My architecture for product excellence (1/8)

An operating blueprint to infuse, grow and sustain a strong product function into early-scale startups.

If you're reading this, chances are you already know that product management isn’t just about building cool stuff. It’s about building stuff that matters — stuff that solves real problems, delivers value, and, if done right, changes the game.

But let’s be honest: building and scaling a product function that delivers excellence isn’t easy. It’s like trying to solve a giant puzzle where the pieces keep changing shape. And, worse, sometimes you don’t even have all the pieces on the table — or even know what the final picture is supposed to look like. Without a clear vision of the end state, you’re not just solving a puzzle; you’re guessing what the puzzle even is.

That’s where infuse(it) comes in.

This newsletter is your guide to operationalizing product excellence. It’s not just theory. It’s a practical playbook based on real work experiences for product leaders who want to get things done establishing a new level of quality.

The Architecture for Product Excellence

This is the conceptual model that defines the structure, behavior, and views of a system designed to sustain a high-performance product function. It represents my mental model for product management as a whole. In the next weeks, I’m going to break down the 6 major components that form the architecture of high-performance product management. They are:

1. Core Philosophy of Product Management: The mindset and principles that guides everything.

2. Backbone of Product Excellence: The structure that sustains excellence.

3. Experience Architecture (Vision): How to create the future, define clear outcomes, and work from the outside in.

4. Experience Delivery (Execution): How to turn that envisioned future into reality — the outputs and what’s necessary below the surface.

5. Product Development Cycle: The product life cycle, from concept to market.

6. Problem-Solving Approach: How to solve problems creatively and effectively.

Then, each component will be explored in detail, with practical examples and insights you can apply right away. After exploring each component, I’ll show you how they all connect. Think of it as a sequence diagram for product excellence.

Why This Matters

At its core, “product” is about solving problems at a price people are willing to pay. But to make that happen, you need a foundation that supports it.

If your product organization is struggling, tightening your grip won’t solve the problem. You need to peel back the layers and understand the incentives, culture, and dynamics at play.

When the system is broken — or doesn’t even exist — you’ll forever be fighting an uphill battle. Every quarter, you’ll end up with a slightly different flavor of the same mandates or processes that didn’t quite work the last time around. You will end up delivering a lot of low-quality, inconsistent, and undifferentiated products.

The only way out is by building a better foundation, specially in a pre-scale phase.

If you want to create a world-class product org that drives measurable impact for your business and customers, you must focus on getting the system right.

What’s Coming Next?

In the next post, I’ll start with my Core Philosophy of Product Management. I’ll talk about how to define clear principles, align expectations, and nurture a product culture.

But that’s just the beginning.

As a leader, you need visibility. After covering the architecture for product excellence (next 8 posts, the playbook) my intention is to show you how to build a dashboard that helps you monitor this architecture, track progress, identify critical risks, and make data-driven decisions.

And following the contents about the architecture, playbook, and dashboard I’ll start sharing prompts you can use with GenAI tools to optimize your work and put this “product function system” into practice.

Why I’m Sharing This

Over nearly decades as a "product guy," I've experienced the full spectrum of product management—from shipping features used by millions to navigating the complexities of organizational change. Being an analytical soul, I've always been driven to find patterns in chaos, seeing each success and failure as data points in a larger system waiting to be understood.

This architecture emerged from countless days questioning conventional wisdom and refusing to accept "that's just how things are done." It’s an attempt to consolidate my end-to-end view of Product Management. It's my personal system refined through real-world experience and influenced by thought leaders who shaped my thinking along the way. I’m more a designer than a writer, but by writing about it I hope to not only get clarity for myself but help others set up, manage, and evaluate product excellence.

As our industry grapples with scaling product functions, I see an opportunity to help shape how the next generation of product organizations evolves. If this systematic approach resonates with even a few kindred spirits out there, then this effort will have been worth it.

Join Me

If you understand this is the moment to level up your game, subscribe to the newsletter and let’s form a community of startup product leaders who establish habits of product excellence early on in their companies.

And if you liked what you read, share it with someone who also needs a nudge in the right direction.

Looking for a stronger product function? It’s about time. Infuse it.

PS: If you think I can help but aren’t sure how, let’s hop on a call to talk through what’s going on and sketch out some possibilities. Feel free to ping me.