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Author: Aye Stephen, MBA

Aye Stephen is a product leader with two decades of experience across product management, strategy, and organizational leadership. He has held senior roles in product leadership, most recently as Chief Product Officer at one of Europe's leading eCommerce ERP platforms. Known for building high-performing teams in complex, fast-moving environments, he brings deep expertise in agile product development and organizational change. Stephen holds an MBA from Goethe Business School Frankfurt and an M.A. in American Studies and Media Science from Philipps University Marburg.
Sports car split between a muscular Renaissance anatomical study and a flat, lifeless consumer-electronics shape, symbolizing Ferrari's failed digital transformation with Jony Ive

The Luce Chronicles: Ferrari, Jony Ive, and the Anatomy of a Digital Transformation Failure

Posted on June 26, 2026June 26, 2026 by Aye Stephen, MBA

“I don’t sell cars; I sell engines. The cars I throw in for free, since something has to hold the engines in.” // Enzo Ferrari, Founder of Ferrari The luxury car industry has, since 2024, put together a winning streak of failed digital transformation that you couldn’t have scripted better. Jaguar deleted its brand, relaunched,…

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Star Trek Scotty and Data illustration representing the shift from human engineers to AI in product leadership, pencil sketch style

Saying Goodbye to Mr. Scott: What Star Trek Teaches Us About AI Product Leadership

Posted on June 22, 2026June 22, 2026 by Aye Stephen, MBA

Working with Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT is starting to feel like working with the AI we know from science fiction – and it’s reshaping what AI product leadership actually looks like in practice. Not the menacing kind – Terminator, the Matrix. Though we’d be naive to pretend that future isn’t on the table if AI…

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Workplace Toxicity: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy - the Dark Triad shows up in every org.

Workplace Toxicity: The Dark Triad – What Psychology Tells Us About the Colleagues Who Drain Your Team

Posted on June 15, 2026June 20, 2026 by Aye Stephen, MBA

Every team has one. The colleague whose wins are always personal and whose failures are always someone else’s. The peer who agrees with you in private and contradicts you in the room that matters. The manager who stays ice-cold under pressure that would rattle anyone else – and never quite explains why that coldness always…

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Building on the foundation of customer understanding to create products people actually want

Creating products people actually want: The Power of the Value Proposition Canvas

Posted on May 20, 2026May 18, 2026 by Aye Stephen, MBA

Few things in product management are as fundamental-and as frequently misunderstood-as the value proposition. Every company claims to offer value. But what does that really mean? And how do you ensure your product actually delivers on that promise? In my previous post on Why Defining Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) Is the Cornerstone of Product…

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Platform Strategy - Dark editorial illustration showing a glowing Steam orb casting golden light against the shadow of a towering corporate monolith — a visual metaphor for Valve's strategic defiance of Microsoft's platform dominance.

How Microsoft Handed Valve and Linux Its Biggest Win – Platform Strategy Case Study

Posted on May 10, 2026May 16, 2026 by Aye Stephen, MBA

When you pressure a competitor into solving a problem they never planned to solve, you might just disrupt yourself. The Valve–Proton story is a valuable lesseon in form of a platform strategy case study for Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma in real time – told by someone who saw it coming from the inside. After a long…

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Bad Bunny Super Bowl 2026 product management lesson: divided stadium showing backlash vs engagement

Product Mangement Lessons from From Bad Bunny’s Superbowl Attendance

Posted on February 18, 2026May 16, 2026 by Aye Stephen, MBA

When you think about product management lessons, a Puerto Rican reggaeton artist probably isn’t the first person who comes to mind. But Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio—better known as Bad Bunny—has built one of the most successful brands in modern music through strategies that product managers would be wise to study. Bad Bunny isn’t just popular;…

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