<![CDATA[Products That Count]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.orghttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!CK4r!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7fde8101-d37f-497f-9fa8-1de61ed713ca_1080x1080.pngProducts That Counthttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.orgSubstackSun, 06 Sep 2026 10:19:29 GMT<![CDATA[Help us rewrite the rules of product]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/help-us-rewrite-the-rules-of-producthttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/help-us-rewrite-the-rules-of-productWed, 02 Sep 2026 15:49:34 GMTAI is changing how product work gets done. The harder question is how it’s changing the principles behind great product management.

We’re building AI Product Builder, an applied-AI layer mapped to the nine topics in our Strategic PM course. It’s the same curriculum that's been taught at Stanford Executive Extension, Columbia Business School, Walmart, SoFi, Siemens, and more, and I’m opening it up. For each topic, I’ll host one 20 to 30 minute fireside with a single expert I select from the submissions.

I’m looking for product leaders, founders, builders, and researchers with a specific point of view backed by real experience. The strongest submissions will cover what remains true from the original principle, how AI changes the tools and workflows used to apply it, and the real evidence or framework behind the argument.

Topics range from the Product Equation and product-led growth to prioritization, category design, high-performance teams, and career development. You can pitch up to three. Selected experts will also earn a seat on our Advisory Council.

Written submissions are due Wednesday, September 9, end of day. Apply below to make your voice heard in the era of the AI product builder.

Become an AI thought leader

Check out some of our recent content from top voices in the product space.

Are you enjoying our Product newsletter? We are always striving to elevate our content and provide ample value. Please share your feedback, questions, and comments.

]]><![CDATA[CPO Rising Series: Paychex CPO on Reimagining The User Experience With AI]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-paychex-cpo-onhttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-paychex-cpo-onWed, 02 Sep 2026 09:49:42 GMTWhat happens when a 50-year-old software company tries to move at the speed of AI, and what does it really take to merge two very different product cultures after an acquisition? In this episode of the CPO Rising series hosted by Products That Count Resident CPO Renee Niemi, Paychex CPO Ryan Bergstrom will be speaking on reimagining the user experience with AI, how his team learned the hard way that accelerating only engineering just moves bottlenecks around, and why utilization is the only product metric that ultimately matters. He also gets into the HIPAM budget framework he uses to track and shift R&D spend, and why incumbents with deep customer data have a genuine moat in the AI era.

]]><![CDATA[CPO Rising Series: Tubi CPTO on Why This Is a Golden Era for Product Management]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-tubi-cpto-on-why-74dhttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-tubi-cpto-on-why-74dMon, 31 Aug 2026 10:11:09 GMTWhat happens when coding stops being a constraint for product teams, and what should product leaders do right now to get ready? In this episode of the CPO Rising series hosted by Products That Count Resident CPO Renee Niemi, Tubi Chief Product and Technology Officer Mike Bidgoli will be speaking on why this is a golden era for product management and how the entertainment industry is about to go through its biggest disruption yet. Mike shares how Tubi runs "Tinker Days" to keep the whole org experimenting, why he's investing countercyclically in junior talent, and what it means to build for model capabilities that don't exist yet.

]]><![CDATA[LiveKit Head of Product on Betting on Voice AI and Leading Without Authority]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/livekit-head-of-product-on-bettinghttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/livekit-head-of-product-on-bettingWed, 26 Aug 2026 20:45:03 GMTWhat does product leadership look like when AI makes everyone a builder? In this podcast hosted by iDonate VP of Product and Engineering Nacho Andrade, LiveKit Head of Product Ben Cherry will be speaking on how LiveKit made a high-conviction pivot from video infrastructure to voice AI, why making AI sound human is harder and more important than most people realize, and what he learned moving from software engineer to product leader. His take on the "PM as CEO of the product" framing: it's about accountability for outcomes, not authority over people, and getting that wrong is one of the most common traps in early product careers.

]]><![CDATA[What makes a winning Product Builder in 2026]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/what-makes-a-winning-product-builderhttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/what-makes-a-winning-product-builderWed, 26 Aug 2026 17:42:11 GMTToday we released the 2026 Product Builder Awards eBook, and it explains in depth why we retired the name “Product Manager Awards”. Product Builders are redefining product work as the first AI-native role in business. They fine-tune the models, debug the pipelines, and ship the thing themselves.

Our reviewers had a phrase for it this cycle: the Cube versus the Deep-T. Narrow, single-lane expertise doesn’t get rewarded the way it used to. What wins now is depth across three or four disciplines at once.

The level of ownership in this cohort is what truly impressed me. The winners rebuild entire workflows around AI, own the outcome end to end, and build governance and compliance into the product itself. And they could prove it moved the business with real numbers.

