State of Product 2027, a product manager’s read
What 1,000 product teams told Atlassian, and four things I’d try this week.
The short version
Customers don’t feel your velocity. They feel your decisions.
My read of Atlassian’s State of Product 2027: AI made us faster at building. Deciding is still the slow part. That’s where I’d put the effort.
The prototype’s ready. Can we ship it?
Let’s take it to the next prioritization review.
That was three weeks ago…
Stuck
From the report
- 86%say the easier shipping gets, the more what you build matters.
- 69%say decision-making hasn’t sped up, even with AI.
- 77%say an executive’s gut instinct overrides the data, at least sometimes.
- 4%can trace every roadmap decision back to evidence.
Four things I’d try this week
Put the evidence on the roadmap
4% trace every decision to evidence
Next to each top item, write down the customer signal behind it. No signal yet? Call it a bet.
Agree on what would change your mind
77% see instinct override data
Open the review by asking everyone, leaders too, what evidence would change the call.
Bring engineers to the problem
18% involve engineers from the start, yet 54% now build working prototypes
Invite one engineer in while you’re still defining the problem, before there’s a spec.
Read what your AI agent says
About half already babysit their agents
Thirty minutes a week. Twenty real conversations. Start with the ones that ended without a purchase.
89% of teams now use AI for work another function used to do, and 52% say prototyping isn’t limited to specific roles anymore. That shift feels familiar. I came up through engineering, and I still build working prototypes myself.
My bet for 2027
Your next customer might be an AI agent. Read the essay, or the LinkedIn post (opens in a new tab).
Find a waterproof jacket under $150 that arrives by Friday.
Skipped 3 stores: missing sizes, unclear stock, no return policy I could read.
Not considered
What slows decisions down on your team? I’d love to hear.
Sources
Data: Atlassian, State of Product 2027 (opens in a new tab), a survey of 1,000 product professionals by Wakefield Research, August 2026. The fixes, the 2027 bet, and my notes on them are my own views.
