https://productpieces.io/the-read Sharp reads on what's actually breaking in product — guides, opinion and field research from Product Pieces. en-GB Tue, 09 Jun 2026 07:24:16 -0000 https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-60-three-month-rulehttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-60-three-month-ruleFri, 08 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMTNothing should run more than three months of build without meeting a real user. Milestones fail when they are calendar-based instead of evidence-based: a date measures whether you shipped, not whether it worked. Define what evidence means before you start the clock (the riskiest assumption and the pass mark), gate every cycle on a real user, and remember that three months is roughly the runway you can actually name. Pairs with the free tools The Leap (at /the-leap) and the Runway Calculator (at /runway). https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-59-founder-canvashttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-59-founder-canvasFri, 01 Aug 2026 17:00:00 GMTThe Lean Canvas tells you whether your idea is a business. It says almost nothing about whether you can get it off the ground: the equity split, the personal runway, the raise, the first hires, the ninety days in front of you. The Founder Canvas maps the founder's journey in twelve boxes across three lanes (the people, the machine, the path), pairs with the Lean Canvas rather than replacing it, and each box links to the free tool that fills it. It's free, CC BY-SA, and at v0.9, being shaped with a founding group of pre-seed and seed founders. Fill it in at /founder-canvas. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-58-dilutionhttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-58-dilutionFri, 01 Aug 2026 15:00:00 GMTFounders track valuation. The number that decides how much the outcome is actually worth to them is the one they ignore: how much of the company they still own. A plain-English guide to dilution, pre-money versus post-money, the option-pool shuffle that quietly lowers your valuation, and why founder ownership compounds down across seed, Series A and B. Pairs with the free dilution calculator, The Round, at /the-round. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-57-riskiest-assumptionhttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-57-riskiest-assumptionFri, 01 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMTStartups rarely die because the founder couldn't build the thing. They die because a belief the whole plan rested on was wrong, and nobody tested it in time. A plain-English guide to assumption mapping: what an assumption really is, how to surface them across desirability, viability and feasibility, how to score each on impact and evidence, and how to read the two-by-two map so you test the leap of faith first. Pairs with the free tool, The Leap, at /the-leap. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-56-experimentshttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-56-experimentsFri, 01 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMTEvery startup rests on assumptions, and one of them, if it's wrong, sinks the whole thing. A plain-English guide to the six experiments that test desirability, viability and feasibility: problem interviews and fake-door tests, pre-sales and letters of intent, pricing tests, one-week technical spikes and Wizard-of-Oz tests. What each one is, when to use it, the pros and cons, and a worked example. Pairs with the free assumption-mapping tool, The Leap, at /the-leap. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-55-runwayhttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-55-runwayThu, 31 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTMost founders track runway as cash divided by last month's spend. It's the wrong sum: runway is cash over net burn, the number that matters is your zero date, and you should start raising about six months before it because a round takes 3 to 6 months to close. A founder's guide to reading runway honestly, with a free calculator. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-54-startup-tipshttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-54-startup-tipsThu, 30 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTTen hard-won rules for founders, plus a bonus for network-effect products: keep it small, build as little as possible, make a painkiller not a vitamin, play the long game not the lottery, build a habit, earn trust, know exactly who you're building for, don't build for everyone at once, serve a narrow beachhead ruthlessly, win on the ground a bigger competitor can't hold, and design a one-player start so a network product works before the network exists. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-53-spc-deadlinehttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-53-spc-deadlineWed, 29 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMTSouth Park Commons closes applications for its Fall 2026 Founder Fellowship at 11:59pm Pacific on Sunday 2 August. The deal unpacked: $400K upfront for 7% on a SAFE, $600K guaranteed in the next round, up to $1m in partner credits that are spend rather than runway — plus who should apply, who shouldn't, and how to put in a good application in four days. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-52-the-raisehttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-52-the-raiseWed, 29 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTMost founders raise by sending the same deck to a long, badly-matched list of investors and hoping. Product Pieces built The Raise, a free tool that matches a startup to the investors who actually fit its stage, sector and geography, with the real submission route for each and a pipeline to track every application. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-51-yc-ideashttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-51-yc-ideasTue, 28 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTA senior product read on Y Combinator's Fall 2026 Requests for Startups. The thirteen ideas group into three themes and the real signal is that AI is leaving the screen for the physical world — but a published idea is the most crowded start line there is, and the idea was never the moat. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-50-test-an-ideahttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-50-test-an-ideaFri, 24 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTYou don't need to build your idea to find out whether anyone wants it. Five cheap experiments — the smoke test, the fake door, the concierge test, pre-sales and a ten-user prototype — with what each costs, what it proves, and how to match the test to your riskiest assumption. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-49-founders-sidehttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-49-founders-sideWed, 22 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTEvery agency puts strategy on the first slide, but agencies only win when they sell development work, so their advice bends towards more build. A fractional CPO sits on the founder's side of the table and can give the answer an agency structurally can't: often, don't spend. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-48-equityhttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-48-equityTue, 21 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTWhen cash is tight, founders buy the team they can afford rather than the one they need. Why Product Pieces takes up to 40% of fees in equity on qualifying mandates: to make senior product help reachable, to share the long-term risk, and to be paid for the product working rather than for hours billed. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-47-five-numbershttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-47-five-numbersSat, 19 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTLTV, CAC, the ratio between them, payback and retention, worked out from scratch through one made-up startup. The first-time founder's guide to whether growth is real, and the trap of scaling acquisition before retention is fixed. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-46-pitch-deckhttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-46-pitch-deckThu, 17 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTAn investor spends about two minutes on your deck before deciding whether you're worth a call. The investor deck in twelve slides and four acts, with the one rule behind each, drawn from partner Matas Ramanauskas's Pitch Deck 101. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-45-agent-userhttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-45-agent-userMon, 13 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTAgentic AI has given your product a second user — an autonomous agent that acts at machine speed and can move real money. The new design discipline is defining the lines it can never cross, and in regulated products those bright lines come first. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-44-ai-easy-halfhttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-44-ai-easy-halfThu, 02 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTThe 2026 debate asks whether AI will replace the product manager. It won’t — it deleted the cheap half of the job. Deciding what should exist and proving it works is now the whole job, and in regulated products that gap is widest. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-43-basics-done-vaguelyhttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-43-basics-done-vaguelyWed, 24 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMTMost product failure isn’t a strategy problem. It’s the basics — the problem, “done”, the outcome, the owner — left fuzzy. Vagueness is a tax that compounds, and sharpness is cheaper than strategy. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-42-move-fast-break-thingshttps://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-42-move-fast-break-thingsWed, 11 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMTZuckerberg's mantra was built for low-stakes, reversible software. In fintech the things you break are money, trust and compliance. Adapt it, don't copy it. https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-39-not-spending https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-39-not-spending When you're building a product, restraint is the strategy. Spending money feels like progress — it isn't. Use the build to learn and pivot, and build the few things people find valuable and sticky, not the cool stuff that burns the runway. Sun, 07 Jun 2026 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-40-delivery-dynamics-triangle https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-40-delivery-dynamics-triangle Good, fast, cheap is the wrong triangle for a team in sprint three of an MVP. The Delivery Dynamics Triangle — features, technical debt and product debt — makes the real trade-offs visible, and the only losing move is pretending you can have all three. Sun, 07 Jun 2026 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-41-fractional-cpo-benefits https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-41-fractional-cpo-benefits Startups and SMEs don't stall for lack of ambition. They stall for lack of someone senior deciding what to build next. A fractional CPO is how you get that judgment now — senior firepower, startup budget, no lock-in. Sun, 07 Jun 2026 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-37-what-is-a-product https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-37-what-is-a-product A thought experiment for anyone who builds. The artefact isn't the product. The experience isn't the product. Your whole business is the product — and every decision is a product decision. Sat, 30 May 2026 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-36-hooked https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-36-hooked