Download your free copy to get the deep dive on what separates award-winning Product Builders from the rest in 2026.

Download the 2026 Product Builder Guide

Check out some of our recent content from top voices in the product space.

Are you enjoying our Product newsletter? We are always striving to elevate our content and provide ample value. Please share your feedback, questions, and comments.

]]><![CDATA[CPO Rising Series: Carta CPO on Why Knowing What to Build Matters More Than Ever]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-carta-cpo-on-whyhttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-carta-cpo-on-whyFri, 21 Aug 2026 09:18:29 GMTWhat does it take to stay relevant as a CPO when the very definition of the product manager role is being rewritten in real time? In this episode of the CPO Rising series hosted by Products That Count Resident CPO Renee Niemi, Carta CPO Vrushali Paunikar will be speaking on how she thinks about product management in an AI-transformed world, why she frames her best PMs as systems architects rather than feature owners, and what eight years at a founder-led company has taught her about trust, speed, and creating excess value. She also gets into how she structures product reviews, why the hardest problems at Carta are the ones you can't measure, and what battle scars really mean in a product leader.

]]><![CDATA[Your next standout hire is on this list]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/your-next-standout-hire-is-on-thishttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/your-next-standout-hire-is-on-thisWed, 19 Aug 2026 16:58:07 GMTThis year, we renamed the Product Manager Awards. It’s now the Product Builder Awards. The traditional PM role is quickly evolving into the Product Builder role, and we want to reflect that change through our awards. The Product Builder is the first AI-native role in business, the first job where using AI is the operating model.

Today, we announced the 2026 Product Builder Awards winners: 30 builders chosen from 5000 nominees. And here’s why I think you should pay attention to these winners. Each one owned their product start to finish.

That’s the exact shift we’ve been tracking all year: judgment and execution living in one person instead of getting handed off across a team. Past winners have gone on to found their own companies and step into chief product officer roles. Whoever’s on this list is worth knowing now, not in two years when everyone else catches up.

Meet and connect with the winners below. And keep an eye on your inbox next week, because I’m going to share what this class taught all of us about where product work is headed.

Meet the Product Builder Awards winners

Check out some of our recent content from top voices in the product space.

Are you enjoying our Product newsletter? We are always striving to elevate our content and provide ample value. Please share your feedback, questions, and comments.

]]><![CDATA[Queens Carbon CEO on Decarbonizing the Built Environment With Low-Carbon Cement]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/queens-carbon-ceo-on-decarbonizinghttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/queens-carbon-ceo-on-decarbonizingWed, 19 Aug 2026 15:04:01 GMTWhat does it actually take to decarbonize one of the world's most carbon-intensive industries, and how do you build, fund, and scale the company that bets on it? The scale and urgency of the transformation required to fight climate change has never been more clear. Building hardware and software products, acquiring the funding and creating a diverse community to enhance talent capacity and to drive innovation, is essential to tackling this global environmental crisis. In this podcast, host Silicon Valley Bank (a division of First Citizens Bank) Climate Tech & Sustainability SVP Maggie Wong will be interviewing Queens Carbon CEO & Co-Founder Daniel Kopp to discuss enabling built environment decarbonization through cement and concrete that requires lower energy and water usage, optimizing various financing structures to scale the company, leveraging AI and diverse team to build a full product system.

]]><![CDATA[The 5 Durable Pillars Every AI Product Leader Needs]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/the-5-durable-pillars-every-ai-producthttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/the-5-durable-pillars-every-ai-productMon, 17 Aug 2026 17:47:03 GMTWhat if the biggest mistake product leaders are making right now isn't moving too slowly, it's moving fast in the wrong direction? In this episode of Product Talk, CentralSquare Technologies CPO Denise Hemke sits down with AWS Head of Product Acceleration Jim Kim to discuss the five durable principles that help product teams thrive in the age of AI. From prioritization and customer obsession to trust, context, and the rise of the full-stack builder, Jim shares a practical framework for building products that create lasting value, not just the latest AI feature.

]]><![CDATA[Where are our past winners now?]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/where-are-our-past-winners-nowhttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/where-are-our-past-winners-nowWed, 12 Aug 2026 20:36:40 GMTWhile we finalize this year’s Product Builder Awards selections, I went back and looked at what happened to our past winners. Three patterns stood out, and they say something bigger about where product careers are headed.

The first: a significant share of past winners are now Chief Product Officers. If that’s you, congratulations, you earned that award a hundred times over.

The second: many of them are becoming founders. Building got so much easier with AI that there’s no reason a strong product person can’t start their own company anymore.

The third is the one I keep thinking about. Winners are moving from large companies to small ones. Many big companies have resistance to a transformation that’s already inevitable, so the best product builders have decided they can drive more change from outside than from inside.

