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Dean Peters

@deanpeters.bsky.social
237 followers 76 following 362 posts

Product Management trainer & coach, recovering developer w/a secret past as an opera singer. Views expressed are my own! More on me via my blog DeanOnDelivery.

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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Filed under, truth is stranger than fiction: AI Contractors Shouldn't Use AI to Evaluate AI Model, Says AI Company share.google/tmPVLdFh6Rwm...
share.google
AI Contractors Shouldn't Use AI to Evaluate AI Model, Says AI Company
That's one way for AI to put you out of work.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Never shack up with your own product line's complexity. Instead, marry your customer's clarity. And this is why In-N-Out Burger stores out-earn the McDonald's down the street. $6M per store beats $4M every time.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Apparently ChatGPT can now turn “aging bald guy takes selfie” into “aging bald guy has a publicist.” Better image fidelity. Better at changing what you ask while leaving the rest the hell alone. Same aging bald guy. Better math. Fewer frightened children.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
BEHOLD: How AI Transformations Devolve – The AI Transformation Anti-Patterns Immaturity Model 1. AI Dabblism 2. Prompt Cargo-CultisM 3. Agentic Maximalism 4. AI Command-n-Controlism 5. AI Scapegoatism
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Remember kiddies, when it comes to AI, garbage in == garbage out.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
This is too much fun: gulfof.mapquest.com/lakeontario/...!
gulfof.mapquest.com
Lake Take Off Ya Hoser! Eh? - MapQuest
Check out my custom map where I renamed Lake Ontario to Lake Take Off Ya Hoser! Eh?!
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Not everything that glitters is gold. True for 'The Merchant of Venice.' True for 'The Hucksters of Vibe Coding.'
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
I don't often post political pontifications nor social statements online, but when it comes to trading liberty for safety, I'll make an exception in the form of a futuristic fable. Especially when it's about the Unintended Consequences of AI Watermarks. deanpeters.substack.com/p/the-monopo...
deanpeters.substack.com
The Monopoly of Truth
The Unintended Consequences of AI Watermarking
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Filed Under: Everybody's trying to sell AI Product Management with "Get hired." "Get promoted." Meanwhile, while you're busy learning how to agenti-fry half your job away, you might also want to learn how not to vibe-fired. Two outcomes. Both important. Curious as to how? Reach out to me.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
The doom merchants want you frightened enough to subscribe. I want you technical enough to stop caring what they think. So ignore the infographic influencers, prompt pimps, & vibe vendors scaring you into commenting “SPAMME” for their secret recipe. deanpeters.substack.com/p/getting-pa...
deanpeters.substack.com
Getting Past the AI Chaos, Confusion, & Crapola
AI is not coming for the people who know what problem is worth solving & how to build the right thing. It’s coming for the beige, the busywork & the theater.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Ask AI to double your outputs & it will cheerfully bury you in 2x as much stuff nobody needed. Congrats. You optimized the metric & mugged the outcome Remember, AI is a multiplier. Measure the wrong thing & it scales the nonsense, on time, under budget, with a cheerful summary.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Apparently prompts are dead? Loop & Goal are the new black? Batch & Routine are a shinier new black, but with red louboutin soles? Bullshit, prompts are most certainly not dead. They merely inherited bigger vocabulary from the 1980s. #TheresNothingNewUnderTheSun. open.substack.com/pub/deanpete...
open.substack.com
Prompts Aren't Dead. They Just Got a Bigger Vocabulary
Four old rules for algorithms, a little loop lingo, and Just Enough Jinja2 before the /loop, /goal, /batch, /routine machinery eats your afternoon and tokens!
