Article archives

Here you can find links to all the articles published on this website.

You can also view the PRODUCTHEAD newsletter archive.

  • 95: How to form a go-to-market strategy

    95: 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.

  • Startup to Scale-up Club Q&A – 14th April 2026

    Startup to Scale-up Club Q&A – 14th April 2026

    » Structuring analytics for user engagement » Defining an MVP in the AI era » When to use genAI and when to use machine learning (ML) » Product differentiation in a crowded market » Implementing reusable components and designs and more

  • We’re all addicted to AI, but it’s going to be okay

    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?

  • Canary in the mine: AAA game developers are unionising

    Canary in the mine: AAA game developers are unionising

    Early warning signs that there may be another storm brewing in tech for product managers to weather

  • Startup to Scale-up Club Q&A – 13th Jan 2026

    Startup to Scale-up Club Q&A – 13th Jan 2026

    » Recommendations for automated infrastructure monitoring » Safe presentation of medical data in Femtech apps » Trade-offs of cloud versus local AI deployment for agricultural technology and more

  • Startup to Scale-up Club Q&A – 9th Dec 2025

    Startup to Scale-up Club Q&A – 9th Dec 2025

    » Why it’s important to check assumptions before embarking on a costly product build » Keeping customer data segregated in the right way while avoiding over-engineering » When on-premise servers are a more cost-effective bet than cloud services

  • Are developers vibe coding themselves out of a job?

    Are developers vibe coding themselves out of a job?

    And is the increasing reliance by junior developers on AI coding assistants storing up a generational skills shortage for the future – ‘professional debt’, if you will?

  • Cloud computing for non-technical product managers

    Cloud computing for non-technical product managers

    To understand how cloud computing works, we’re going to start with the basic building blocks and work our way up.

  • 94: New technology alone is not the answer

    94: New technology alone is not the answer

    New technology is not going to suddenly make all the challenges facing an organisation disappear overnight. Why? Because more often than not, those challenges are social not technological. Technology alone rarely solves ‘people problems’.

  • What freelance product management is really like with Jock Busuttil

    What freelance product management is really like with Jock Busuttil

    Off the back of his recent article for Mind The Product, Liam Smith interviewed me about my experiences in freelance product management. I started as a freelance product manager in 2012 when I founded Product People Limited, and had been blogging about product management for a couple of years before that. (You can read my…

  • Is coding in the open right for your organisation?

    Is coding in the open right for your organisation?

    Coding in the open benefits public sector organisations and can yield a strategic advantage to commercial organisations also. I explore how and why.

  • How do you ensure success as a freelance product manager on a short engagement?

    How do you ensure success as a freelance product manager on a short engagement?

    As a freelance product manager, think about two things: how you can deliver value as quickly as possible, and how to ensure you do at least the one main thing they brought you in to do.

  • DevRel and Product Management with Jock Busuttil on the Voxgig podcast

    DevRel and Product Management with Jock Busuttil on the Voxgig podcast

    I’m chatting with Voxgig’s Richard Rodger about common challenges in product management and DevRel: » Why learning by soundbite gives a superficial understanding of the craft » Why we’re finding it hard to communicate value to our bosses + more :-)

  • 93: What to expect from your face-to-face product manager interview

    93: What to expect from your face-to-face product manager interview

    Your product manager interview is as much about you getting to know your interviewers as it is the other way around. Here’s what you can expect along with my tips for standing out from the crowd.

  • Follow I Manage Products in the fediverse

    Follow I Manage Products in the fediverse

    You can now follow all posts published to I Manage Products directly using your favourite Fediverse platform: @posts Alternatively, you can follow the feed of posts I write using @jock

  • 92: Moving up to a CPO or VP Product role

    92: Moving up to a CPO or VP Product role

    Stepping up to a CPO or VP Product role doesn’t so much change what you do. Rather it amplifies everything. This guide lets you know what to expect.

  • I want to update my pricing strategy. Where do I start?

    I want to update my pricing strategy. Where do I start?

