Brian Balfour

🟰 ➕ The winning formula for today’s environment: 1 - Master the fundamentals 2 - Embrace AI innovation 3 - Never stop learning…

The funny thing is, this has always been the formula. But it’s easy to lose the script when the pace of change feels like a frenzy.

Today we are announcing the Reforge Spring 2025 Cohort. This is our most important cohort yet. We’ve designed this cohort around the above formula.

If it isn’t clear, I've been thinking a lot about what it means to build in 2025. Every morning, I wake up to another headline about AI transforming how we work.

When I look at the most successful product leaders I know, they all share something in common: they've mastered the timeless principles of product while simultaneously pushing boundaries with new technologies.

This year marks 10 years since we launched our first @reforge course. That's 10 years of witnessing industry transformations, identifying patterns, and distilling what truly matters.

We've designed this cohort to bridge both worlds. We're doubling down on the evergreen foundations that have served our community for a decade while introducing cutting-edge AI courses that will help you harness these new tools strategically and thoughtfully.

You can join this cohort and get access to the on-demand library of 40+ courses by becoming an individual member or joining as a team (links below).

The initial lineup is below. We'll have some more announcements coming soon with some surprise guests and additions.

🤖 AI 🤖 AI Foundations (New) Created by me and hosted by Adam Fishman

Mastering AI Productivity Created and hosted by @sachinrekhi

AI Strategy By Ravi Mehta

🛠️ Product 🛠️

Product Foundations By Jiaona Zhang (JZ) and Anand Subramani

Mastering Product Management By Sachin Rekhi and hosted by Michael Sippey

Product Strategy By @onecaseman , @far33d , and hosted by Michael Sippey

Product Leadership By Ravi Mehta and hosted by Anand Subramani

Technical Foundations By Anand Subramani and Alex Allain

Mastering Customer Feedback (Updated) By Behzod Sirjani

Mastering Product Analytics (Updated) By @crystalwidjaja and Shaun Clowes

Mastering Storytelling By Tara Wellington 📈 Growth 📈

Product Growth Foundations (fka Growth Series) By me, @andrewchen , and hosted by Erika Warren

Growth Strategy By Casey Winters, @kevinakwok , and hosted by Adam Fishman

More info below!

🆕 New Essay: The Expectation Reset 7 Ways AI Is Redefining Customer Expectations (w/ tons of examples)…

I’m a huge believer in AI. As I wrote in AI Native Product Teams (link in comments), I believe AI is changing how product teams will think, work, and build.

But, I feel like a lot of the conversation is focused on the wrong thing. Many think they need to predict the future of what AI is capable of in order to build. But:

🧞‍♂️ No one can perfectly predict AI’s capabilities years from now 😤 Trying to leads to paralysis 🚂 You risk overbuilding speculative features

Trying to predict what AI might be able to do multiple years from now might be a fun exercise, but for many we should be focused on how AI is changing the expectations and needs of our customers.

If we don’t, we risk Product Market Fit Collapse (link in comments).

Here are 7 ways AI is shifting customer expectations with examples:

"A Place For Me To Create" → "Do The Work For Me" AI is changing customer expectations from “give me a tool where ull Ie'llI can create” to “do the work for me.” Examples: EvenUpF, DevinAI, Midjourney, 11x, Artisan

"One Size, I Customize" → "Custom Made For Me" https://t.co/ZYEK5q4Mlx is my fav example here. Using AI a Day takes your email, calendar, and answers to a one-page questionnaire to automatically generate a CRM that is tailored to your business.

"I Expect To Wait" → "I Expect It Now" AI is also changing the expectation from customers at how fast and convenient you deliver the value. In other words, users are getting “lazier.” (like we weren’t lazy enough already!) Examples: GitHub CoPilot, Intercom Fin, ChatGPT (homework)

“I’ll do the busy work” → “The busy work is done for me” Many products require you to perform a lot of manual tasks in order for the team to get value out of it. But most of the time value out < effort to put in. Many are automating this busy work around the real work: Abridge, Anterior, Reforge Insight Analytics, Tana, Truewind, https://t.co/Pec0FFlG9d

“I’ll Pay Per Seat” → “I’ll Pay For Output” Kyle Polar has written about this. Instead of paying for an approximation of value (per seat) customers are starting to pay for work delivered. Examples: EvenUp, Intercom, Synthesia, Clay, https://t.co/5Pt411aR8r, Imagen

“The tool has no context” → “The tool can see what I’m doing” This is one of the coolest IMO that is being under-leveraged. Most software has no idea what you are doing outside of their app. With AI, it can see/understand your screen to create new value. Examples: Gemini Live, Reforge AI Extension, Squint

"I'll Learn This Interface" → "The Interface Adapts To Me" Today every time a user adopts a new product they need to learn the UI to get value. AI is able to create a dynamic experience designed for the intent. Examples: Gemini, Perplexity

Full essay 👇