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Issue #32 | 1/7/2026
From the Editor
Becoming a mom has obliterated my tolerance for inefficiency.
Recently, I vibe rage-coded a Behavior Interview Generator b/c creating structured and meaningful interviews is hard & time consuming. Trying to train an organization to run effective interviews is even harder.
Pre-kid me would’ve had infinite iterations and meetings. I would’ve created the templates and asked for all the feedback. Current me? Ship a self-service tool and move on.
The lesson here is build something that scales beyond you, so you don’t have to repeat yourself. This is what leadership looks like - removing yourself as the bottleneck.
Sincerely,
Phedra
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Job Board
🦸 Hero Role of the Week
No more ugly tables.
415+ jobs pulled. One caught my eye.
Program Director at Thoughtworks — London (Hybrid)
This is the role that separates PMs from true delivery leaders. You're not managing sprints—you're owning multi-million pound, multi-year transformation programs with direct C-level access. The kicker? You're expected to identify and close follow-on business, not just execute what's sold.
Translation: They want someone who understands the business model, not just the backlog.
Requirements that matter: 8+ years consultancy leadership, change management expertise, commercial acumen.
No spoilers. Go find it. Filter on jobs posted in the last 7 days and hit Apply Now.
👉 Browse this week's top roles 👇
New roles added daily.
Professional Development
💡 Micro-Tip of the Week
Sprint velocity is a compass, not a contract
Use it to forecast, never to punish.
Teams that fear metrics hide problems.
Industry News
A few things from Big Tech & business
Touch grass often
We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here's what happened | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)
Source: Lenny's NewsletterJason Lemkin on why he replaced his entire sales team with AI agents, how he fine-tuned them to work better than his human sales people, which vendors to choose, and how to become hyper-employable in the AI era.
Stanford presents SleepFM: Forecasting long-term disease risk from one-night clinical sleep data
Source: Nature MedicineStanford's open-source model predicts disease risk from a single night of sleep data—a masterclass in AI applied to real-world constraints. Watch how they turned limited data into actionable predictions.
In case you missed it
Community Pulse
This week in PM land, the community is fired up about Process & Productivity, AI & Automation, Leadership Challenges.
Hot discussion: Ask HN: Who is hiring? (January 2026) (Hacker News) sparked 228 comments.
Other trending conversations:
What's on YOUR mind this week? Hit reply and tell me.What's on YOUR mind this week? Hit reply and tell me.
The Future of Shopping? AI + Actual Humans.
AI has changed how consumers shop, but people still drive decisions. Levanta’s research shows affiliate and creator content continues to influence conversions, plus it now shapes the product recommendations AI delivers. Affiliate marketing isn’t being replaced by AI, it’s being amplified.
Energy
🎤 Phedra's Take
This week's theme: Career & Job Market
Here's my take: The Thoughtworks role above isn't a PM job. It's a business development role that happens to require delivery expertise. And that's exactly where the money is.
What I've learned: Every PM who plateaus at $150K does delivery. Every PM who breaks $250K sells what they deliver. The skill gap isn't in execution, it's in identifying the next $2M opportunity while you're running the current one.
Your move this week: Look at your current program. What problem is adjacent to what you're solving? That's your expansion opportunity. Write it down. Pitch it in Q1.
That’s it for this week.
Keep showing up, keep cheering each other on.
How I can help?
The Delivery Career Decoder is the first comprehensive career transformation system designed specifically for delivery professionals, program managers, and technical operations experts who are ready to break through the "execution ceiling" and step into strategic leadership roles. This is a proven methodology that leverages your unique strengths as a delivery professional while systematically building the strategic positioning, executive presence, and communication skills that open doors to VP, Director, and C-suite opportunities.
The Business of Delivery Team
P.S.
You got this!