When I say I’m codifying everything, I don’t mean filling shared drives with more PDFs. I mean writing things down so precisely they can be executed by people, systems and agents reliably, measured …
Hortal.com Blog
2026 is the Year AI Becomes an Operating Model
The honeymoon phase of the AI revolution is officially over. Boards and leadership teams are no longer satisfied with flashy proofs-of-concept or agents that "experiment" in safe, isolated …
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Beyond Code: What Google’s 21 Lessons Teach Product Leaders About the Human Side of Building Products
I recently shared a short note about a brilliant list of observations from an engineer’s 14 years at Google. It struck a chord with me because it isn’t a manual of clever algorithms — it’s a handbook …
The Great AI Sobriety Test: Why 2026 is the Year of Pragmatic Product Leadership
The "party" of brute-force scaling is winding down, and the industry is finally starting to sober up. For the past few years, the dominant narrative for CEOs and Product Leaders was simply "bigger is …
The Invisible Web: Why Distinctiveness is the Only Antidote to the AI Squeeze
For more than twenty-five years, I’ve watched technology cycles move from the "magic" phase to the "utility" phase, and finally, to what Cory Doctorow famously termed "enshittification." We saw it …
The Observer Effect Breaks Lean: Leaders can Inadvertently Turn Gemba Walks into Theatre
Why do carefully planned Gemba walks sometimes produce silence, posture-perfect rituals and a performance designed to impress rather than improve? Because presence matters — but not always in the way …