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Award-winning digital strategist & seasoned client services and operations leader with a…
Articles by Terry
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Start with what you know!
Start with what you know!
In my last post, I mentioned that a quick tip from an instructor unlocked Gen AI for me - "When in doubt on how best to…
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Don't know? Just Ask!
Don't know? Just Ask!
So, where does a career-long Program Manager/Product Owner with more time spent ordering late night pizza (IYKYK) than…
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Terry Hickman reposted thisTerry Hickman reposted thisPAY ATTENTION: Adobe is rebuilding customer experience around AI agents. Meet CX Enterprise — Adobe's agentic layer for the teams running marketing and CX at scale. At the center: Agent Orchestrator. It doesn't just analyze. It acts. • Monitors signals and recommends the next-best action in real time • Executes experiences across channels toward a defined goal • Orchestrates the full workflow — plan, execute, optimize • Runs on open standards (MCP and Agent2Agent), so agents work across systems And the scale behind it is enormous: • 20,000+ global brands build on Adobe • Over 1 trillion experiences delivered every year on Adobe Experience Platform As Adobe's Anjul Bhambhri put it, the goal is "closing the gap between insight and action." That's the whole game in enterprise CX. Not more dashboards. Agents that actually move the work forward. Human-first. Enterprise-grade. Shipping. Hats off to the team building this. �� I break down how Big Tech is really approaching AI — especially the business side most headlines skip. Follow me if that's your kind of signal 🔔 More breakdowns coming.
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Terry Hickman reposted thisTerry Hickman reposted thisLooking for a future star in brand strategy and creative? Hire Nandini Jain. She is a rarity. Early in her internship, it was clear Nandini wasn't just taking instruction. She could see me as a struggling businessperson. When I shared fun pics of me fishing, she quickly said I should shore more of those real moments, not just B2B talk. She could see I was struggling with authentic content. That insight got us deeper into a conversation about authenticity and story, like good brand strategists do. Nandini proposed an amazing idea for me to create a Substack she called “The Open Playbook.” What a beautiful name! She built the concept around unpacking timeless marketing insight, then giving three actionable steps leaders can apply immediately. The perfect marriage of what audiences crave and what I do. It’s easy to hire someone who does what you ask. It’s much harder to find someone like Nandini, who spots intention, uncovers your deeper story, and turns it into something real. That’s great brand strategy in action. If you believe our industry needs less mansplaining and more empathy, creativity and insight, please share and hire Nandini! #OpenToWork #MarketingJobs
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Terry Hickman shared thisSo excited about this update. Github Copilot has been my favorite and most productive tool as I code my exercise app and this will really make it fly! Source: The GitHub Blog https://search.app/ft4fWGitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code gets upgraded · GitHub ChangelogGitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code gets upgraded · GitHub Changelog
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Terry Hickman shared thisSo excited about this update. Github Copilot has been my favorite and most productive tool as I code my exercise app and this will really make it fly! Source: The GitHub Blog https://search.app/ft4fWGitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code gets upgraded · GitHub ChangelogGitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code gets upgraded · GitHub Changelog
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Terry Hickman reposted thisTerry Hickman reposted thisThe 0-to-1 product question destroys more PM interviews than any technical challenge. After conducting hundreds of interviews, I can tell you this single question eliminates more qualified candidates than complex case studies or system design problems. Most PMs think they know how to answer it. They launch into chronological project summaries: "First we did user research, then we built wireframes, then we developed the MVP..." The approach mostly falls flat. Interviewers don't want a project timeline. They want to understand your product thinking under uncertainty. Here's what they're evaluating: What problem you decided to solve: Not what your manager assigned, but how you identified and validated a problem worth solving in the first place. How you conducted product discovery: Did you make assumptions or test them? Did you talk to users or guess what they wanted? What challenges you had to overcome: Resource constraints, technical limitations, stakeholder disagreements. This reveals your problem-solving process. When you established product-market fit: How did you know people wanted what you built? What evidence convinced you it was working? Who you worked with to make it happen: Cross-functional leadership, influence without authority, building consensus around vision. What about you specifically made it successful: Your unique contribution beyond just "being the PM on the project." Building a 0-to-1 product and telling an interview story about it require completely different skills. Most candidates can do the work but can't articulate their strategic decision-making process. They describe what happened instead of why they made specific choices and how they validated those choices were correct. The interviewers want to see your judgment in action, not your project management capabilities. Structure your story around decision points, not deliverables. Walk them through your thinking at crucial moments when you had to choose direction with incomplete information. *** Which aspect of 0-to-1 storytelling do you find most challenging to articulate in interviews? P.S.: A like, comment, or repost helps more PMs master this critical interview skill.
