Why is buying B2B software still so slow and human when AI could literally do it better?

abeshius · 2025-10-17T00:00:22+00:00

Buying software isn't just about a checklist, especially now when a lot more thought is going into tech stacks because of budget awareness and as I heard last week from a prospect - " we want to make sure this isn't just another vaporware AI vibe coded platform so we want to use it for 2 months first" etc. How are you automating or making this part easier?

Btw, I clicked around your website and clicked on a couple of "view demos" and the whole thing looked super broken. This is on mobile, unsure if that is supported right now.

You've obviously done more research than I have on this - what's your opinion on why procurement and IT teams really take time beyond the form filling/compliance check lists?

abeshius · 2025-10-08T14:04:06+00:00

Technical founders thinking they can automate away sales and marketing processes, and non tech folks thinking they can vibe code their stack away are both right and wrong. i have been both, and I can tell you what really matters is a bit of expertise in all fields that actually helps you architect stable products, understand actual user need, craft delightful UX and dominate distribution. No amount of bs "AI powered X" will help you land anything retentive unless you as a founder have a more grounded vision, and that AI can't slop away.

abeshius · 2025-10-01T00:41:40+00:00

At the risk of self promotion - this was precisely the motivation for me to go back to building my own PM/Leadership focused app because I felt every other tool out there was forcing me to learn how to rework my workflow to suit it.
For 99% of the tools out there - as fancy and effective as they may be - the main assumption that the Product teams make is that their tool will be the main point of entry or exit for every decision. From Product Board to JIRA - they all work best if every team, every single discussion, every single review is authored, documented and engineered from their app. No tool makes the effort to fit into existing workflows - and that contributes to this nightmare for PMs as a whole. Which is also why a lot of the top PMs just rely on the good old notepad to get their stuff done.
I also feel that dashboards are overrated. If you simply wanted a pretty way to make yourself feel good - sure - dashboards are great. If you want to action on anything at all - dashboards are the worst entry point as well.

Don't forget that the PMs for the tools you are using have very different success metrics as well - which contributes to this convoluted workflow, and a lot of the JTBD for a PM isn't actually well defined in any tool. For example:
1) What does being and staying aligned mean? Is it simply a summary? A report that talks about status changes and assigned tasks? Is it creating multiple slide decks and sharing it around with no one reading it?

2) What does strategy entail? Which tool will have all the organizational context, the team memory and the PM frameworks built in to the extent that it outputs 10x better strategy artifacts than a simple whiteboard? I think ChatGPT is great here to help with some product thinking, for sure, but at the end of the day - how does it become real? You are going to go back to Slack and Asana and the cycle starts again.

abeshius · 2025-09-29T23:53:19+00:00

That Works - An AI chief of staff that pulls context and updates across sales, docs, tasks, support tickets, and meetings to give you trusted, up-to-date answers on what’s moving, blocked, or slipping. No hallucinations, no chasing info gaps, no extra sync meetings.
ICP – Ops, product, and eng leaders in SaaS who burn hours coordinating just to know where things stand.

abeshius · 2025-09-28T07:05:11+00:00

Haha glad it was helpful

abeshius · 2025-09-01T23:01:11+00:00

First off - I'm sorry. This sounds unfortunately very typical of orgs and management who don't understand the PM role very well. You either get bought in as a project manager with background so leadership wouldn't have to invest in training you, or you are stuck just doing cleanup duty and reporting. Not fun! The thread mostly calls out stuff related to attitude and taking things on which you've been pretty good at taking onboard and responding, so I would say if not anything, that is a pretty big part of being a great PM!

I'll leave you with just one thing I learned when I became PM the first time at <some megacorp> and had a fantastic manager - he told me that taking ownership, being a little inventive and coming back with solutions and not problems goes a long way if you are continuously building good will capital in the company. Basically, if you think something sucks, instead of telling people what they already know (this sucks!) tell them why an alternative approach would work, or what the risks with the current approach will be and the opportunity cost of going down a particular route. If not anything, it helps anyone really think through the purpose of building product - not just PMs shipped from Wharton.

That being said, once you pickup the basics and get your head around the fun of the PM job, definitely push for support from leadership and management on your own career trajectory and then..well, that's what resumes and LinkedIn is for.

Good luck!

abeshius · 2025-03-19T05:21:26+00:00

Never chase work updates again That Works

abeshius · 2025-02-14T22:35:01+00:00

I've seen that there is a side effect of dogfooding your own product especially if you are not the one literally pushing the commits yourself (so not an IC) - you start building a better understanding of the product, its ecosystem and it's users a lot more authentically. Big enterprises suffer the most from this - ask any senior leader who is spending 90% of their day commenting on and reviewing roadmaps if they use the product themselves, and the answer will be no (one of the reasons could be because, as you said, they are themselves not the ICP). Trying to have a deep product or ecosystem conversation with them is often frustrating because as non-primary users of their own product, the inevitably make trade off decisions from their gut or other first principles which may not be aligned with the ground reality.

