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.
Recent editions
PRODUCTHEAD: Setting up a product support team
» Work continues after the project ends — plan for the ongoing support of your product
» A support team deals with user queries, incidents and ongoing improvement of the product
» Great user support is an expectation, not a nice-to-have
» Feedback from user support can identify areas of product improvement
PRODUCTHEAD: Playing Whack-a-mole with symptoms
» Treating symptoms may provide short-term relief but does not alter the status quo
» Root cause analysis helps us to systematically prevent future issues or to repeat successes
» Impact maps help to connect what we choose to build and why we choose to build it
PRODUCTHEAD: Communication toolkit recap
» In case you missed it: recap of the communication toolkit
PRODUCTHEAD: It’s okay to be proud of your achievements
» To earn trust you need people to know what you’ve achieved
» Weeknotes are a way to work in the open, reflect and attain a sense of achievement
» Being trusted makes it easier for you to carve out the space your team needs to succeed
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: It’s okay to be proud of your achievements
PRODUCTHEAD: Bad communication — how to annoy and alienate your users
» Celsys are going to start charging for software updates to their popular Clip Studio Paint product
» The way Celsys communicated this to their users caused outrage — some of which was justified
» Fog Creek found themselves trying to monetise their viral product Trello, which it had promised would be free forever
» Fog Creek had first mover advantage on an easily copied product, which it exploited by a timely sale to Atlassian
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: Bad communication — how to annoy and alienate your users
PRODUCTHEAD: Will platforms conquer the world?
» In solving their own internal scaling problem, Amazon inadvertently created the building blocks for the AWS platform
» Stripe’s founders didn’t shy away from tackling an unattractively difficult problem
» Platforms connect different sides of a market, even if they have dramatically different needs and capabilities
» Twilio’s founder prioritised the developers who’d implement his API, not the managers who’d pay for it
PRODUCTHEAD: Back to school
» Every other team is allowed to be uncertain about the future — so should product
» There are different types of question for strategy, opportunities and interventions
» Avoid investments that are neither defense nor offense
» What people say and how they really feel can often vary
PRODUCTHEAD: Should I retire … (my product)?
» Your users must value your product more than it would cost them to switch
» An end-of-life policy sets out the process you will use to retire products for customers
» Think about your users and customers’ technical and economic issues first
» Retiring a product gracefully means making a plan
PRODUCTHEAD: Strongly-held beliefs
» People more easily accept they’re not seeing the whole picture than being told they’re wrong
» Don’t make people feel bad about their beliefs — be kind and connect with them
» Research shows that we interpret words like “we believe” with differing confidence levels
» There is often a lack of discipline when it comes to talking about uncertainty
PRODUCTHEAD: How to influence stakeholders
» Use empathy to appreciate the context, needs and pain points of your stakeholders
» Understanding people’s social style helps you influence stakeholders more effectively
» You can use different modes of persuasion to craft a more compelling argument
» Picking the right time to make your point can amplify your persuasiveness
PRODUCTHEAD: Conversion funnel analysis — down the rabbit hole
» Each customer has their own unique journey to and through your product
» Conversion funnel analysis with bar charts is a conscious choice to maximise precision over accuracy
» Cart abandonment is an opportunity to engage with your users
» Conversion rate is a quantitative springboard to qualitative insights
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: Conversion funnel analysis — down the rabbit hole
PRODUCTHEAD: Presenting to inform, educate and entertain (communication toolkit #5)
» Story structure and the right content give your presenting more impact
» Try to create presentations that captivate, not subdue
» A perception audit helps narrow the gap between how you perceive yourself and how others see you
» Good breathing technique when speaking both calms you and produces a better sound
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: Presenting to inform, educate and entertain (communication toolkit #5)
PRODUCTHEAD: Efficient note-taking (communication toolkit #4)
» A mind map is helpful for noting non-linear information
» The Cornell note-taking method can be useful for learning
» Sketchnotes allow more effective visual communication
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: Efficient note-taking (communication toolkit #4)
PRODUCTHEAD: Writing for the needs of your audience (communication toolkit #3)
» What you write online is there to serve the users’ needs
» Writing for the web = using short sentences
» People read differently on the web than they do on paper
» Tools exist to help make your writing easier to understand
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: Writing for the needs of your audience (communication toolkit #3)
PRODUCTHEAD: How to read more effectively (communication toolkit #2)
» Read a format that suits you best, whether physical or digital
» As you read, ask yourself questions of the content to keep yourself engaged with it
» Analytical reading allows you to understand, then accept or reject the key idea being presented
» F-shaped reading occurs on web content because people are short on time or engagement
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: How to read more effectively (communication toolkit #2)
PRODUCTHEAD: Active listening (communication toolkit #1)
» Being a better listener can improve your productivity, as well as your ability to influence, persuade and negotiate
» Psychological safety partly depends on your team feeling they are being listened to
