Strategy vs. Execution Is a Lie You Tell Yourself
Product leaders do not need a handoff between strategy and execution. They need a faster loop from intent to evidence, and AI can help create room for it.
Building products. Coaching builders.
Coach your product teams. Build with AI. Make it stick.
Dave coaches product teams on implementing and enhancing their product operating model and building AI-enabled ways of working. He spent the last five years building product teams and AI systems from inside two companies, leading product, design, and AI at Shipwell and leading product at Cargill's AI Hub. The work sharpens decisions, speeds learning, and creates capability that sticks.
Product & AI coachingAI buildingHuman-centeredData-informed
When to call Dave
You may not need another strategy. You may need a better way to move.
- Your product teams have processes, but decisions still take too long.
- AI experiments are multiplying without becoming repeatable ways of working.
- You are about to fund a significant build without enough evidence.
- Product, design, engineering, analytics, and business leaders are working from different assumptions.
- Your team needs senior support, but you do not want a consultant to take over the work.
- Internal teams see opportunities to build with AI but lack the tools, guardrails, or confidence to begin.
Two focused ways to start
Create clarity before the work gets more expensive.
Start with a bounded engagement that solves a real problem, produces a useful outcome quickly, and gives your team a clearer next move.
Focused sprint
Validate-Before-You-Build Sprint
Prototype in days. Make the investment decision in approximately two weeks.
Best for: A team preparing to fund an expensive build based on assumptions that have not yet been tested.
Typical paceInitial evidence and a testable prototype are developed within days. A go, change, or stop recommendation is typically delivered within 10 business days.View engagement detailsHide engagement details
What happens
- Clarify the investment decision
- Identify the assumption most likely to make the investment fail
- Determine the fastest credible way to test it
- Build a focused prototype, simulation, or evidence-gathering mechanism
- Put it in front of customers, users, or internal stakeholders
- Evaluate the evidence and make a go, change, or stop recommendation
What you receive
- A clearly framed investment decision
- An assumption and risk map
- A test plan and working prototype or other testable artifact
- Focused customer, user, or operational evidence
- A recommendation with supporting rationale
- An executive readout and clear next steps
Who participates
The accountable product or business leader, the product owner, and selected partners from product, design, engineering, analytics, operations, or customer research.
Your team’s commitment
A kickoff, access to relevant customers or evidence, two or three working sessions, and a timely decision from the accountable leader.
By the end
The team knows whether to fund the larger build, change its approach, or stop before the investment becomes expensive.
Embedded engagement
Embedded Product Coaching
Improve the team while the roadmap keeps moving.
Best for: A product leader who wants the team to improve without pausing delivery for a separate transformation program.
Typical paceAn initial three-month engagement, with the option to continue based on the team’s needs.View engagement detailsHide engagement details
What happens
- Observe how work and decisions currently happen
- Identify the few practices creating the most friction
- Coach product leaders and managers through live situations
- Facilitate targeted working sessions where needed
- Introduce practical AI-enabled workflows
- Build reusable habits into the team’s operating rhythm
What you receive
- A focused assessment of current operating practices
- Coaching tied to current priorities and decisions
- Targeted working sessions and direct feedback on work in progress
- Practical templates, decision practices, and AI workflows
- Periodic progress summaries and a plan for sustaining the practices
Who participates
One product team or a small group of product leaders and managers. Design, engineering, analytics, and business partners participate when their work is relevant.
Your team’s commitment
Most coaching happens through existing work and meetings. Primary participants should expect one or two focused coaching sessions each month, with a short sponsor check-in every two to four weeks.
By the end
The team makes stronger decisions, uses AI more effectively, and relies less on outside support to sustain better product practices.
Experience across Cargill, Shipwell, U.S. Bank, Mayo Clinic, Medtronic, Ecolab, TigerRisk, and the Carlson School of Management.
A challenge worth asking
Are you happy with the status quo?
Making great products, insights, and experiences is tough. Developing repeatable processes and teams that can make them is tough, too. Beyond the Data helps your organization question assumptions, connect people with evidence, and turn better thinking into better outcomes.
Author
Bridge the gap between numbers and narratives.
Dave is the author of Data Storytelling and Translation, a practical guide to helping data, business, and product people create shared understanding—and make better decisions together.
New weekly podcast
The product conversations that don’t fit on a roadmap.
Dave Mathias and Allison Herbert host ProductCamp Conversations, a weekly podcast for curious product people. Join them—and occasional guests—as they think out loud about community, the human side of product, and what practitioners learn from one another.
Latest ideas
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Ready to move beyond the status quo?
Let’s talk about your organization, audience, or next challenge.