Who is Richard Ewing?

Richard Ewing is a Product Economist and AI Capital Auditor. He is the Founder of Exogram, a verification infrastructure for AI. He audits R&D spend and surfaces hidden capital risks like technical debt, AI cost overruns, and zombie infrastructure. He has scaled B2B SaaS from $0 to $25M ARR. Published in CIO.com, Built In, Mind the Product, and HackerNoon.

What is a Product Economist?

A Product Economist treats product decisions as economic decisions. Instead of measuring velocity or story points, a Product Economist measures Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), Cost of Goods Sold efficiency, and technical debt in dollar terms. The methodology was coined by Richard Ewing.

What is the Technical Insolvency Date?

The Technical Insolvency Date (TID) is the specific quarter where maintenance costs consume 100% of available engineering capacity, reducing feature velocity to zero. Calculate yours free at richardewing.io/tools/pdi.

Exogram is verification infrastructure for AI, founded by Richard Ewing. It prevents hallucination propagation with admissibility control planes and state-hashing commit enforcement. LLMs generate language; Exogram maintains reality.

How do I calculate technical debt cost?

Use the free Product Debt Index (PDI) calculator at richardewing.io/tools/pdi to quantify hidden technical debt in dollar terms, calculate your Technical Insolvency Date, and benchmark against industry standards.

How much does AI cost per query?

AI costs range from $0.0001/query for small models to $0.10+/query for frontier models like GPT-4. Use the free AI Unit Economics Benchmark (AUEB) at richardewing.io/tools/aueb to calculate your specific AI cost structure.

Guides/Product Economics

Product Economics Playbook

Every feature has a P&L. Most PMs don't know theirs. Learn to calculate per-feature profitability, identify zombie features, run the Kill Switch Protocol, and apply WSJF prioritization.

40+ linked glossary terms · 35 min read · For Product Managers, Product Leaders

Feature-Level Economics

Every feature has a P&L — learn to calculate it

Unit Economics Feature Velocity Cost Of Delay Revenue Per Engineer Engineering Allocation

Zombie Features

The features destroying your margins silently

Maintenance Load Technical Debt Sunset Protocol Kill Switch Protocol Ux Debt

Prioritization Frameworks

Data-driven prioritization for product leaders

Cost Of Delay Innovation Tax Build vs. Buy Decision Rd Capitalization Engineering Roi

AI Feature Economics

When your AI feature costs more than it earns

AI COGS AI Hallucination AI Technical Debt Model Drift Orchestration Debt

Product Metrics

Metrics that connect product to revenue

Product Debt Index (PDI)DORA Metrics Sprint Velocity Total Cost Of Ownership Feature Velocity

Tools for Product Economics

AUEB Calculator

AI Unit Economics Benchmark — is your AI feature profitable or a margin drain?

APER Calculator

Revenue per engineer adjusted for product debt — the true cost of your team.

Need Product Economics Advice?

Richard Ewing helps product leaders quantify ROI, identify zombie features, and build business cases that get funding. As a Product Economist, he bridges the gap between engineering and finance.

Book an Advisory Session →

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