The Swift Rise of ‘Fake Product’

Old habits are dying hard — and they’re wearing a new label.

Remember when everything suddenly became “Agile” even when the practices and “Transformation” approaches weren’t?

Well, guess what?

The same missteps are now creeping into the world of Product.

I’m calling it early:
Fake Agile is migrating to Fake Product.
And the shift is happening fast.

You’re company is not outcome-driven …

… Just output-obsessed with new labels.

What’s Actually Happening?

As Agile consulting sunsets, many are naturally shifting focus toward “Product” as the next growth area. While the language is evolving, the underlying tactics often stays the same.

Full transparency: I work at a global company that helps organizations tackle digital challenges, upskilling, embracing innovation, adopting technology, and building new business models.

And yet… we’re not immune either. I enjoy a front-row seat to the shifts happening in our field, and this topic is everywhere right now. It’s worth unpacking.

We’re all aiming to avoid these pitfalls (and so should you), if you want to avoid being misguided.

👀 20 Signs You’re Looking at a “Fake Product” approach

Here’s how to spot the old thinking in disguise:

1. Linear roadmapping as “Product Strategy”.
2. Crystal ball planning sold as “Implementation Planning”.
3. Waterfall thinking masked as “Discovery”.
4. Control-heavy steering rebranded as “Product Governance”.
5. Micromanagement of teams under the guise of “Delivery Management”.
6. Feature factory teams now called “Product Squads”.
7. Annual planning cycles dressed as “Product Portfolio Planning”.
8. Rigid delivery pipelines renamed “Product Lifecycle Planning”.
9. UX upfront called “Product Design Systems”.
10. Framework sold as “Operating Models”.
11. Defined process control now “Delivery Excellence”.
12. Low trust and high reporting pitched as “Transparency”.
13. Stakeholder Commitees now “Product Steering Committees”.
14. Documentation-driven dev disguised as “Product Briefs”.
15. Process over people relabeled as “Scalable Product Culture”.
16. Backlog stuffing sold as “Ideation Pipelines”.
17. Value Streams used more for budget control than value delivery.
18. Architectural Runways procastrinating development and validation while locking in tech decisions too early.
19. Streamlining product governance as a euphemism for increased top-down control.
20. Product Innovation Sprints to mask no innovation is happening in regular ones.

✅ What real product thinking looks like

It’s not about control. It’s about curiosity.
It’s not about processes. It’s about people.
It’s not about output. It’s about outcome.
It’s not about delivery. It’s about learning.
It’s not about predictability. It’s about adaptability.
It’s not about velocity. It’s about value.
It’s not about doing more. It’s about doing what matters.
It’s not about tech. It’s about possibilities.
It’s not about scaling. It’s about simplifying.
It’s not about assumptions. It’s about validation.
It’s not about speed. It’s about sustainability.
It’s not about checklists. It’s about craftsmanship.
It’s not about features. It’s about quality with care.

It’s all about problems worth solving.
It’s all about sense-making through continuous validation.

That’s a million dollar worth of consultancy right there.

🤔 Guess where we got those principles from?

None of this is new! This paradigm has been around for decades constantly seeking to renew its fronteers.

Scrum emerged from The New New Product Development Game. *
(Note the intentional double “New”)

I guess now we’re entering The New New New Product Development Game.

But what is really newer?

In the 80s, it was already about empowering teams, moving to outcome-centric thinking over increasing productivity, embracing empiricism over defined process control, and embracing lean thinking over scaling complexity. It was about building incrementally with care.

So what’s really changed? Simple: disillusionment and fatigue.

Silo teams got trapped in a framework meant for cross-functional ones.
Productive events got amateured into mundane rituals.
People got tired to see team process control masked as coaching.
Predictive Roadmap Makers went to war with Adaptive Backlog Managers.
Inspect & Adapt was shortened to “fill in the fun retro template.”
Sprint Reviews became internal demos with no customers in sight.
Psychological safety was promised, but not practiced.
And coaches — well, some became compliance officers in disguise.

It’s not that the principles have changed — it’s that they’ve been buried under rotten practice that lose sight of their original intent.

🟦 LinkedIn Hot Takes & Strawman Heartaches

Companies are falling prone the sway of neurotic LinkedIn messaging, rich with oversimplification or misrepresentation.

Many of these voices engage in strawman arguments, tearing down practices they’ve barely understood, let alone mastered. Yet I can’t help feeling empathy towards the sentiment.

Before buying into the outrage, it’s worth asking:
Why the need to air these views so publicly in the first place?

Some of the frustration isn’t baseless. People are tired. Tired of hollow rituals. Tired of being told they’re “doing it wrong” without meaningful support to do it better. They’ve seen Product Owners reduced to ticket triage, and Scrum Masters disempowered by bureaucracy.

So yes, the resentment is real. From watching good ideas get misused, repackaged, or weaponized in the name of transformation. And that deserves empathy, not dismissal.

But the way forward isn’t abandoning the principles (in my humble opinion). It’s recommitting to them with more care. Stronger, more human foundations, where people are truly heard, seen and respected in their empowerement to explore better ways of working.

🤔 So where we off to next?

It’s time to strip away the noise and get back to empowering people in figuring out what actually works.

The “new new new” is about Professionalism. You can chase the next trendy label or you can choose to raise the bar. One makes things feel easier. The other makes you better.

And while “Product” is in the spotlight, the other star is: AI Transformation. To navigate the unprecedented rise of machine intelligence in the already dense corporate jungle, you really do need real agility. Yes, indeed, not the branded kind! The practiced kind that focusses on true mastery of its principles, with expert guidance.

That’s a game worth playing.