If large companies keep losing their best innovators, they’ll have to buy their way back to relevance. This makes the move a lot more calculated than it looks. Spin off, build the company, get acquired by your former employer, and end up with more impact than you ever would have had staying put.

If any of this resonates, especially the M&A part, reply to this email and let’s have a conversation.

Know a VP, Sr. Director, or Head of Product who’s setting the standard? Nominations are open for the Product Leader Awards. Winners join me for an in-person VIP celebration this September. Click the banner above to nominate.

Check out some of our recent content from top voices in the product space.

Are you enjoying our Product newsletter? We are always striving to elevate our content and provide ample value. Please share your feedback, questions, and comments.

]]><![CDATA[Campfire AI Product Lead on Why Domain Expertise Is Your Biggest Product Advantage]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/campfire-ai-product-lead-on-why-domainhttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/campfire-ai-product-lead-on-why-domainWed, 12 Aug 2026 18:05:25 GMTWhat if your most unconventional career detour turned out to be your biggest product advantage? In this podcast hosted by iDonate VP of Product Nacho Andrade, Campfire AI Product Lead Brendan Doyle will be speaking on how his years as an auditor at KPMG and founder of a niche lease accounting software company gave him an edge most product managers don't have. He gets into the real tension between domain expertise and creative bias, how Campfire AI is building an AI-native ERP that moves fast without breaking things in a compliance-heavy space, and why anyone sitting in a "boring" industry right now has a massive opportunity to make the jump into product.

]]><![CDATA[CPO Rising Series: LegalOn Technologies CPO on Customer-First Product Leadership]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-legalon-technologieshttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-legalon-technologiesMon, 10 Aug 2026 12:02:19 GMTWhat does it take to go from practicing law to becoming the Chief Product Officer of a company disrupting the legal industry with AI? In this episode of the CPO Rising series hosted by Products That Count Resident CPO Renee Niemi, LegalOn Technologies CPO Vanessa Davis will be speaking on how she made the leap from attorney to product leader, and why putting the customer first drives every major decision she makes. She also gets into how LegalOn navigated a major stack overhaul to move fully to LLMs, what the entrance of tools like Claude into legal tech means for the industry, and why DAU over MAU is her north star metric.

]]><![CDATA[Suno CPO on Why the Old Product Rules Don't Apply When You're Building on Frontier AI]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/suno-cpo-on-why-the-old-product-ruleshttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/suno-cpo-on-why-the-old-product-rulesFri, 07 Aug 2026 10:15:27 GMTWhat does it mean to build a truly AI-native product rather? In this episode of the CPO Rising series hosted by CentralSquare Technologies CPO Denise Hemke, Suno CPO Jack Brody will be speaking on how a career spanning design, a decade at Snap, and now AI music has shaped a completely different approach to product thinking. Jack shares why retention is the only metric that really matters, how he creates space for ideas that seem crazy, and why two of product management's most sacred rules don't apply when you're building on frontier AI models.

]]><![CDATA[The first AI-native role in business]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/the-first-ai-native-role-in-businesshttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/the-first-ai-native-role-in-businessWed, 05 Aug 2026 19:16:20 GMTLast week, Forbes covered our fifth annual CPO Insights Report, and Larry English caught something most takes on this data miss: product builders are rising as the first AI-native role in business.

We’re seeing the fourth reinvention of the product profession. A decade ago, product people were project managers, borrowing authority they didn’t have to move engineers. Then PLG turned them into general managers with real P&L ownership. Then they became CPOs. Now, they’re becoming product builders.

AI removed the execution constraint, and most companies have been running an efficiency play. They ship faster and burn people out or do the same work with fewer people and call it a 20% gain.

Product builders are using judgment to scale both AI output and decision quality at once. They’re thinking like founders inside the enterprise, and it’s producing outsized growth without adding headcount or cost.

Join the conversation on my Linkedin and read the data behind it, our 2026 CPO Insights Report. And if you know a leader redesigning their org around this shift, forward this their way.

Nominations are still open for the Product Builder Awards, recognizing the PMs, Sr. PMs, and Group PMs setting the pace for what comes next. Click the banner above to nominate a builder who deserves to be seen.

Check out some of our recent content from top voices in the product space.

Are you enjoying our Product newsletter? We are always striving to elevate our content and provide ample value. Please share your feedback, questions, and comments.

