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).
» Just over half of product managers surveyed rate themselves poor at retiring a product
» Consider how people may continue using your product after it is retired, or the company exits
» Activists are pushing to prevent companies from bricking devices reliant on cloud software
» So-called hypergrowth is quadratic, not exponential (adding a larger fixed amount each year — not multiplying)
» Sustainable growth requires new products or built-in virality, not just more marketing
» True exponential growth is rare and short-lived
» 10 tactics for subscription value creation
» 10 tactics for reducing subscription churn
» When switching to a subscription model, initially costs will go up and revenue will decrease
» A prototype expresses a product concept far better and quicker than a product requirements document (PRD)
» People good at doing a thing themselves are not always good at building a system to do it
» Work is craft: theoretical knowledge and practical experience combined
» Implementing AI means assessing user needs and your data sources
» AI technologies run the risk of creating harm — how are you planning for that?
» LLMs and genAI open up new vectors for novel attacks that need to be countered
» Platform product management dials everything up to 11
» A successful platform is continually evolving in line with user needs and emerging tech
» Platform teams must recognise and respect the varying needs of their community of users
» On a typical dev project, the reality is around 2-3x the original estimate
» Trying to go faster when you’re already moving quickly has limited effect for a lot of effort
» Switching to a product-led sales movement should not be a hard pivot but a blended transition
» The product must demonstrate its own value regardless of whether sales people are involved
» Intent adds nuance to the classic “strategic, execution, and planning” cascade
» Conflict in product management is unavoidable
» Some conflict is actually desirable and healthy
» You can learn to assess and manage conflicts more constructively
» The negative effects of social media algorithms were an early warning for the consequences of generative AI
» As product managers, we have a duty of care to our users
» The unpredictability of genAI poses varying risks of harm to users depending on the context
