Teague Hopkins builds high-performing product teams that drive sustainable innovation in regulated industries.https://www.teaguehopkins.com/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2026/03/the-familiar-crisis/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2026/03/the-familiar-crisis/On displacement, class, and the discovery that it was never unprecedented My previous two essays in this series argued that the AI debate is trapped in a false binary and that the…Fri, 13 Mar 2026 14:44:18 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2026/02/come-back-online/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2026/02/come-back-online/Someone challenged a point I’d made about AI recently, and I noticed something unsettling: I was composing my rebuttal before I’d finished reading their argument. Not weighing it;…Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:40:49 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/11/the-false-choice/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/11/the-false-choice/Why History Teaches Us to Reject Faith-Based Arguments on Both Sides of the AI Debate In the era of AI, there are extremists on both sides of the issue. One side, which I have…Tue, 18 Nov 2025 04:41:16 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/11/the-three-stages-of-ai-adoption/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/11/the-three-stages-of-ai-adoption/How to Actually Deliver Value Most leadership teams I talk to are wrestling with the same question: How fast can we leverage AI? There’s pressure, sometimes self-imposed,…Tue, 04 Nov 2025 13:30:37 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/10/bits-atoms-and-neurons/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/10/bits-atoms-and-neurons/For years, we talked about the friction between the digital and physical worlds; between bits and atoms. Bits moved at the speed of light through fiber optic cables, while atoms…Sun, 26 Oct 2025 23:39:54 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/06/lessons-for-ai-adoption-what-saas-taught-us-about-enablement/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/06/lessons-for-ai-adoption-what-saas-taught-us-about-enablement/Learn from SaaS history to avoid AI adoption pitfalls. Discover how comprehensive enablement, tool selection, and knowledge sharing can drive successful enterprise AI implementation.Thu, 12 Jun 2025 05:28:24 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/04/rethinking-ownership-ai-training-and-copyright-battles/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/04/rethinking-ownership-ai-training-and-copyright-battles/Explore how a 1994 digital visionary predicted today's AI copyright wars and what his forgotten warnings mean for the battle between Meta and authors over AI training.Thu, 03 Apr 2025 15:57:38 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/03/how-many-colored-squares-are-on-this-board/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/03/how-many-colored-squares-are-on-this-board/LLMs are bad at counting things in images. Even kids are good at this. A fun and useful exploration for understanding the limitations of frontier models.Wed, 12 Mar 2025 22:22:32 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/02/mastering-product-empathy-a-7-skill-framework-for-leaders/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/02/mastering-product-empathy-a-7-skill-framework-for-leaders/Learn how to build better products through a 7-skill empathy framework. Master emotional intelligence and user understanding to drive innovation.Wed, 19 Feb 2025 03:17:41 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/02/how-ai-democratization-is-reshaping-business-strategy/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/02/how-ai-democratization-is-reshaping-business-strategy/AI democratization mirrors YouTube's impact on video content, and discover 5 key strategies to position your business for success in the AI-driven future.Mon, 10 Feb 2025 06:31:59 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/02/5-famous-psychology-studies-that-failed-to-stand-the-test-of-time/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/02/5-famous-psychology-studies-that-failed-to-stand-the-test-of-time/How 5 famous psychology studies, including power posing and the marshmallow test, were debunked. Learn why these viral theories failed and what it means for science.Mon, 03 Feb 2025 17:29:44 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/01/innovation-at-scale-corporate-innovation-in-regulated-industries/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2025/01/innovation-at-scale-corporate-innovation-in-regulated-industries/Learn how regulated companies can drive successful innovation through proving grounds and spin-in models. Practical insights from a decade of corporate innovation leadership.Sat, 25 Jan 2025 19:09:53 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2024/05/building-a-successful-partnership-between-product-and-pmo/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2024/05/building-a-successful-partnership-between-product-and-pmo/Discover how transitioning from project to product teams can boost your tech company’s success. Explore practical tips for making the shift effectively.Mon, 06 May 2024 12:07:10 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2024/04/mindful-leadership-transformative-power/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2024/04/mindful-leadership-transformative-power/Explore the role of mindful leadership in reshaping business culture, attracting talent, and enhancing workplace