Not Another
Boring PM
Blog.

Product management through the lens of pop punk, anime and game dev. Building cooler products with more energy and less corporate nonsense.

Break the rules — Build cooler products — Have fun doing it

Latest

Mar 17, 2026 · 7 min read

Kenshi Yonezu Spent Three Years Building an Audience Who Didn't Know His Name

Before 'Lemon' hit 85 weeks at number one, Kenshi Yonezu uploaded 30 songs to NicoNico as Hachi: no face, no label, no real name. The anonymity wasn't a gimmick. It was the work.

Mar 13 · 7 min read

When Netflix Stopped Trying to Make Anime and Actually Made Anime

Netflix burned $70M on Cowboy Bebop and got laughed out of the industry. Then they made Edgerunners. What changed wasn't the budget.

Mar 9 · 6 min read

Tatsuki Fujimoto Killed the Character Everyone Loved. That's Why Chainsaw Man Works.

Every other mangaka would have kept Aki alive. Fujimoto's instinct to follow through is the lesson most PMs never learn.

Mar 6 · 6 min read

Sony Said Demon's Souls Was Crap. Miyazaki Shipped It Anyway.

In 2009, Sony's head of worldwide studios played Demon's Souls for two hours and called it unbelievably bad. FromSoftware published it without them. Then they built a genre.

Mar 5 · 6 min read

Tatsuya Endo Built a Fake Family. Then It Became Real.

Spy x Family isn't a spy story. It's about a creator who spent 18 years failing, built a facade to get his real idea past the gatekeepers and accidentally made something true.

Mar 1 · 7 min read

Yoko Taro Built a Product That Asks You to Delete It. Nine Million People Said Yes.

NieR: Automata's creator was a self-proclaimed loser who hid from his publisher, designed a game that lies to you for 20 hours and then asks you to sacrifice everything for a stranger. It sold nine million copies.

Jan 6 · 6 min read

The Pop Punk Guide to Roadmap Planning

In 2026, roadmap season means AI pressure, stakeholder FOMO and planning cycles that collapse before the ink dries. Pop punk solved this exact problem and it wasn't by playing more songs.

Aug 15 · 6 min read

Hideaki Anno Shipped Evangelion Unfinished. Then He Rebuilt It. Twice.

The story of Evangelion isn't about giant robots. It's about a depressed creator who ran out of money, shipped anyway, faced death threats and spent 26 years iterating on the same product.

Jul 20 · 3 min read

From Demon Slayer to Jujutsu Kaisen: Crafting Product Journeys with Heart and Intent

Why great PMs must be great creators — lessons from Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen on building products people obsess over.

Jul 20 · 5 min read

HAGANE Lost Three-Fifths of Their Band. They Called the Next EP 'Life Goes On.'

When three of five members walked out of a Tokyo metal band in 2023, the remaining two had a choice: fold or rebuild. They rebuilt and came back sharper.

Jul 17 · 2 min read

From Pixels to Punk: A Manifesto for the New Era of Product Management

Product management isn't dead but the old way of doing it is over. A rallying cry for PMs building in the middle of creativity and chaos.

Mar 27 · 6 min read

YOASOBI Turned a Constraint Into the Biggest J-Pop Song in History

Every YOASOBI song starts from a written story. That constraint isn't a limitation — it's the reason 'Idol' became the first Japanese song to top Billboard's Global chart.

Oct 14 · 5 min read

Tom DeLonge Left Blink-182 to Chase UFOs. He Built an Empire Instead.

In 2015, Tom DeLonge walked away from one of the biggest bands on Earth to research UFOs. Everyone thought he'd lost it. He was building an ecosystem.

Oct 7 · 5 min read

The Most Important PM Lesson I Ever Learned Was Behind a Drum Kit

YouTuber Kize Bae gave herself 30 days to learn drums from scratch. What she discovered and what I found when I picked up the sticks myself — is more useful than any PM framework.

Not Another Boring PM Blog.