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.

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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.

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» Learning is more valuable than being successful and not knowing why

» You can experiment with the content and layout of any web-based product with basic skills

» The success rate of experimentation is higher if there is no penalty for failing

» “If you have a good idea on a Monday and can design, test and learn by the Friday, then innovation explodes.”

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» More specific questions yield better user research findings

» User research works well when the team collaborates with a specialist user researcher

» Increased team user exposure hours correlates with more successful product improvements by the team

» The sooner you start user research, the greater impact it will have on your product

» A Kanban board helps the team to collate and track the questions to be researched

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» To build trust, mutual respect and transparency are critical

» Becoming a product leader means letting go of the day-to-day product management

» Being good at your job means training others to be good at theirs

» Equip your team to make good choices without needing your input

» Developing people is the single most important part of your job

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» Saying no to a good idea requires confidence in your product strategy

» Even if saying no to an opportunity, take the time to understand its value and context

» Keep ideas and suggestions separate from your product backlog

» Clear company goals and strategy make it easier to say no to unaligned requests

» Saying yes habitually to one-off custom features will usually kill your product business

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» Discovery is about understanding the problem space experienced by people

» When on a tight budget for discovery, mitigate bias where possible and document all the biases you see

» A relaxed participant will open up and be more honest with you

» A discovery can prompt one or more possible solutions, or tell you the problem is not worth pursuing

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» Bootstrapped startups have free rein with their strategy

» Successful startups try to anticipate failure, and learn from it when they don’t

» Investors look for long-term defensibility of your product’s proposition and unique advantage

» Operational velocity is key to company success

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» When starting your next role, gather opinions and evaluate them before making your own appraisal of the state of the product

» Think of your first month’s activity in terms of people, product and personal

» The transition from product manager to leader requires many new skill sets

» To set up a new starter in your team for success, be clear on their role and goals