Insights

Ideas worth reading

Thinking on product, AI, leadership, and delivery from the Berst Consulting team.

Operating Models

How to move from project to product

The shift from project-based delivery to product-led operating models requires more than renaming teams. It demands new structures, funding models, and leadership behaviours.

1 April 2025 · 2 min read

Strategy

AI is making it cheaper to build — so why are teams still building the wrong things?

The cost of building software is collapsing. But the organisations winning with AI are not the ones building the most — they are the ones who figured out what is worth building.

15 March 2025 · 3 min read

Strategy

Why customer-centric strategy matters more than ever

In an era where AI lowers the cost of building, the organisations that win are those that deeply understand their customers — and relentlessly focus on the right problems to solve.

1 March 2025 · 3 min read

Strategy

The four opportunity areas for AI in product teams

Not all AI opportunities are equal. Understanding the four distinct areas where AI creates value helps teams focus on what matters — and avoid wasting effort on the wrong bets.

28 February 2025 · 3 min read

AI

What should be automated, partially automated, or never automated?

One of the most valuable things an organisation can do right now is make explicit decisions about what to hand to AI, what to augment with AI, and what to protect from AI.

10 February 2025 · 3 min read

Leadership

Why work abstracts up a level during industrial revolutions

Every major technology shift follows the same pattern: the new technology handles the previous era's skilled work, and humans move up. Understanding this pattern is essential for leaders navigating the AI era.

20 January 2025 · 3 min read

Product

Why product operating models fail

Most product operating model transformations fail not because the model is wrong, but because of how the change is implemented. Here is what organisations consistently get wrong — and what to do instead.

5 January 2025 · 4 min read

Leadership

Intent-based leadership in modern product teams

Most leadership models assume that good decisions are made at the top. Intent-based leadership inverts this — and it is particularly well-suited to the complexity and pace of modern product development.

10 December 2024 · 3 min read

Product

Human-centred design in the age of AI

AI is changing what it means to design products — but it has not changed what humans fundamentally need. If anything, it has made understanding human needs more important than ever.

25 November 2024 · 3 min read

Product

The Goldilocks Zone of problem discovery

Most product teams frame problems either too broadly (strategy that cannot be acted on) or too narrowly (solutions masquerading as problems). The insight lives in the zone between.

8 November 2024 · 3 min read