The $1,000 Silence: Why Your Voicemail is Your Biggest Competitor
You're halfway up a ladder fixing a tripped breaker when your phone buzzes. Again. You ignore it because, obviously, you're holding a screwdriver and standing on aluminum.
The call goes to voicemail.
You finish the job, get back to the truck, and check your phone. Three missed calls. Two voicemails. One from a number you don't recognize.
You tell yourself you'll call them back later. But "later" turns into tomorrow. And tomorrow, that caller already booked someone else.
That's a $1,000 job you'll never see.
This isn't a story. It's Tuesday.
The Math You're Not Running
Here's what most home service businesses don't realize: 80% of callers won't leave a message. They just hang up and call the next company.
Let's say you get 50 calls a week. If you're missing even 10 of them (which is conservative if you're running solo or with a small team), that's:
10 calls × 80% who won't leave a voicemail = 8 people who vanish immediately
Even if only half of those were real jobs, that's 4 lost opportunities per week
At an average job value of $800–$1,200, you're leaving $3,200–$4,800 on the table every single week
That's $12K–$19K a month. Gone. To silence.
And that's just the calls you know you missed.
Why Voicemail Is Killing You
Most people think voicemail is neutral. Like it's just… there. A placeholder until you can get back to someone.
But voicemail isn't neutral. It's actively costing you jobs.
When a customer calls and gets your voicemail, here's what they hear:
"We're too busy to answer."
"You're not a priority right now."
"Try someone else."
And they do.
According to research, over 70% of consumers hang up within a minute of hitting voicemail. They don't wait. They don't leave a message. They move on.
Think about your own behavior. When was the last time you left a voicemail for a business and felt good about it?
Exactly.
The "I'll Just Hire Someone" Trap
The knee-jerk response is usually: "I need to hire someone to answer the phones."
But here's the problem with that:
A full-time office person costs $35K–$50K/year (plus payroll taxes, benefits, training)
They still can't answer calls when they're in the bathroom, at lunch, or dealing with another customer
You now have to manage them, which adds to your admin load (the thing you were trying to escape)
If they quit, you're back to voicemail until you hire again
Hiring isn't a bad move when you're ready. But if you're doing $500K–$2M in revenue and still wearing all the hats, adding headcount might just give you a different set of problems.
You don't need another person on payroll. You need a front office layer.
What a Front Office Layer Actually Does
A front office layer is the system that sits between your phone and your chaos.
It's not a person. It's not a call center. It's not a chatbot that pisses people off.
It's an invisible office assistant that:
Answers every call , even when you're on a ladder, in a crawl space, or finishing a job
Captures the right information , name, issue, urgency, location
Prioritizes what matters , so you know which calls are "pipe burst" vs. "general quote"
Follows up automatically , so leads don't go cold while you're out in the field
It runs in the background. You don't think about it. It just works.
And here's the key: it doesn't replace you. It protects your time so you can do the work that actually makes money.
What This Looks Like in Real Life
Let's say a homeowner calls at 2 PM on a Wednesday. You're mid-job.
Without a front office layer:
Call goes to voicemail
They don't leave a message
They call the next electrician
You lose the job
With a front office layer:
Call gets answered (by the system)
Customer explains the issue
System logs it, asks key questions, and determines urgency
You get a summary: "Water heater leak, needs same-day service, customer available after 5 PM"
You call them back (or your system does) within 20 minutes
Job booked. Revenue captured.
You didn't stop working. You didn't hire anyone. You just stopped losing jobs to silence.
The Real Competitor Isn't the Guy Down the Street
Your biggest competitor isn't the other plumber with better reviews or the HVAC company with nicer trucks.
It's your voicemail.
Because while you're out doing good work, your voicemail is telling potential customers: "We're not available."
And the business that picks up? They win. Even if their work isn't as good as yours.
89% of customers will make another purchase after a positive experience. But they can't have that experience if they never get through in the first place.
You Don't Need Perfect. You Need Functional.
Here's the thing: you don't need some fancy, over-engineered system. You just need something that works while you're working.
A front office layer doesn't have to be complicated. It just has to:
Capture demand when you can't
Give you clarity on what's urgent
Reduce the mental load of "did I miss something important?"
It's not about AI for the sake of AI. It's about creating a buffer between the chaos of incoming calls and the focus you need to do your job well.