Nir Eyal's Hooked names the four-step loop most great consumer products run on — Trigger, Action, Variable Reward, Investment. Why it still works, where teams get it wrong, the ethical line, and when the model doesn't apply at all. Tue, 26 May 2026 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-38-ux https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-38-ux When 'the design team' is one designer with thirty open Figma files. Why UX is now a core piece — research, design and validation in one seat. Sun, 24 May 2026 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-35-app-fatigue https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-35-app-fatigue App fatigue is real. Most products don't need an app. You're fighting for attention, not screen real estate. A guide to picking the surface your user already lives in — even when (especially when) it isn't an app. Fri, 22 May 2026 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-34-backlog https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-34-backlog What a healthy backlog looks like. The three layers — Discovery, Refined, Ready — the anti-patterns that turn it into a graveyard, and how often to actually groom. Thu, 21 May 2026 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-33-acceptance-criteria https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-33-acceptance-criteria The contract that turns 'what we said we'd do' into 'what we'll know we did'. How to write AC that hold up under audit — and the patterns to avoid. Thu, 07 May 2026 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-32-user-stories https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-32-user-stories Anatomy of a user story that holds up. The four sections — User Story, Background, Requirements, Acceptance Criteria — plus a worked example in our house format. Thu, 23 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-31-roadmap https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-31-roadmap What a roadmap actually is, what it isn't, and how to read one. The three altitudes — Now, Next, Later — and why most teams confuse a roadmap for a delivery schedule. Thu, 09 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-30-coaching https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-30-coaching Why levelling up beats replacing. What product coaching actually is, the PM maturity ladder, and when each kind of team needs the Coaching Piece. Tue, 17 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-29-quality https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-29-quality When 'we'll add tests later' has run out. What a Quality Lead actually owns, the exponential cost of catching bugs late, and when each kind of team needs a Quality Piece. Fri, 13 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-28-po https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-28-po Same letters, different jobs. The PO Piece explained: backlog ownership, sprint discipline, delivery flow. When you need a Product Owner instead of (or alongside) a Product Manager. Fri, 23 Jan 2026 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-27-pm https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-27-pm Engineering is shipping. Nobody's deciding what's next. A guide to the PM role most growing teams misjudge, what a PM actually owns, and when startups, scaleups and enterprises each need one. Fri, 12 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-26-cpo https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-26-cpo Strategy without a strategist is a wish list. What a Chief Product Officer actually owns, the three altitudes they operate at, and when startups, scaleups and enterprises each need one — even fractionally. Fri, 14 Nov 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-25-kpis-vs-metrics https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-25-kpis-vs-metrics A metric is anything you measure. A KPI is the small set of measurements that decide success. Most teams have 30 metrics and 0 KPIs — why that's the problem, and how to fix it. Fri, 31 Oct 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-24-rice https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-24-rice Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort. Intercom's framework for prioritising features. Useful structure, dangerous false-precision — and when RICE breaks. Fri, 24 Oct 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-23-ab-testing https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-23-ab-testing A/B tests are the gold standard for causal evidence — and the most-misused tool in product. Statistical power, false-positive traps, the peeking problem and when a test isn't worth running. Fri, 17 Oct 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-22-continuous-discovery https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-22-continuous-discovery Teresa Torres's reframe — the product team interviews customers every week. Why batched discovery dies, the Opportunity Solution Tree, and what continuous looks like at one, five and fifty teams. Fri, 10 Oct 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-21-user-research https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-21-user-research Generative versus evaluative, qualitative versus quantitative. The seven methods that earn their keep, the sample-size lies, the recruiting infrastructure that turns research from a workshop into a practice. Fri, 03 Oct 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-20-design-thinking https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-20-design-thinking Design Thinking — a five-step process: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test. A useful frame, often mis-applied. Where it lands and where it's overkill. Fri, 26 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-19-lean-startup https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-19-lean-startup Eric Ries's Lean Startup