Building genuine confidence in strategic product decisions

Why This Matters Now

You’re doing all the “right” things. Your OKRs are aligned. Your discovery process is continuous. Stakeholder updates are consistent. Analytics dashboards are comprehensive. And yet.

When someone asks, “Are you confident we’re working on the right things?” there’s that moment of hesitation. That split second where doubt creeps in, even after years of experience.

This hesitation isn’t just common—it’s costly.

The Confidence Problem

Last year, in a study we conducted with Dave Wascha, we interviewed around 40 and surveyed about 300 product managers and leaders across various levels, company sizes, and industries. We wanted to understand the real “jobs” of product management. I'm going to share the results in more depth in another blog post soon. Through these conversations and many more since then, I’ve noticed a recurring issue: a lack of confidence.

Here are some ways this problem shows up:

Tool overload leads to confidence deficit

Despite countless tools and data at your fingertips, there’s still a lack of confidence in decision-making. You prioritize data-driven decisions but struggle to quantify the actual impact of releases. “Quantifying the actual impact of releases” was both one of the most challenging and most important tasks for PMs.

The delivery trap

There’s overwhelming pressure to keep shipping and delivering. However, the most impactful product managers aren’t necessarily those releasing the most features but those who’ve mastered continuous discovery.

Activity doesn’t equal impact

PMs are busier than ever but struggle to “identify the most sensitive metrics that drive the biggest impact.” We’re confusing being busy with being effective.

The Cost of Low Confidence

This lack of confidence doesn’t just lead to shipping the wrong features—it creates hidden costs:

Decision debt

Every uncertain decision adds up, creating commitments we’re not fully confident in. Teams carry this debt for months or even years, afraid to revisit past decisions because they lack a framework for building justified confidence.

Strategy creep

Without clear confidence in our choices, strategies dissolve into reactive decisions. We have to plan confidently ahead of time. This also explains why PMs ranked “identifying the most sensitive metrics that drive the biggest impact” as a top priority.

Eroding trust

Pushing decisions we’re unsure about devalues stakeholder trust. “Providing clear visibility into the prioritization process” ranks among the top PM priorities for this reason.

Why I’m Building Beyond

I don't want to create just another project management tool. Beyond is a direct response to these hidden costs. After talking to so many product teams, I’ve realized our current tools excel at delivery but fall short in critical ways:

• They track but don’t guide
• They measure but don’t question
• They focus on outputs, not outcomes

We’ve optimized for delivery confidence (“Can we build it?”) at the expense of discovery confidence (“Should we build it? Are we optimizing the right things?”).

A new approach to product confidence

Beyond starts with confidence at its core. Here’s how:

Strategic mapping

Go beyond basic opportunity-solution mapping to build justified confidence in your strategic decisions. Deeply evaluate and compare the best outcomes and opportunities to ensure your team’s time is well spent.

Impact visualization

See how impact is being created, where it’s coming from, and who is contributing. Opportunity Solution Trees are great tools to communicate your strategy, assess what’s working, and identify where to focus.

Continuous discovery integration

Embed validation into your decision-making process so every choice builds on proven insights rather than guesswork.

Personal Reflection

This matters deeply to me because I’ve seen the cost of low confidence play out too many times. It’s not just about making better decisions—it’s about having the confidence to know you’re making the right ones.

If any of this resonates with you—the paradox of having more tools but less clarity, the burden of decision debt, or the challenge of building genuine confidence in your strategic choices—I’d love to hear your story. Not because I’m trying to sell you something, but because these conversations shape how I build a tool that truly helps product managers feel confident in their most important decisions.