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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» When negotiating, don’t pitch, listen » To minimise residual influence, negotiate each point independently » When trust is low, consider making a concession contingent on the other party reciprocating » Conceding because you don’t want to upset the other party is a losing scenario
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» Speak the language of C-level by focusing on revenue, customer benefits, and financials » Without understanding, there can be no empathy » Product managers need to be able to communicate with a wide range of people using different languages » The worst product managers only speak in the language of product management
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» Good product managers amplify the ability of an organisation to generate value » Successful companies have figured out how to align quality, customer value, and sustainable velocity » With no formal entry requirements, many people have piled in to product management with little care for the craft
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» Be involved and interested, but not on the critical path » Talk about the ideas you threw away, in commercial language » Founders are rejecting the generic advice to delegate everything — this evolves the product manager role
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» For better alignment, leaders should only communicate the why and what of the goal to their teams » Auftragsklärung facilitates alignment through both top-down and bottom-up goal setting » Try to communicate your work’s value to stakeholders in terms they will understand » Alignment is a system in dynamic equilibrium
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» 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?
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» The Prisoner’s Dilemma shows us that cooperation is a winning strategy in the long term » Faciliate more rational decision-making by helping stakeholders to understand the context better » A mental model is a compression of how something works, keeping key information and ignoring irrelevant detail
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» Common challenges leaders encounter are a lack of trust for their teams and executives, a lack of coaching, and letting go of control » How others perceive the value and effectiveness of the product team’s work holds immense transformative power
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» Have a bias to test, learn, and to put code in production » Feed what you learn from exploring solutions back into your understanding of the problem » Help stakeholders visualise their ideas to make them easier to challenge, assess risk and test out
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» Customers care about your mission, less about how you’re achieving it » For rapid feedback in discovery, ship and learn from more users, earlier » Changing something that’s been that way for years is hard because of the inertia behind it
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» Product people are tired of being held up to unrealistic standards » It important to remember what’s in your control and what isn’t » Now is the time to be extra rigorous with finding product-market fit
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Product-led growth: » is a strategy where the product itself sells itself through features and usability » can create self-perpetuating growth loops » can be even more effective when combined with growth product management company-wide
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» Brand provides emotional context, which creates a contact between you and your customers » Brands evoke a subtle mix of people’s hopes, dreams and aspirations » Apple’s famous “1984” Super Bowl ad began a branding campaign that portrayed it as a symbol of counterculture
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» Larger companies are far more likely to hire for intern, junior or associate level PM positions, but competition will be greater » Product success comes from the way its product manager makes decisions, thinks, communicates and relates
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» “First comes the crowd, then comes the funding.” — Brad Guigar » Done well, a crowdfunding campaign helps with market validation and publicity, as well as raising cash » Make sure you repay your campaign backers’ loyalty, faith, and patience
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» Navigating change is hard because we don’t want to be seen as villains » Don’t simply cut-and-paste another company’s organisational model without understanding the context » Consider how the members of your team will understand the change, embrace it, and work through it
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» A precursor to alignment is a clear product strategy » Alignment needs you to tell the same story over and over » Creating an assumption map can help to verify whether the team is actually aligned
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» Scenario analysis frees you to consider how things would be different without limiting constraints » Innovation can occur when challenging received wisdom on what is possible or not » Scenario analysis can also help you to consider alternate strategies in a dynamic market
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» In business, certainty tends to be rewarded, even if artificial » Beliefs save cognitive effort and so are difficult to dislodge » The scientific method allows us to constructively try to disprove beliefs » We can retrain ourselves not to associate uncertainty with negative outcomes
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» A red team mindset benefits information gathering, sense-making, decision-taking and planning » Red teaming is similar to ethical hacking, in which a simulated attack uncovers flaws » Consquence scanning is a technique for clarifying intended and unintended effects of your product