The Fundamentals Still Matter

At a Glance

• AI adoption is outpacing clarity on value

• Many teams commit to AI before defining the problem

• Output is increasing faster than insight

• Experience and judgment matter more than ever

• Strong fundamentals are the best hedge against hype

Hey folks,

We made it through another year. Congrats to us.

And what a year it’s been.

The pace of change over the last 12 months has outstripped anything I’ve seen in my 25 years in tech. The AI arms race is well underway, often with very little concern for sustainability, workforce impact, or genuine customer value. For now, it feels like we’re being flooded with new features and capabilities, with no clear end in sight.

That reality has been hard to ignore.

The Problem Isn’t AI. It’s How We Start

In a conversation with a tech executive in financial services this past week, I asked a simple question:

“Are you approaching AI from the problems you’re trying to solve, or are you trying to find homes for technology you’ve already committed to?”

It probably won’t surprise you that the answer was overwhelmingly the latter.

Despite intense top-down pressure to “integrate AI,” many large organizations are struggling to deploy it meaningfully, let alone find value in those deployments. Even Microsoft recently cut enterprise agentic AI sales targets in half. Not because demand disappeared, but because the technology isn’t fully ready and, more importantly, buyers aren’t quite sure what to do with it yet.

Two Questions We Keep Coming Back To

In our world of learning, development, and training, we feel this pressure too. Integrating AI into product development is now a core focus across our offerings.

And yet, in nearly daily conversations, Josh Seiden and I keep returning to two foundational questions:

• What does “good” actually look like?

• How do we protect the fundamentals of good product management?

AI allows teams to generate more output than ever before. But it also generates more untested assumptions than ever before. The challenge isn’t speed, it’s discernment.

Knowing what to trust, what to test, and what to discard still requires experience, judgment, and context. Those are things no tool can automate away.

Why Fundamentals Matter More Than Ever

The fundamentals of good product management - deep customer understanding, clear problem definition, and explicit hypotheses about behavior change, are not being replaced by AI.

They’re becoming more important.

When teams skip these fundamentals, AI doesn’t fix the problem. It accelerates it.

Looking Ahead to 2026

In 2026, you’ll see these themes show up consistently in the content we share with you.

We know AI is changing the world. Our goal is to help you change with it, without losing what makes great product work great. We’ll experiment, learn, and evolve alongside you, guided by feedback and real-world results.

If you’re in a position to bring modern, AI-focused product management training into your organization next year, we’d love to talk. Just hit reply to this email and we’ll follow up in the new year.

The Bottom Line

AI is moving fast.
Judgment, clarity, and fundamentals are what keep teams moving forward.

My Personal Highlight from 2025

We did a lot of traveling as a family this year, and the place that stayed with me most was the Faroe Islands—somewhere between Iceland and Scotland. The landscapes, the quiet, the people… I can’t fully explain it, but I keep thinking about going back.

If you ever find yourself passing through Iceland or Scotland and wondering where to go next, I can’t recommend it enough.

And Personal Note

I hope you have a fantastic holiday season. I’m grateful you choose to read this newsletter every other week. In 2026, I’d love to grow this community from 40k+ readers to 100k (hey—ambition still counts).

If you find value here, please consider forwarding this to a friend or colleague.

Get some rest. Take a break. Everything will still be there in January.

See you in the new year,
Jeff

Want to Go Deeper?

This is the kind of work we tackle in Sense & Respond Learning workshops, helping teams focus on outcomes, behavior change, and real progress instead of feature velocity.

Objectives & Key Results — “Who Does What by How Much?”

December 29 & 30, 2025 — with Rich Visotcky
📍Live online (Zoom) | 💬 English
Register here

January 20, 21 & 22, 2026 — with Randy Silver & Martha Malloy
📍Live online (Zoom) | 💬 English
Register here

Lean Product Management

January 6, 13, 20 & 27, 2026 — with Rich Visotcky
📍Live online (Zoom) | 💬 English
Register here

January 17 & 18, 2026 — with Daksh Gupta
📍Live online (Zoom) | 💬 English
Register here

Product Discovery for Agile Teams

January 19, 21, 26 & 28, 2026 — with Rich Visotcky
📍Live online (Zoom) | 💬 English
Register here

One last thing

If you’re still hunting for a last-minute gift for your favorite product person or team, three of our books are 50% off on Amazon until Jan 1.