All episodes

We now record almost everything — every meeting has an AI note-taker, and some people wear glasses that capture every word. So what does that do to our relationships when nothing is forgotten and everything can be fact-checked?

Petra Wille and Teresa Torres explore the promise and the unease of a fully-transcribed world. Teresa shares how checking her own Granola transcripts revealed she'd been misremembering conversations — and getting frustrated with people over things she never actually said. Petra describes the strange feeling of a colleague pulling up a transcript to correct her recollection of her own past opinion. Together...

Is innovation the goal — or just a byproduct of solving customer problems well? In this episode of All Things Product, Petra Wille and Teresa Torres unpack one of the most misused words in product: "innovation." Teresa makes the case that chasing novelty for its own sake pushes teams toward complex solutions that don't actually serve customers better, while Petra argues that simplicity and reduction can be their own kind of innovation.

Using the surprisingly rich history of the humble login — from passwords to single sign-on to Slack's magic links, 1Password, and passkeys — they explore why yesterday's breakthrough...

What if the ideas you throw away tell you more about the health of your product process than the ones you ship?

In this episode of All Things Product, Petra Wille introduces trash can tracking — a deceptively simple technique for making discovery work visible. By adding trash can symbols across your discovery and delivery boards, teams can see (and celebrate) the customer problems and solutions they deliberately choose not to pursue.

Petra and Teresa dig into what an empty problem-space trash can versus an empty solution-space trash can each signals about your team's innovation, strategy, and discovery culture. Along...

Everyone's saying it: "Now that AI makes delivery free…" But is it? In this episode of All Things Product, Petra Wille and Teresa Torres pull apart one of the most repeated claims in product right now.

They dig into why building a single feature has gotten dramatically cheaper — while building a real, production-quality product has not. Teresa breaks down what happens when teams treat coding agents as "free": spaghetti code, Frankenstein data models, feature bloat, and the maintenance nightmare waiting three weeks down the road. Along the way, they unpack the crucial difference between build to learn and build...

Conflict on a product team isn't a warning sign — the absence of it usually is.

In this episode of All Things Product, Petra Wille and Teresa Torres tackle a question Teresa hears constantly: what should a product trio do when collaboration breaks down and disagreement turns into friction?

Petra makes the case for something many teams quietly abandoned — the retrospective — and argues that facilitation is a genuine, learnable skill that product people should invest in, not outsource by default. Teresa introduces a framework from academic research on team dynamics: the distinction between task conflict (we disagree on...

You've got behavioral analytics, support tickets, sales call notes, and a feedback inbox that never empties. With all that data coming in, do product teams actually still need to go out and talk to users?

In this episode, Petra Wille and Teresa Torres dig into why not all product evidence is created equal — and why the type of data you collect matters just as much as the volume. Teresa introduces her "ladder of evidence" framework and shares what she's learning from real interview transcripts through her work at Vistaly: that many teams are confusing product demos, stakeholder meetings, and...

Every product manager wants to move into leadership — but nobody wants to hire a leader without leadership experience. So how do you break the cycle?

In this episode, Teresa and Petra unpack the practical, often-overlooked ways individual contributors can build real leadership skills right now, without waiting for a title change. Petra shares a surprisingly simple starting point: understand what your organization actually expects from its leaders, then begin deliberately practicing those behaviors in your current role.

The conversation goes deep on two of the most foundational leadership skills — the art of saying no with evidence and clarity,...

Think you don't have big enough problems for AI to help with? Think again.

In this episode, Petra and Teresa tackle one of the most common blockers people face when starting out with AI: not knowing where to begin. It's not a lack of problems — it's a lack of exposure. Teresa shares the daily habit that took her from feeling behind to using AI every single day, and why starting small (and terrible) is exactly the right approach.

They also dig into the noise problem: why you don't need MCP servers, plugins, or the latest AI app to get...

What makes an event truly unforgettable — and what can product teams learn from it? In this episode, Teresa sits down with Petra Wille to explore how Petra and her co-organizer Arne design experiences (not just events) at Product at Heart and their Product Leadership gatherings. From a candlelit speakers' dinner in a rosemary-covered greenhouse to a disco ball that appeared for exactly 20 seconds, Petra shares how intentional design, sensory details, and a little bit of goofy magic help attendees shed their corporate armor and open up to real inspiration and connection. Teresa draws the parallels back to product...

Organizational change is exhausting — so stop trying to force it. Petra and Teresa unpack why trying to fix the people and processes around you is almost always wasted energy, and what actually works instead. If you've ever wanted to champion a new way of working inside a resistant organization, this one's for you.