I’ve personally led $5M+ cost reduction initiatives by tackling the hard questions, like deciding what to stop building and what to sunset. The hardest decision isn’t technical; it’s a strategic one: Are we solving the right problem?
I’ve watched too many brilliant teams fall into the “solutions in search of problems” trap.
Building the solution is the easy part. The challenge is having the rigor to commit to the discovery phase. The difference between a forgotten feature and a $25M ARR product is that the latter spent 80% of its energy on discovery and validation.
The smartest product leaders are the ones who put the brakes on development and insist on three non-negotiable questions:
Is this problem worth solving? (The P&L Filter: Does it tie back to a clear financial or strategic objective?)
Who’s struggling with this daily? (The User Empathy Filter: Are we listening to the Voice of Customer (VOC), or just the loudest internal voice?)
How will we know we’ve actually fixed it? (The Execution Rigor Filter: Are the Customer Experience (CX) Metrics defined, tracked, and aligned to success?)
The real magic in today’s AI-powered world is realizing that your time isn’t a factory for code, it’s a scarce resource for choosing the right fight.
If you skip the 80% and rush the 20%, you’re just trading rigor for activity.
What’s the one takeaway from this that resonated with you most? Drop a comment below!
Richard Ewing is a Product Executive and the creator of The Product Economist framework. He serves as a Strategic Advisor to B2B SaaS organizations, helping leaders audit their roadmaps for capital efficiency and prevent “model collapse” in their business models.
Stop guessing. Start auditing.
Connect on LinkedIn: Richard Ewing (MBA)
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