The first place your product is seen may no longer be a store, a search result, or an ad. I wrote recently about how Shopify products can now be discovered and purchased directly inside ChatGPT and other AI tools. If that felt like a feature update, it’s not. It’s a major shift. New 2026 data shows about 12% of shoppers are already using AI to assist purchases, and that number is rising quickly. The important part is what role AI is playing. It is turning into the FIRST layer. Before a...
2 days ago • 1 min read
It’s not a coincidence. Sadly, it’s the model. I wrote recently about ensh*ttification. Products start off great, pull you in, then gradually take value away while switching costs rise. YouTube is a clear example we can’t escape. (You can’t even watch a video about ensh*ttification without using a thoroughly ensh*ttified app.) Premium prices are going up again, with individual plans hitting US $16/month and 27 bucks for families. The justification is familiar: support creators, maintain...
3 days ago • 1 min read
Some distribution channels are designed to sell. Others, to SPREAD. I’m working with a client on a fun vending machine product. I won’t share details quite yet, but it has helped me think differently about what distribution is actually for. Then I came across what Liliosa is doing. A lingerie brand built on TikTok traction started selling through vending machines and pop-ups tied to cultural moments like International Women’s Day. On the surface, it mostly looks like omnichannel. Online meets...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Scaling revenue without fixing friction is how small flaws become massive liabilities. In Chapter 20 of I Need That, I make a point founders don’t like to hear. When you scale something, you scale everything attached to it. Increase ad spend and you amplify any messaging gaps.Increase distribution and you multiply fulfillment strain.Increase sales volume and you magnify every defect, delay, and unclear instruction. If one in twenty units arrives broken or has a flaw, that feels acceptable at...
5 days ago • 1 min read
When a core ingredient in an iconic product gets swapped out, it’s rarely a marketing experiment. Ya don’t put chicken in a Big Mac by accident. Lately, I’ve been seeing billboards for the Chicken Big Mac. On the surface, it looks like a creative limited-time promotion. Something new. Something fun, right? But check out the big picture and it starts to look like something else. Beef prices have hit record highs in recent weeks, driven by shrinking cattle herds, drought conditions, and rising...
6 days ago • 1 min read
If nothing bad has happened yet, people tend to assume it won’t. Here’s how to get around that. I’ve written about status quo biases before, but there’s a cousin that may be even more dangerous for product makers: Normalcy bias. It’s the instinct to believe that because things are fine today, they will stay fine tomorrow. Hmmm, no flood last year. No break-ins on OUR street. No ransomware on our network. So why invest? Until something happens. After a cyberattack, companies care deeply about...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Lower prices don’t often fix a product strategy problem. Tesla just reported first-quarter deliveries of about 358,000 vehicles. Way below expectations, again. Production continues to outpace sales by a wide margin. And growth, routinely projected at 50% annually, has slowed to low single digits. What’s going on here? It’s probably not a pricing issue. Tesla’s already introduced cheaper versions of the Model 3 and Model Y. And guess what? It didn’t move the needle. Which points to other...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Desire intensifies when the future suddenly feels reachable. In I Need That, I explain something I call the Coveted Condition. We feel compelled to buy when we can clearly see a product as the key to a future state we really, really want. Not the actual thing we pay for and hold in our hands. It’s the version of ourselves that comes out the other side when we use that product. The answer to “Who will this help me become?” Probably happier. Fitter? More capable? Less stressed? Admired?...
9 days ago • 1 min read
A few wrong words can reduce connection, as well as curiosity. A recent set of experiments by Yang and Tian tested something simple, with significant consequences: What happens when you TELL customers a product was “AI-designed”? Across categories like perfumes and snacks, purchase intent collapsed. By as much as 28–29%. That’s enough to mean product failure. Your margins probably aren’t that big. Participants also perceived way less human involvement in those products. Which is where the...
10 days ago • 1 min read
