From Stormtroopers to Jedis: Radhika Dutt on Building Products That Truly Learn

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Most organizations don’t fail because they lack data or goals. They fail because they chase the wrong ones.

In her Just Product 2025 keynote, Radhika Dutt, author of Radical Product Thinking, invited product leaders to stop behaving like stormtroopers, obsessively firing at metrics, and start acting like Jedis who sense, learn, and adapt with intent. Her message couldn’t be more relevant in the age of AI, where optimization is easy, but judgment is rare.

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The Problem: "Stormtrooperism"

“Stormtrooperism,” as Radhika calls it, is when teams hit every target on their OKR sheet and still miss what truly matters.
It’s the mindset of chasing numbers instead of solving puzzles.

OKRs, she explains, are fine for tracking results but often reduce complex learning problems into color-coded dashboards. When all incentives point to showing green status, people hide failures instead of investigating them, eventually delivering products that look successful on paper yet fail in the market.

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The Alternative: Jedi Discipline

Jedis, on the other hand, operate with reflection and discipline.
They set intent, sense, learn, and adapt continuously.

To make that discipline tangible, Radhika introduced a simple framework: OHLs – Objectives, Hypotheses, and Learnings.
• Objective: Define the puzzle. What problem are we really trying to solve?
• Hypothesis: State your first attempt. “If we do X, we expect Y because…”
• Learning: Ask, “How well did it work? What did we learn? What will we try next?”

This shift sounds subtle but changes everything. Teams stop defending numbers and start discussing insights. Reviews become about exploration, not justification.

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Case Study: How Intel Transformed Itself

Radhika illustrated the idea with one of the greatest corporate transformations in tech history: Intel’s pivot from memory chips to microprocessors.

Under CEO Andy Grove, Intel succeeded not because of OKRs but because of a company-wide commitment to experimentation and learning. Grove encouraged open reflection—famously working from a cubicle to stay close to the truth on the ground. When data showed the memory business was dying, he asked the defining question:
“What would a new CEO do?”
The answer—kill the memory business—became the move that redefined Intel.

Later “stormtrooper” leadership kept OKRs alive but lost that curiosity. Intel hit metrics yet missed every major industry shift—from iPhone chips to GPUs. The lesson: metrics don’t replace thinking.

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Why AI Makes This Even More Urgent

In an era where AI can optimize faster than any human, the stormtrooper mentality becomes a liability.

“If AI can already optimize better than you,” Radhika asked, “what’s your value add?”

Her warning: without human judgment and reflection, we’ll flood the world with AI Product Slop, products built fast, optimized for engagement, but ultimately mediocre and harmful. The dating-app industry’s “swipe right” burnout is a cautionary tale of metric-driven design gone wrong.

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Case Study: OHLs in Practice at Signal Ocean

Radhika applied this mindset at Signal Ocean, a maritime data-analytics company whose sales had stalled.

When she arrived, teams were fluent in OKRs but disconnected from reality. They could quote metrics, yet no one could explain what those numbers meant.

By introducing OHLs and weekly learning meetings, where every team answered “How well is it working? What did we learn? What will we do next?”. Signal Ocean turned data into insight. Product managers began framing their work as puzzles to solve rather than goals to hit. Within a year, sales doubled.

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How to Start in Your Own Team

Radhika’s closing message:
You don’t need permission to become a Jedi.

Start small:
1. Write one Objective as a puzzle. Describe the problem and the guiding questions.
2. For your next release, write one Hypothesis. “If we…, then… because…”
3. In your review, replace traffic-light OKRs with Learnings. Discuss what surprised you and what to try next.

You can even keep OKRs if you must—OHLs simply make them more meaningful.

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Be the Jedi

Radhika closed with a choice that resonated across the cinema:
Do you want to be a stormtrooper—replaceable, metric-obsessed, and forgettable?
Or a Jedi—intentional, reflective, and capable of creating lasting change?

In the age of AI, your true advantage isn’t faster execution.
It’s better learning.