Problems not Solutions
Build shared clarity around the customer, context, and progress worth making before settling on an answer.
Ask: What problem is worth solving, and for whom?
THINKING IN PRODUCT
Think in product.
Lead with people.
A practical method for operational leaders and their teams to connect customer needs, strategic choices, learning, and delivery.
Build a system that turns ideas into success, concepts into cash, emergence into value
Explore the methodFor leaders taking responsibility for enduring product outcomes.
PEOPLE AT THE CENTER
01
Lead the Product.
Set direction and make trade-offs.
02
Learn What Matters.
Reduce uncertainty with evidence.
03
Deliver & Adapt.
Create value, learn, and improve the flow.
People at the CenterSix thinking shiftsThree practice areasShared ownership
THE WHOLE SYSTEM
People at
the Center.
Customers, teams, leaders, and partners shape the value a product can create.
Thinking in Product connects six shifts in judgment with three areas of practice. Leaders use the method to set direction, learn before costly commitments, and keep value moving through the whole system.
It brings established ideas from Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Agile practice into a shared conversation without claiming those ideas as its own.
THE DELIVERY QUESTION
“Did we ship what we planned?”
THE PRODUCT QUESTION
“Did we make things better?”
SIX THINKING SHIFTS
Shift the thinking.
Change the work.
These shifts guide how leaders and teams frame problems, make choices, learn, and adapt.
Outcomes not Outputs
Connect strategy to observable change. Use desired outcomes to guide decisions and measures.
Ask: What needs to become meaningfully different?
Bets not Certainties
Make assumptions visible, test what matters, and adjust before commitment becomes expensive.
Ask: What must be true, and how can we learn?
Trade-offs not Everything
Make the cost of choice visible. Protect important work and defer what cannot receive attention now.
Ask: What will we reconsider, defer, or protect?
Systems not Silos
See customers, teams, channels, technology, economics, dependencies, and decisions as a connected system.
Ask: Where does value flow, and where does it stall?
Iterations not Launches
Use repeated delivery, measurement, feedback, and adaptation to sustain value beyond launch.
Ask: What is the smallest useful next move?
THREE CONNECTED PRACTICE AREAS
Turn judgment
into practice.
The method is applied as one system. The techniques below are examples to choose from as the challenge demands.
Lead the Product
Set direction, align stakeholders, and make explicit trade-offs.
- Product vision
- Customer and ecosystem mapping
- Prioritization
- Stakeholder alignment
Learn What Matters
Frame the problem and reduce uncertainty before investing heavily.
- Problem framing
- Assumption mapping
- MVPs and prototypes
- Experiments and feedback
Deliver & Adapt
Coordinate teams, visualize work, and improve through feedback.
- Team kickoffs
- Work visualization
- Dependency mapping
- Retrospectives
A QUESTION TO TAKE TO YOUR NEXT TEAM CONVERSATION
If we delivered everything
on our roadmap,
what would be different
for our customers?
Start there. Then decide how you would know.
PRODUCT THINKING IS A TEAM PRACTICE
Clear ownership.
Connected leadership.
Better product decisions need leaders and teams who understand their responsibilities, work across boundaries, and stay accountable for outcomes.
Operational leaders
Make strategic intent clear, resolve competing priorities and dependencies, and create the conditions for teams to take ownership.
Product owners
Connect the product goal to the next decision. Bring customer insight, make priorities clear, and stay accountable for value over time.
Product teams
Bring different skills to a shared problem. Explore solutions together, deliver in small increments, and learn from real feedback.
CO-CREATORS
Ewan O’Leary
& Tanner Wortham
Thinking in Product
Ewan O’Leary and Tanner Wortham co-created Thinking in Product for operational leaders, product owners, and teams learning to turn ideas into lasting value.
Tanner’s website · worth.am
The Thinking in Product baseline is by Tealshift LLC and Wortham, LLC and licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. It draws on established ideas including Design Thinking, Lean Startup, MVPs, Build-Measure-Learn, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, work-in-progress limits, and product operating models; those ideas remain with their respective originators.
LET’S START WITH YOUR CONTEXT
What’s your team
trying to change?
Thinking in Product is the method. Workshops, coaching, team kickoffs, and leadership forums are ways to apply it to your real challenges.
- Workshops
- Coaching
- Team kickoffs
- Leadership forums