At Kaiser Permanente, I used to host a weekly session called Bring Your Own Backlog—a casual, no-stakes space for PMs to talk through product decisions, team dynamics, and anything else weighing on them.
One week, a PM came in stressed. His team had recently launched a fruit-size baby tracker. You know, "your baby is now the size of a kiwi! a mango! a grapefruit!"
It was cute. It worked. But it wasn’t being used much.
Leadership wasn’t impressed, and now he was feeling pressure to build a notifications system just to boost engagement.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I think they just want me to increase fruit tool usage.”
I paused. Then I asked him:
“What else are pregnant people dealing with?”
He blinked.
So I offered a few examples:
Morning sickness. Prenatal vitamins. Birth plans. Clothes that don’t fit anymore. Managing work. Talking to their partner. Planning leave.
You know, actual new mom stuff.
I asked him:
“If you weren’t tied to the fruit tool, what would you build instead?”
He sat quietly for a moment.
Then he said, “Yeah. That’s a way better question.”
The fruit tracker wasn’t wrong.
It just wasn’t the only thing.
And “getting engagement up” isn’t the same as solving a problem.
—
That day, I gave him permission to stop defending the thing he’d already built—and start focusing on what would actually help people.
He left that meeting with clarity, a better story for his leadership team, and a re-centered product mission.
Later, he sent feedback to my manager:
Kate’s particular brand of audacious questions and brutally cheerful dismissal of assumptions always makes me think and ponder anew.
I still say it to PMs (and to myself):
Be more than the fruit tool.
Don’t chase engagement - chase what matters.
Want a product coach who can help you find what’s next - even when your backlog’s full of fruit?
