The barbell-ification of software 🏋️, a human router 🌐, evals and experiment variants 🧪

AI is weakening traditional software moats and squeezing the middle. Software may split between massive platforms and small niche products. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 

TLDR

Together With Level Access

TLDR Product Management 2026-09-18
Here's how you stop fixing the same accessibility bugs twice (Sponsor)

Tired of fixing the same accessibility issues sprint after sprint? Level Access's on-demand webinar, “In-Flow Accessibility: Prevent Backlogs, Increase Velocity,” provides a practical framework for stopping bugs at the source.

You'll learn:

  1. How a proactive approach to accessibility saves time and money by empowering teams to fix issues when it's fastest and cheapest.
  2. The limitations of the traditional “shift left” model (simply testing earlier).
  3. Tools and tactics for making accessibility a seamless part of developers' day-to-day workflows.

Stop letting accessibility be your last-minute bottleneck. Tune in now.
📱

News & Trends
Moats & the Barbell-ification of Software (4 minute read)

AI is weakening traditional software moats and squeezing the middle. Software may split between massive platforms and small niche products.
Popular isn't a business model (6 minute read)

Open source can drive adoption, but it does not create a business by itself. Companies need to identify what becomes valuable enough for users to pay for.
🚀

Opinions & Tutorials
Connecting Product Outcomes to Business Strategy (11 minute read)

Product outcomes should connect directly to business strategy through a clear hierarchy of goals. The Strategy Stack keeps product teams autonomous while aligned with company priorities.
How should we approach the software factory as a product team? (6 minute read)

AI software factories should encode human judgment into automated feedback, not just produce more code. Teams should learn through real product work and continuously improve how their agents operate.
🧑‍💻

Resources & Tools
Free course: How to make product decisions without perfect data (Sponsor)

Waiting for more data isn't a strategy—it's a stall tactic. Mike Belsito's Product Judgment course teaches you to move forward with confidence anyway. Find it in Pendo's Learning Lab: self-paced, free, with a badge worth sharing on LinkedIn. Explore the courses →
Nobody needs a human router (9 minute read)

Engineering managers should stop being information routers and use AI to get back into the technical work. Staying close to code, architecture, and critical projects helps them make faster, better decisions.
4 New Evals and 16 Experiment Variants to Fix 1 Customer Complaint (14 minute read)

Reliable AI products need more than better prompts or models. Teams need evals, guardrails, and orchestration to catch errors and help agents correct them.
🎁

Miscellaneous
Momentum is Not a Moat (8 minute read)

Momentum drives growth, but it is not a moat. AI startups need to turn early traction into durable advantages competitors cannot easily copy.
Coaching someone through the burnout that rest doesn't fix (8 minute read)

Some burnout comes from feeling disconnected from who you want to be at work, not simply from overwork. Managers can help identify that gap and restore a sense of agency.
⚡

Quick Links
The workaround is often the requirement (2 minute read)

Workarounds often reveal product needs users no longer think to mention.
What decides which tasks product managers are willing to delegate to GenAI? (2 minute read)

AI adoption works best when teams start there and keep human ownership clear.

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Thanks for reading,
Ellen Le


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