Product Trust isn't just an asset—it's the lifeline that determines whether your product thrives or dies in today's unforgiving regulatory landscape.
The numbers are staggering. Global regulatory enforcement reached a record $19.3 billion in fines in 2024, with financial institutions alone facing penalties exceeding $3.3 billion for transaction monitoring violations — a 100% year-over-year increase.
But here's what should make every product manager's blood run cold: these aren't just numbers on a compliance officer's spreadsheet. They represent the smoking remains of product trust that took years to build and seconds to destroy.
Consider TD Bank's historic moment of reckoning—becoming the largest institution in U.S. history to plead guilty to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, facing billions in penalties for compliance failures that allowed criminal organisations to move money through their systems. Or the $11.3 million penalty imposed by Australia's ASIC on Mercer Superannuation for greenwashing practices. These weren't just regulatory slip-ups—they were also product governance failures that cascaded through entire organisations.
The harsh reality? Product managers are no longer just shepherds of features and roadmaps. In our AI-driven world, they've become the frontline custodians of product trust.
Too many product teams still operate with a dangerous misconception: that their responsibility ends when they ship. They obsess over sprint velocities and feature completeness while remaining blissfully unaware that every product decision creates ripples of regulatory exposure that can impact the entire company.
Real product lifecycle governance isn't about managing releases—it's about managing accountability from conception to sunset. It means understanding that when you design an AI feature that processes customer data, you're not just building functionality; you're creating potential GDPR liability. When you implement a recommendation algorithm, you're not just improving user engagement; you're potentially creating fair lending violations or bias in hiring tools. When you change a product feature, you're not just updating functionality; you're potentially invalidating marketing claims, sales presentations, and customer communications that were built around the previous capability."
This isn't someone else's problem to solve after you've shipped. This is the product manager's domain, requiring the same discipline you'd apply to scaling infrastructure or optimising conversion funnels.
Build regulatory requirements into your definition of done. Every feature specification should include compliance considerations as prominently as performance requirements. If you can document technical specifications, you can document regulatory impact.
Institute mandatory compliance checkpoints with legal, risk, and compliance teams at every major product milestone. Also in your strategic product reviews. These aren't perfunctory sign-offs—they're collaborative sessions to identify regulatory blind spots before they become billion-dollar problems.
Map how every product change affects downstream teams and customer-facing materials. When you modify data collection practices, trace that change through marketing materials, sales presentations, privacy policies, and customer communications. Inconsistencies in this chain are where regulatory violations breed.
Stay ahead of regulatory changes in your industry. Subscribe to regulatory updates, participate in industry working groups, and build relationships with your compliance team. With the UK's CMA now empowered to fine companies up to 10% of their global turnover for greenwashing, ignorance is no longer a viable defence strategy.
Create decision trails that demonstrate thoughtful consideration of regulatory requirements. When regulators come knocking—and they will—your product decisions need to tell the story of a responsible, well-informed team that took product compliance seriously.
Here's what many product managers fail to grasp: every product modification triggers a cascade of changes across marketing, sales, and customer communications that can create regulatory exposure if not properly managed.
When you update data processing capabilities, marketing needs to revise privacy statements. When you modify AI algorithms, sales teams need updated explanation materials for enterprise customers asking about bias and fairness. When you change pricing models, customer communication materials need updates to maintain transparency requirements.
The failure to coordinate these changes creates dangerous inconsistencies. Customers receive different explanations from different teams. Marketing materials contradict product capabilities. Sales teams make promises the product can't keep or shouldn't make under regulatory constraints.
This coordination isn't optional—it's a regulatory requirement disguised as operational excellence.
The regulatory landscape is littered with companies that learned these lessons too late. Financial institutions faced a 31% surge in penalty values in the first half of 2024 compared to 2023, with many violations stemming from inadequate product governance rather than malicious intent.
Starling Bank's £29 million fine for inadequate financial crime controls and Optus 100M penalty regarding vulnerable customers and product sales practices - they arent just a compliance failures - they are a product management failure. The systems that allowed the opening of high-risk accounts were product decisions that weren't properly connected to the regulatory risk.
Similarly, the wave of greenwashing penalties sweeping through industries from energy to finance demonstrates what happens when product teams don't coordinate with marketing and communications teams to ensure consistent, defensible claims about product benefits.
Artificial intelligence has fundamentally changed the stakes. Product managers building AI-powered features aren't just building software; they're building systems that regulators will scrutinise for fairness, transparency, and accountability. This requires a fundamentally different approach to product development—one where ethical considerations and regulatory compliance are as central to product decisions as user experience and technical feasibility.
The most successful product organisations are already making this transition. They're embedding compliance thinking into product discovery, involving legal and risk teams in sprint planning, and treating regulatory requirements as product requirements that enable innovation rather than constrain it.
This isn't a middle-management problem that can be delegated to compliance committees. Product trust is now a board-level strategic imperative that requires quarterly CEO attention.
When digital asset platforms received $756+ million in fines, accounting for 99% of global penalties in that category, the CEOs of those companies weren't discussing feature roadmaps in board meetings—they were explaining how product decisions led to regulatory disasters.
Smart boards are now asking their product leaders to report quarterly on regulatory risk exposure, compliance integration in product development, and cross-functional coordination effectiveness. They're demanding the same discipline for regulatory risk management that they expect for financial management.
Here's the counterintuitive truth: companies that embrace product managers as compliance custodians don't move slower—they move more confidently. They make product decisions knowing they've considered all angles. They launch features without the constant anxiety of regulatory surprise. They compete on the strength of their products rather than hoping their regulatory luck holds out.
In an era where trust is the scarcest currency and regulatory penalties can exceed entire company valuations, product managers who master product compliance governance aren't just protecting their companies—they're unlocking competitive advantages that their less-prepared competitors can't match.
Smart product leaders aren't waiting for the next regulatory surprise—they're building trust-first organizations today. Skyjed specializes in embedding compliance governance into product workflows without slowing innovation. Get your complimentary audit and implementation blueprint. Our proven approach typically delivers results in 8 weeks
The era of "ship fast and break things" is over. Welcome to the era of "ship fast and build product trust."
Cheers and until next edition!
Leica
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