WRITING
Notes on products, technology, people, and whatever else I happen to find interesting.
Apiary Academy asked me a series of questions for their Inside Product Minds campaign. I originally answered them in English, and some were later condensed for Instagram. This is the longer version—plus a chance for me to look back at what my answers say about how I currently think about product.
Apiary Academy asked me a series of questions for their Inside Product Minds campaign. I originally answered them in English, and some were later condensed for Instagram. This is the longer version—plus a chance for me to look back at what my answers say about how I currently think about product.
A calendar invite often feels like the natural way to start a discussion at work. I tend to think about it the other way around. Before taking several people’s time at once, I’d rather try something first: write the problem clearly enough that others can read, think, and respond without needing to be in the same room.
After a few years of working in Product Management and watching different PMs operate up close, I started forming my own idea of what makes someone genuinely good at the role. Not from titles, frameworks, or how smart they sound in public, but from how they handle problems, requests, and the people around them.
I found Product Management after spending years unsure whether I wanted to be an engineer, developer, designer, or something else entirely. A few roles and very different organizations later, my view of the PM role changed. I don’t think there’s one universal PM job description. Different organizations have different gaps, and good PMs are curious, adaptable, and fast enough to learn what they need to help fill them.
I’ve noticed a pattern in how we react to small violations in Indonesia: the person breaking the rules can somehow gain the moral high ground simply by being more polite than the person calling them out. Maybe the problem isn’t just weak enforcement. Maybe it’s also how easily we negotiate rules when the violation feels small enough.
I started using AI as a student, got obsessed with generative AI in 2022, got bored, then somehow ended up vibe coding a personal website and tinkering with IoT again. Somewhere in that loop I realized I mostly treat AI the same way I treat any other machine: useful when it gets me closer to the actual goal.