In partnership with

My favorite weekly finds

🛠️ Tools

• Consensus AI: a search engine that generates research-backed answers to your questions.

• Use Brainnote as an AI thought organizer to summarize your ideas in seconds

• Phind: an AI search engine designed specifically for programmers.

• Websparks turns your words into working websites—tell it “build me a photo gallery with user comments” and it’ll make the interface + backend database.

• Trickle Enables AI chatbots, 3D games, and database web apps creation by typing—5 free messages daily, but no custom domain support.

• This is super cool for web nerds: FirstVersion recreates and showcases the original versions of famous tech companies like Google and YouTube, allowing you to explore and duplicate their initial designs for free

📰 AI Insights

• NVIDIA wants to put an AI supercomputer on your desk (and it only costs $3,000).

• CES 2025 highlights: an AI lawn-mower, smart home control robot, a beverage-cooling cat robot, Lenovo’s “rollable” OLED AI laptop, and German Bionic’s exoskeleton—plus this WILD walk-on suit!

• Technical roles focused on AI are the quickest growing jobs in the US according to a new ZDnet report

• OpenAI may release agents this month after ensuring its computer-controlling AIs are secure against prompt injection attacks.

👀 ICYMI

• Why Waiting to Make Decisions Could Be Killing Your Startup (Listen or read)

• How to Create a Team That Owns Every Outcome (Listen or read)

• How to Build Emotional Resilience (Listen or read)

Leading Through Uncertainty: Key Strategies

Why should I care?

After my first job in Finance which I hated, I did not know what to do; I just quit. I said to myself that the next job should be FUN first. (clearly not in Finance for me)

I took job hunting seriously.

Over 30 interviews later, I landed four or five offers. A friend advised me to time the offers together, and it worked. The offers were great but very different—some leadership roles, others IC positions, all with varying pay and company vibes.

Choosing wasn’t easy. Nothing was perfect, so I made a spreadsheet to rank everything: salary, commute, culture, and belief in the product.

But the results didn’t sit right. Offers I didn’t love ranked high, and I kept adjusting scores to reflect what felt right. That’s when I realized I didn’t need the spreadsheet.

I needed courage.

I chose the offer that wasn’t “best” on paper: an IC role, the okay salary, and no clear path to leadership. But deep down, I knew it was the right move.

As product leaders, we face these moments often.

There’s no perfect answer, and that’s okay. Our job is to make decisions and keep things moving.

Trust yourself, own your choices, and don’t let analysis hold you back.

Let’s dive in.

1- Decisions: It’s Messy, and That’s Okay

Most decisions in product management aren’t black-and-white.

The truth? It’s complicated, and there’s rarely a perfect answer.

Once you stop chasing some magical “right” choice, everything shifts.

Forget perfection. Every choice is about trade-offs. You gain something, sure—but you lose something, too. And here’s the kicker: most trade-offs come with constraints you can’t control, no matter how much you wish you could wave them away.

That’s what makes decisions in this role so tricky. Data? Useful. Objective truth? A nice idea. But ultimately, it’s on you to decide or recommend a path forward. The data won’t make the hard call—you will.

The good news? Freedom lives in imperfection. 

When no choice is perfect, you don’t need to overthink it.

The best thing you can do is pick a direction and commit. Product management isn’t about endlessly debating—it’s about progress.

So, yeah, decisions are messy. But once you embrace the mess, it’s easier to move forward. And that’s what your team, your users, and your company need most.

2- Risk: Don’t Fear It, Manage It

Here’s the deal: if your decision isn’t perfect (and let’s be real, it rarely is), it’s risky by default. That’s what makes it scary.

But instead of freezing up, approach it with a risk-management mindset—you’re not dodging risk; you’re managing it.

Start by staring the risk in the face. Ask yourself:

• What’s the worst that could happen?

• How bad is the worst-case scenario?

• Can I live with that?

The answers might surprise you. Sometimes, the worst case isn’t as bad as you feared.

Other times, it’s a no-go zone—so risky you can’t even consider it. Most often, though, you’re deciding between moderate risks, which means the next step is figuring out how to manage them effectively.

Think of it like bungee jumping: you wouldn’t leap without a secured rope. Likewise, you don’t take big risks without safety measures in place. These measures are your first line of defense.

1. Spot the warning signs. What signals tell you the risk is creeping closer? Identify them, monitor them, and don’t wait for them to slap you in the face.

2. Have a plan. What’s your move if the risk starts to materialize? When do you act, and how?

Planning ahead makes the risk feel less like a monster under the bed and more like something you can handle. It also keeps you honest—once you’ve chosen a path, it’s tempting to ignore red flags just to stay on track. But safeguards stop you from letting things spiral.

Here’s the thing: risk management doesn’t need to be a heavy lift. Sometimes, it’s as simple as pointing out the risk to your team. Other times, it takes closer monitoring and more detailed plans. Use your judgment to strike the right balance.

At the end of the day, your job isn’t to eliminate risk or overanalyze it to death. It’s to understand it, manage it, and keep things moving.