The Product Playbook

Creator / Writer / Editor

I created The Product Playbook around 2019 and continue to run it today as a Medium publication and newsletter for product managers, founders, and builders. The publication has grown to 4,000+ subscribers across the Medium publication and related audience, with writing focused on practical product judgment: how to build, launch, and scale products.

The Product Playbook ยท Product Player

The Idea

The Product Playbook started in 2019 as a place to write down the product lessons I kept seeing repeat across companies, markets, and product stages.

Most product content is either too abstract or too tactical. It can tell you to "talk to users" or "prioritize better," but it often skips the uncomfortable middle: how to form judgment when the data is incomplete, how to make tradeoffs under pressure, how to tell whether a product is actually useful, and how to move from vague strategy into shipped work.

The publication is my attempt to make that middle layer more concrete.

What It Covers

I write about product management, product design, customer experience, business models, AI, healthcare technology, product teardowns, and the operating habits behind good product teams.

Some pieces are frameworks. Some are essays. Some are teardowns of products like Zendesk or NetSuite. Some are reflections on builders, product leaders, and companies that shaped how modern products are made. The point is not to create a rigid PM doctrine. The point is to build a living library of useful product thinking.

Why It Matters

Running the publication has become its own product exercise.

There is audience discovery in what people read, save, subscribe to, and respond to. There is positioning in deciding what the publication should stand for. There is retention in writing clearly enough that people come back. There is distribution in learning how Medium, newsletters, social sharing, and search reward different kinds of ideas.

It is a product about product management, which is a little self-referential, but useful.

What I Built

  • Created the Product Player author identity and The Product Playbook publication.
  • Started the publication around 2019 and kept it active across multiple product eras, companies, and markets.
  • Grew the audience to 4,000+ subscribers across the publication and related readership.
  • Built an editorial system around product teardowns, PM frameworks, AI, healthcare technology, customer experience, and product strategy.
  • Wrote practical pieces for product managers and builders who want clearer thinking, not more jargon.
  • Used the publication as a way to test ideas, sharpen product judgment, and turn work experience into reusable lessons.
  • Continued operating it as an active channel while building products.

My Role

I own the whole thing: topic selection, writing, editing, positioning, publishing, audience development, and the evolving point of view behind the publication.

The project matters because it compounds. Every useful article becomes part of a public body of work, a distribution channel, and a way to clarify how I think about product.