framework — build, measure, learn. The minimum viable experiment, validated learning, innovation accounting, and why most teams say lean and run the opposite of lean. Fri, 19 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-18-okrs https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-18-okrs Objectives and Key Results, properly used, force prioritisation. Properly mis-used, they become a manager checklist. Doerr's framework, common mistakes, and what makes a good Key Result. Fri, 12 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-17-jtbd https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-17-jtbd Customers don't buy products, they hire them to do a job. Christensen's Jobs to be Done framework, the four forces of switching, and why it reshapes how you compete. Fri, 05 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-16-pmf https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-16-pmf When the market wants the product more than you can supply. How to know when you have product-market fit, how to measure it with the Sean Ellis test and the retention curve, and the dangerous illusion of almost. Fri, 29 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-15-mvp https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-15-mvp Minimum Viable Product means the smallest thing that proves the hypothesis. Most MVPs prove nothing because they're scoped to ship, not to learn. Fri, 22 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-14-accessibility https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-14-accessibility WCAG defines four principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust. AAA is the goal. Three changes that get you most of the way. Fri, 15 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-13-design-system https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-13-design-system Tokens, components, patterns, guidelines. Why every team building more than three products needs a design system, and what an MVP design system actually looks like. Fri, 08 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-12-user-journey-map https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-12-user-journey-map A visual of the user's experience across touchpoints, with emotion line, pain points and opportunities. The artefact that creates the most cross-functional alignment in one workshop. Fri, 01 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-11-personas https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-11-personas A persona is a sharp profile of a user segment, written to make team decisions easier. When personas earn their keep, when they're cargo-cult artefacts, and what replaces them. Fri, 25 Jul 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-10-cx https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-10-cx Customer Experience is the entire relationship — marketing, sales, product, support, billing, churn, win-back. Why CX is broader than UX, and why product teams forget half of it. Fri, 18 Jul 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-09-ui https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-09-ui User Interface is the visible layer the user touches. It isn't the whole of UX, but it's where bad UX shows up first. Anatomy of a UI that holds up — tokens, components, patterns, pages. Fri, 11 Jul 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-08-ux https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-08-ux User Experience is everything the user feels while interacting with your product — including before they install it and after they uninstall it. Why most UX jobs are actually UI jobs, and Peter Morville's seven dimensions of useful UX. Fri, 04 Jul 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-07-story-mapping https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-07-story-mapping A backlog is a flat list. A story map is a two-dimensional view that answers what's the order and what can we cut. Jeff Patton's technique, why it still works, when it's overkill, and how to run the workshop. Fri, 27 Jun 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-06-definition-of-ready-done https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-06-definition-of-ready-done Two short lists that prevent half the arguments in product. The criteria that say you can start this, and the criteria that say you can ship it. Sample DoR, sample DoD, and how to actually enforce them. Fri, 20 Jun 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-05-retro https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-05-retro Sixty to ninety minutes of structured reflection that either compounds team capability or wastes everyone's time. Four formats that work, and the one rule that decides whether any of them do. Fri, 13 Jun 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-04-epic https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-04-epic A unit of work too big for one sprint, big enough to need its own conversation, small enough to ship inside a quarter. The hierarchy, the anti-patterns, and how to write an epic that doesn't quietly become a project. Fri, 06 Jun 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-03-sprint https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-03-sprint Two weeks. A goal. A bounded scope. Done at the end. Why the time-boxing is the point, not the rituals around it. Fri, 30 May 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-02-scrum https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-02-scrum A defined set of roles, events and artefacts you can run in a fortnight. Where it works, where teams cargo-cult it, and the 2020 changes that matter. Fri, 23 May 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-01-agile https://productpieces.io/the-read/issue-01-agile A four-line manifesto written in 2001, a dozen frameworks that came after, and the question that matters far more than which framework you pick. Fri, 16 May 2025 12:00:00 -0000 Alex Feltwell