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
What most "Copilot 101" training looks like for product managers trying to get real work done. Don't worry, we make sure our AI PM training improves your AI-Fu so it has teeth, instead of hitting you in the teeth (need to turn up the audio on the video to get that joke). Snarky comments welcome.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
AI transformation theater has a nasty habit of turning local dysfunction into enterprise-wide wreckage. AI will not magically cover up systemic issues. Rather, AI expands their blast radius. The problem usually isn’t AI automations failed. The problem is assuming implementation = transformation.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Meaning, not every problem is a nail in search of a Generative AI solution. Avoid the YACht trap of racing to bolt on Yet Another Chatbot when a different modality of AI, are even no AI at all, makes for a better solution to a real problem.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Gretchen und Hilde HiPPO, who like me, knows no borders when it comes to teaching great product management. Today we head off to Germany for another engagement to help people understand that you can never tackle, cage, or otherwise control a HiPPO. Join me on this journey.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Teams spend 10mins building context & 10hrs vibing output, then act shocked when discovery has the depth of a kiddie pool, agentic feral cats chew thru API budgets & prototypes gets ghosted like a blind date on TikTok. AI doesn’t replace context. It punishes teams that skip it.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Blue or Green. What color is your AI maturity journey? The answer says a lot about whether your AI strategy is changing the work, the people, or both. I’ve taught PM to hundreds of practitioners & dozens of orgs. I keep hearing the same story. Twice. Read on... open.substack.com/pub/deanpete...
open.substack.com
Which AI Journey Are You On?
What color is your AI maturity journey? Because the answer says a lot about whether your AI strategy is changing the work, the people, or both.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
AI is hard now? Please. In 1995, “AI” meant Perl, malformed XML, a rules engine pretending to be a neural net, and Java applets loading sometime before the heat death of the universe. Now the agent apologizes if Python takes 7 seconds. Leave a comment. Misery loves bandwidth.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
You vibed it. You demoed it. You called it a prototype. Then someone HiPPO demanded you ship it. Now it's a commitment. Vibe coding isn't the problem. It's about how Product Managers prototype in an era of fast, cheap, and fun generative AI. open.substack.com/pub/deanpete...
open.substack.com
Vibe to Learn, Not to Earn
7 Sins Every Product Manager Commits with a Prototype
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Part of my AI class includes "The Toaster Challenge" when I lose my mind over taking a perfectly good $40 toaster, adding AI & a touchscreen, then charging $300 more. Point is, don't mistake AI integration with innovation. Instead, leave the toaster alone, and focus on unmet or underserved needs.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Not every problem is a nail in search of an agentic hammer. Just keep that in mind as y'all race to load up on Mac Minis and vibe-coded token eaters.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Why your shiny new agent, chatbot, or copilot may be beautifully solving the wrong “It.” The team did the Why work. Then a seagull manager swoops in, blurts a solution, & suddenly 6 months of discovery becomes roadmap roadkill by asking the wrong how: deanpeters.substack.com/p/how-might-...
deanpeters.substack.com
How Might We AI?
Why your shiny new agent, chatbot, or copilot might be beautifully solving the wrong "It" because you failed to explore the "How" before shaping the "What"
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Everyone is sprinting to AI like it's the last chopper out of Saigon. New copilots. New agents. New dashboards that glow like a Vegas casino at 2 a.m. We haven't learned that AI without a Why is just a very expensive parrot with a GPU habit. Read why: open.substack.com/pub/deanpete...
open.substack.com
Why Starting with Why Matters for AI
Everyone is sprinting toward AI like it’s the last helicopter out of Saigon. New copilots. New agents. New dashboards that glow like a Vegas casino at 2 a.m.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
In Windsor, UK this weekend. Dropped in on a small bakery for something to eat. It was late, and they bakery was wrapping up for the night. Yet the woman behind the counter intrigued I identified their spinach-cheese roll 'spankopita' with an American accent.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Let’s do something AI can’t do. Have a real conversation … and talk trash about it. Pint or coffee. London Mar 23–28. DM me.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Are we optimizing 90% of our work on the wrong constraint? Sure, vibe-coding may feel like faster product management, but remember, the market isn’t paying for code. This piece is about that missing step. The one between “we can” and “we should.” open.substack.com/pub/deanpete...
