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Oliver Buchannon
Rory Madden
How to Create a Compelling Product Vision: A Step-by-Step Guide

Apr 13, 2026

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7 min read

How to Create a Compelling Product Vision: A Step-by-Step Guide

A powerful product vision serves as the North Star for your entire development team, but, too often, product visions are abstract statements that sound impressive yet fail to inspire action. In this article we'll share how you can create an inspiring vision that drives action.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden

Product Teams

Analysing a Successful Product Vision: SpaceX

Apr 6, 2026

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11 min read

Analysing a Successful Product Vision: SpaceX

The SpaceX to Mars video is a masterclass in narrative marketing. In a way a rocket company is no different to any other form of transport but the positioning elevates them ‘out of this world’ (sorry). This isn't just about getting from Point A to Point B. It's about positioning SpaceX as the architects of our multi-planetary future rather than just a rocket company. Let's break down exactly how they do it and why it is so effective.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
Cross-Functional Teams vs. Teams of Functions: The Hidden Difference That Defines High-Performing Product Teams

Mar 30, 2026

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7 min read

Cross-Functional Teams vs. Teams of Functions: The Hidden Difference That Defines High-Performing Product Teams

Many organisations claim to have cross-functional teams. But scratch the surface, and the collaboration is often cosmetic and this reduces the expected benefits.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
All Jobs Have Four Layers. AI Wants Three of Them.

Mar 23, 2026

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9 min read

All Jobs Have Four Layers. AI Wants Three of Them.

If you work in product development, as an engineer, designer, product manager, or researcher, you're watching AI reshape your profession in real time. The question isn't whether AI will change your work. It's when, how much, and what you should do about it.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
In an AI World, Truth Becomes Your Scarcest Resource

Mar 16, 2026

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6 min read

In an AI World, Truth Becomes Your Scarcest Resource

The decisions that matter most depend on inputs that don't live in dashboards. The quality of your inputs has always mattered, but as people become increasingly reliant on AI to help with high-level decision-making, it is becoming more critical.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
The Role of Stream Teams in ZeroBlockers

Mar 9, 2026

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10 min read

The Role of Stream Teams in ZeroBlockers

Stream Teams are at the core of product development, responsible for building and delivering value to customers. Unlike traditional function-based teams, they operate within a broader product vision, balancing customer needs with business goals while maintaining autonomy in execution.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
As AI Commoditises Outputs, Outcomes Become Your Competitive Advantage

Mar 2, 2026

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9 min read

As AI Commoditises Outputs, Outcomes Become Your Competitive Advantage

A cross-functional team built a solution: a centralised system that aggregated feedback from every channel. Customer voices would finally drive the roadmap. There was just one problem. It didn't work.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
The Technical Debt Machine: How to Manage the Risk of AI Slop

Feb 23, 2026

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10 min read

The Technical Debt Machine: How to Manage the Risk of AI Slop

AI is the perfect yes-man. And yes-men are how organizations accumulate debt. This gap produces what we call "slop": output that looks finished and sounds plausible but contains debt that will slow down future work.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
The Risk of NOT Empowering Teams

Feb 16, 2026

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7 min read

The Risk of NOT Empowering Teams

Empowering teams is risky - you need to change your processes, structures and management approaches. But that doesn't mean that you should abandon the effort because the risk of not empowering teams are worse!

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
The Pyramid Is Collapsing: How AI Is Reshaping Workforce Structure

Feb 9, 2026

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8 min read

The Pyramid Is Collapsing: How AI Is Reshaping Workforce Structure

For decades, organizations were pyramids. A broad base of junior employees supported narrower layers above. Entry-level hires did the grunt work, writing tickets, processing data, creating basic designs, conducting routine research, while slowly building the judgment that would carry them upward. That structure is collapsing.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
AI Makes Work Easier, and Growth Harder

Feb 2, 2026

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6 min read

AI Makes Work Easier, and Growth Harder

Today, a designer can generate fifteen variations in fifteen minutes. The output is faster, and the quality is often higher. But something essential is missing: the learning that used to come from the struggle. This is the central paradox of the AI era.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
AI has Collapsed the Career Ladder. The Four Questions That Define Your Career Stage

Jan 26, 2026

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7 min read

AI has Collapsed the Career Ladder. The Four Questions That Define Your Career Stage

Your career stage isn't defined by what's printed on your business card. It's defined by the question you're primarily trying to answer in your work. There are four questions you should answer to know where you are, each representing a distinct level of thinking.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden

Product Teams

The 4 Risks of Empowering Teams

Jan 19, 2026

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8 min read

The 4 Risks of Empowering Teams

It's not all smooth sailing when you shift from Waterfall or Water-Scrum-Fall to truly empowered teams. There are four key challenges that you need to be aware of, and work around, to effectively manage the transition to autonomous product development.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden

Dependencies

+1

The 4 Types of Team Dependencies That Kill Performance (and How to Spot Them)

Jan 12, 2026

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6 min read

The 4 Types of Team Dependencies That Kill Performance (and How to Spot Them)