Think of it like this: you wouldn't show up to a job without the right tools. Why would you run a business without the right system to handle demand?
Stop Competing Against Silence
If you're reading this and thinking, "Yeah, I probably miss more calls than I realize…"
You're right. You do.
But the good news is: this is fixable. You don't need to hire. You don't need to answer your phone at 9 PM. You just need a system that catches what you're missing.
Because every call that goes to voicemail is a job you'll never close.
And every job you don't close is revenue you're handing to someone else.
The question isn't whether you're losing money to missed calls. You are.
The question is: how much longer are you okay with that?
Fire Marshals, Not Firefighters: The Secret to Calm, Strategic Product Leadership
Here's a painful truth: Most product leaders are professional firefighters.
They sprint from crisis to crisis, wielding urgency like a badge of honor. Strategy gets buried under the weight of "quick fixes." Teams burn out from the constant adrenaline of putting out fires that, if we're being honest, were totally predictable.
But the best product leaders? They're fire marshals.
They don't wait for smoke. They architect environments where chaos never gets the chance to ignite. They systemize calm, prevent disasters, and lead with the kind of clarity that makes execution feel inevitable.
If you're tired of being the person who shows up to every meeting with a digital fire extinguisher, this shift will change everything.
The Firefighter Trap (And Why Smart Leaders Fall Into It)
Let's start with some uncomfortable recognition. Firefighting feels productive. It feels heroic. You're solving problems, making decisions, and people depend on you. The dopamine hit is real.
But here's what firefighting mode actually looks like in practice:
Your strategy drifts during execution. You start with a clear vision, but daily fires pull you in twelve directions. By month three, you're shipping features that have nothing to do with your original plan.
Teams work in silos. Everyone's heads-down on their piece, but nobody has visibility into how their work connects to outcomes. When things go sideways, it's a scramble to figure out what went wrong.
Priorities shift weekly. You're constantly reprioritizing based on the latest emergency, leaving a trail of half-finished projects that never quite made it across the finish line.
Reports arrive late and contradictory. You find out about problems after they've already spread, when the cost of fixing them has multiplied tenfold.
Sound familiar? Here's the cruel irony: Most of these fires are predictable. They emerge from the gap between strategy and execution, the space where good intentions meet chaotic reality.
The Fire Marshal Mindset: Three Core Shifts
Real product leadership isn't about reacting faster. It's about creating systems where the right things happen naturally, where strategy and execution flow together, and where your team operates from clarity instead of crisis.
This requires three fundamental shifts:
1. Strategy Tied to Execution
Fire marshals don't just set strategic priorities, they map those priorities directly to initiatives, funding, and delivery. Every strategic decision has a clear path to execution, and every execution step is traceable back to strategy.
In practical terms, this means:
Your roadmap isn't a wish list. Every feature, every sprint, every resource allocation connects to a measurable strategic outcome.
Funding follows strategy. You don't just allocate budgets, you invest in the initiatives that will move your strategic needles.
Progress is measurable. You can answer "how are we doing?" at any level, strategic, tactical, or operational, with real data, not feelings.
When strategy and execution are connected, your team doesn't just know what to build. They know why it matters.
2. Visibility Across the Landscape
Firefighters discover problems when the alarm goes off. Fire marshals see the conditions that create problems and address them before anyone smells smoke.
This means building visibility at every level:
Executive visibility: Leadership can see how strategic priorities are progressing without diving into the weeds.
Team visibility: Individual contributors understand how their work connects to broader outcomes and can make better decisions autonomously.
Cross-functional visibility: Engineering, design, marketing, and sales operate from the same source of truth about priorities and progress.
When everyone can see the landscape, people act before issues ignite instead of discovering problems after they've spread.
3. Resource Optimization
Fire marshals don't scatter resources across every potential problem. They invest the right teams, capacity, and attention on the highest-value priorities.
This is harder than it sounds because it requires saying no to good ideas. But resource optimization means:
Focused execution. Your team isn't spread thin across fifteen initiatives. They're fully resourced on the three that will actually move the needle.
Strategic capacity planning. You plan for capacity the same way you plan for features: as a strategic resource that needs to be allocated thoughtfully.
Clear trade-offs. When new opportunities emerge, you have a framework for deciding what to stop doing instead of just piling more onto your team.
