We are leaning towards figuring out a solution for our Problem 1, cross-functional alignment and communication, because our interviews revealed that conflicting goals across disciplines consistently stall prioritization and leave PMs struggling to mobilize the right partners. This came up often in interviews, and it seemed like our TA really struggled with this problem, but we wanted to ensure that it was as big as it seems to us. This led us to apply a core concept from Lenny Rachitsky’s reading to make our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) “almost comically narrow”, we crafted hyper-specific personas in studio: a Big Tech APM graduate managing a high-velocity release window, and a Big Tech PM who resorts to “vibe-coding” design changes independently to avoid cross-functional friction. Defining these precise workflows demonstrated that cross-functional misalignment is not an abstract operational nuisance, but the fundamental bottleneck directly distorting their prioritization and execution speed. Solving for unified cross-functional alignment immediately eliminates this friction, unblocking both high-velocity releases and collaborative handoffs for our core users.
