Everyone expects you to be dependable.
Everyone expects you to know what you’re talking about.
Exceeding expectations is hard - and it gets harder to repeat as expectations rise over time.
But it is SUCH a powerful way to build a relationship with your customers.
Great product teams shape the entire culture of problem-solving, innovation, and learning within a company.
As I write this, it’s early Monday morning and - reminder - now is the best time to go ahead block some uninterrupted Focus Time on your calendar for the week ahead.
As a knowledge worker your thinking is your primary product. Tackling complex tasks effectively requires dedicated time and space.
Remember: organize your product around the market it serves and not around your internal hierarchies.
Said differently, roadmaps are not org-charts.
#productmanagement
“The great thing about fact-based decisions is that they can overrule the hierarchy.”
-Jeff Bezos
#Quotes
When working on a new roadmap, here are my 3 starter questions:
- Who’s the intended audience?
- What do I want them to take away from this?
- What would be the outcome if this was published on the Internet?
The needs of your audience and the realities of the market environment should shape the content.
“Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.”
-Guy Kawasaki
#Quotes
Product-market fit is difficult to reach and it’s always in motion. ALWAYS.
From moment to moment, it’s contracting or expanding in response to changes within the broader market environment.
Pay very special attention to these changes.
The power of externalizing your thinking
As product managers - really as any sort of knowledge worker - we often find ourselves caught up in a swirling vortex of new market information, emerging strategies, client requests, and shifting priorities.
I’ve always found the simple habit of externalizing my thinking - whether through writing or in visual representations - to be an effective means of cutting through this noise.
So why should you bother to externalize your thoughts?
-
Clarity: Externalizing our thinking forces us into organization and coherence. We often discover the gaps in our logic or unspoken assumptions as unexpected gaps and whitespace on the page.
-
Communication: What do we do as product managers? We radiate information with the goal of creating a shared understanding. Externalized thinking becomes the seeds for other artifacts that can eventually be shared with team members, stakeholders, and clients.
-
Iteration: Externalized thinking is by definition a tangible object. It can be interacted with, critiqued, and improved upon. Iteration is a fundamental driver of innovation.
-
Memory Aid: Modern neuroscience informs us that our brains are quite fallible and most often concerned with conserving energy instead of retaining and processing information. Externalization serves as a physical extension of our memory. It allows us a mechanism to offload information and free up our limited cognitive resources.
Remember: your goal isn’t to create a masterpiece here.
The power lies in the process. By making your thinking tangible, you’re improving your own understanding AND creating the opportunity for collaboration, refinement, and innovation.
“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”
-William James
#Quotes
When plans derail (and let’s face it, they do), it can be an opportunity to reassess priorities.
What’s really and truly critical for your product’s success?
Start there first.
” Every man I meet is in some way my superior; and in that I can learn of him.”
-Emerson
#Quotes
“The fact that you “can’t do” something can be embarrassing.
But if you are “learning to do” something that is admirable.
There are only tiny baby steps between can’t and learning.”
-Kevin Kelly
#Quotes
Repeat after me: Words like “users” and “clients” and “customers” are describing actual human beings.
Understand their goals, their needs, their hopes, and their pains.
And how do you do that? Empathy.
We should talk more about timing as product managers.
Too early, and the market isn’t quite ready for you.
Too late, and someone (everyone?) is already there ahead of you.
Think about “when" when you’re planning out all of the “what” and “how”.
Delivering new features feels good because it seems like measurable progress.
That’s why it’s easy to find yourself stuck in “feature factory” mode.
Remember: More features doesn’t necessarily mean more value to your clients. Focus on delivering on outcomes, not just outputs.
“In the old days, children had to memorize many irrelevant things they didn’t understand, but they also didn’t have a concept of their future then. Thanks to AI, the information in their lives is no longer so disconnected, so random.”
-Kai-fu Lee
#Quotes
”It is a happy talent to know how to play.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
#Quotes
Translating MVP as “the simplest thing we can get away with building” is problematic.
Instead, it should always be “the simplest thing we can learn from.”
Build to validate your product assumptions quickly.
Remember: product-market fit is not a static “once-and-done” sort of thing.
What worked well yesterday might never work again.
You re-evaluate, redefine, and iterate with the constant goal of staying ahead of market change.