PRODUCTHEAD: The right kind of fast
PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.
pulk/pull revolving products #
every PRODUCTHEAD edition is online for you to refer back to
tl;dr
A PM’s vibe coded prototype is just another way to dictate requirements to the team
Just because you can build features more quickly doesn’t mean you should build them
Greater strategic discipline than ever is needed to build worthwhile products
hello
Welcome to PRODUCTHEAD, your weekly antidote to LinkedIn bloviation.
This week industry stalwart Scott Sehlhorst likens vibe coded prototypes to prescriptive requirements. It’s like the last 20 years of progress in our profession never happened. Perhaps we’re just itching to go back to the bad old days of unilaterally handing down product requirements and specifications as if they were infallible pronouncements from the deity of your choice.
It’s a trap to start thinking that a product manager’s view of how a product should be designed is the right one (or that a PM is qualified to design anything). Our job is to explore with our team how we’ll know that the product has successfully solved the market problem (or exploited the opportunity), and to highlight any constraints the product has to work within. It’s the responsibility of the experts on our multi-disciplinary team to make that a reality.
Rich Mironov is thinking about product development bottlenecks. He asks whether using genAI to plough more quickly through our product backlog is actually worthwhile, given most items are probably junk we should never actually get around to implementing. Just because we can build stuff quickly, doesn’t mean we should build it all into the product.
Continuing the theme of bottlenecks, Martin Eriksson writes:
“The bottleneck in product development was never our ability to build things. It was never about shipping more features faster. The real constraint — the one that actually determines success — is our customers’ attention.”
Being able to build and iterate more quickly still requires strategic discipline. It’s about achieving more focus and perfecting the experience, not about ‘spraying and praying’ feature experiments on our unsuspecting and somewhat put-upon users.
Speak to you soon,
Jock
what to think about this week
Vibe Coding Into the Gale
Vibe coding, as a faster way to tell people what to build is penny-wise, but pound-foolish. Too many people are latching onto a “show don’t tell” metaphor for making it easier and faster to tell their teams what to build. The same forces which make this possible are making this foolish at the same time. We are in uncharted waters, sailing into the storm of an uncertain future. The last thing you want to do is lash the wheel into a fixed position.
Dictator product managers are a real problem
[Scott Sehlhorst / Tyner Blain]
Bottlenecks, AI, and Where Product Adds Value
I’m still somewhat of a skeptic about “replace our developers and product managers with AI” discussions (see my AI-washing from 2023), but [I] want to take the other side of the argument for a moment. And to start by thinking about bottlenecks (aka system constraints, longest tent poles, or rate-limiting steps). Then imagine what happens if software development got 10x or 30x faster and cheaper.
When anyone can build anything quickly, ‘good taste’ will differentiate products
[Rich Mironov / Product Bytes]
AI: 10x Speed Without 10x Strategic Thinking is Just 10x Chaos
AI lets you ship 10x faster, but your customers don’t have 10x more attention. Why strategic discipline beats speed in the AI gold rush.
We’re solving the wrong constraint
[Martin Eriksson / The Decision Stack]
recent posts
Are developers vibe coding themselves out of a job?
And is the increasing reliance by junior developers on AI coding assistants storing up a generational skills shortage for the future – ‘professional debt’, if you will?
So simple, anyone could do it. Wait – don’t fire me
[I Manage Products]
Cloud computing for non-technical product managers
To understand how cloud computing works, we’re going to start with the basic building blocks and work our way up.
And why is it a cloud anyway? (All is revealed)
[I Manage Products]
Navigating your product management career
Ross Webb and I have been chatting about product management career progression.
We cover topics including:
» Thinking of visibility as a strategic competency, not self-promotion
» Controlling your narrative through regular updates
» Building cross-organisational relationships deliberately
» Mapping your stakeholders’ preferred communication styles
A roundtable chat on moving into product leadership
[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 many shelves.
Read more from Jock
The Practitioner's Guide To Product Management
by Jock Busuttil
“I wish this book was published when I started out in product management. It gives a really wonderful overview of what product management is and involves on a day to day basis.”
— Keji Adedeji, product leader & coach
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, X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.