Rachel Palmer Plut

Of My Extensive Research Skills 😜

CNN's @billweircnn spends half a month without his iPhone, and scans of his brain before and after reveal surprising results. See the full report in The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper — "50 Years of Apple," airing Saturday at 10pm ET/PT. https://cnn.it/47GsZSl

One of the most exhausting things we do as people is constantly edit each other. Correct the pronunciation. Judge the hobby. Dismiss the excitement. Roll our eyes at the story we've already heard before. But when you think about it, the moments people remember most aren't when someone impressed them. They're when someone made them feel safe enough to be themselves. You don't have to love the same things. You don't have to understand every passion. You don't have to agree with every interest. Sometimes empathy looks a lot less like advice and a lot more like giving someone room to exist without turning them into a project. The older I get, the more I realize that kindness isn't always helping. Sometimes it's just letting people be who they are. What's something you're passionate about that other people don't always understand?

In the age of AI, it's tempting to believe that tools will do the thinking for us. They won't. AI can generate specs, mockups, and code in seconds but it can't tell you which problem is worth solving, why customers will care, or how to build a team that consistently discovers products people love. That's craft, and nobody teaches product craft better than Marty Cagan in #INSPIRED. This is the book that shaped a generation of product managers and it's more relevant now than ever. Because when execution gets cheap, judgment becomes the differentiator. What INSPIRED will teach you: → How companies like Amazon, Google, Netflix, and Apple actually design, develop, and ship products billions of people love and why it's so different from how most companies work. →  How to structure and staff a vibrant product organization with the right people and skillsets. →  How to run product discovery separating what customers say from what they'll actually use and value. →  How to build a strong product culture that turns consistent innovation into a habit, not a lucky accident. Whether you're an early-stage founder chasing product/market fit, scaling a growth-stage org, or trying to reignite innovation in a large enterprise this is the foundation. AI will change how we build. INSPIRED teaches you what's worth building and that skill only gets more valuable from here. If you're serious about mastering the product craft, start here. 6,000+ reviews and a permanent spot on the shelf of nearly every great product company can't be wrong. What book shaped your product thinking the most? 👇 #ProductManagement #ProductCraft #AI #Innovation #ProductDiscovery #MartyCagan #BookRecommendation

Allow me to reintroduce myself. Five years ago, I made the hardest decision of my life. I walked away from a relationship that no longer aligned with the future I wanted, or the life I deserved. That decision became my own Independence Day. The last five years have been a masterclass in resilience. They taught me that healing isn’t just personal, it’s transformative. It changes how you lead, how you build a business, how you show up for clients, and how you define success. Today, I’m living a life built on peace instead of survival. I’ve had the privilege of growing my businesses, working with incredible organizations, traveling, building meaningful friendships, and creating a career rooted in authenticity and purpose. For more than 15 years, my career has centered around helping businesses find their voice. I’ve built brands, crafted marketing strategies, and helped organizations tell stories that genuinely connect with people. What I didn’t realize was that I still hadn’t fully found my own. Writing My Survival Era reminded me why storytelling is so powerful. The stories that resonate most aren’t polished or perfect, they’re honest. They create connection, build trust, and remind us that we’re never as alone as we think we are. That belief shapes every part of my work today. Whether I’m helping a client tell the story behind their business or sharing my own journey, my goal is the same: to create something authentic enough that someone else feels seen because of it. This week, I shared my own story publicly for the first time. My Survival Era is officially live. It’s more than a memoir about surviving an abusive relationship. It’s about reclaiming your identity, rebuilding your confidence, and discovering that your hardest chapters don’t have to define your future. If my story gives even one person the courage to leave, heal, or believe they’re worthy of more, then every page was worth writing. Five years ago, I chose myself. It remains the best decision I’ve ever made. 📖 My Survival Era is available now: https://amzn.to/3QBmbjB

The pitch: These are "the kinds of bold bets leaders of AI supercompanies make now to win the market of the future." And it's... Layoffs as a leadership highlight reel? Headcount cuts as the proof point for who gets to speak at your conference? My own foundational leadership principle, regardless of what shiny new toy graces the market, is that as leaders, we are stewards of our people. AI does not change that. Of course, AI is creating seismic shifts in our orgs. That's a fact leaders have to deal with. But there's a difference between navigating that change responsibly and marketing it as a trophy. When "we cut 80% of our staff" becomes the headline you put on an invite, you've stopped being a steward and started being a case study for the wrong lesson. I'll take the boring version of leadership any day: the one where you actually ask your people if they trust what future you're building, and where managing new technology doesn't excuse being careless with the humans affected by it.