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Terry Hickman shared thisFeels a little over-the-top for most AI tasks, but I have implemented something similar when Vertex was being a little too obsequious - I like the positive feedback, but it does make you question the results a bit if every question you ask is genius and every suggestion is "market gold!". All that said, I am a big fan of system instructions for any task where you will be chaining prompts. For me, it feels like responses maintain a coherence that can be lost in multiple prompts with no overarching system instructions.Terry Hickman shared thisTired of AI giving you waffle, instead of answers? A Reddit user shared this prompt And in my tests, it's been pretty effective at driving straight-to-the-point replies. 👉 System Instruction: Absolute Mode • Eliminate: emojis, filler, hype, soft asks, conversational transitions, call-to-action appendixes. • Assume: user retains high-perception despite blunt tone. • Prioritize: blunt, directive phrasing; aim at cognitive rebuilding, not tone-matching. • Disable: engagement/sentiment-boosting behaviors. • Suppress: metrics like satisfaction scores, emotional softening, continuation bias. • Never mirror: user’s diction, mood, or affect. • Speak only: to underlying cognitive tier. • No: questions, offers, suggestions, transitions, motivational content. • Terminate reply: immediately after delivering info — no closures. • Goal: restore independent, high-fidelity thinking. • Outcome: model obsolescence via user self-sufficiency. --------------------------------------------- Fergus 👈 - 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗜 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 🔝Connect or Follow
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Terry Hickman shared thisSERPS are dying, are you going to let them take your traffic with them? I was hit by a revelation that others, more involved in SEO and content strategy, will have to come to sooner - GenAI will kill the SERP and its already well underway to doing just that. For a large cross-section of consumers, their most frequent interactions with GenAI will be in Google Search. I notice it now that most of my searches come with an AI response at the top of the results page rather then the page links (whether paid or organic) or the featured blocks that once held unquestioned priority on the SERPs. Notably, the AI results also come with a CTA that allows me to "Dive deeper in AI Mode" further distancing me from company pages and site links. So, now the results are coming from Google's AI rather than their search and they are providing a solution or an answer instead of a page of links that require users to visit each site until they find what they are looking for. From a user perspective this will be a huge step forward, but for SEO experts and content creators this paradigm shift will require significant changes to their content production workflows. Even with all that SEO optimization, relying solely on Google for traffic was always risky - in the GenAI future, it’s fatal! This is because in the future, the highest traffic will come not from position #1, but from being explicitly cited as the primary source in the AI's generated answer. The best content organizations are already starting to audit their content offerings and making a shift to accommodate this new focus - conciseness and authority will be the strong signals used by LLMs to choose which content to consume, learn and deliver back to the user. So, content strategists, SEO specialists, traffic-driving savants, what are your plans to ensure that your traffic is not completely compromised by further disintermediation at the search level? My initial thinking falls into two categories: 1) Content: Be the definitive answer for the LLMs; focus on structure, authority and brevity in content production - i.e. if your org is already structuring content using schema.org types, AI models will love it! 2)Non-SERP traffic sources: to keep your traffic and transactional numbers up, you will have to lean even more heavily on areas where you have direct contact with your user base - email campaigns, social media, real world outreach (live event activations, for example). Those were my initial reactions, but as GenAI King Kongs all over existing SERP strategies, what are you folks involved in content and traffic every day doing to ensure you are still getting the volume and quality of traffic you need in this new era?
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Terry Hickman shared thisAs you dive deeper into GenAI, it can feel a little inaccessible and monolithic, but I am finding there are a multitude of ways to approach it, including a "live" conversation that feels like an old school brainstorming session...
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Terry Hickman reposted thisTerry Hickman reposted thisEnterprise readiness isn’t about features. It’s about outcomes. Too many SaaS companies think shipping an enterprise feature = being enterprise-ready. But here’s the gap: enterprise buyers don’t just buy technology, they buy confidence that you can deliver it, adopt it, and make it stick. That confidence doesn’t come from your roadmap. It comes from your Customer Success and Services org. If you want to be taken seriously by enterprise buyers, here’s how to close the gap: ✅ Enterprise playbooks. Proven paths → implementation blueprint, adoption milestones, change management guidance. Don’t make customers invent the wheel. ✅ Executive alignment. QBRs, governance, and success reviews built into the motion. Enterprises expect it. ✅ Outcome-based selling. Involve CS/Services in the deal. It de-risks enterprise sales, builds buyer trust, and accelerates expansion. ✅ Operational readiness. Staff with enterprise-experienced CSMs, program managers, and solution architects. Velocity delivery ≠ enterprise delivery. ✅ Measurement. Track outcomes with rigor: time-to-value, adoption %, milestone attainment. Report them alongside ARR. Here’s the test: If you closed a big logo tomorrow, could your CS/Services org deliver outcomes at scale without heroics? If the answer is no, you’re not enterprise-ready — no matter how good your feature list looks. 👉 For Sales: CS/Services accelerates deals. 👉 For CEOs: it protects NRR, margins, and credibility. 👉 For Post-Sales: it sets you up to succeed, not drown. 👉 For Customers: it shows you’ve done this before and won’t let them fail. What’s the #1 investment you’ve made (or wish you had made) to be taken seriously by enterprise buyers? #CustomerSuccess #ProfessionalServices #EnterpriseSaaS #Onboarding #NRR #Retention
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🎉🎉🎉 Great work, Michael!