Dependencies remove autonomy, which kills accountability. Once you have handoffs you allow people the wiggle room to throw up their hands and say "I did my job". We need to remove dependencies if we want teams to be accountable for outcomes - and that start with identifying the different types of dependencies that can exist.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden

Dependencies

+1

Why We Need a Brook's Law for Teams

Jan 5, 2026

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6 min read

Why We Need a Brook's Law for Teams

In 1975, Fred Brooks published "The Mythical Man-Month," introducing what became known as Brooks' Law: "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." Brooks observed that communication overhead grows much faster than productive capacity when you add people to complex projects.The same is true for adding more projects into a portfolio.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
Common Objections to Empowering Teams (and How to Rebut Them)

Dec 29, 2025

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3 min read

Common Objections to Empowering Teams (and How to Rebut Them)

Our current way of working, isn't working. Up to 90% of features fail to deliver the expected business value. Empowered teams improve outcomes because they are closer to customers and can iterate faster towards solutions that work for both customers and the business. They only problem is that it is a complete reversal of how many companies work today so there is quite a bit of pushback.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden

Alignment

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How to Run an Effective Quarterly Planning Session for Empowered Teams

Dec 15, 2025

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3 min read

How to Run an Effective Quarterly Planning Session for Empowered Teams

Quarterly planning aligns Product Teams with Stream Teams through collaboration, not control. The Product Team shares their vision and strategy, while Stream Teams determine how to achieve it. This approach preserves team autonomy while ensuring everyone works toward common goals. Done well, quarterly planning enables product teams to focus on impact, navigate dependencies efficiently, and continuously learn. Done poorly, it can result in misalignment, overcommitting, or a lack of accountability.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
Repaying the Trust in Empowered Teams

Dec 8, 2025

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3 min read

Repaying the Trust in Empowered Teams

When a team is empowered to decide what to build and when, it requires a huge amount of trust form management. A Product Team stays responsible for the outcomes of the Product regardless of whether they have empowered Stream Teams or not. This delegation of authority represents a significant investment of trust that Stream Teams must actively work to maintain and strengthen.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
Communication between Teams is a Bug, Not a Feature

Dec 1, 2025

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3 min read

Communication between Teams is a Bug, Not a Feature

"This wasn't what we expected." The Marketing team stares at the new product dashboard, three weeks past its intended launch date. The Frontend team built exactly what was specified, but the data from the Backend team's API doesn't match their needs. The proposed solution? More meetings. Daily cross-team syncs, weekly alignment sessions, and a new Slack channel for real-time coordination.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
The Weekly Product Review: Bridging Team Autonomy and Product Success

Nov 24, 2025

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3 min read

The Weekly Product Review: Bridging Team Autonomy and Product Success

Empowering teams requires trust. Stream Teams are given the autonomy to achieve the product objectives they’ve been set, and they are accountable for outcomes rather than just outputs. However, autonomy does not mean operating in isolation - effective product development requires ongoing monitoring to ensure teams are driving meaningful impact. This is where the Weekly Product Review (WPR) comes in.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
When Things Go Wrong: The Real Benefit of Empowered Teams

Nov 17, 2025

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3 min read

When Things Go Wrong: The Real Benefit of Empowered Teams

In product development, encountering unexpected results isn't just common – it's inevitable. The true measure of a team's effectiveness lies not in avoiding failures, but in how they respond when faced with disappointing data or failing features.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
Navigating the Specialist-Generalist Career Challenge

Nov 10, 2025

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3 min read

Navigating the Specialist-Generalist Career Challenge

In cross-functional teams, generalists perform better. Their ability to flex across disciplines, helping out wherever needed, makes them indispensable in modern product development. Yet, when it comes to hiring and promotions, companies overwhelmingly favour specialists. This creates a fundamental tension: teams need adaptable generalists, but individuals must specialise to advance their careers.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
Continuous Process Improvement: Beyond Traditional Retrospectives

Nov 3, 2025

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3 min read

Continuous Process Improvement: Beyond Traditional Retrospectives

Retrospectives are meant to drive continuous improvement, but teams often struggle to translate insights into action. The challenges range from lacking the authority to implement changes to having too many ideas and too little time to implement them.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
Upskilling on Cross-Functional Teams

Oct 27, 2025

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3 min read

Upskilling on Cross-Functional Teams

The strength of cross-functional teams lies in their diversity of skills and perspectives. However, this same characteristic presents a unique challenge: functional isolation. With typically just one person representing each specialty, if someone lacks proficiency in a critical area, the product suffers. Worse, if the team is unaware of a skill gap, they cannot address it.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
How Cross-Functional Teams Work

Oct 20, 2025

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3 min read

How Cross-Functional Teams Work

When you move from a team of functions to a cross-functional team you need to change how the team works because you need to remove any internal handoffs between specialists and shift to a more collaborative way of working. As this is a new way of working, teams are often unaware of the activities they need to perform to work in this new way.

Rory Madden
Rory Madden
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