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 sunsetting a product or feature: » Explain why honestly and be transparent about how it will impact your users » Be understanding as they may be disappointed or frustrated by the change » Be responsive and supportive by answering your users’ questions and helping them with the transition » If possible, offer your users alternative features or solutions
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» Context helps to make a service good as opposed to simply existing » By not consciously designing our services, we instead force our users to link actions together » Outcomes for users are core user needs that a service helps them to meet » A starting point can be to ask different teams what ‘good’ looks like to them
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» Rather than focusing on engineering team productivity, examine the causes of their low / negative value work » When asked for development estimates, ask why they need the information and what they’ll do with the answer » Different development tasks need varying amounts of user story detail » Treat your developers with the same thoughtfulness as your users
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» Empowered teams can only succeed if the leadership team is on board » Leaders can’t scale or have all the answers; empowered teams stand a better chance » Leadership needs to be open and transparent when issuing a “must-do” edict to an empowered team » Product leadership is continually striving for coherence of approach and clarity of purpose
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» Motivation comes from making progress in meaningful work » A mission-focused team tackling poorly understood problems may appear unproductive to outsiders » It is everyone’s responsibility to act upon negative behaviour / thinking, but without assigning blame » Even in the most controversial negotiations, the other party is just like you and aims to walk away happy
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» Success at every life cycle stage hinges on the same challenge: being able to solve problems for your users » Early on, focus on learning about your users and their context and the constraints that affect your problem » Maturity is the most difficult stage for a product, so you have to make the absolute best out of what you have
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» In product management, “the basics never change, it’s the more advanced stuff that changes” » Oft-cited company frameworks such as the Spotify model were just a moment in time — everything moves on » When all is changing around you, be an anchor of stability and trust for your team
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» Early in your career, focus on building one skill at a time » Find out what a company’s really like by meeting a contact there informally before the interview » Practice experts can enjoy a varied career, but may find it harder to work in some domains » As a product leader, what are your identity, superpower, mission and impact?
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» An inflexible process means working with incomplete information and making the wrong decisions » Treating work as closed-ended projects leads to context switching and discontinuity » A way to increase value in Scrum is to involve the team members in the discovery and strategy work » Respect is not deference; it demands that we challenge each other to be the best we can be
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» Wartime vs peacetime leaders employ different skill sets » Airbnb’s changes to product management could be just what is needed in wartime or equally a retrograde step » Working from home is a particularly polarising debate because it aligns with the leader-employee divide » Discussions about productivity are often a proxy discussion for some other dysfunction
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» To buy your product, the value users perceive from the product must be greater than its price » The biggest, worst-kept secret of monetisation UX: ask, ask and ask again
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» Every decision is a trade-off — deciding what not to do is just as important as deciding what to do » A good product vision captures customer, user, value proposition and links to organisational objectives » Interrogate your goals: “For this to happen, what must be true?”, then mark which are facts or assumptions » Avoid jumping on the first idea — check what problem we think it solves, then ask, “How else could we do this?”
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» User and market research is more easily accessible, yet the opinions of senior managers still bias product decisions » Confidence in an idea only truly comes from gathering evidence
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» When strategic frames grow rigid, companies, like nations, tend to keep fighting the last war » If organisations (incorrectly) view change as gradual they will have resistance to the change » The innovator’s dilemma: cater to current needs or attempt to anticipate future demands? » Many common financial tools distort the value, importance, and likelihood of success of investments in innovation
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» Match your product’s units to how your customer measures value » Changing your pricing model regularly needn’t be a bad thing — it just has to be done carefully » With usage-based pricing, help your customers to anticipate their likely costs » Care has to be taken to keep dynamic / surge pricing transparent
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» Moving to a product-led growth model takes time and will encounter resistance » A product-led model does not replace the sales-led or marketing-led approach completely » Growth loops operate on a similar principle to compound interest » Software companies with a frictionless product approach displace custom-built apps
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» Take a systematic approach to evaluating multiple solutions to the same opportunity » ‘Assumption’ is just another word for ‘things we believe’ » When there are many opportunities in contention, assess whether it’s worth solving the problem » We tend to come up with solutions before defining the problem they solve
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AI is: » accelerating the design of novel proteins, enabling a new wave of vaccines and drugs » predicting extreme weather events, helping to protect residents » listening to the rainforest and sends real-time alerts for chainsaws, trucks, cars and signs of incursion » monitoring the world’s oceans for illegal fishing activity
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» To reduce coordination cost, partition the work by time or space » Behavioural design considers customers’ levels of mental energy, cognitive biases, and their existing patterns » Successful organisations reinforce psychological safety in different ways » Adding more people to a team makes communication a more significant overhead
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» To reduce coordination cost, partition the work by time or space » Behavioural design considers customers’ levels of mental energy, cognitive biases, and their existing patterns » Successful organisations reinforce psychological safety in different ways » Adding more people to a team makes communication a more significant overhead