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: Active listening (communication toolkit #1)
PRODUCTHEAD: Dropping the masks at work
» We perform better when we bring our emotions to work
» Call out toxic workplaces, but also have an exit strategy
» An effective team needs: psychological safety, dependability, structure & clarity, meaning, and impact
» Treat psychological safety as a key business metric, as important as revenue, cost of sales, or uptime
PRODUCTHEAD: The difference between good and bad strategy
Rumelt:
» “Good strategy grows out of independent and careful assessment of the situation”
» “Bad strategy follows the crowd, substituting popular slogans for insights”
Eriksson:
» “Deciding what not to do is just as important as deciding what to do”
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: The difference between good and bad strategy
PRODUCTHEAD: A primer on analytics for beginners
» You can only tell if you’ve been successful if you can measure it
» Analytics approaches that work for others may not work in your context
» Behind every metrics is a behaviour
» The point of an experiment is to learn
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: A primer on analytics for beginners
PRODUCTHEAD: Defining services
A service:
» is defined from an external end user’s point of view
» describes something someone would want to do, in their language
» has an outcome that relates to the organisation’s goals
» includes all the steps between the user and provider
» includes all the parts involved in delivering it
PRODUCTHEAD: Component teams, feature teams and centralised skill teams
» A component team’s focus on a specific technology can result in being less user-centric
» Feature teams are better suited to deal with innovation, uncertainty, and change
» Centralised skill teams should aim to make themselves redundant by disseminating knowledge
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: Component teams, feature teams and centralised skill teams
PRODUCTHEAD: The hidden patterns within design systems
» Federation squares the circle of having both a cohesive design system and autonomous product teams
» A successful design system closely meets the needs of developers of apps and the end-users of those apps
» For a design system to appeal to third parties, it has to accommodate their brand identity and niche audience needs
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: The hidden patterns within design systems
PRODUCTHEAD: Performance appraisals are underperforming
» Performance appraisals fail to take into context whether the organisation is permitting them to succeed
» Deming: “a bad system will beat a good person every time”
» Personal development and performance are different things
» Shift performance management from the individual to team, group, or organisational level
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: Performance appraisals are underperforming
PRODUCTHEAD: Service mapping for product managers
» Service maps help teams and stakeholders to understand interactions with a service across touchpoints over time
» They provide a visual representation of an abstract and often wide-reaching process
» Think of your service like a theatre: front stage, backstage and behind the scenes
» Service mapping helps your team to tell their story to the wider organisation
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: Service mapping for product managers
PRODUCTHEAD: Outcome-driven product roadmaps
» Outcome-driven product roadmaps shift the focus from building features to solving user problems
» A product roadmap is a communication tool first and foremost
» A now/next/later roadmap helps teams to focus on the bigger picture
» Delivering outcomes instead of outputs is harder, but more valuable
PRODUCTHEAD: More product coach, less line manager
» A product coach should measure their own job performance by the successes of their team members
» Strive to develop a capacity for learning in the people you supervise
» Coaching taps into an individual’s own wisdom and keeps them accountable for achieving their goals
» People who are genuinely committed to change but nonetheless dig in their heels may be unwittingly self-sabotaging
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: More product coach, less line manager
PRODUCTHEAD: Async working and communication
» Async working lets you set aside time for deep thinking
» Forced remote working led naturally to more async work
» Async relies on three main tenets: multiplexing, communication and action
» Find the right balance between flexibility and cohesion, independence and togetherness
» In-person time is important to sustain the human relationships that enable you to get work done
PRODUCTHEAD: 3 product leaders share what they’ve learned
» Over time, communities of practice risk themselves becoming new silos
» Be intentional about what you want to learn, and about your own behaviour to others
» Delivery by itself is worthless — deliver value
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: 3 product leaders share what they’ve learned
PRODUCTHEAD: The ethics of information (data ethics)
» Data ethics studies and evaluates moral problems related to data, algorithms and corresponding practices, in order to formulate and support morally good solutions
» Product managers have ethical responsibilities that transcend career, company and profit
» Organisations need to assess and build their trust and trustworthiness
» Mitigate biases in your product that may have unintended discriminatory effects on individuals and social groups
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: The ethics of information (data ethics)
PRODUCTHEAD: Product ops — cynical rebrand or division of labour?
» 3 tenets of product ops: insights, research, and processes & practices
» Product ops is about enablement and coaching, not a rebrand of the product owner or product marketer roles
» Product ops is the ‘glue’ that binds different business functions and product focus areas together
» Product ops enables product teams to achieve better outcomes
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: Product ops — cynical rebrand or division of labour?