    “I want to change my pricing strategy to cater differently for SMEs and enterprise customers. Where do I start?”

  • How do I make my product roadmap a better communication tool?

    How do I make my product roadmap a better communication tool?

    “My product roadmap is not getting the right information across to other people in my company. How can I improve it?”

  • How can I keep track of all these product metrics?

    How can I keep track of all these product metrics?

    “Juggling all our metric tracking has become increasingly overwhelming. “How do other teams effectively prioritize and process this information?”

  • Getting your first job as a product manager

    Getting your first job as a product manager

    Getting your first job as a product manager can seem impossible. Thankfully it’s not! I share my advice on how to break into a career in product management.

  • Force multipliers

    Force multipliers

    I seek out “force multipliers” to extract multiple benefits from the same work, like my very own workplace fusion reaction. Can you find your own?

  • 91: How to sharpen up your vision and strategy

    91: How to sharpen up your vision and strategy

    You can help your company to sharpen up its vision and strategy with these straightforward questions and worked examples.

  • 90: Always have a plan B

    90: Always have a plan B

    Have you ever wondered why product managers say “it depends” quite so often? The best product managers always have a plan B.

  • 89: What games taught me about customer onboarding

    89: What games taught me about customer onboarding

    The most successful games and products share a common attribute: they help the user become more skilled throughout their journey. Customer onboarding is a continual process.

  • Should I take a product manager job in a sales-led company?

    Should I take a product manager job in a sales-led company?

    “Hi Jock, I’m currently applying for loads of product manager jobs. I’ve received an offer from a sales-led company where the Product team reports in to Sales. Should I take the job?”

  • 88: Control your narrative

    88: Control your narrative

    Years ago, someone once told me that “perception is reality” when it comes to reputation at work. Of all the lessons I’ve learned in my career, this has been by far one of the hardest.

  • Why can’t I rely on user research from other departments?

    Why can’t I rely on user research from other departments?

    “Hi Jock, You talk about doing user research directly with users – does it matter that the Operations and Process tracks are telling me what their users want instead?”

  • As head of product, should I be a player-manager, or hire and delegate?

    As head of product, should I be a player-manager, or hire and delegate?

    “Hi Jock, There’s plenty that needs doing. As head of product I could focus on the hiring process and delegate, or I could get stuck in with the products as a player-manager. What’s the right balance?”

  • Thank you for 10 years of support

    Thank you for 10 years of support

    Just a quick post to say that Product People Limited is 10 years old today. And I’m proud of it :-)

  • Billion-dollar platforms – how they did it

    Billion-dollar platforms – how they did it

    I was asked recently whether platforms will conquer the world. My view? They already have. In this article I share how they’ve done it, and how you can successfully bring your own platform to market.

  • 87: An exercise in stakeholder alignment

    87: An exercise in stakeholder alignment

    When your stakeholders each have their own interpretations of the product strategy, this lack of stakeholder alignment will cause you no end of problems. Here’s what you can do about it.

  • 86: The 4 unintended side-effects of risk aversion and what to do about them

    86: The 4 unintended side-effects of risk aversion and what to do about them

    When we become more worried about risk, four unintended things also tend to happen: bottlenecking, erosion of trust, ossification of process, and a risk appetite that tends towards zero. Here’s what you can do about them.

  • What’s the difference between ‘measures of success’ and ‘definition of done’?

    What’s the difference between ‘measures of success’ and ‘definition of done’?

    Hi Jock, How would you describe ‘measures of success’ versus the ‘definition of done’? I’m trying to explain the difference simply to my team.

  • 85: The agency trap

    85: The agency trap

    How can product management fit into an agency business model? Spoiler alert: _not easily_

  • Whatever this is, this web3 product manager role is not a product manager

    Whatever this is, this web3 product manager role is not a product manager

    Jason Shah says that joining a web3 company can be “an opaque process and a risky decision”. I’d add “ethically challenging and morally grey” to that description.

