PRODUCTHEAD: What are we doing about …?

product slowly #

every PRODUCTHEAD edition is online for you to refer back to

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tl;dr

“This is what we learned, and here’s how we’re going to adjust our plan”

As with strategy, studying and predicting the future isn’t an innate skill but a muscle you can build

AI will eventually have its “plane crash moment”

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hello

As I exist in an almost perpetual state of confusion, I often find myself asking, ‘What are we doing about …?’

It would seem that I’m not alone. The pieces I’m sharing this week all tackle this same question in different ways. John Cutler explores the idea of thinking slow and acting fast — deliberating then being decisive — as a characteristic of a type of people he calls ‘skeptoptimists’:

“Skeptoptimists assume shit will happen but are also optimistic that the team will eventually prevail. We love thinking slow—messy exploration, pre-mortems, red teaming, going deep, running simulations and scenarios, and discussing risk and “problems.” But instead of wallowing there, we know how to kick things into gear and act quickly and decisively—pivoting as necessary. Act fast.”

John also mentions that he’s recently joined still-in-stealth-mode Dotwork. Their website led me to the Uncertainty Project, which ‘is for leaders and managers motivated and responsible for deciding how to decide’. There is plenty to get your teeth into here. Some techniques will almost certainly be familiar to you, others will be useful additions to your personal toolkit.

Moving on, Martin Eriksson is publishing articles much more frequently on the Decision Stack. (I wonder whether his rumoured new book will be out soon.) In his latest post, he compares the seismic change generative AI is causing to the similarly disruptive shift from desktop to mobile. In particular he sees this as a trigger to re-evaluate whether your current strategy still makes sense.

And for a little contrast, Jason Knight interviews Assaph Mehr on his podcast about how generative AI is just another tool — useful in the right situations, but potentially dangerous in others.

Speak to you soon,

Jock

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what to think about this week

Skeptoptimism – Thinking slow, acting fast

Do you have a mix of skepticism and an enduring faith in the power of teams to make a difference? Read on.

In the book How Big Things Get Done, author Bent Flyvbjerg discusses the importance of thinking slow and acting fast. The basic idea is to take the time to plan right and then act quickly, decisively, and determinedly to minimize risk.

How to be a more successful skeptoptimist

[John Cutler / The Beautiful Mess]

The Uncertainty Project

The Uncertainty Project is a constantly evolving, community-driven collection of research-backed models and tools that helps companies architect processes for effective decision making.

Built by practitioners, for practitioners, this is meant to be a collection of building blocks; not a heavy, prescriptive framework. It enables individual managers, teams, as well as whole organizations to implement systematic decision making practices at varying levels of complexity.

More decision-making tools for your toolkit

[The Uncertainty Project]

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“What are we doing about AI?” When and how to adapt your Decision Stack

The first inclination when a technology shift comes along is to tweak your product, but you have to zoom out and question your strategy first.

Every single organisation I meet is asking itself the same question : “What are we doing about AI?” (And if you’re not, you really should be). We may well be in the midst of a hype cycle around AI but unlike some other recent hype cycles (cough, blockchain) I believe AI will fundamentally change the world, and requires that we adapt our businesses and products.

Nothing is written in stone

[Martin Eriksson / The Decision Stack]

AI is just a tool – what matters is how we use it

Assaph Mehr is an Australia-based product & people leader as well as a published fantasy author, who also uses his writing chops to produce a newsletter, “Rise of the Product Leader”. I’ve known Assaph online for a while, and he was a mentor for my (now-defunct) mentoring platform, as well as a regular commentator on product management and product leadership topics. He came on the podcast to give me his hot take on the current AI bubble.

Modern AI is like an intern who sometimes smokes weed

[Jason Knight / One Knight In Product]

recent posts

What freelance product management is really like with Jock Busuttil

Off the back of his recent article for Mind The Product, Liam Smith interviewed me about my experiences in freelance product management.

We cover topics including:

» Should you hire freelancers in your product team?

» How to be successful as an external hire

+ more :-)

If this doesn’t put you off, nothing will

[I Manage Products]

Is coding in the open right for your organisation?

One of the design principles that underpinned the digital renaissance in UK government was — and still is — ‘Make things open: it makes things better’.

For this article, I’ve focused specifically on the ‘coding in the open’ part. I’ll cover how it benefits public sector organisations, and how — in the right circumstances — it can yield a strategic advantage to commercial organisations also.

Increased scrutiny keeps us all a bit more honest

[I Manage Products]

DevRel and Product Management with Jock Busuttil on the Voxgig podcast

I’m chatting with Voxgig’s Richard Rodger about common challenges in product management and DevRel:

» Why learning by soundbite gives a superficial understanding of the craft

» Why we’re finding it hard to communicate value to our bosses

+ more :-)

Other professions find ‘people stuff’ hard as well

[I Manage Products]

PRODUCTHEAD is a newsletter for product people of all varieties, and is lovingly crafted from increasingly nested operating systems.