Our Story
Sprints and Sand Don’t Mix - Leave the Laptop at Home

Author:
Stoimen Veselinov
Time to read: 5 min
It’s 2020, and I’m having one of my infamous “work holidays.” Picture this: I’m in a team meeting, discussing our latest sprint, completely unaware that my camera turned on.
“Stoimen! Where are you, my friend?” my colleague Oleksandr suddenly shouts.
Hell! I glance at the screen and realize I’ve been caught. There I am, lying on a sun lounger, with a big cocktail next to me, casually talking about how smooth the sprint went.
To be fair, that sprint did go smoothly - a rare occasion worth celebrating. But here’s the thing: this work call from the beach wasn’t a one-off.

The PM and the "Bus Factor"
The reality is, I’ve always mixed work and holidays since I became a product manager, it wasn't like that when I was running marketing. I’d love to know how other PMs manage to fully disconnect, but in my entire PM career, I’ve never figured out how to take a real holiday without my laptop.
Why? Because product managers inevitably become the source of truth for their teams. We’re the ones approving anything that enters the sprint - thanks to our beloved SCRUM. Nothing wrong with being responsible for the project scope, right?
The problem, though, is that scope never stays static. Even after we’ve polished and refined tickets, uncertainties always creep in. Perfectly predicting every challenge is unrealistic, and honestly, it’s not worth a team’s time to try. Inevitably, during a sprint, something will come up that requires revisiting the scope - and when that happens, engineering will turn to their PM for guidance.
Why and How PMs Become Bottleneck
Let’s say I’m on a short, one-week holiday. That’s already half of a typical development sprint. Chances are, during that week, one or more of the following scenarios will arise:
A technical challenge emerges, requiring urgent adjustments to the requirements.
Feedback from an important stakeholder suddenly changes the direction.
A newly discovered corner case disrupts plans.
“Quick” technical debt handling becomes unavoidable.
Someone realizes there’s a better way to optimize the user experience.
Or, during testing, the team uncovers a “funny” behavior that needs immediate attention.
These are just the ones off the top of my head, but you get the point: PMs are the first ones called when things go off track, and that’s why we so often find ourselves glued to our laptops - even on the beach.
The AI Advancement seems to deepen the problem
When I first realised what AI means for software development, I was convinced that it will create troubles for me. Engineers are getting much more productive. Having their output increased, naturally means that I need to prepare more features for each upcoming sprint. From business perspective, that improvement in development is great. From my personal selfish view, it does create more work for me while I am at the maximum of my capacity already.
So yeh, according to me (and some famous business people) a serious bottle neck is expected in the face of product management.
Now you might ask yourself, "Hey but AI can assist PMs as well and improve their productivity". That's a compelling idea with hard execution simply because the most time-consuming efforts a PM should have are not a good fit for an AI today.
Stakeholder Relationships Require Human Connection
PMs rely heavily on building trust and understanding with other stakeholders, which involves empathy, emotional intelligence, and relationship management - traits that AI can’t replicate effectively.
Interviewing and Customer Discovery
Conducting insightful interviews with users and stakeholders demands active listening, reading between the lines, and adapting to subtle cues in real time. AI can’t yet match a human PM’s ability to uncover unspoken needs or build rapport.
Negotiating with Stakeholders
We aren't ready to embrace AI as a stakeholders just yet. I can't imagine asking my Thinkpilot to go and negotiate for me.
Interpreting Ambiguity
Product requirements, feedback, and business needs are often ambiguous. PMs excel at interpreting vague input, asking clarifying questions, and turning it into actionable plans - something AI lacks the creativity or adaptability to handle.
Prioritization Is a Balancing Act
While AI can suggest priorities based on data, true prioritization involves balancing business goals, user needs, technical constraints, and team morale. This balancing act often requires subjective judgment.
Creative Problem-Solving
PMs are tasked with coming up with innovative solutions to complex problems. AI lacks the human creativity and insight needed to approach problems in unique ways.
Building and Inspiring Teams
PMs play a key role in motivating their teams, providing feedback, and fostering a sense of ownership and purpose. These leadership qualities are inherently human and irreplaceable by AI.
Unless we develop more specialists into product managers, the industry might be in trouble, or not... depends on Thinkpilot.
Vacations Without Laptops: Thinkpilot's Mission to Break Teams Free from the Bottleneck Trap
They say that a problem understood is a problem half solved. For product managers, the burden of constantly being a bottleneck is an especially heavy one - pulling them into decisions, approvals, and firefighting even during vacations.
That’s why my team and I, driven by a mission to empower product teams, set ourselves an ambitious goal: to enable anyone on a product team to take holidays without their laptop and without the lingering fear of blocking progress. And now, I believe we’re closer than ever to achieving it.
Our Thinkpilot, currently in Beta, is designed to tackle the core of this problem: bottlenecks. It empowers product managers by enabling them to seed any format of data into what we call “smart projects.” These projects are “smart” because they can collect, store, and surface all the context around a project in a way that’s easy for everyone to access.
We recognize that decision-making in software is inherently collaborative. It's not a single person making all the shots. While the responsibility and ultimate decisions may rest with one individual, decisions are rarely based solely on personal judgment and are typically shaped through collaboration with other experts on the team. Thinkpilot ensures that a company’s knowledge and data are fully transparent, enabling anyone on the team to draw conclusions and meaningfully contribute to software ideation - even when the PM isn’t available.
A future where product teams can finally unplug is no longer just a dream.
Being one of the many teams working to apply AI in meaningful ways to product management gives us hope. Even if Thinkpilot isn’t the team to crack it first, the days of feeling chained to your laptop - even on vacation - seem to be numbered.
Remember? A problem known, a problem half solved!
Our Thinkpilot doesn’t just reduce bottlenecks; it redefines how product teams collaborate, making decisions, information, and strategy more transparent, efficient, and distributed.
This isn’t just about giving PMs a break - it’s about creating a healthier, more empowered way of working for everyone. A world where teams can move fast without dependencies slowing them down. A world where no one has to worry about blocking progress while they’re away.
So next time you pack for vacation, maybe - just maybe - you’ll finally leave your laptop behind.
- Our Story
12/23/2024
12 min read
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