The Yoruba concept of 'Ori' — roughly, one's inner head or personal essence — holds that before you act in the world, you must first consult what you genuinely are, not what you wish to be or what others need you to be. It's not mysticism; it's a remarkably precise diagnostic tool. In Ifá philosophy, poor outcomes aren't primarily blamed on bad luck or bad strategy — they're traced back to misalignment between Ori and action. Product managers live inside a version of this problem constantly: roadmaps built on who the team thinks they are, or who stakeholders want them to be, rather than where their actual judgment is trustworthy and where it isn't. The Ifá practice of 'divination' was, at its core, a structured pause to surface that gap — between the role you're playing and the self doing the playing. Today, before your next meeting or prioritization call, try naming one place where you're acting from the role rather than from genuine conviction.

When did you last change a product decision because of your own clear reasoning — and when did you last change one because of social pressure you relabeled as 'stakeholder alignment'?

Drawing from Yoruba Ifá Philosophy — Ifá corpus (oral tradition, systematized c. 15th–18th century CE, West Africa) synthesized with Kola Abimbola (Yoruba Culture: A Philosophical Account, 2006)