well-being for meaningful success.Thu, 11 Apr 2024 13:39:37 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2024/03/corporate-innovation-a-lifestyle-change-not-a-crash-diet/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2024/03/corporate-innovation-a-lifestyle-change-not-a-crash-diet/In the fast-paced world of business, the term “innovation” is often thrown around as a buzzword, a magic pill that can suddenly transform an organization overnight. However, the…Thu, 21 Mar 2024 13:39:49 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2023/03/how-to-incorporate-ai-into-your-product-strategy/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2023/03/how-to-incorporate-ai-into-your-product-strategy/As companies increasingly explore the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in their businesses, it’s important for product managers to consider the risks and benefits of…Sat, 25 Mar 2023 19:05:21 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2018/06/better-product-roadmap/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2018/06/better-product-roadmap/If you’re here, you’ve probably worked with product roadmaps before. You may even have been responsible for owning one. This article isn’t an introduction. Instead, consider…Fri, 01 Jun 2018 15:56:03 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2017/08/write-good-user-stories/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2017/08/write-good-user-stories/Core Principles Use the customer’s language. Write user stories as the user would ask for them. Don’t write your user stories as a list of to-dos from the perspective of your…Mon, 28 Aug 2017 20:24:48 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2015/07/ego-risk-why-innovation-fails/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2015/07/ego-risk-why-innovation-fails/From the MVP Conference 2015, held May 18th – 19th in Rosslyn, VA.Mon, 27 Jul 2015 19:37:28 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2015/05/why-culture-matters-and-how-you-can-change-it/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2015/05/why-culture-matters-and-how-you-can-change-it/This guest post was written by Anitha Pai. Anitha is the co-founder of Tokabee, an education startup that delivers cultural experiences for children to learn about the world.…Sat, 30 May 2015 22:26:46 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/05/find-customers-interview/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/05/find-customers-interview/First, it bears mentioning that this is a key challenge of starting a new business. If you can’t find interviewees to talk to, you won’t be able to find customers to sell to…Wed, 14 May 2014 18:46:19 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/04/cant-build-culture/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/04/cant-build-culture/Culture: the word comes directly from the Latin cultura, for ‘growing, cultivation’. So why do we insist on talking about designing or building company culture as if it were an…Fri, 11 Apr 2014 03:22:15 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/03/creative-doubt-money-function/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/03/creative-doubt-money-function/A friend of mine shared a talk by Jack Conte, of Pomplamoose at XOXO with me (thanks, Harrison!) and I was struck by how much of his talk about being a content…Mon, 24 Mar 2014 23:36:46 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/03/brain-smart-thinks/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/03/brain-smart-thinks/Why should you care about ego risk? Because risks to innovation and new ventures follow the Pareto principle: only 20% of the risks a startup talks or thinks about are ego risks,…Fri, 07 Mar 2014 17:56:12 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/03/set-minimum-success-criteria/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/03/set-minimum-success-criteria/When you’re running a lean experiment, one of the key decision points is setting your minimum success criteria: the breakpoint at which you consider the experiment to have…Wed, 05 Mar 2014 04:07:06 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/02/lean-agile-dc-a-summary-in-tweets/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/02/lean-agile-dc-a-summary-in-tweets/[View the story “Lean + Agile DC: A Summary in Tweets” on Storify]Wed, 12 Feb 2014 21:58:43 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/01/getting-started-with-lean-startup/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/01/getting-started-with-lean-startup/From Lean Startup Circle at Capital One Labs, December 17, 2013.Mon, 27 Jan 2014 21:11:42 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/01/stop-celebrating-failure/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/01/stop-celebrating-failure/One of the big challenges with doing innovation in any setting is that most people are afraid of failure, and when you’re afraid to fail, you don’t take the risks that are…Tue, 14 Jan 2014 13:00:32 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/01/trick-succeeding-user-centered-design/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2014/01/trick-succeeding-user-centered-design/How often has your company run a focus group or usability test and generated big fat report that just sits on the shelf somewhere full of great ideas the never get implemented?