"Sometimes product managers are asked to be the rational person, the grownup in the room. Others may be super optimistic, like salespeople or the CEO. Product people have to be imaginative, too, but also say, 'wait, let me break this down, we can’t do everything at once.' Product success is that level of imagination combined with an ability to plan your way there and to lead a team."
Read moreONE THING on Sanity and Multiple Products
For extra fun, some of you are in charge of multiple products in a company's portfolio. In theory, each product should add to profitability and the whole should be greater than the sum of its parts. In practice, companies tend to focus on Product 1, the biggest source of current revenue. Longer-term ideas and projects get kicked further down the road and Product 3 never becomes a reality.
Read moreONE THING on Magic Failure
I recently saw a documentary about General Magic, a Silicon Valley start-up that invented smartphones... in 1994. They had heaps of talent and money, and a great prototype. But they failed spectacularly, for a lot of reasons.
Read moreONE THING on Team Enlightenment
Outcome Teams are the next stage of team enlightenment. They exist to make a business successful. More and more companies have hired GMs to lead these teams who are really Product leaders on steroids. Engineering, U/X, Sales, and Marketing report to GMs directly to ensure alignment to these outcomes.
ONE THING on Awesome Agile Retrospectives
Most of us can remember a time where it felt great to be on a team: everyone was on the same wavelength and you were happy and hyperproductive. How to replicate it? One way is to run what I call an Awesomeness Retrospective.
Read moreONE THING on Play them in the Movie
A Product resolution this year was "Understand your customers so well you could play them in the movie." What’s your favorite way of learning how your customer thinks?
Read moreONE THING on OKRs and Roadmaps
The best roadmaps are not about features and dates, but about value, the benefits to the customer and to your business.
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) work the same way; the hardest things about both is avoiding the temptation to make them into a glorified “to do” list.
Read moreONE THING on Product vs. Services
Listening to customers is key to being a successful Product person. But so is knowing the difference between being a service organization catering to one customer at a time and a product organization serving a market.
Read moreONE THING on Roadmap (Un)Confidence
How confident are you in your roadmap? Things change, especially right now. Being upfront about uncertainty sets clear expectations.
Read moreONE THING on Roadmap Retrospective
“Products are a journey, not a destination. A product roadmap should, by definition, have built in reflection dates to review what you have done. This helps the company to learn from past experiences, course correct where needed, and plan the next part of the journey. The process keeps you honest, and connected to your vision, your clients and your investors.”
Read moreONE THING on Leading without Authority
How do you lead without direct authority? The product team at most organizations is small compared with engineering, sales, etc. And yet product has to get buy-in from these other departments for strategy and roadmap to be successful.
Read moreONE THING on Unscientific
A few weeks ago, I did an unscientific poll: What is your company doing in response to COVID-19? Layoffs? Furloughs? Expanding? etc. Interesting results below. There is no one answer. Companies seem to be taking action across the board. I am most happy to see that changing the product mix and accelerating future plans were the strongest categories, followed by hiring/expanding and discounts. Companies around the world seem to be past the panic stage and adjusting course in the new climate. Time to revisit and revise your roadmap.
Read moreONE THING on Resume Geek
Everyone could use some improvement in their job hunting skills, especially now. One of my favorite resume geeks is Melissa Appel, an Associate Director PM at Wayfair. “Tell me a story on your resume!” she says. “What in your background is unique and appealing to hiring managers?”
Read moreONE THING on Product Chefs
Product people are often likened to mini-CEOs, but I think that overstates the control most product people have. My Product Roadmaps Relaunched co-author, Evan Ryan (now a GM at Wayfair), prefers the analogy of an executive chef. This is the person who brings together kitchen staff, menu, and purchasing in order to attract customers, satisfy their hunger, and make money for the business.
Read moreONE THING on Virtual Roadmaps
Masterclass on Roadmaps- Virtual. I'll walk you through my process for establishing your product’s vision, prioritizing with business objectives, validating themes, gaining buy-in across stakeholders, and maximizing your team’s impact. Learn from short videos and collaborate with other students in small teams using tools like Zoom and Google Jamboard. Based on the best-selling book, Product Roadmaps Relaunched.
Read moreONE THING on How are You?
I’m hearing a wide variety of responses to the current crisis from companies around the world. Some are cutting way back, others are expanding, some are doing both. Some roadmaps are out the window, some are accelerated. What is your company doing?
Read moreONE THING on Death to OKRs!
Marty Cagan, pioneer of product coaching, recently wrote that "after many years of being a very vocal advocate for the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) technique, in the majority of companies I meet, I have stopped recommending the practice. "In most cases, he says, they are "a waste of time and effort" with "little if any results."
Read moreONE THING on Job Openings! Dance Parties!
A few years ago, way before our uneasy times, the CEO of Zapier gave a talk at Business of Software on remote work. Zapier has always been a 100% remote company. Wade Foster talked about hiring remotely, onboarding, running meetings and remote dance parties, among other things.
Do you like remote working? What do you like? Hate? Tell me your story.
Jobs
Klaviyo, Acquia, and Everbridge are hiring. Got jobs? Let me know and I'll highlight it here.
ONE THING on Strategy in these Times
Do a roadmap, a set of OKRs, or other planning tools even apply in these times of uncertainty? You bet they do. Outcome-based planning gives you a framework to decide what is needed, align your teams, and focus their actions on what it will take to win in the new reality.
Read moreONE THING on Hard Things
One of the best books I've read about difficult business decisions is The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz. In it he describes hanging through hard times and in particular, makes this distinction between a peacetime and wartime CEO.
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