Advance praise coming soon.
Coming soon from Technics Publications
Permanently
Unfinished
Field notes for the uncertain, on AI and product management
A field notebook for product managers and the engineers, designers, and leaders working alongside them — written from inside a transition imposed by AI, which hasn't yet finished and, the book argues, never fully will.
Publishing with Technics Publications
The book
Written from inside the transition, not after it
Permanently Unfinished is a field notebook for product managers learning to work inside a squeeze that AI has made permanent: relentless external noise insisting AI changes everything; competitive paranoia flowing from the boardrooms of companies down through the ranks; and the private uncertainty of not knowing what you're capable of with these tools, or what's expected of you to stay relevant.
This is not a guide to the tools and AI models. It is a reflection of the author's personal lived experience inside one of the world's largest software companies, on boundaries between product, engineering, and design dissolving, roles inevitably reforming, and AI's economics landing on the product manager's desk as a matter of responsibility along with new kinds of design decisions. It's about finding signal in the noise, reading silence, and navigating uncertainty when shipping AI features early as continuous experiments, and embracing the discomfort of burying the Minimum Viable Product concept.
The book will ask as many questions as it tries to answer, and mostly it empowers the reader with a sense of agency and methods for making peace with ever growing uncertainty in an AI-hyped world, where snake oil exists side by side with real tangible value, but where value requires constant experimentation and the master skill is knowing what to build, and where AI pushes us to stay relevant in new, unexplored ways. Permanently Unfinished is a human story seen through the lens of product management, told from inside a transition still underway.
“Most people around you are having the same private conversation with themselves that you are; wondering if they're keeping up and staying relevant, wondering if anyone else feels this lost too. They're just not saying it out loud. This book is that conversation, said out loud. There's no version of this where the uncertainty resolves and you finally arrive at solid ground, so what changes is your relationship to standing on ground that moves constantly; you stop waiting for it to stop, make peace with the uncertainty, and start working anyway, one experiment at a time.”
— Søren Friis Alexandersen
Advance praise
What early readers are saying
The manuscript is currently out with early readers and proofreaders. Their comments and recommendations will appear here as they come in.
Reserved for an early reader.
Reserved for a proofreader's note.
Stay in the loop
Be first to know when it publishes
No spam — just a note when Permanently Unfinished is available from Technics Publications, and the occasional field note from the book along the way.
Unsubscribe anytime. What happens to my email address?
FAQ
Good questions
Is this an official Microsoft book?
No. Søren works at Microsoft, but Permanently Unfinished is an independent, personal project. The views in the book are his own.
Who is publishing this book?
Permanently Unfinished is being published by Technics Publications, a publisher known for its data management, architecture, and enterprise strategy titles (including the DMBOK).
When will the book be available?
Publication is scheduled for early 2027, but may be published sooner. Join the notify list and you'll hear the moment it's available.
What formats will be available?
E-book and paperback are planned. Details will be confirmed closer to publication.
Who is this book for?
Product managers, primarily — plus the engineers, designers, architects, and consultants working alongside them, who are navigating the same shift in how software gets built.
Does this book teach me how to use specific AI tools?
No. The tools will be outdated by the time you read this — that's the point. The book is about the judgment underneath the tools, which doesn't expire with the next model release.