…Mon, 06 Jan 2014 13:50:20 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/10/secrets-product-management/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/10/secrets-product-management/I’ve had several conversations recently about the nature of product management and the role of product managers. One thing that kept coming to mind was an old post by Martin…Fri, 11 Oct 2013 05:08:13 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/09/lean-startup-panel-discussion/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/09/lean-startup-panel-discussion/Last night I had the privilege of moderating a panel discussion with four other lean startup practitioners at the Ballston BID Launchpad in Arlington, VA. The event was organized…Thu, 12 Sep 2013 20:17:47 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/07/lean-startup-for-nonprofits/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/07/lean-startup-for-nonprofits/Last October, I had the privilege to go back to Wesleyan University as a speaker. I gave a one-hour talk on how lean startup principles can be applied to nonprofits and social…Wed, 03 Jul 2013 22:26:03 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/06/opportunity-cost/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/06/opportunity-cost/Let me tell you two stories. Bob and Misha are both entrepreneurs. They each have startups in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) space. Each started with the same initial investment…Fri, 14 Jun 2013 23:30:18 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/05/how-to-pick-a-customer-segment/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/05/how-to-pick-a-customer-segment/In a lean startup, we like to say that it is better to pick the customer you want to serve and figure out what problems they have than to come up with a solution and then figure…Thu, 30 May 2013 08:38:42 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/05/ego-risk-downs-dc-startup-tixelated/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/05/ego-risk-downs-dc-startup-tixelated/In an article in the Washington Business Journal, Philippe Chetrit speaks candidly about the factors that caused Tixelated to shut its doors. “What we ran out of first, before…Thu, 02 May 2013 17:20:25 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/04/the-ideal-profile-of-an-early-adopter/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/04/the-ideal-profile-of-an-early-adopter/When you’re doing customer development, you are specifically NOT trying to understand and satisfy all of your possible users, or the total addressable market. You can deal with…Sun, 14 Apr 2013 20:40:53 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/02/interview-with-elliot-susel-tech-risk-agile/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/02/interview-with-elliot-susel-tech-risk-agile/An interview with Agile expert Elliot Susel about using agile to mitigate tech risk. Full Transcript Teague Hopkins: Welcome. I’m Teague Hopkins. Today I’m here with Elliot Susel,…Sat, 23 Feb 2013 02:13:12 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/02/the-three-biggest-risks-to-your-startup/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/02/the-three-biggest-risks-to-your-startup/Starting any new venture is risky. Before we can limit or manage the risk, we have to understand it. Most startup (or new product) risk can be divided into three buckets: Tech…Thu, 21 Feb 2013 19:43:35 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/02/questions-from-innovation-experts/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2013/02/questions-from-innovation-experts/Recognizing that finding the right question can be more challenging than finding the right answer, Warren Berger of Fast Company asked five innovation experts “What questions…Wed, 06 Feb 2013 09:51:01 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/11/certainty-in-lean-startups/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/11/certainty-in-lean-startups/Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) are experiments, but not the kind you learned in school. You won’t get statistically significant results that could be published in a peer-reviewed…Sun, 18 Nov 2012 21:42:41 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/11/the-founding-trio/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/11/the-founding-trio/Dave McClure of 500 Startups calls it the holy trinity of startup founders. The frequent mantra in the startup space is that there are three primary types of founders: hackers,…Sat, 03 Nov 2012 03:58:08 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/10/better-website-in-one-afternoon/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/10/better-website-in-one-afternoon/There’s a simple experiment you can run in a single afternoon that will give you all the information you need to improve the website for your restaurant or bar. Most bar and…Tue, 23 Oct 2012 20:46:05 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/10/culture-camp-dc/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/10/culture-camp-dc/Culture Camp DC was this weekend. We had an amazing group of attendees, fantastic sessions, brilliant ideas, and some great discussions. Photos Photos from the event are available…Tue, 02 Oct 2012 00:44:52 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/09/lean-for-larger-companies-guest-post/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/09/lean-for-larger-companies-guest-post/I’ve written a guest post for TLC Labs titled 6 Smart Ways to Innovate Inside Your Corporate Culture (originally at http://tlclabs.co/?p=734). I invite you to check it out, along…Thu, 13 Sep 2012 20:33:27 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/09/attracting-and-hiring-talent/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/09/attracting-and-hiring-talent/You’re