PRODUCTHEAD
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.
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Recent editions
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» Exclusive free giveaways for PRODUCTHEAD subscribers in May » Use genAI to generate possibilities and identify blindspots in your thinking without incurring cognitive debt » Backlash against the UK’s NHS closing public code repositories
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» Ready meals are okay, just not all the time » Previous hype cycles masked who really had product-market fit and who didn’t » Humans excel where AI doesn’t » New tech rarely solves social problems
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» Humans, not AI, are still sifting job applicants in or out » PMs should use AI to amplify their thinking, not replace it » Positive news for product managers in the UK job market » Advice from someone unjustly fired from Facebook
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» Traditional SaaS companies will struggle if they believe they’ll control their UI for ever » Some org leaders think that AI can replace their “glue people” » The glue person’s work is often invisible because they were good at it
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» Make your principles explicit so you can make the hard trade-offs between things you value » Your organisation’s strategy is the anchor that your culture – how you work together – is built on
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» The art of influence is the highest-leverage skill remaining for product leaders » AI agents require the same strategic clarity as humans do » Building fast necessitates more human selectivity and expert judgement
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» There’s no one true version of product management, but there are 4 flavours » Without support from the CEO, your product operating model probably won’t succeed
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» In a self-service world, good content design helps users do what they’re trying to do » A content crit is a constructive, supportive peer review technique » Poor content design diminishes the value of your product or service to users
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» Visible and invisible process both contribute to how work actually gets done » Orgs should not rely on individual heroic efforts in place of designed-in capacity » Accelerating the build reintroduces a bottleneck and results in wasteful overproduction » Context comes from not just sharing information but engaging with it
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» With appropriate context, those closest to the problem should make the product decisions » Be outcome-focused and evidence-based regardless of what kind of product or service you work on » Be careful not to automatically balance out a conflicting behaviour in others (such as a founder’s bias) » “The obstacle is the way” – every setback is an opportunity to improve our condition
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» Semantic ablation is when language outliers and quirks are averaged away by genAI » GenAI exposes the thresholds and grey areas in your service’s decision-making » Being able to build fast necessitates more human selectivity, not less
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» Understanding cultural lenses is a must when working across geographical teams » Financially viable products must earn back multiple times their ongoing costs » AI may help to solve (or exacerbate) long-standing operating problems » With digital transformation largely ‘done’ in UK public sector, the next challenge is coherence
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» Only having geniuses at the top of an org defining strategy for everyone else to enact is a relic of a bygone era » The allocation of ‘time’ and the allocation of ‘capacity’ are very different concepts
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» Bare facts by themselves are not persuasive; they must be “storified” in a way that triggers people’s sense of self » A smaller initial ask can increase the likelihood of agreement to a larger, related ask
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» Bad services can arise from not realising the service and the user need have drifted apart » GenAI shifts the focus from shipping products to stewarding living systems that are continually learning and adapting
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» Changing behaviour and beliefs is crucial for people to adopt a fundamentally new org strategy » Culture optimised without alignment has unintended consequences
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» KPIs measure what you’re already doing, OKRs are for change » Problematic OKRs are too big in scope, activity-focused and disconnected from strategy » The Narrative, Commitments, Tasks (NCT) framework offers an alternative to OKRs
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» Product duos and trios can enhance the team, but are never more important than the team as a whole » If a team depends on an external decision-maker, could that person join the team to empower them?
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» Most read edition: ‘Where does the time go?’ – a developer explains the work around the work » Edition with most clicks: ‘The rift between design and product’ – reportedly designers covet the PM position » Most clicked article: ‘How to structure a product organization’ – John Cutler and Leah Tharin talk product OS
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» Product-market fit is more elusive than ever in a dynamic market » In deep-tech companies, it’s unrealistic to compete with your team on technical knowledge » ‘Financial theatre’ occurs when the Board and product leadership aren’t communicating effectively » There is room for both concrete and abstract thinking