the discipline of product management, and we’re being held accountable for more today than before. Understanding your customers needs, not just experience in product, but what they need to do to succeed today with their companies, is imperative.
Evolve Key Roles Wisely, embrace AI, and Share Across the Community
Over the past 5 years, we’ve seen a hard shift for PMs to move from feature delivery and specialist roles to truly owning business outcomes, such as profitability and customer impact, with increased expectations for cross-functional breadth and “full-stack” capabilities. Daily work has become far more data-driven and AI-augmented, with product managers leaning more on advanced competitive intelligence, workflow automation, and a mandate to drive both product-led growth and cost/resource efficiency.
For Product Operations, we’ve absolutely moved from being seen as a tactical support function to more of a core strategic enabler, now focused on cross-functional alignment, business impact, and scaling workflows. This is especially true with AI-powered automation and standardization. I’m seeing significant adoption in mature orgs for this role. The interesting bit now is the core challenge of clarifying responsibilities as some product ops roles expanded to directly influence not only processes but also revenue and satisfaction metrics.
This is where successful product teams cross over - that tight partnership and alignment with the PM and POps partner.
And yes, AI is automating everything that isn’t nailed down, and product jobs are evolving right beneath our feet. The trick isn’t to ignore it or panic - it’s to treat AI like your espresso machine: use it to work smarter, but don’t let it take over your personality. Coach your team to experiment with new tools, but anchor decisions in human judgment. When you don’t know something, say so, and turn the moment into a shared learning. Upskill together, admit when you’re stumped, and keep a glint of curiosity alive, even when things get awkwardly robotic and feels not like humans.
I always coach my teams to ensure our house is clean. That’s no easy task to do in product. But focus on that partnership, minimize tooling that fits your needs (not a tool that drives needs), and over-communicate as you work on evolving roles and your orgs overall.
You Are A Student in Product, Always
I don’t know if I can say this any simpler to leaders and those rising in the ranks in product today: learning never stops.
If you are not making space to learn not only from peers, but even more from your team as a leader, you’ll be behind. If you’re not making space to continuously learn new skills (which are now basic to the next generation of product teams) as an IC or relatively new manager, you’ll be behind. Plain and simple. Don’t get into this space if you don’t have the capacity to learn.
Feelings, Change, Mental Impact, and Home
Woo.. it’s 2025. Change isn’t just fast for all of us - it’s emotionally complex. Our teams aren’t islands and they’re feeling the weight of everything happening around us, from global headlines to local realities. The truth is, nobody’s immune to uncertainty or fatigue, and ignoring it doesn’t make your OKRs any more achievable. The call to action is to lead with a full sense of humanity. Normalize conversations about the mental load. Remind your team (and yourself) that “business as usual” no longer exists, but support does.
Prioritize mental health and acknowledge that the world’s shifts impact us all, inside and outside the product and tech bubble.
One other very real thing is to remember that impact at work is great. Innovation, business results, dazzling launch videos - these all make for fun LinkedIn posts. But preserving stability at home, nurturing the people who matter most, and making it to dinner is the foundation for showing up fully, creatively, and empathetically at work. That’s the stability driving every product win, every risk worth taking, and every lesson worth passing down.
We’re moving fast, stumbling frequently, sometimes panicking, but always caring. That’s why we got into this product space to begin with. If the playbook changes tomorrow, so be it, but lead with humanity. Hold space for the tough stuff, and remember there’s no input as valuable as being present in that work-life blend with your teams, but especially with your loved ones.