PRODUCTHEAD: The anatomy of a ‘no’
» Avoid ambiguity by speaking plainly
» Bring the data, not the verdict
» Articulate the cost and opportunity cost
» A ‘yes’ is only worth something if a ‘no’ is worth something
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).
PRODUCTHEAD: Augmenting your thinking without delegating it
» Exclusive free giveaways for PRODUCTHEAD subscribers in May
» Use genAI to generate possibilities and identify blindspots in your thinking without incurring cognitive debt
» Backlash against the UK’s NHS closing public code repositories
PRODUCTHEAD: AI anthology
» Ready meals are okay, just not all the time
» Previous hype cycles masked who really had product-market fit and who didn’t
» Humans excel where AI doesn’t
» New tech rarely solves social problems
PRODUCTHEAD: Demystifying those pesky Applicant Tracking Systems
» Humans, not AI, are still sifting job applicants in or out
» PMs should use AI to amplify their thinking, not replace it
» Positive news for product managers in the UK job market
» Advice from someone unjustly fired from Facebook
PRODUCTHEAD: Speed means nothing without expert judgement
» Traditional SaaS companies will struggle if they believe they’ll control their UI for ever
» Some org leaders think that AI can replace their “glue people”
» The glue person’s work is often invisible because they were good at it
PRODUCTHEAD: Speed to market is now table stakes
» Make your principles explicit so you can make the hard trade-offs between things you value
» Your organisation’s strategy is the anchor that your culture – how you work together – is built on
PRODUCTHEAD: Increasing and diminishing influence
» The art of influence is the highest-leverage skill remaining for product leaders
» AI agents require the same strategic clarity as humans do
» Building fast necessitates more human selectivity and expert judgement
PRODUCTHEAD: Putting the Product Operating Model into context
» There’s no one true version of product management, but there are 4 flavours
» Without support from the CEO, your product operating model probably won’t succeed
PRODUCTHEAD: Content design for humans and AI agents
» In a self-service world, good content design helps users do what they’re trying to do
» A content crit is a constructive, supportive peer review technique
» Poor content design diminishes the value of your product or service to users
PRODUCTHEAD: How work actually gets done
» Visible and invisible process both contribute to how work actually gets done
» Orgs should not rely on individual heroic efforts in place of designed-in capacity
» Accelerating the build reintroduces a bottleneck and results in wasteful overproduction
» Context comes from not just sharing information but engaging with it
