theKeel

Strategic Product Management System

The difference between drifting and navigating.

"You've risen through the ranks. But here's what haunts you: you're navigating by habit, not by design. You do the work — the interviews, the roadmaps, the standups — but the pieces never quite connect. Everyone sails these waters. You just drift through them faster than most."
━━━I · THE VOYAGE━━━

The Disciplined Voyage

Everyone sails these waters. Few navigate them with intention.

BEARING 00 — THE QUESTION

"What do others overlook? Where does everyone assume the map is complete?"

Raise the telescope. While others glance at the horizon, you study it. Find the disagio — that unsettling feeling where the map doesn't match the territory. The opportunity isn't in uncharted waters. It's in seeing what everyone else sails past.

🧭 ORDERS
01Sense the disagio — what doesn't work in your world?
02Scan using Six Paths — where is value waiting to be created?
03Find noncustomers — who ISN'T buying and why?
04Go deep with the Iceberg — what mental models create this friction?
05Validate with UPW — is this urgent, pervasive, worth paying for?
🧭 INSTRUMENTS
Disagio IdentificationDesign Thinking
Six Paths FrameworkBlue Ocean
Three Tiers of NoncustomersBlue Ocean
Iceberg ModelSystems Thinking
UPW FilterPragmatic
Challenge StatementDesign Thinking
DESTINATION: A validated bearing worth pursuing
━━━II · THE DEPTHS━━━

Systems Thinking Applied to Product

1
DEPTH 1: SURFACE
What's the problem? What's the solution?
REACT
2
DEPTH 2: CURRENTS
What are second-order effects? Who else is impacted?
PREDICT
3
DEPTH 3: DEPTHS
How does this reshape the system? What game are we now playing?
NAVIGATE
━━━III · THE SPOILS━━━

Proof in Practice

Real voyages. Real treasure. The system in action.

PRODUCT EXPEDITION

HASM Platform

Human Attack Surface Management

Creating a new security category by converging 8 point solution domains around the human as the unified attack surface.

SERVICES EXPEDITION

SHAZAM Security Services

Managed Security Services Program

Building a services portfolio that mirrors the attacker kill chain for credit unions who are compliance-driven but capability-poor.

Everyone sails. Few navigate.

Build the system that connects every move.

SET SAIL →