]]><![CDATA[CPO Rising Series: BetterHelp CPO on Why CPOs Need to Think Like Business Operators]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-betterhelp-cpohttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-betterhelp-cpoWed, 05 Aug 2026 09:53:27 GMTWhat does it mean for a CPO to truly own outcomes? In this episode of the CPO Rising series hosted by Products That Count Resident CPO Renee Niemi, BetterHelp CPO Terre Layton will be speaking on how product leadership is evolving in the age of AI, drawing on a career that started with AI research long before LLMs existed. Terre shares why CPOs are now business operators with product as their primary lever, how she thinks about building teams for the agentic era, and why time to value and retention are the two metrics that tell her everything.

]]><![CDATA[CPO Rising Series: ATOSS CPTO on Why Product Managers Need to Think Like Investors]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-atoss-cpto-on-whyhttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-atoss-cpto-on-whyFri, 31 Jul 2026 11:15:12 GMTWhat does it mean to run product like a mini company, and how do you say no to a multi-million dollar deal when it conflicts with your strategy? In this episode of the CPO Rising series hosted by Products That Count Resident CPO Renee Niemi, ATOSS Software SE CPTO Vikas Seth will be speaking on outcome-driven product management and what the next evolution of the product leadership role looks like. Drawing on seven years growing ID Now from startup to scale-up at 10x revenue, Vikas shares his framework for closing the gaps between customers, go-to-market, and R&D, and why building enthusiasm for the product is the most underrated leadership skill.

]]><![CDATA[Trust is the new moat]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/trust-is-the-new-moathttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/trust-is-the-new-moatWed, 29 Jul 2026 18:07:10 GMTToday we launched the 2026 Q2 Product Awards eBook, and this one’s entirely about fintech, cybersecurity, and healthcare.

With over 12,000 nominations so far this year, our 29-person Awards Advisory Council had to sort through an enormous amount of noise to select the 73 winners. What they found points to three themes about where product is headed.

The first is vertical AI. The strongest products in this cohort went deep on one high-value problem inside one industry, and that depth is what made them defensible.

The second is the shift from assistants to operators. AI is now automating decisions and the execution that follows. That’s a different category of product than most teams are still building.

The third, and the one I keep coming back to, is trust as the strategic moat. The winners have earned trust in a way that’s genuinely hard to replicate.

You can find a deep dive on these themes and the winners in the Q2 eBook. Download your free copy and meet the products that are transforming their industries.

Download the Q2 Product Guide

Nominations are still open for the Product Builder Awards, recognizing the PMs, Sr. PMs, and Group PMs setting the pace for what comes next. Click the banner above to nominate a builder who deserves to be seen.

Check out some of our recent content from top voices in the product space.

Are you enjoying our Product newsletter? We are always striving to elevate our content and provide ample value. Please share your feedback, questions, and comments.

]]><![CDATA[Koah CPO on Why Ads in AI Don't Have to Be Evil]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/koah-cpo-on-why-ads-in-ai-dont-havehttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/koah-cpo-on-why-ads-in-ai-dont-haveWed, 29 Jul 2026 10:40:43 GMTWhat would it look like if every AI app had a sustainable way to make money without dark patterns or paywalls? In this podcast hosted by iDonate VP of Product and Engineering Nacho Andrade, Koah Co-Founder and CPO Mike Choi will be speaking on how he's building the AdSense for the AI app network. Mike shares what he learned from 18 months of rapid consumer app building, why AI users behave completely differently than search users, and why sponsored experiences in AI might actually be a good thing for everyone.

]]><![CDATA[CPO Rising Series: Optum Fmr CCO on Building Products That Work for 150 Million People]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-optum-fmr-cco-onhttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-optum-fmr-cco-onMon, 27 Jul 2026 17:23:14 GMTWhat does it take to build products that work for 150 million people in one of the most regulated industries in the world? In this episode of the CPO Rising Series hosted by Products That Count Resident CPO Jay Patel, Optum Fmr Chief Consumer Officer Rita Khan will be speaking on how product leadership is transforming healthcare at scale. Rita shares why understanding the full stakeholder ecosystem matters more than quick UX wins, how she frames investment portfolios to earn executive trust quarter by quarter, and why she only hires "shapers" who refuse to accept the industry's constraints as excuses for bad experiences.

]]><![CDATA[CPO Rising Series: Perk CPO on Why Now Is Product's Biggest Moment]]>https://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-perk-cpo-on-whyhttps://newsletter.productsthatcount.org/p/cpo-rising-series-perk-cpo-on-whyFri, 24 Jul 2026 12:38:47 GMTWhat happens to product leadership when anyone can create a product in minutes? In this episode of the CPO Rising Series hosted by Axiom Law CPO Katrina Benjamin, Perk CPO Nikita Miller will be speaking on why this might be the biggest moment in product leadership history. Nikita shares how roles across product, design, and engineering are converging in exciting ways, why the best AI is invisible to users, and what urgency and conviction really look like in a company that's growing fast.

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