From Reactive to Proactive: The Practical Playbook
Making this shift isn't just philosophical: it's operational. Here's how fire marshal leadership works in practice:
Build Your Early Warning System
Instead of waiting for problems to surface, create mechanisms that show you where problems are likely to emerge:
Weekly pulse checks that surface blockers before they become crises
Cross-functional standups that catch misalignment early
Data dashboards that show leading indicators, not just lagging results
Create Decision-Making Frameworks
Fire marshals don't make every decision: they create frameworks that help their teams make good decisions autonomously:
Clear prioritization criteria that anyone can apply when new requests come in
Definition of done that prevents work from lingering in "almost finished" purgatory
Escalation pathways that route the right problems to the right people
Invest in Prevention
Some of the best leadership work happens before anyone notices:
Technical debt management that prevents the codebase from becoming unmaintainable
Process documentation that keeps institutional knowledge from walking out the door
Cross-training that prevents single points of failure on your team
The Leadership Balance: Strategic Presence
Here's where most leaders get stuck: How do you stay strategically focused while remaining operationally relevant?
Fire marshals master this balance. They stay connected to their teams: showing up, listening, understanding the pulse of the organization: while also looking ahead to anticipate barriers and prepare for change.
In practice, this means:
Staying close enough to catch problems early. You're not micromanaging, but you're present during high-stakes moments to remove obstacles and provide real-time support.
Creating space for strategic thinking. You protect time for the long-term view, even when the urgent feels overwhelming.
Building systems that scale without you. The goal isn't to be indispensable: it's to create clarity and momentum that continues even when you're not in the room.
The Transformation: What Changes When You Lead Like a Fire Marshal
When you make this shift, everything changes:
Your team operates from calm confidence instead of frantic urgency. They know what they're building, why it matters, and how it connects to the bigger picture.
Execution becomes more predictable. Not because you're eliminating uncertainty, but because you're building systems that handle uncertainty gracefully.
Strategic initiatives actually ship. Instead of getting derailed by daily fires, your big bets get the attention and resources they need to succeed.
Your leadership capacity multiplies. Instead of being the bottleneck for every decision, you become the architect of an environment where good decisions happen naturally.
Your Fire Marshal Action Plan
Ready to stop firefighting and start fire marshalling? Here's where to begin:
This week: Audit your current fires. Which ones were predictable? What early warning signs did you miss? Use this as data to build your prevention systems.
This month: Pick one area where you're constantly firefighting and build a fire marshal system. Create visibility, align strategy with execution, and optimize resources around that specific challenge.
This quarter: Expand the approach across your entire product organization. Train your team to think like fire marshals: anticipating problems, building prevention systems, and focusing on the work that actually moves the needle.
The transformation from firefighter to fire marshal isn't about eliminating urgency: it's about channeling that energy into systems that create lasting momentum instead of temporary fixes.
Your team is waiting for this kind of leadership. The question is: Are you ready to trade the adrenaline of firefighting for the satisfaction of building something that actually works?
Time to hang up the hose and pick up the blueprint.
Are Backlogs Dead? Do SaaS Teams Still Need Traditional Product Management?
It all begins with an idea.
Are Backlogs Dead? Do SaaS Teams Still Need Traditional Product Management?
Okay, let's talk about the elephant in the room! I've been hearing this question A LOT lately from software executives: "Kristie, are we wasting our time with backlogs? Should we just ditch traditional product management altogether?"
Short answer? Absolutely not! But (and this is a big but), everything's changing faster than you can say "sprint planning."
Here's what's really happening in the SaaS world right now, and why you definitely don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
The Great Backlog Evolution (Spoiler: They're Not Dead!)
Let me be crystal clear about this, backlogs aren't dead, they're just getting a major glow-up!
Think of it like this: remember when we used to manage our music collections with physical CDs? Music didn't die when Spotify came along, it just got way smarter and more accessible. That's exactly what's happening with product backlogs right now.
The old-school, static backlog that someone updates once a week in a dusty spreadsheet? Yeah, that's definitely on its way out. But modern, AI-powered backlogs that help you prioritize work, predict bottlenecks, and actually talk to each other across teams? Those are absolutely crushing it in 2025!
I'm seeing SaaS teams use backlog tools that leverage predictive analytics to tell you which features will actually move the needle for your users (not just the ones your loudest customer keeps asking for). These smart backlogs can automatically prioritize tasks based on business impact, technical debt, and resource availability. It's honestly pretty mind-blowing!
