Category: PRODUCTHEAD – Product management newsletter

PRODUCTHEAD is my free curated newsletter of the best articles, videos and podcasts from product leaders and commentators all over the world. All neatly packaged up in a weekly email delivery for your reading, viewing and listening pleasure. Curated by Jock Busuttil (jockbusuttil.com).

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» At C-level, focus more on “what’s in it for you” and less on “here’s what I need”

» Get your strategy, priorities, risk-taking heuristics, and goals straight, and treat allocation as a hypothesis

» Failure to adapt and iterate on team structures and processes will result in your strongest product people leaving

» Accepting that an employee might thrive in another environment is accepting that you (as their manager) could have done a better job

» Vocal self-confidence in the midst of uncertainty has become a desirable trait in leaders

» There must also be space for quieter, more contemplative leadership styles

» Shape Up is a collection of product development techniques that happen to work for Basecamp

» Just because they work in Basecamp’s context doesn’t mean they’ll work for yours

» OMG so problematic

» If context is continually changing, aim for incremental progress and let go of perfectionism

» Balance the need for action with the drive to understand both the problem and your biases

» Change is like a sledge stuck in the ice: hard to get moving, but easier to keep moving once freed

» Software is never ‘done’ even if you choose to ignore it for a while

» A ‘training wheels’ framework to get a team started should be treated as a throwaway experiment

» Clarity is not the same as certainty, although it helps you manage the uncertainty

» When negotiating, don’t pitch, listen

» To minimise residual influence, negotiate each point independently

» When trust is low, consider making a concession contingent on the other party reciprocating

» Conceding because you don’t want to upset the other party is a losing scenario

» Speak the language of C-level by focusing on revenue, customer benefits, and financials

» Without understanding, there can be no empathy

» Product managers need to be able to communicate with a wide range of people using different languages

» The worst product managers only speak in the language of product management

» Good product managers amplify the ability of an organisation to generate value

» Successful companies have figured out how to align quality, customer value, and sustainable velocity

» With no formal entry requirements, many people have piled in to product management with little care for the craft

» Be involved and interested, but not on the critical path

» Talk about the ideas you threw away, in commercial language

» Founders are rejecting the generic advice to delegate everything — this evolves the product manager role