Insights and advice from the deeper layers of product leadership
Product strategy is one of the most important tasks of the product leader, and definitely one of the hardest things to do. In the effort to bring the company’s vision into reality, the details matter, often more than the innovation and completeness of the vision itself. This should be your first step into product strategy.
Most people think that squads are a formal org structure. They can be, although that requires a very specific setting and a number of supporting systems to work well. But they don’t have to be, and there are major benefits to leaving the formal R&D structure as is, and adding squads on top of it. Here are 4 reasons why you should work this way.
This series of articles should help you structure your way from company vision to product strategy and then to execution
Your journey to product-led growth starts way before you actually launch the product, but it definitely doesn’t end there. Realistically, this is just the beginning. Here are the things to keep in mind when your product meets the road.
Getting everyone excited about the next project is always a challenge. But when projects last too long, let alone when they weren’t that exciting to begin with, it’s hard to keep the team motivated, which, in turn, leads to the project dragging even longer. Here are a few things you can do to end this vicious cycle.
When I talk about roadmaps with younger product leaders, I often hear things like “we don’t need one, we are agile” or “why build a roadmap when things will surely change”. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. The roadmap sets the strategic direction of the company, and when built right it also doesn’t have to change that frequently, despite your agility. But there are times of real uncertainty that raise the bar on why and how to build a roadmap that will serve you well. Here is a quick guide to help you guide the team through the unknown.
Here is the bottom line: eventually, yes. And if you can find an amazing product leader who happens to be also a domain expert, of course you should hire them. But if you need to make a compromise, where should it be? On the product side or the domain expertise side? And which compromise to make? Here is my take on this common dilemma.
Product management is such a busy job. The hectic day-to-day in itself contains more work than one can do, but we all know that real product work requires much more than that. How can you make time to get to the important things? Here is a quick guide.
Coming up with the next big thing is hard. Or is it? Where do big creative ideas come from, and how important is this skill for product leaders? Some takeaways for you from a product interview I had at Google many years ago.
There are times when you just know that your decisions are right. The data says so, the experts say so, but your colleagues or stakeholders disagree. Sometimes, the best way to get them to accept your decision is to give it up altogether. Here’s how it works.
Onboarding new product managers is not a trivial task. They need to learn many different things, but more importantly – they typically take ownership of an area that was owned by someone else before. Here is a three-phase method to make it a smooth transition.
Everyone knows startups need to move fast. It is often part of their advantage against larger and more traditional companies. But what does moving fast really mean, and why is it that important anyway? To answer this question we need to break speed down to its various meanings and treat each differently, as well as holistically where they all converge. Here is the detailed breakdown as well as tips to increase each type of speed.
