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).
» Developers and managers often have conflicting views of what constitutes value in software
» Software engineers should ideally understand both what they are building and why
» Unforeseen edge cases can cause headaches at roll-out, but provide valuable lessons
» When delivering difficult news at work, you are not there to seek sympathy
» Tie business impact to deprioritised work to highlight the problem to your CEO without sounding whiny
» An organisation’s emotional culture governs which emotions people express and suppress at work
» Many organisation equate “fixing” to basically “patching holes in the slowly sinking boat”
» Desire paths spring up as users’ needs and goals change
» The effort paradox: the effort of forming a new path versus the desire to take the path of least resistance
» In digital products we use analytical tools to help us observe desire paths
» When a new desire path emerges, question your old assumptions — user behaviour is changing
» Thematic analysis identifies the main themes emerging from qualitative data, such as interview transcripts
» It can be a great activity to do with your team for establishing empathy with the users and their context
» Good research means being intentional, conscientious, and ethical at every step
» A mobile phone may be all you need to record an interview
» For in-person recordings, keep your setup simple and portable
» The simplest way to record video calls is to use the local or cloud recording option
» Consider carefully whether to record an interview or to have a dedicated note-taker
» Ask your team: what do we actually need to know, by when, and how confident do we need to be?
» Don’t ask users what they do. Ask them for an example of a time they have done something, and then ask if it was typical
» When recruiting participants, say what the study is for, how long it will take, and what’s in it for them
» Ask “why” to understand the other side’s position and interest
» All negotiations involve both rational and emotional elements
» Whatever decision you make as a product manager will disappoint some people
» Teams benefit from a shared understanding of the trade-offs of decisions
» Asking about a specific problem causes people to ignore the other problems they have
» Make time for product discovery in small steps, not all at once
» Biases reduce cognitive load for our brain when it processes new information
» An opportunity solution tree is a way to externalize your thinking
» Don’t specify rigid requirements to your delivery team, have a collaborative conversation instead
» Try out lots of different solutions to the same problem
» Don’t be pressured to rush through discovery and prototyping
» Share knowledge around your team
» Avoid misunderstandings through constant communication with stakeholders
» 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
