PRODUCTHEAD: This too shall pass
» A pursuit of job stability can easily translate into an unproductive ‘inertia’ instead
» Self-sealing arguments are no-win situations: every defence you make is co-opted the by other party as evidence you’re wrong
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: The backlash against the Spotify Model
» The Spotify Model was only ever a snapshot in time at Spotify
» It existed in the context of a company whose leadership valued trust, self-organisation and change
» As Spotify grew, it failed to strike the right balance between autonomy and collaboration
» Alignment to product strategy remains crucial for autonomous teams to deliver valuable work
PRODUCTHEAD: Ways to structure your team for efficiency
» Rather than existing in a bubble, each product team should have core members, collaborators and supporters
» How you should divide up teams depends on your product’s overall flow; avoid ambiguous ownership
» Teams should have end-to-end responsibility for a part of the user journey with minimal dependencies
» One approach is to delineate between teams working on a core problem domain, and on those enabling their work
PRODUCTHEAD: In a flat spin from a failed product launch
» Sonos is working through a major user backlash after launching a flawed app
» Pressure from senior management forced the launch to happen before it was ready
» Tips for recognising and managing tension as a product manager
» Round-up of lessons learned from failed product launches
PRODUCTHEAD: Coding in the open
» A common misconception is that openly sharing code presents security risks
» Keeping code open clarifies ownership and can avoid vendor lock-in
PRODUCTHEAD: What is a product? What is a service?
» Services are best identified as verbs rather than nouns
» You cannot have services without products, nor products without services
» A service is something that helps someone to do something
PRODUCTHEAD: Deconstructing Duolingo’s growth
» Dissect your monolithic metrics to drive growth in more easily influenced segments
» Don’t kill the golden goose of growth by oversaturating a channel
» If growth is your goal, have a sense of urgency
PRODUCTHEAD: Trust in photos is dead and gone
» Sarah Jeong on why the Pixel 9’s Reimagine feature is the final nail in the coffin for trust in photos
» 9 Sept: I’m giving a talk for Product People on lessons about org culture
PRODUCTHEAD: When Sales ask for stuff
» Knowing what kinds of customer you want and don’t want help you to prioritise ‘one-off’ feature requests from sales
» “Enterprise customers look at our roadmaps as the starting point for negotiations”
» Are feature requests a deliberate strategy or a reactive wild goose chase?
PRODUCTHEAD: Wicked problems
» The uncertainty of a problem should influence how we respond to it
» Misdiagnosis of a problem can compound it
» We frame our solutions through the lens of our social predisposition
» Wicked problems can only be addressed by collaboration between different social types
