Author: Jock Busuttil

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.

PRODUCTHEAD: Everyone is losing their mind over ChatGPT

Posted on Monday, 13 February 2023

» ChatGPT’s inability to produce exact quotes from web pages is what makes us think it has learned something

» The biggest problem for AI chatbots and search engines is their propensity to generate bullsh*t

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

Posted on Wednesday, 8 February 2023

“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?”

PRODUCTHEAD: Place your bets, please

Posted on Monday, 6 February 2023

» It can aid a team’s progress to make lots of small bets, rather than one large one in a quarter

» Separate your outputs in a release plan from the outcomes in your product roadmap

» Parkinson’s Law: work always expands to fill the time available

PRODUCTHEAD: More than making the right moves with frameworks

Posted on Monday, 30 January 2023

» Frameworks help to spur thinking; they don’t provide the answers

» “I would be nothing without my dev teammates, but my devs would probably get on pretty well without me.”

» Use frameworks with discretion – and expect a bit less of them

PRODUCTHEAD: This article was NOT written by AI

Posted on Monday, 23 January 2023

» When there is a financial incentive, people will industrialise technology to automate money-making activities

» Authoritative-sounding yet factually inaccurate content generated by AIs is harmful

» Product managers should be primarily concerned with what is best for users from an ethical point of view

PRODUCTHEAD: Choose your own adventure

Posted on Monday, 16 January 2023

» A good product roadmap needs good leaders and clearly articulated goals

» Make every roadmap goal specific and measurable

» Ensure your team owns your roadmap as much as you

PRODUCTHEAD: How to protect your startup’s product idea

Posted on Monday, 9 January 2023

» Rarely can we attribute inventions in digital technology to one individual or company

» The best ideas can’t be copied — it’s all in the execution

» Guides to patenting inventions in the UK and US

PRODUCTHEAD: 2022 in review

Posted on Monday, 12 December 2022

» Reflecting on product management in 2022

» The most opened PRODUCTHEAD editions of 2022

» Back in the new year :-)

Will platforms conquer the world?

Posted on Saturday, 10 December 2022

Product managers of software and hardware platforms face unique challenges that PMs of ‘regular’ products do not.

In this panel discussion, Hans-Bernd Kittlaus discusses platform product management with Samira Negm, Peter Stadlinger and Jock Busuttil.

PRODUCTHEAD: The demented game show

Posted on Monday, 5 December 2022

» Some people think about problems directly; others think through the problem via potential solutions

» Organisations often jump straight into action without establishing a foundation for coping with uncertainty

» If one group has all the decision-making power, others cannot properly contribute