The reason this evolution is so crucial for SaaS teams is speed. You're not shipping software once a quarter anymore: you're probably deploying multiple times per sprint, maybe even daily. Traditional backlogs simply can't keep up with that pace without some serious AI assistance.
Traditional Product Management: Getting a Makeover, Not a Funeral
Now, about traditional product management: here's where things get really interesting!
The core responsibilities haven't vanished. You still need someone thinking strategically about your product roadmap, analyzing customer feedback, and making those tough prioritization calls. But the way we execute these responsibilities? That's changing dramatically.
I'll give you a perfect example: last month, I worked with a SaaS startup where their product manager was spending 60% of their time just organizing and categorizing user feedback. Now they're using AI tools to automatically analyze sentiment, categorize feature requests, and even suggest which feedback aligns with their strategic goals. The PM went from being a data processor to being a strategic decision-maker: which is exactly where they should be!
The biggest shift I'm seeing is the breakdown of silos. Your product managers can't just live in their own bubble anymore. They need to work seamlessly with engineering, sales, marketing, and customer success. The old "throw requirements over the wall" approach is dead as a doornail.
What's Actually Changing (And What You Should Pay Attention To!)
Here are the real changes happening in SaaS product management that every executive should understand:
1. Ecosystem-First Thinking
Your customers aren't just buying your product anymore: they're buying into your entire ecosystem. This means your product strategy needs to consider integrations, partnerships, and how your software plays with others. Traditional product-centric thinking just doesn't cut it!
2. Continuous Everything
Continuous delivery, continuous feedback, continuous optimization. Your backlogs need to support this reality. That means real-time prioritization, automated workflow management, and tools that can handle rapid iteration without breaking down.
3. AI-Augmented Decision Making
The best product teams I work with aren't replacing human judgment with AI: they're using AI to make human judgment more powerful. Sprint planning that used to take hours now takes minutes because AI helps identify dependencies and resource conflicts before they become problems.
4. Remote-First Collaboration
Let's be honest: your team probably isn't all in the same office anymore. Your product management tools and processes need to work just as well for someone in San Francisco as they do for someone in Singapore. This means your backlogs need real-time collaboration features, not just shared Google Sheets!
What Smart SaaS Executives Are Doing Right Now
If you're running a software company, here's what you should be focusing on (and trust me, your competition is already thinking about this):
Audit Your Current Tools
Take a hard look at how your teams are managing backlogs and product decisions. If they're still using tools from 2018, you're probably missing out on some serious efficiency gains. My favorite modern backlog tools include Linear, Notion, and Monday.com: all of which have AI features that actually work.
Invest in Cross-Functional Training
Your product managers need to understand more than just product management, and your engineers need to understand more than just code. The most successful SaaS teams I work with have people who can wear multiple hats and communicate across disciplines.
Embrace the Hybrid Approach
Don't go full AI or full traditional: find the sweet spot. Use AI to handle the repetitive stuff (categorizing feedback, identifying patterns, predicting resource needs), but keep humans in charge of strategic decisions and customer empathy.
Focus on Speed Without Sacrificing Quality
Your backlogs should help you move faster, not create more bureaucracy. If your current process has people spending more time updating tickets than building features, something's wrong!
The Bottom Line for Your Business
Here's what I really want you to take away from this: backlogs and product management aren't going anywhere, but they're evolving faster than most companies are adapting.
The SaaS companies that are winning right now aren't the ones who ditched traditional approaches: they're the ones who upgraded them intelligently. They kept the strategic thinking, the customer focus, and the systematic approach to building products. But they also embraced AI tools, broke down silos, and optimized for speed.
Your customers expect you to move fast, iterate quickly, and deliver value continuously. Traditional backlogs and product management practices can absolutely support this: if you modernize how you execute them.
Don't fall for the "throw everything out and start over" mentality. Instead, audit what you have, identify the gaps, and upgrade strategically. Your future self (and your engineering team) will thank you!
Ready to modernize your product management approach without losing what's actually working? Let's talk! I'd love to help you figure out the perfect balance for your specific SaaS environment. Way to go team!! 🍻
Blog Post Title Two
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Blog Post Title Three
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Blog Post Title Four
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.