The Merholz Agenda

[At the end of this post I promote my forthcoming UX/Design Leadership Demystified masterclass (Jan 20-21, 2026).]

I'm kicking off 2026 with something often discussed in small groups among design leaders and which I think warrants a broader conversation.

Much of the public discussion of product management and product development over-indexes on savvy Silicon Valley companies, while most of this kind of work happens in legacy enterprises (financial and insurance services, retail, travel and hospitality, health care, etc.) or B2B software companies that underwent some kind of 'transformation' in an attempt to be 'digital' or 'agile.'

What I'm seeing is that many of these companies have realized that this 'agile' (and I'm purposefully putting it in scare quotes) approach is not delivering the outcomes promised. And at the heart of this is ineffective Product Management.

There are numerous elements to Product Management's failure. What I'm about to say paints with a broad brush what is actually a bit more nuanced. Having witnessed Product Management across dozens (hundreds?) of organizations, I stand behind what follows. And I believe that