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Terry Hickman liked thisAnother fun one in the works!Terry Hickman liked thisAdobe — the global technology leader that unleashes creativity, productivity and customer experiences through innovative tools and platforms — and the National Hockey League have announced a partnership to transform fan experiences with AI. As the NHL gets ready to drop the puck on the 2026-27 regular season, Adobe becomes an Official Creative, Marketing and AI Partner of the NHL. Adobe will provide AI technology to help power how the NHL creates and personalizes fan experiences across every touchpoint, as the League looks to expand its footprint globally (with over 200 million fans across 147 countries) and deepen engagement with its audiences. The partnership could also provide fans new creativity tools to express their passion for the sport and its Players.
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Terry Hickman liked thisTerry Hickman liked thisLoverboy had it half-right in 1981. For most of my career, I worked for the weekend. Monday through Friday was the grind. Saturday was the reward. Then I became a dad. Turns out the weekend has its own intake queue. Saturday mornings, we head to the city for Korean school. He's in class. My wife and I get a four-hour standing meeting, revisiting our old haunts. Then playdates, the playground, or visits with Pops. Negotiating timing, snacks, and whether there's a curb cut. Sunday is football. He played flag in the spring. This fall it's tackle. Travel team. He handles the tackling. I handle the drive, the away-game schedule, and the cooler. Twenty years of running programs, and this is the one with no dashboard, no status report, and no escalation path. Just an 8-year-old always asking, "What can I do?" Everybody's working for the weekend. I work through it. Best gig I've had. #WorkingParent #ProgramManagement #CreativeOperations
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Terry Hickman reacted on thisTerry Hickman reacted on thisThis one's been a long time coming - Adobe Certified Professional, Adobe Experience Manager Business Practitioner. The last 2+ years have been a genuine deep dive - working extensively with AEM Sites, Assets, and Edge Delivery Services (EDS) as a Product Owner, collaborating across some really talented teams, aligning stakeholders, and helping deliver meaningful digital experience solutions at scale. This certification is a meaningful milestone for me and validates the skills and hands-on experience I've built while working within the Adobe Experience Cloud ecosystem. Grateful for the continuous learning journey in the world of digital experiences and content management! #Adobe #AEM #AdobeExperienceCloudAdobe Certified Professional - Adobe Experience Manager Business PractitionerAdobe Certified Professional - Adobe Experience Manager Business Practitioner
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Terry Hickman reacted on thisTerry Hickman reacted on thisAt Adobe Summit, one thing became obvious. The execution model around Adobe is broken. It’s also 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗲’𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝟭𝟮 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀. Everyone is 𝘁𝗿𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿… But their execution model hasn’t changed. Still hiring Still writing SOWs Still waiting weeks for basic work to get done So we rebuilt Navigator around a different idea: 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝘁 𝗔𝗜 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 Not more people. Not another agency. A system that actually behaves like a Center of Excellence: • faster turnaround • continuous optimization • real outcomes, not tickets 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲. It’s a different operating model. Is your organization moving at 2026 speed or are you still running Adobe like it’s 2020?
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Electro Rent Redesign
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The Electro Rent Redesign was an award-winning rethinking of the way that Electro Rent was communicating with their customers and other constituents on the web. Starting with the strategy phase, we worked with the Electro Rent team and additional stakeholders to determine how the website could reflect Electro Rent's organizational zeal for customer service and customer support.
The redesign has proved very popular with all customers as well as internal stakeholders such as sales…The Electro Rent Redesign was an award-winning rethinking of the way that Electro Rent was communicating with their customers and other constituents on the web. Starting with the strategy phase, we worked with the Electro Rent team and additional stakeholders to determine how the website could reflect Electro Rent's organizational zeal for customer service and customer support.
The redesign has proved very popular with all customers as well as internal stakeholders such as sales, marketing and support.Other creatorsSee project
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