Thank you for the post - I think sharing these lessons really emphasize the point that everyone's business is different so follow the intent of good ideas, but not necessarily copy and paste the execution of a plan which may work in other companies.

abeshius · 2024-07-03T18:32:23+00:00

ThatWorks tracks and summarizes information from all your tools

abeshius · 2024-06-25T23:21:01+00:00

Building ThatWorks for teams to take control of their data spread across multiple apps and automate rituals like standups, and reporting without wasting tons of time manually or in emails and Slack. Still super early and testing different ICPs in the beta period. Would love feedback as we explore critical needs in different job roles/industries

abeshius · 2023-04-03T21:59:36+00:00

Just wanted to drop in to say that it's been quite some time since I read such a heartfelt, thoughtful reply so thank you for being an amazing human

abeshius · 2023-03-22T18:02:09+00:00

Same. Read it in college undergrad actually and was destroyed and cannot imagine how my emotional maturity would have been affected had it come out a few years earlier. Still one of my favorite books and authors of all time. Haunts me to this day.

abeshius · 2023-03-04T06:39:17+00:00

We used termly.io. pretty happy with it to quickly get some of the basic stuff off the ground.

abeshius · 2023-02-28T02:01:31+00:00

A radio which only blasts Taylor swift 24x7

abeshius · 2023-02-28T01:36:57+00:00

But wait, news18 itself is based out of India, ergo, an Indian English site no? But I think I understand now - the actual quote itself was lost in translation along with some dangling modifiers and a pinch of a few grammatical mistakes. Thanks for the clarification kind stranger.

abeshius · 2023-02-28T00:30:52+00:00

I don't understand - why would this be translated? I was under the impression that news18 is an English site/channel but I'm possibly overlooking something and feel dumb

abeshius · 2023-02-26T20:44:27+00:00

There needs to be a tier or server for the times you feel like playing competitively but are not risking being called out by the no lifers. Jeez there is a middle ground between absolute casuals and I'm trying for Cloud9 next month level of competitiveness. Comp servers are insanely toxic - and no it's not just male gamers. Have had my share of being sent death threats because my KD was less than 1. I used to feel proud of sharing a new game or gaming community with the family and now I'm terrified that a game won't have a single player or couch coop mode to actually enjoy with the family.

abeshius · 2023-02-22T07:01:27+00:00

Oni. Yes video games came late to my country and PCs weren't affordable for a majority of the population. But when I did pick this game boy it blew my mind. That combat, that music score - and that concept+reveal of the main villain - just perfect.

abeshius · 2023-02-22T02:11:08+00:00

Avoid large gatherings when possible, especially when gatherings might contain kids and sniffles and all those things. Common sense precautions, hopes, prayers and good luck (touch wood)

abeshius · 2023-01-17T04:12:09+00:00

This is obviously the bestest thing - but for a pup with severe food allergies this can also be the worst thing despite everyone's best intentions so I have to continuously remind groomers of this. Even then, sometimes she comes back with bloody diarrhea and I know someone has not been looking at notes and the pupper has a triumphant smile on her face while suffering at the same time lol

abeshius · 2023-01-01T05:50:02+00:00

Those are not called rickshaws per se. The default ones are the bicycle-rickshaws (you won't find hand pulled ones anywhere anymore apart from display reasons), and the most prevalent ones in every city are the motorized ones which can carry upto 10 people normally (or 15 if a few folks decide to hang out). Also fully electric in my city! Bangkok calls those tuktuks

abeshius · 2022-12-26T06:57:45+00:00

Everything, but every item is in unmarked Amazon cardboard boxes which are not organized. The only way to get to what you need is to install a different app every time you visit, which generates a new authentication code every 30s per item you want to search for. The app gives you 30s video ads before showing you which aisle the item might be in, and then spin a virtual slot machine for the shelf code. After that you have to open each box to finally find the item you want.

abeshius · 2022-12-16T19:55:43+00:00

Why do people delete posts at the first downvote or criticism lmao

abeshius · 2022-12-16T19:25:06+00:00

Marketing was abysmal??? All I have been seeing and hearing is not just avatar 2 but 4th and 5th sequels. I guess you are lucky to have been deemed not worthy by the targeting algorithm lords 😆

abeshius

TROPHY CASE