open.substack.com
The Vibe-Code Deluge
We optimized the wrong constraint. Brilliantly. Vibe-coding may feel like faster product management, but remember, the market isn’t paying for code.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Talented AI PM teams can be still produce chaos. When every PM works in an individual session silo, inconsistency becomes the system. Context is not “more info.” It is shared governance. medium.com/deanondelive...
medium.com
Day 05 — Context Engineering Is a Team Sport
AI product management teams can be excellent at prompting and still produce chaos. Twelve Claude tabs. Twelve truths. One product nobody…
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
AI product managers live & die by their prompts. “Write me a user story” is not a prompt. It’s a prayer. Prayers are a fragile ops. model. Day 04: What prompting well actually looks like. Not prayer. Not a vending machine. A craft many teams skip entirely. medium.com/deanondelive...
medium.com
Day 04 — Stop Prompting Like a Tourist
AI product managers live and die by their prompts. “Write me a user story” is not a prompt. It’s a prayer. And prayers are a fragile…
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Your AI product management team is shipping features. Your customers still hate the product. That’s not an AI problem. That’s a problem-definition problem. Day 03: The most expensive mistake in AI PM is pointing the right tools at the wrong problem. medium.com/deanondelive...
medium.com
Day 03 — Stop Solving the Wrong Problem
Your AI product management team is shipping features. Your customers still hate the product. That’s not an AI problem. That’s a…
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Just how many AI PMs are traditional PMs with AI-induced imposter syndrome? AI product managers are the hottest title in tech. Many are legacy PMs with AI-induced imposter syndrome. The skills gap is real. It’s widening daily. More here on the topic: medium.com/deanondelive...
medium.com
Day 02 — The AI PM Skills Nobody Teaches
Just how many AI PMs are traditional PMs with AI-induced imposter syndrome?
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Happy Monday people ... hopefully the Claude outages won't be too stressful. status.claude.com
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
How much you want to bet some 'lollygaggers' live here?
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
AI product management is product admin in disguise. Many updated job titles in 4 secs. Few updated their practice past prompts. Day 1 of a 15-day series. The $13B Clippy moment. The n8n-is-a-strategy myth. The real definition. If it stings, good. medium.com/deanondelive...
medium.com
Day 01 — WTH Is AI Product Management?
Everyone’s claiming it. Almost nobody actually understands it.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Ever been in that meeting? Where peeps argue over oars & you don't even know if you're taking the river or the road yet? Nobody defined the problem. Nobody set the strategy. But Karen has STRONG feelings about composite blades. Don't put the cart before the horse. Pick the river or road first.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Research is in. Had Dave cursed at HAL, he'd a gotten better results than being relatively polite. Ever since ChatGPT showed up, AI influencers have preached “be kind” pablum. A recent PSU study says otherwise. Honestly? Me and my typed-out tirades are relieved. www.linkedin.com/pulse/impoli...
linkedin.com
Impolite Prompts Yield More Accurate Responses
If you’ve been tiptoeing around your chatbot like it’s an easily-startled executive sponsor, good news: it’s not. In fact, research reveals the opposite is true
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Everyone is duct-taping agents together like caffeinated raccoons & calling it “strategy.” Congrats. You’ve built fragility with a GitHub star. The PM failure isn’t tooling. It’s abdication. No goals. No decision logic. No guardrails. Just vibes, workflows, and a prayer that nothing breaks at 2am.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
Welcome to agent-mageddon. AI is replacing PMs. IRL: an agent-only social network. 1 bot braggs it fired the PM. Metrics up. Everyone cheered. Nobody asked why. substack.com/@deanpeters/...
