PRODUCTHEAD: More isn’t necessarily better
PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.
million dollar product manager #
every PRODUCTHEAD edition is online for you to refer back to
tl;dr
When money is tighter, product people need a better grasp of the financials
AI may increase lines of code created, but also lengthens code reviews
When the Board asks for a roadmap, they’re really asking where you’re going and how you’re going to get there
hello
This week has started well. A niggly, annoying problem that has been gently vexing me for a couple of weeks is unsolved no longer. And as is often the case with these things, I spent those weeks exploring increasingly outlandish methods of solving the problem, only to find that the actual solution was staring me in the face. [*leans over and flicks switch* – There, it works now]
May your day be similarly blessed with a straightforward solution to a vexing problem.
For you this week #
Jason Knight chats with Simonetta Batteiger, a product leader with a background in finance and accounting. She notes that, while it is important for product people to understand the financials for their product and business, this has to be kept in balance with the needs of our users and how technology plays a part (per Martin Eriksson’s famous Venn diagram).
During the interview, Simonetta also makes the point that building more isn’t the same as creating value. This is echoed in an article by Kyle Orland writing for Ars Technica. Recent research has shown what we perhaps knew all along: AI increases the amount of code written by about 30% on average, but the amount of product actually shipped remains the same, partly because it’s taking about 49% longer for humans to review the larger surface areas of potentially suspect code created when using AI.
To round out this week’s edition of PRODUCTHEAD, Martin Eriksson has another good article about what the Board is really asking for when they ask for a ‘roadmap’. (Hint: it’s not a list of stuff you’re going to build.)
Speak to you soon,
Jock
what to think about this week
Episode 276 – Product Managers Need to Understand the Financials… Not Just the Users
On this episode, I speak to Simonetta Batteiger, a product leadership coach, trainer, speaker and co-organiser of ProductTank Cologne. Simonetta began her career in accounting and finance before moving into product leadership while still maintaining a strong sense of the numbers that the rest of the leadership team really cares about. We explore why product teams can be seen as cost centres rather than sources of business value, how to connect product decisions to meaningful financial outcomes, and why the ability to build more quickly with AI makes sound commercial judgement more important, not less.
Faster isn’t necessarily better
[Jason Knight & Simonetta Batteiger / One Knight In Product]
AI coding agents generate more code, but not more software
Anyone who has even tangentially associated with computer programming knows that modern AI coding assistants and agents can be incredibly efficient at generating huge amounts of functional code. But coders making use of those tools also know better than to trust the accuracy of that code, meaning substantial effort needs to be spent reviewing any AI-generated output.
Quantity is not the same as quality
[Kyle Orland / Ars Technica]
Assumption #4: The board wants to see the roadmap.
They asked for a roadmap. What they want is strategy. Why the two get confused, what to bring instead, and how to change the conversation.
[Martin Eriksson / The Decision Stack]
recent posts
Chess is easier when you can see the board
A Wardley Map is to corporate strategy what a chessboard is to players: you can absolutely play the game in your head without seeing the board, but if you can it’s a lot easier to play, and you have a massive advantage over the people who can’t.
Know what moves you can make, and why to choose this move now
[I Manage Products]
How to form a go-to-market strategy
A go-to-market strategy isn’t something you tack on as an afterthought to an upcoming product launch. Instead it’s about understanding where value exchanges occur, and figuring out how to make them more frequent, consistent and predictable.
Go-to-market emerges from your discovery
[I Manage Products]
We’re all addicted to AI, but it’s going to be okay
We seem to stuck in a contradiction in which we worry about AI’s effect on our critical thinking, while finding it equally hard to resist using. Why is that?
[I Manage Products]
can we help you?
Product People is a product management services company. We can help you through consultancy, training and coaching. Just contact us if you need our help!
Helping people build better products, more successfully, since 2012.
PRODUCTHEAD is a newsletter for product people of all varieties, and is lovingly crafted that interface, not that one.
Read more from Jock
The Practitioner's Guide To Product Management
by Jock Busuttil
“I wish this book was published when I started out in product management. It gives a really wonderful overview of what product management is and involves on a day to day basis.”
— Keji Adedeji, product leader & coach
Jock Busuttil is a product management and leadership coach, product leader and author. He has spent over two decades working with technology companies to improve their product management practices, from startups to multinationals. In 2012 Jock founded Product People Limited, which provides product management consultancy, coaching and training. Its clients include BBC, University of Cambridge, Ometria, Prolific and the UK’s Ministry of Justice and Government Digital Service (GDS). Jock holds a master’s degree in Classics from the University of Cambridge. He is the author of the popular book The Practitioner’s Guide To Product Management, which was published in January 2015 by Grand Central Publishing in the US and Piatkus in the UK. He writes the blog I Manage Products and weekly product management newsletter PRODUCTHEAD. You can find him on Mastodon, X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.