Time Spent
1 hour
Outcomes & Reflections
- Finalized “Injecting a healthy dose of ‘WHY’ into the ‘HOW’” talk for UCSC Climate Week.
- Recognized that engineers, EMs, and PMs will merge into a purpose-first, AI-powered hybrid role.
- Reaffirmed that defining “Why” before “How” anchors product purpose, metrics, and optimization.
Roadmap & Next Steps
- Why Statement: Draft a guiding “Why” for the portfolio.
- Goals & Personas: Define product goals tied to target personas.
- Feature Alignment: Map goals to features and prioritize backlog.
- Metrics Setup: Create simple survey metrics per feature.
- PRD & Timeline: Generate a PRD and feed to Copilot for a micro-agile timeline.
- Vibe Coding: Execute features one-by-one via AI-assisted development.
Field Journal
Presentation Prep
- Tomorrow I present at UCSC Baskin Engineering for Climate Week: “Injecting a healthy dose of ‘WHY’ into the ‘HOW’.”
- Too often we ask “how?” before “why?”. In my years of engineering, design, product, team-building, and art, “Why” has become the guiding question:
- Why am I making this feature?
- What are these tests really testing for?
- Why am I learning this?
- Why am I working at this company?
Implementation Pause
- Today is dedicated to drafting and practicing—not coding.
Vibe Coding Realization
- Yesterday’s AI pair-programming (“Vibe Coding”) crystallized the future: spend most time on “Why,” then leverage AI to ship and AB-test features rapidly.
Optimization Mantra
- Know what you’re making.
- Know who you’re making it for.
- Measure and optimize in production with real users.