Are You Asking the REAL Questions?
The world is getting weird. It seems we’re forgetting about what’s really important. Many people insist the roles are overlapping, everyone’s a builder now.
What do you think about it?
When everyone is a builder, who’s thinking about business? Who’s simplifying user workflows? Who’s taking care of software quality?
Yes, you can build faster than ever with AI. But is that the real goal?
I used to think our objective was to create value for customers and the business. Today, it seems the goal is to throw spaghetti on the wall and hope something sticks.
However.
I’m a hopeful person, and if you’re reading this, it means you also care about product. You want to do what matters, not just ship stuff. The question is how can you drive value when AI is everything leaders want now?
Let me walk you through the questions almost nobody is asking, and why they’re the most important ones right now.
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Theory vs. Reality
Whenever I open LinkedIn now, I find someone building something in “hours” and shipping to “real” users. You’ll find a lot of stories about agentic AI, and delegating routine tasks. That sounds impressive at first glance, but not much when you look at it more carefully.
First, most people talk about new products, not running ones. Optimising a product with legacy, paying customers, and history is a different game than bringing a new one to the market.
Existing products require you to keep your current customers satisfied, reduce churn, and expand your growth. All of that with a lot of opinionated people telling you what to do. A new product means no legacy to protect, and all freedom you have to explore.
Even with highly innovative companies, it depends on situations. Recently I talked to a Meta Product Manager, and I learned how wild they’re going with AI, they’re shipping many things without software engineers ever looking at it, PM builds, and ships. I was surprised until I learned one nuance. This PM works in internal tools (zero customer contact, zero revenue relation), then I understood why they could use AI without software engineering expertise. After chatting for about an hour, we touched upon the other products, and it turned out that Ads, for example, have zero AI software development.
Whenever you hear about building with AI, strive to understand the context. Many stories now may make you feel left behind, but reality is not exactly what you may think it is.
Questions People Are Ignoring
Somewhere along the way PMs are ignoring who they are. Many start acting as builders, and without realising, they contribute to a feature factory mindset. When PMs focus on shipping features, something is off. PMs should be the ones clarifying the strategy, uncovering business opportunities, and only then figuring out solutions that create value.
I’m not discouraging you from using AI. I’m not telling you not to build with Claude Code or whatever you choose. But I’m telling you that you’re accountable for outcomes, not outputs.
AI indeed changes the game, which requires us to step back and have a real strategic mindset. Over the last months, I’ve been reflecting on the questions that really matter, the ones people are ignoring now. Let me share them with you.
Are your core functionalities just a prompt away from being replicated?
How easy is it for customers to move to your competitors?
How long does it take for you to move from idea to value?
Such questions help you review how prepared you are against disruption, because if you’re not acting to disrupt yourself, you’ll eventually be disrupted by somebody else.
Now, shall we explore each question in more depth?
1. How easy is it for AI to replicate your product
Intercom noticed that for example. Their main product is highly endangered by AI. Instead of waiting for a potential tragic fate, Des Traynor, Intercom Co-Founder, decided to disrupt themselves before competition. Intercom created Fin, which is an AI support assistant, aiming to replace their main product. Today, Fin already represents roughly 25% of their whole revenue.
You can watch the whole presentation that took place in New York City last year.
Your homework now is to look at your product core functionalities and reflect on how easy it is for AI to copy that. The harder it is to replicate that, the more protected you are against disruption. When you’re in a business of relationships, copying your product isn’t enough to acquire customers, but if your product is a transactional one, you’ll need to think how you can make it harder for AI to copy you.
2. How easily customers can choose to leave you
Customer stickiness is one of the strongest moats you can build. But what does that mean in reality? The more customers leave behind when they move to your competitors, the stronger your stickiness is. And by “leave behind” I’m talking about aspects they won’t have with your competitors, at least not initially.
Let me give you a real example. I don’t really like Substack, and I’ve been thinking about moving to another platform for a while now. What holds me back is the growth through network effects. By now, I have more than a hundred other authors recommending Untrapping Product Teams, which helps me grow organically. When I move to another platform, I have zero recommendations, and may remain that way. This locks me here. I’d need to make a strong trade-off, if I choose to walk away.
When I coach product leaders, I hear they have a strong customer stickiness because moving to a competitor is time consuming. Some tell me, the more their customers use their products, the more locked they are. This isn’t true. If time is the only investment customers need to make to walk away, that’s a choice they can make because they’ll still get all the value you offer with somebody else.
Your homework is to make a deep reflection on how much value customers leave behind when they migrate to your competitors. Be honest because this exercise is fundamental. If time is the only trade-off, you’ve got a high risk of an emergent competitor getting your customers. Real stickiness means leaving substancial value behind they cannot immediately get somewhere else.
3. How fast you move from idea to value
Building with AI means nothing if you don’t create value. People are ignoring this more than you can possibly imagine. Recently, I talked to an entrepreneur from Sweden, and he shared with me the challenge he’s noticing the most: customer activation. He mentioned that companies are bringing new features faster than people can consume, and now activation is harder than ever. This is something you should pay strong attention to.
One thing I appreciate from AI is the possibility of testing multiple solutions for the same problem. A few years ago, that was already necessary to find the most fitting solution, but very hard to convince people to do it. The reason was simple: lack of time. Today, we can test multiple solutions and choose what to polish and integrate into our product. Yet, that’s not something I’m seeing in our industry. People are striving to solve more problems faster, ending up with several half-baked solutions.
If you’re serious about product, you will address the real question. How fast can you move from idea to value?
Your homework is to make this reflection, look at your last 3 to 5 ideas, evaluate how long it took to move from shaping the idea to drive value. The real advantage product teams have today is to create value faster than others. But value isn’t live features, isn’t new solutions, isn’t even new products. Value is value. And you need to define that in your context. It may be solving certain challenges faster, or enabling customers to grow their business sustainably, or something else. You need to have clarity on that. Because if you don’t, you’ll ship stuff nobody needs.
What’s next, then?
Once you answered such questions, you can act strategically by deciding what makes sense to do next. You may not like the answers because they can show your vulnerabilities, but you don’t need to keep it that way forever.
The most relevant part to start is solving customer stickiness. You want to ensure customers would leave more value than they can tolerate if they choose to replace you. After that, you can opt to solve your speed to value, and then review your core functionalities to make sure they’re as hard to copy as possible.
Reality is that most people won’t do that because they’re too busy shipping with AI. Most people aren’t acting strategically, and they’re delegating more to AI than necessary. I hope you choose not to be like most people.
What other questions do you think are relevant now, but ignored? Share them with me, and let’s learn from each other.
Talk soon,
David Pereira
100X PM Coach
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Indeed these are questions product managers that often get overlooked. Product management includes building a moat, not only delivering features quickly.