PRODUCTHEAD: Showing your value
PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.
fitter happier #
every PRODUCTHEAD edition is online for you to refer back to
tl;dr
One definition of value is the impact of a product team’s work on the company’s success
To deliver value quickly as a new starter, understand people, problems, context, process and culture
We rarely show value to users, the business and others affected by our product on the same journey map – why?
hello
I’m very pleased to find myself “fitter, happier, more productive” this week. It’s thanks to a combination of things: cheerier weather, more exercise and most pertinently, more chats with lovely product people. Some were at the recent Mind The Product leadership event in London, and the rest I’ve been chatting with as part of ongoing research for what may possibly, potentially become a new book.
Of course it wouldn’t be business as usual for me without at least a smidgeon of procrastination thrown in for good measure. Jumping waaaaaay ahead of myself, I spent a bit of time this week futzing around with typesetting software and pretty fonts with an eye to publishing my as-yet-theoretical book. Dopamine craving satisfied, I can now concentrate on actually writing some words.
For you this week #
I have three takes on showing your value for you this week:
Matt LeMay and Janna Bastow discuss why it’s important to focus on work that delivers high impact for the business, rather than low impact work that happens to be quicker and easier to deliver;
Mirela Mus talks about how to define a product person’s value, and how they can start creating that value sooner when joining a new business; and
Erika Hall talks about the conflict between delivering value to users, to the business, and to everyone else affected by the product.
(Coincidentally, both Mirela and Erika mention variants of stakeholder / power mapping as a technique for figuring out which people have influence over the product or initiative you’re responsible for.)
Speak to you soon,
Jock
what to think about this week
Because you’re worth it: How to show the ROI of your product work
Do you find it challenging to quantify the return on investment (ROI) of your product work? Are you tired of investing time and resources into product development without being able to demonstrate its true value? If so, you’re not alone, especially in these uncertain times. Many product professionals face the same dilemma.
[VIDEO] Avoid the “low impact death spiral”
[Matt LeMay & Janna Bastow / ProdPad]
Blazing fast onboarding for product managers
Below are our learnings on how to onboard fast as a new PM and show you’re adding value in two weeks. And for Product Leaders, how to not freak out your new product hires in the first weeks and how you can set them up for success.
Focus on the people and problems
[Mirela Mus / Medium]
The business model is the grid
Every design and design system is embedded within an underlying business model that defines how an organization understands, creates, and extracts value. This framework constrains all of the choices within it. Unfortunately, this is a dynamic few designers are prepared to grapple with, let alone influence.
[VIDEO] It’s not all about shareholder value
[Erika Hall / Clarity ‘23]
recent posts
Moving up to a CPO or VP Product role
Stepping up to a Chief Product Officer (CPO) or VP Product role doesn’t so much change what you do. Rather it amplifies everything. This guide lets you know what to expect.
Liberating and terrifying in equal measure
[I Manage Products]
I want to update my pricing strategy. Where do I start?
“My product currently has one tier of per-seat pricing for all customers. I want to change my pricing strategy to cater differently for SMEs and enterprise customers. Where do I start?”
A few pricing concepts to consider + further reading
[I Manage Products]
How do I make my product roadmap a better communication tool?
“My product roadmap is not getting the right information across to other people in my company. In particular, my customer success and marketing teams are struggling to plan their work for upcoming product releases. I’m also not sure how I can show my roadmap’s relationship to the half-yearly OKRs we set. How can I improve it?”
Your product roadmap is a communication tool
[I Manage Products]
can we help you?
Product People is a product management services company. We can help you through consultancy, training and coaching. Just contact us if you need our help!
Helping people build better products, more successfully, since 2012.
PRODUCTHEAD is a newsletter for product people of all varieties, and is lovingly crafted from working showers. Finally.
Read more from Jock
The Practitioner's Guide To Product Management
by Jock Busuttil
“This is a great book for Product Managers or those considering a career in Product Management.”
— Lyndsay Denton
Jock Busuttil is a product management and leadership coach, product leader and author. He has spent over two decades working with technology companies to improve their product management practices, from startups to multinationals. In 2012 Jock founded Product People Limited, which provides product management consultancy, coaching and training. Its clients include BBC, University of Cambridge, Ometria, Prolific and the UK’s Ministry of Justice and Government Digital Service (GDS). Jock holds a master’s degree in Classics from the University of Cambridge. He is the author of the popular book The Practitioner’s Guide To Product Management, which was published in January 2015 by Grand Central Publishing in the US and Piatkus in the UK. He writes the blog I Manage Products and weekly product management newsletter PRODUCTHEAD. You can find him on Mastodon, Twitter and LinkedIn.
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