Mark Mandau

Peak Fix™
Clarity @ the software rewrite crossroads to reverse product debt | safeguard customers | drive growth

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

I'm putting "quietly" next to the em dash in my Hospice for Aging AI-ISMs.

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

AI can accelerate aging software modernization. But without context, governance, and risk discipline, it can backfire and deepen the ditch. (For full context, go to my LinkedIn post: https://t.co/Fpwc68Rm8B)

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

AI coding speed is not modernization strategy.

Leaders are realizing context, governance, and ROI discipline decide whether risk goes down or up.

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

Warning signs matter. Customer impact is what turns modernization from a tech debate into a business imperative.

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

AI is not the initiative. The CAIO’s job is to help the CEO bake AI into mission progress, not sprinkle it across the org.

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

Humans are more than capital.

But as an investment, they multiply what is put into them.

Workforce chemistry doesn't just happen. Relationships take effort. Sometimes lessons are hard-won.

Yet it's never too late to learn how to have better relationships, home and at work.

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

CEOs, is AI helping your aging software stack ascend, or just helping your team to dig a deeper ditch?

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

Before you approve the cure, make sure your team has diagnosed the real disease.

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

CEOs approve rewrites because they are pitched as solving platform problems.

What they get instead is hard-won product context erased and teams split apart.

What they really want is product velocity to grow their business competitiveness, margin, revenue, and market share.

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

Not a call for blind rewrites, but a notice to big tech. AI gives upstarts a shot to compete on solving real user problems. Will they?

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

Whether AI or human, tell your team "why".

Bad products start when teams execute decisions they don’t understand.

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

AI coding has a rhythm.

Keep enough context alive to make the next ask clear.
Tell AI "why".

Not every run hits gold. But it doesn't have to.

Momentum is not a bug, it's the feature.

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

What if Jira and Figma merged ...

...to be an Claude Design-like epic prototype builder/tracker which calls out dependencies in a new UI/UX?

This could be highly valuable for both product discovery and delivery.

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

May the 4th be with the auto coders.

Product people: prototyping wizards.
Engineers: production factories.

Nuance welcome.

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

Hang in there, Chat. We can get through it together.

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

Big Tech PM interviews can miss a core product principle.

The problem isn’t frameworks.

It’s when frameworks get so heavy they resemble waterfall.

Too many steps without audience check-ins increases product-market drift.

AI isn’t the only intelligence that hallucinates.

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

A product of our times. Let me know how much this resonates with you.

https://t.co/aqUNqVWkRh

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

Most software rewrite conversations start before anyone calls them a rewrite.

Business: Tired of waiting.

Engineering: Platform can’t support growth. Starting fresh may be easier.

For CEOs, this can become a lonely decision fast.

Mandau Coexecutives exists for that moment.

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

Is Jira still the right tool when AI agents can help move from idea to prototype faster than tickets can be groomed?

Tickets made sense when coordination was the bottleneck.

Now the bottleneck is shifting to vision, product sense, and judgment.

Does this apply to delivery too?

[Mark Mandau @MarkMandau]

Is Jira still the right tool when AI agents can help move from idea to prototype faster than tickets can be groomed?

Tickets made sense when coordination was the bottleneck.

Now the bottleneck is shifting to vision, product sense, and judgment.

Does this apply to delivery too?