Spending time with our teams and partners in Asia is always a meaningful reminder of what makes zak! special 🌏 This trip was especially memorable as we celebrated Mother’s Day together at the factory, sharing stories of motherhood across cultures and gaining perspective on how those experiences differ and connect between China and the U.S. Moments like that go beyond business, they bring people together in the most meaningful way. Alongside that, we had the opportunity to collaborate closely with our partners on future product development and spend time exploring the local culture, strengthening relationships that are at the heart of everything we do. We’re proud of the global partnerships behind our products and the incredible teams who bring them to life every day! #ZakDesigns #EverydaySmiles

Kelsey Pfendler took off from Monterey, California, in May, setting out to become the first American woman, youngest woman and fastest woman to make the more than 2,400-mile journey solo to Hawaii. She wound up smashing both the women's and men's record. Hundreds of thousands of people followed along as she shared on TikTok the reality of life alone at sea. The long days and nights of rowing, the blistered hands, the funny encounters, and everything in between. Hundreds showed up to cheer her on as she pulled into the Honolulu harbor after nearly a month and a half at sea. “If any part of this made at least one person feel a little bit more powerful in their own skin, I couldn’t ask for anything else and I’m happy,” she said. “Think about trying to find your own big, hard, scary thing. You might not think that you are strong enough to finish it right now, but you’re definitely strong enough to start it, and you’ll find everything else along the way."

In 1999, Matthew McConaughey stepped on my foot at a bar in San Francisco. I want to say I said something charming. But I was dumbstruck. Couldn’t get out a word. I’m not really the fangirl type. Not anymore, anyway. But about six years ago, mid-first-course at The French Laundry, I saw Thomas Keller step out of the kitchen to talk to the team, about 30 feet away. I squealed. Out loud. He didn’t hear me. He turned and left for the day. My husband still laughs about it. Keller is like a god to me. Not because the food was incredible, although it truly was. At that level, exceptional food is table stakes. What stayed with me was everything around the food. A server told the story behind each plate as it arrived. The sommelier brought each glass of wine timed so precisely to the course, it felt like choreography. No one hovered. No one rushed us. I got an entire truffle shaved onto my fifth course. The whole night seemed built around one question: How do we make this guest feel something they’ll keep with them? The following year, I ate at another 3-star Michelin restaurant in San Francisco. The food was good. Very good. But it wasn’t the same. I left full, not moved. The artistry was impressive, but I wasn’t changed by the experience. The difference wasn’t the cooking. It was the noticing. The care that turns a meal into something you remember years later. A friend said to me recently, “With AI and automation and everything happening in tech, people don't know what good looks like anymore.” I slightly disagree. I think people know. They just don’t always trust what they notice. Because good isn’t always louder. It’s not always faster. It’s not the cleanest sentence, the prettiest deck, or the most polished page. Good is when someone has clearly thought about the person on the other side. What they already believe. What they’re tired of hearing. What they need to understand before they can care. That’s the bar I’ve held my whole life, just at different scales. The grilled sandwich I spent 20 minutes making my now-husband when we first started dating, because slapping deli meat between bread felt like settling. The Thanksgiving dishes I made for a vegetarian guest, because she thought bringing her own meal was her being nice. As if I'd let anyone sit at my table with a frozen dinner. The extra question I ask because the first answer usually isn’t the real one. The sentence I rewrite because technically correct isn’t the same as true. None of this is magic. Most of it is noticing. AI can give you words. Automation can move those words faster. But neither knows what your buyer is carrying when they land on your page. Neither knows which detail will make them exhale. Neither knows when the right move is to say less, explain more, or change the frame entirely. That’s the difference between done and good. Done checks the box. Good makes someone feel like you were really paying attention before they ever arrived.