trying to hire highly talented individuals to bring your dreams to reality. You’re trying to set up some kind of process so that you won’t spend a de-motivational amount of…Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:24:40 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/08/good-enough-technology/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/08/good-enough-technology/Most people don’t need the cutting edge. If you do audio production, you might need top-of-the-line monitor speakers or pro headphones, but most people are content with the…Wed, 29 Aug 2012 19:46:15 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/07/measuring-productivity/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/07/measuring-productivity/When you zoom out, the measure of productivity often changes. For a single-minded programmer, productivity might be lines of code committed. For a development team, productivity…Mon, 30 Jul 2012 06:33:28 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/07/nonprofits-are-harder/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/07/nonprofits-are-harder/Nonprofit startups face all the challenges nonprofits face, plus all the challenges of for-profit startups. The compounded nature makes it more difficult, not less, to start a…Thu, 12 Jul 2012 02:13:34 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/06/job-descriptions-that-dont-suck/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/06/job-descriptions-that-dont-suck/Most job descriptions are terrible – so are most resumes – but they don’t have to be. Startups, or people hiring for a new job, often have to write job descriptions before they…Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:00:13 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/04/lean-is-not-skeletal/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/04/lean-is-not-skeletal/Lean does not mean bare bones. It does not mean minimize expenses at any cost. It does not prohibit raising money. In biology, lean refers to the proportion of muscle to excess…Tue, 10 Apr 2012 12:00:44 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/03/advice-for-lean-mentors/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/03/advice-for-lean-mentors/This past weekend, I once again had the pleasure of mentoring at Lean Startup Machine DC (#lsmdc). It’s always a great experience to be around so many people who are passionately…Fri, 30 Mar 2012 04:39:18 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/02/startup-risk-and-the-ego/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2012/02/startup-risk-and-the-ego/Usually when we talk about risk at a lean startup event, it goes something like this: There are two types of risk: market risk and technological risk. Agile methodologies are used…Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:22:39 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2011/11/four-lessons-learned-at-lean-startup-machine-dc/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2011/11/four-lessons-learned-at-lean-startup-machine-dc/I had the pleasure of being a mentor and judge at Lean Startup Machine DC (#lsmdc) this weekend at GeekEasy. The participants spent the weekend learning to validate hypotheses;…Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:00:59 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2011/11/its-time-for-nonprofits-to-get-lean/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2011/11/its-time-for-nonprofits-to-get-lean/Want to change the world, but have limited time and money at your disposal? Join the club. You can’t drive change if you pour your heart and soul into an inefficient engine. You…Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:30:30 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2011/09/the-startup-primer/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2011/09/the-startup-primer/The Startup Primer is a collection of 55 articles you need to read before your start your startup.Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:01:27 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2011/09/moving-to-the-cloud/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2011/09/moving-to-the-cloud/For most organizations, maintaining servers is not a core competency, but there are concerns with moving to the cloud.Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:00:03 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2011/08/the-biggest-mistake-entrepreneurs-make/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2011/08/the-biggest-mistake-entrepreneurs-make/The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make is building their product before finding out if people want it. I was working on a company last year to develop a product to help small…Tue, 23 Aug 2011 04:38:30 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2011/08/how-to-test-business-idea/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2011/08/how-to-test-business-idea/How to test a business idea by measuring demand for your product before sinking significant time and money into development.Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:26:22 GMThttps://www.teaguehopkins.com/2011/08/web-application-security-users/https://www.teaguehopkins.com/2011/08/web-application-security-users/Since reading Randall Munroe’s excellent commentary on password strength in modern web applications, I’ve noticed countless online services that limit the potential strength of a…Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:35:31 GMT