All Things Product with Teresa and Petra

Product Work Is Relationship Work

All Things Product with Teresa and Petra

Show Notes

As AI makes it easier than ever to generate ideas and build products, some people are asking: Do we still need product managers?

In this episode of All Things Product, Petra Wille and Teresa Torres argue that the real work of product management isn’t going away anytime soon. While AI can help build things faster, it can’t replace the relationship work required to align stakeholders, navigate competing priorities, and create shared understanding across teams.

They explore why many product teams become overly transactional, how curiosity unlocks better collaboration, and why investing in relationships actually helps teams move faster in the long run.

More from All Things Product with Teresa and Petra

Oct 20, 2026

Team events are making a comeback. After years of remote work and tight budgets, companies are bringing people together again, and many are looking for experiences that go beyond the usual offsite. So should companies deliberately send their people somewhere strange, uncomfortable, and awe-inspiring, and what actually happens to a team when they do?

Oct 13, 2026

You've got twelve people and one hour booked at next week's offsite. Can someone teach your team to do continuous discovery in that hour? Teresa Torres's answer is a flat no — and this episode is about why.

Oct 6, 2026

We now record almost everything — every meeting has an AI note-taker, and some people wear glasses that capture every word. So what does that do to our relationships when nothing is forgotten and everything can be fact-checked?

Sep 29, 2026

Is innovation the goal — or just a byproduct of solving customer problems well? In this episode of All Things Product, Petra Wille and Teresa Torres unpack one of the most misused words in product: "innovation." Teresa makes the case that chasing novelty for its own sake pushes teams toward complex solutions that don't actually serve customers better, while Petra argues that simplicity and reduction can be their own kind of innovation.

Sep 22, 2026

What if the ideas you throw away tell you more about the health of your product process than the ones you ship?

See all episodes →