  • Sorting the signal from the noise – a guide to fact-checking

    Sorting the signal from the noise – a guide to fact-checking

    One of the most important, and arguably hardest jobs we have as product managers is to work with our team to sift through information, read between the lines, and verify what is fact and what is merely opinion.

  • What’s the difference between a growth hacker and a growth product manager?

    What’s the difference between a growth hacker and a growth product manager?

    Hi Jock, I was reading your article about growth product managers. What is the difference between ‘growth hacker’ and ‘growth product manager’?

  • 84: Start building a community of practice with the 3 minute challenge

    84: Start building a community of practice with the 3 minute challenge

    When you start out as a head of product, you’ll probably need to create a community of product people. In this article I share my advice to help you get the ball rolling with your own community of practice.

  • Should a growth product manager even be a thing?

    Should a growth product manager even be a thing?

    There’s an ongoing debate about generalist product managers versus emerging product manager specialisms (such as ‘growth product manager’). I think there is room in our profession for both. Let me explain.

  • 6: 6 tips for presenting slides that don’t suck

    6: 6 tips for presenting slides that don’t suck

    All product managers will need to stand up and present to others at some point. You won’t be helping yourself (or your audience) if your slide deck is atrocious. So here are my 6 tips for presenting slides that don’t suck.

  • My boss wants to set me an OKR on revenue growth. Is this right?

    My boss wants to set me an OKR on revenue growth. Is this right?

    Revenue growth is the ultimate vanity metric. It’s lagging and measures an output, not an outcome. That’s why it’s a terrible choice of OKR.

  • 83: 5 tips to ace your first impression at a new job

    83: 5 tips to ace your first impression at a new job

    Because so much of product management is about working with people, it’s important to take time to reflect on the kind of first impression you make to those people. In this latest entry for my series of 100 things I’ve learned about product management, I pass on my coaching advice to help you make the…

  • 82: Replatforming the cash cow

    82: Replatforming the cash cow

    Engineering teams are choosing to work on projects that make them look busy, but which don’t actually move things forward. What they’re usually working on is a convoluted — and arguably doomed — attempt to replatform a legacy ‘cash cow’ product.

  • 81: The unifying principles of product management

    81: The unifying principles of product management

    A recent tweet by John Cutler provoked some interesting reactions. It got me thinking about whether there are underlying principles of product management that apply in all contexts.

  • What to do when service transformation goes wrong

    What to do when service transformation goes wrong

    When companies set out to redesign a product or service, the results can sometimes be underwhelming. Instead of delivering service transformation, the team recommends only minor efficiency tweaks. If this has been happening to you, there can be many underlying causes. I’ve identified a few common problems and what you can you do about them.

  • I’m overwhelmed – can you help?

    I’m overwhelmed – can you help?

    “I’m 4 weeks into a new [product manager] job, having moved states for it, and I’ve recently become a parent for the first time. Currently, I am feeling overwhelmed.”

  • How do you find the balance between autonomy and focus for PMs you’re managing?

    How do you find the balance between autonomy and focus for PMs you’re managing?

    “I have a PM in my team who I regularly find digging into areas of the business that are unrelated to the initiatives they’re responsible for. [As a result,] they also have a track record of being extremely slow to bring anything to market.”

  • 80: The neverending quest for product-market fit

    80: The neverending quest for product-market fit

    Even if your product’s achieved product-market fit, you’re wrong if you think you never need to worry about it again.

  • Mission to Mars

    Mission to Mars

    Imagine you’ve just been told that you’ll be a member of the team responsible for the first manned mission to Mars. Now imagine someone asks you how much the mission’s going to cost. The whole thing. There and back. By close of business on Thursday.

  • 79: The product leader’s guide to interviewing product managers

    79: The product leader’s guide to interviewing product managers

    I’m often involved in the interviewing and hiring process, so I’d like to share with you my product leader’s guide to interviewing product managers.

  • Should a product manager have responsibility for profitability?

    Should a product manager have responsibility for profitability?

    “Should the product manager have some level or perhaps a great deal of responsibility for the profitability of the product? Should they understand things like the unit economics, that sort of thing?”