There’s a moment in every product leader’s career when the bravest decision isn’t to build—it’s to stop. That’s why the “Kill Your Darlings” theme resonated so strongly with me. In this episode of All Things Product, Teresa Torres and Petra Wille dig into the courage and craft it takes to sunset products that look successful on the surface yet quietly block your path to meaningful growth. As someone accountable for portfolio outcomes, I’ve learned that disciplined endings are often the catalyst for exceptional beginnings.
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The heart of the conversation is that uncomfortable middle ground between obvious failure and runaway success: products that are profitable, loved by customers, but fundamentally flatlining. Teresa shares candid stories from her own business, including a decision to cut 40% of revenue on purpose. I’ve been there—choosing to retire a “working… kind of” product to free up discovery capacity felt risky in the moment, but it created the focus we needed for durable growth.
Here’s the trap: some traction can be more dangerous than no traction at all. Early fans are not the same as durable product–market fit, and “stable but not growing” can lull leaders into maintaining instead of learning. Every hour of design, engineering, and go-to-market attention that props up a flatlining product is an hour not invested in the next breakthrough—an opportunity cost that rarely shows up on a dashboard, yet compounds month after month.
From a portfolio perspective, this is continuous discovery in action. If we want empowered product teams to tackle meaningful outcomes, we have to protect their capacity from zombie work. That means setting clear thresholds for when we double down, shift strategies, or sunset—before attachment and inertia take over. When I’ve institutionalized this discipline, our throughput of high-quality bets increased, and our confidence in what not to do became a strategic advantage.
Organization design can make sunsetting harder than it needs to be. Dedicated, long-lived teams are fantastic for compounding capability, but they also create emotional and structural ties to specific products. Petra’s point lands: leaders need explicit sunsetting conversations and a portfolio decision-making cadence that sits one level above teams. In my org, we treat sunsetting as a strategic reallocation—not a verdict on a team’s talent—so people are celebrated for learning, not punished for outcomes outside their control.
Killing profitable products can be the right strategic move when the growth ceiling is clear and the opportunity cost is high. I’ve chosen to “burn the ships (on purpose)” more than once—retiring add-ons that generated reliable revenue but diluted our value proposition and spread discovery thin. Yes, it stings in the quarter you do it. But it’s astonishing how quickly focus restores momentum when you create intentional space for what’s next.
Practically speaking, I make sunsetting easier and less traumatic by operationalizing it: Regular portfolio reviews focused on outcomes and opportunity cost; a visible “sunsetting” column so everyone sees what’s on the table; the Horizon (H1 / H2 / H3) model to balance core, adjacent, and transformational bets; and making portfolio decisions one level above teams to avoid local optimizations. Add explicit exit criteria and success metrics for endings, the same way we set entry criteria for new bets.
Another theme I appreciated is designing for the right customers. Teresa highlights intentionally limiting access and pricing to work with customers who show agency and commitment. I’ve applied the same principle: when we’re clear about who we serve and who we don’t, our product–market signal sharpens, churn narratives simplify, and roadmaps get crisper. Focus is a growth strategy.
If you’re leading a product portfolio, running discovery, or wrestling with a product that “works… kind of,” this conversation is permission to act. Product–market fit isn’t binary, and mediocre success can be the most dangerous place to stay. Sunsetting is a portfolio decision, not a team failure; teams shouldn’t be punished for reaching the end of a product’s natural lifecycle. If experimentation isn’t in your DNA, killing products will always feel traumatic—so make space for it intentionally, not passively.
Key moments and themes worth bookmarking: 00:00 – Why “kill your darlings” matters; 04:30 – The dangerous middle ground; 09:30 – The opportunity cost of “okay” products; 14:30 – Sunsetting in product organizations; 19:00 – Real examples of killing revenue streams; 28:00 – Designing for the right customers; 33:30 – Burn the ships (on purpose); 38:00 – Making sunsetting easier with Regular portfolio reviews, a visible “sunsetting” column, the Horizon (H1 / H2 / H3) model, and making portfolio decisions one level above teams; 46:00 – Normalizing product lifecycles.
Resources & Links:
Follow Teresa Torres: https://ProductTalk.org
Follow Petra Wille: https://Petra-Wille.com
Mentioned in this episode:
Ways to Work with Petra Wille
Product at Heart
CDH Membership by Teresa Torres
Product Talk by Teresa
Product Talk Academy by Teresa
Enduring Ideas: The three horizons of growth
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