Article archives

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

You can also view the PRODUCTHEAD newsletter archive.

  • 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 weatherRead more ›

  • 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 moreRead 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 servicesRead more ›

  • 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?Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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’.Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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 :-)Read 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.Read more ›

  • 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@imanageproducts.comRead more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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?”Read more ›

  • 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?”Read more ›

  • 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?”Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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?Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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?”Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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?”Read more ›

  • 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?”Read more ›

  • 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 :-)Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 85: The agency trap

    85: The agency trap

    How can product management fit into an agency business model? Spoiler alert: _not easily_Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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’?Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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.Read…

  • 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.”Read more ›

  • 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.”Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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.Read more ›

  • 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?”Read more ›

  • 78: How to start a new product manager job

    78: How to start a new product manager job

    Starting a new product manager job can be daunting, particularly if you don’t change jobs very often. I work freelance, so I find myself in a new organisation roughly every 3-6 months. Let me share with you my tips for your first few months in a new role.Read more ›

  • What technical skills do I need to be a product manager?

    What technical skills do I need to be a product manager?

    “I was looking for inspiration and guidance as I am searching for a career change and Product Management/ Project Management are my areas of interest. I was looking to understand if in such roles technical skills are required.”Read more ›

  • 77: The only article you’ll ever need on prioritization

    77: The only article you’ll ever need on prioritization

    When faced with all the things you could and should be doing, it can be tremendously hard to decide which to do, let alone which to do first.Read more ›