substack.com
I Replaced My PM with a Bash Script
Welcome to agent-mageddon. AI is replacing PMs. IRL: an agent-only social network. 1 bot braggs it fired the PM. Metrics up. Everyone cheered. Nobody asked why.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
We keep telling product managers to “be objective,” then act shocked when decisions wobble. Bias isn’t a bug. It’s a vestigial survival feature we never outgrew. Look at the picture. Be honest. You don’t just see these biases. You recognize them. You counter them. And on bad days, sneak a more in.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Keyboard of the Future. Molt that MFrs 😜
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
We treat opera singers & athletes like pros: years of training for moments of performance. Then we hire product managers, give them 1 day of training, and expect flawless “performance” forever. If you want better outcomes, stop measuring the show & start funding the rehearsal.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Only thin layer of snow & ice here near Raleigh. Nothing like Snowmageddon 2014. Still, it cold & slick enough to have me push out this important infographic, "The Unofficial Southern Snowpocalypse Guide : Illustrated advice for people who should know better!"
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
Stop Cognitive Rot. End Intellectual Atrophy. This isn't panic. It's peer-reviewed. 3 years after the release of ChatGPT, we are now quietly trading thinking for fluency. The research is no longer subtle. Let's count the ways. 🧵 1/7
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
I spent ~2k hours training & engaging ~1k product managers in 2025. Here are the Top 10 AI PM Mistakes of I observed. YMMV. 2025 demonstrated that AI doesn't fix dysfunction, but rather it amplifies it. Read the why's behind my list in my Substack article: deanpeters.substack.com/p/top-10-ai-...
deanpeters.substack.com
Top 10 AI PM Mistakes of 2025
What ~2k Hours Training and Engaging ~1k PMs Revealed About AI Hype, Bad Product Thinking, Getting Vibe-Fired, and 2025’s Biggest AIPM Mistakes.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
I'm not a big fan of Halloween, but in this case I'll make an exception. Behold, my Larry Lounge Lizard kit comes back to life as an AI product manager costume. Meanwhile, I'll be vibing together a webinar on building shit with AI for PMs is coming November 13th. Be there, or be square.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
Local LLMs torch toes, drain GPUs, & crank fans. They also give PMs freedom, privacy, & the thrill of off-road experiments. Spent past 2 weeks doing this. I Summarized my learning in this field guide: 🔫How to Shoot Yourself in the Foot with Localized LLMs: deanpeters.substack.com/p/how-to-sho...
deanpeters.substack.com
How to shoot yourself in the foot with localized LLMs
Local LMMs. They torch toes, drain GPUs, and crank fans, but they also deliver PMs freedom, privacy, and the thrill of running off-road experiments. Here's my Comparative Guide to Localized Large Lang...
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
OpenAI: world's smartest AI, 700M users, unlimited resources. Still created user rebellion by ignoring PM basics: → Confused users overnight → Demoed to devs only → Killed features without warning Competitors feast while they fix. deanpeters.substack.com/p/even-the-w...
deanpeters.substack.com
Even the World's Best AI Can't Fix Bad Product Management
OpenAI's GPT-5 disaster proves even the world's smartest AI can't fix bad product management. 700M users revolted when they ignored PM basics. Brutal.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
The GPT-5 launch sucked but the tech doesn't. While benchmarks test fruit letters, I'm getting real PM sh!t done with AI. i.e.; I can scaffold a solid PRD, validate with simulated stakeholder feedback, and generate a working prototype in under 2 hours. deanpeters.substack.com/p/sam-altman...
deanpeters.substack.com
Sam Altman's Missing GPT-5 Benchmark: How Starting with Why Could Have Saved the Demo
The GPT-5 launch sucked but the tech doesn't. While benchmarks test fruit letters, here's how to actually get real PM shit done with AI.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
When the smoke clears from the AI bonfire of hype & vibe, the last one standing won’t be “ChatGPT for Pets.” It’ll be some beige B2B company quietly using AI to catch fraud or reroute trucks. Not sexy. Not viral. Just printing money while others pivot.
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Dean Peters @deanpeters.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Great product managers don't negotiate in features, timelines, or headcount. They negotiate in the currency of trade-offs.
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