PMs often hear about the “product trio.” But in real-world retail, that trio is not always enough. Here’s what I learned from building a visualizer at Lowe’s.

There is a famous saying in product: “If you are not ashamed of your MVP, you waited too long.”

In startups, that mindset often works. Ship something quickly, test it in the market, and improve later. I lived by that rule myself. We launched the product, closely monitored engagement, asked for user opinions once it was live, and iterated accordingly.

But in a Fortune 50 company like Lowe’s, I learned a different lesson: speed alone is not enough. With millions of customers relying on your tools, even the smallest detail can make or break trust.

One of the best examples of this came from building our tile visualizer.

Lowe's flooring visualizer    Lowe's flooring visualizer

The MVP Debate

Our flooring visualizer had already proven itself. Customers uploaded photos of their rooms, previewed products, and felt more confident in their buying decisions. It even worked with carpets, which are very difficult to render in a realistic way.

Naturally, the next request was wall tiles. Tile is far more complex. It can be for walls, floors, or both. Customers do not usually cover a wall from ceiling to floor. In early tests, tiles even appeared above kitchen cabinets, which gave us a laugh but also showed the challenge.

tiles above kitchen cabinets

Then came grout.

At first, I treated grout as work we should include in the next iteration, not in the MVP. I knew it was complex and would slow us down by weeks, maybe months. Grout brings two main options: thickness and color. Thickness is not universal. Peel and stick mosaics are fixed on a net, so joint spacing cannot change. Pebble tiles create a different challenge because of their irregular shapes. Both grout thickness and color do not apply to every type of tile, and our team had to generate images for many different variations.

This is where Kristen Kaminski, our manager for tiles and soft surfaces, stepped in. Her stance was clear: “We cannot launch tile visualization without grout.”

The Outcome

I disagreed, but I committed.

Although it would delay the launch, our business stakeholders were clear that grout was essential for the customer experience. I committed to delivering that better experience, even if it meant pushing the timeline. It was the trade-off between speed and quality, and in this case, quality mattered more.

As PMs, people sometimes call us the CEO of the product. That does not mean we know everything. Our real responsibility is to bring the right people into the room, ask the right questions, and then listen. Listen to understand, not just to reply. We do not need to agree with every viewpoint, but we do need to make the most effective decision for customers and for the business.

When the visualizer shipped, the results proved the point. Grout was not a minor detail. It was central to the experience. Customers used it, trusted it, and relied on it. It turned the product from something functional into something truly valuable.

lowes kitschen wall tile gold   wall tile brown

The Lesson

Marty Cagan’s Inspired describes the product trio: product manager, design, and engineering. The trio works because it balances what is valuable, usable, and feasible.

In enterprise scale products, especially in retail, the trio is often not enough. Tech companies may have a different pace, but in corporate retail, business stakeholders and category experts are essential. They understand how customers shop, which details change confidence, and what truly builds trust.

For junior PMs, this is the key takeaway: you will not always be the subject matter expert. Your job is to know who to involve, when to involve them, and how to use their expertise to guide better decisions. Focus on outcomes over outputs. Shipping fast matters only if you are shipping the right thing.

Final Reflection

Thanks to Kristen’s insistence, we shipped our tile visualizer with grout, and it was the right call. Customers noticed the difference immediately.

The takeaway is simple:

  • Respect the product trio, and know when you need more.

  • In retail and other complex domains, business input is not optional.

  • A PM’s strength is not knowing everything, but knowing how to bring the right voices together.

Great products are not built by PMs alone. They are built when product, design, engineering, and business expertise come together.

That is why I now believe great products need more than a product trio.