It Doesn't Matter.

The lesson I learned at 21, and forgot later.

Sometimes I laugh at myself. Especially the old me.

The other day I posted on LinkedIn about my lessons from failing a product manager interview. Someone called me out on the difference between PdM (whatever that means) and PO. I stared at that comment for a minute, wondering if I should answer or ignore it.

I answered. And I kind of regret it. We went into a semantic discussion that led nowhere.

I used to pick fights over the “right” way of doing things. I used to obsess over how my teams applied certain frameworks. Today, sorry for my language, but I don’t give a s*** about it.

The reason I laugh at my old self is that I wasted precious energy on stupid things. I missed the point. Companies and challenges are unique. Your ability to adapt to your situation is what makes you thrive. Not your framework mastery. Leaders roll their eyes when someone gets dogmatic about frameworks.

Flexibility is your best way of creating value faster.

I want to use this edition to share something that took me a decade to learn. It starts with: it doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter how well you write user stories.

It doesn’t matter how much you understand Scrum.

It doesn’t matter how many product frameworks you master.

It doesn’t matter how smart you are.

The only thing that matters is figuring out how to create value in your crazy context. Yes, your mad context. Because no single place is the same.

What’s the Last Thing You Unlearned?

When I was 21, I learned something important. Then I completely forgot it.

My manager invited me to look at some code he wrote a few years back. I didn’t get why. He asked me to challenge a few things there. At first I thought he was playing a game with me, but I went with it.

As I looked at his code, I asked him about the naming conventions and the lack of design patterns. Then he told me:

“That’s it. Keep that in your mind. When you look at your old code, you should be embarrassed. That’s a sign you grew.”

I let that sink in. The old code should embarrass me because I’m learning, so I evolve how I code. It made sense. As I grew as a developer, I kept looking at my old code and wanting to hide it, in disbelief that I wrote that crap.

This lesson helped me grow as a software engineer. But then I moved to product, and I forgot I had to keep unlearning. I got stuck with old definitions. Sometimes I failed to unlearn at all.

There’s No Right Way

I knew I had shortcomings in product. Worse, when I started, I knew nothing about it. I was nuts about software engineering, not product management. My way out was reading books like crazy: Lean Startup, Running Lean, User Stories Applied, and many others.

My mistake was believing the books held the right and only way of doing things. I was obsessed with applying user stories correctly. Not mentioning solutions. Following the three Cs (Card, Conversation, Confirmation). I felt good, and it worked for a while, and it costed my growth for years.

Eventually I started writing on Medium for Serious Scrum. I remember a Polish guy reviewing my articles with challenging questions:

“Why should I do it like that?”

“I do what I want, not what the framework tells me.”

“Who cares if that is Scrum or not?”

Back then, I failed to understand him. I got defensive and tried to argue. Today, I laugh at that old version of me too.

It’s true. It doesn’t matter.

Keep Unlearning

I found my way back to unlearning in a conversation with Randy Silver, the host of the Mind the Product Podcast. When we exchanged thoughts on frameworks, he shared:

“Frameworks are good for two things.
Better communication, better decision-making.”

Such a simple, yet powerful definition. If the framework you’re using doesn’t sharpen your communication or simplify your decision-making, either it doesn’t work in your context, or you need to adapt it.

My old self would tell you differently: “You’re probably doing it wrong.” Again, it doesn’t matter. Your context will beat the framework every time.

Matt LeMay, the author of Impact-First Product Teams, said on my podcast, “Frameworks worked in a specific scenario, with specific conditions, which not everyone has.” Another statement I needed to hear in 2016, when I fought hard over how to write the bloody user stories.

What About Today?

I feel like people are trying to find the right ways with AI, combined with the old tools. They’re not trying to learn from their past selves.

Open LinkedIn and you’ll find 337 right ways of doing product with AGI right now (of course, you must comment to get the guide):

• The right prompt for user stories

• The right skills for product discovery

• The right whatever for the thing that doesn’t matter

Today, your critical thinking is more important than ever. Here’s what I recommend. Look at your weekly activities and answer six questions:

1. What’s the activity?

2. Why do I do it?

3. How do I do it?

4. How long have I been doing it?

5. How good is the result?

6. Which other ways could I try?

Here’s an example I ran recently with a team, about one unchallenged activity:

Estimation

• Why: To align the team and move on

• How: Planning Poker

• How long: 7 years

• Result: Mechanic (nobody cares)

• Alternatives considered: None

The person looked at me in disbelief. And decided to try something else.

Here’s another one:

User Stories

• Why: To represent our user opportunities

• How: I wrote them for a few hours a week, now reduced to minutes with AI

• How long: 7 years, about 2 of them with AI

• Result: I don’t know how good it is. Maybe even irrelevant.

• Alternatives considered: None

The mechanic flow is dangerous. Only if you’re ready to laugh at your past self can you upgrade who you are.

So the question is: are you ready to laugh at some things now to boost your journey?

Start small. Challenge a few “standard” things, and you’ll see how fast you grow. Almost nobody wants to feel this embarrassed. But those who are ready will stand out.

That’s it for today.

David Pereira

Takeaways

• If your old work doesn’t embarrass you, you stopped growing. Embarrassment is evidence of progress.

• Framework mastery is not a skill. Adapting to your context is.

• Frameworks exist for two things only: better communication and better decision-making. If yours does neither, adapt it or drop it.

• Frameworks were built in specific scenarios with specific conditions. You probably don’t have those conditions.

• Semantic fights (PdM vs PO, Scrum vs not-Scrum) burn energy and create zero value. Walk away.

• Audit your weekly activities with six questions: What is it? Why? How? How long? How good is the result? What else could I try?

• If you’ve done an activity the same way for years and can’t say whether it works, that’s the mechanic flow. It’s the first thing to challenge.

• AI reduced the cost of old activities, like writing user stories. It didn’t answer whether the activity still matters. That’s your job.

• The “right way” content flooding your feed is the same trap as the framework dogma of 2016, with new packaging.

---

Are you ready to reinvent yourself (not upgrade your AI playbook)?

A lot of people search for the shortcut now. The thing that supercharges your potential with a new prompt, another skill in Claude, or whatever else AI can do for you. If you’re after the shortcut, don’t bother reading further.

If you want to do the hard work most people aren’t ready for, I’m running the last 100X PM Mastermind this year. A 3-week transformation program that will sharpen how you think, increase your visibility, help you gain influence, and ultimately reap the rewards.

I won’t teach you how to deliver faster, but I will teach you to become a delivery strategist.

I won’t teach you how to apply discovery, but I will help you understand what discovery looked like in the past, present, and future.

I won’t give you AI playbooks, but I will help you sharpen the mindset that lets you create value faster with AI.

Enrollment is open now. We kick off next Monday.

Are you in?

Let’s rock the Product World together.

PS: Still in doubt, reply to this message with your question and I will personally get back to you, no AI bot, just the optimistic David who wants to help you.