A model describing a continuous, ongoing pull-back toward the old project model — output, fixed plans, predictability, control — that persists throughout a transformation to the Product Model (vs. Roadmap Model), rather than a one-time switch that's ever fully 'won.' The pull is driven by stress and a leader's loss of felt control, not by a rational preference for the old way.
Under pressure (a missed deadline, an executive escalation, a bad quarter), leaders who have nominally adopted the product model revert to directive, plan-driven management — not because they've changed their mind, but because the gravitational pull toward the familiar strengthens exactly when stress is highest.
Apply: recognize a leader's reversion to control as this gravitational pull reasserting itself under stress, and counter it with storytelling and visible wins (Discovery Demos, Bank of Trust) rather than assuming that adopting the product model once means it's permanently installed rather than a state that must be continually re-earned. See Coaching-on-the-Sidelines Leadership Model for how leaders can resist this pull in their own behavior.
PM culture treats the product/project distinction as more than pedantry: a children's-book PM glossary flags mixing up the words as a real irritant — "it's product and isn't project. The latter if used will cause us to object." The insistence reflects the same underlying pull this model describes: "project" language frames work as scoped deliverables to complete, while "product" language frames it as an ongoing bet toward a vision, decided by weighing cross-functional input rather than one function's schedule.
Из тем: The Product Operating Model