Archive of the PRODUCTHEAD newsletter, a regular newsletter of product management goodness, curated by Jock Busuttil (@jockbu).
» Some people think about problems directly; others think through the problem via potential solutions
» Organisations often jump straight into action without establishing a foundation for coping with uncertainty
» If one group has all the decision-making power, others cannot properly contribute
» The wording of your product manager job description could be putting off good candidates
» Listing excessive requirements for the role will deter risk-averse candidates
» Think about why you’re hiring and the candidate attributes you need most
» Don’t copy-and-paste other job descriptions — they won’t describe what your organisation needs
» Humility and authenticity go a long way in building trust
» It is hard both to share data when expected, and to do so in a way that is trustworthy and acceptable to the public
» “Nobody ever read a simple sentence and thought ‘well, that was too easy to understand.’”
» With care it is possible to create valuable products with user data while maintaining trustworthiness
» Create space for your engineering team, understand the ebbs and flows of work, and help them to avoid burn-out
» Work to understand the technical complexities facing the engineering team
» Engineers typically focus on a small number of large tasks
» Product and engineering overlap: clarify who does what
» Encourage continual scrutiny of your product’s central flaws — talk openly about the elephants in the room
» Cognitive biases lead us away from rational thought and objective truth
» Research and evidence help us to neutralise biases
» A common language about research is vital for building a team’s capability
» Customers are only reliable sources about their own experiences
» The way we think about product is determined by the language we use
» Focus helps to reduce cognitive load without losing sight of the underlying complexity — it is different to simplifying
» The challenge of simplifying a complex legal process was to find simpler language that didn’t sacrifice essential points of law
» Work continues after the project ends — plan for the ongoing support of your product
» A support team deals with user queries, incidents and ongoing improvement of the product
» Great user support is an expectation, not a nice-to-have
» Feedback from user support can identify areas of product improvement
» Treating symptoms may provide short-term relief but does not alter the status quo
» Root cause analysis helps us to systematically prevent future issues or to repeat successes
» Impact maps help to connect what we choose to build and why we choose to build it
» In case you missed it: recap of the communication toolkit
