The Product Picnic

Writing on UX and product management to connect today's discourse with classic insights that the industry forgot.

LLMs

UX works through social relationships. AI tools are erasing them.

Mar 22, 2026

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8 min read

UX works through social relationships. AI tools are erasing them.

Stakeholders want to vibe code and have designers clean up after them afterwards. But rather than helping with velocity, there is just more noise and more work for everyone.

Pavel Samsonov

Problem Design

Software is a coordination problem. AI can't help you with that.

Mar 13, 2026

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6 min read

Software is a coordination problem. AI can't help you with that.

The feedback loops of the product delivery lifecycle go through people. Adding AI makes it slower, not faster.

Pavel Samsonov

Problem Design

Checking an LLM's work is a systemic, not an individual, problem.

Mar 8, 2026

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8 min read

Checking an LLM's work is a systemic, not an individual, problem.

Only a culture of design critique can prevent sloppy AI-generated problem definitions.

Pavel Samsonov

LLMs

"AI layoffs" like Block's are a race to the bottom that have nothing to do with productivity.

Mar 1, 2026

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7 min read

"AI layoffs" like Block's are a race to the bottom that have nothing to do with productivity.

You won't be replaced by AI, nor a person using AI, because backfills aren't real.

Pavel Samsonov

Systems Thinking

Research is leadership, and code can help (but only in the right places)

Feb 22, 2026

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7 min read

Research is leadership, and code can help (but only in the right places)

Code was never the blocker in delivering customer value — and the easier writing code becomes, the more it distracts from the work we must do to unblock productivity.

Pavel Samsonov

LLMs

Corporations demand perfection from workers, but AI gets unlimited slack.

Feb 15, 2026

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7 min read

Corporations demand perfection from workers, but AI gets unlimited slack.

LLM users have bottomless patience for inconsistent tools, and no grace left for their colleagues. What if we could flip it around?

Pavel Samsonov