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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» 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

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» Success theatre undermines the long-term potential of your team and organisation

» Small changes can incite a large culture transformation

» As organisations grow, they incorrectly start to value the importance of “process” over “product”

» Measuring process distracts you from determining whether you are creating value

» Quarterly planning is disruptive when it introduces too much new information at once

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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.

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» Free, online courses are available to help you become more literate in the basics of finance

» There are three key financial metrics to track in a recurring / subscription business

» Gain a competitive advantage by interpreting annual corporate accounts

» Challenge received wisdom about key financial metrics and ratios to reveal hidden insights