PRODUCTHEAD: Exploring the solution space with prototyping
» Focus your prototyping on the moments that matter most to users
» Prototypes range in fidelity, but remain throwaway
» Prototyping brings tangibility to intangible experiences
» Be clear about what you want to learn, and what assumptions you want to test
» Design simply to deliver early and learn quickly
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: Exploring the solution space with prototyping
PRODUCTHEAD: The joy of metrics
» Don’t be driven by metrics — be informed by them
» The mental tendency to replace strategy with metrics can destroy company value
» Onboard your users all the way to becoming your best users
» 3 kinds of innovation: method, market and product
PRODUCTHEAD: Obtaining an optimal organisation
» Your products will reflect your organisational structure (Conway’s Law)
» You can structure your teams around a central function, or as self-contained business units
» Periodically re-evaluate the right mix of innovation and optimisation for your organisation
PRODUCTHEAD: Dealing with discomfort
» Firing someone is a task you will always perform with some anxiety, but you still need to be able to do it well
» At Netflix, it’s not enough to be a hard worker achieving only B-grade results
» Founder of AngelList Naval Ravikant seeks happiness by trying to live in the here-and-now, neither obsessing about the past nor fantasising about the future
» If your team’s cultural norms cause you to feel uncomfortable, ask yourself why you think it’s not ok
PRODUCTHEAD: When your product is a blank canvas
» 5 useful canvases to help you frame your product ideas
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: When your product is a blank canvas
PRODUCTHEAD: The rise of the growth product manager
» Growth product managers are expected to focus primarily on revenue growth
» Growth hacking failed in part because it produced unsustainable growth
» Some companies stimulate growth by “infiltrating” offline communities
» With infrequent use products, market penetration is a better measure of product-market fit than retention
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: The rise of the growth product manager
PRODUCTHEAD: Managing mature products
» Ways to extend a product’s life cycle: frequent usage; varied usage; new users; new uses
» Sometimes removing features is more effective than adding them
» You can’t change the customer, but you can change your company’s process, strategy and culture
» Give your team time and permission to check you’re moving the right metrics
» Data is not a silver bullet and won’t solve your company’s trust issues
PRODUCTHEAD: New year’s resolutions
» Make small changes and embrace experimentation
» People may have a sincere commitment to change, while also unwittingly applying productive energy toward a hidden competing commitment.
» Extreme situations can build extreme understanding and can also push people apart
» Does our current worldview limit the way we think about organisations?
PRODUCTHEAD: Your favourite articles of 2021
» Good candidates have initiative and passion to pursue their opinions
» The transition from product manager to leader requires many new skill sets
» Discovery is about understanding the problem space experienced by people
» Becoming a product leader means letting go of the day-to-day product management
» Netflix on HR: “Be honest, and treat people like adults”
» Your North Star metric best captures the core value that your product delivers to customers
PRODUCTHEAD: Dear Santa …
» Get people to buy you stuff you actually want for Christmas :-)
» 5 touchstone books for product managers
PRODUCTHEAD: Incentives and behaviour
» Financial rewards alone for complex work can have the opposite of the intended effect
» Even a small perceived penalty is enough to discourage experimentation, learning and success
» A large part of our behaviour is influenced by our peer group
PRODUCTHEAD: John Cutler’s North Star Metric
» Plans for the short and long term are often easier to define than those for the medium term (1-3 quarters)
» A North Star Metric is a leading indicator of sustainable growth
» It is the single metric that best captures the core value that your product delivers to customers
PRODUCTHEAD: To specialise in product management?
» There are 4 emerging product manager specialisms
» You can recruit different flavours of product manager by thinking along 3 axes
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: To specialise in product management?
PRODUCTHEAD: Prize winners / reinventing HR
» Winners announced for the #ProductCon prize draw
» Netflix on HR: “Be honest, and treat people like adults”
» How commission-based recruitment usually works, from an insider
PRODUCTHEAD: Dear younger me …
» In product management, people matter most
» Diverse teams build better products
» A mentor or coach can be like a north star for your career
» Care for the craft and remember to pay it forward
PRODUCTHEAD: Win a VIP ticket to #ProductCon Online
I’m mixing things up a bit this week with a special offer for you. Product School have kindly given me 9 VIP tickets to their November #ProductCon Online, so I’m offering them to you.
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: Win a VIP ticket to #ProductCon Online
PRODUCTHEAD: Tsundoku (piles of books waiting to be read)
» Piles of books by experts in disciplines you’ll be working with on your product team
Read more › PRODUCTHEAD: Tsundoku (piles of books waiting to be read)
PRODUCTHEAD: Facilitating workshops
» Meetings are for information exchange, workshops are for solving problems
» With hybrid working, adopt a “remote first” mindset to avoid divisions in your team
» Poor workshop facilitation discourages future participation
» Reflection gives everyone a chance to contribute and listen
PRODUCTHEAD: Product management in charities
» Charities’ strategy should focus on the future, not the annual planning cycle
» Break the habit of surveys and focus groups with user interviews
» The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated growth in digital fundraising
» Commodity services free teams from reactive and defensive development patterns to truly innovate
PRODUCTHEAD: Rapid prototyping
» Learning is more valuable than being successful and not knowing why
» You can experiment with the content and layout of any web-based product with basic skills
» The success rate of experimentation is higher if there is no penalty for failing
» “If you have a good idea on a Monday and can design, test and learn by the Friday, then innovation explodes.”