This Week in Product – Apr. 5, 2019

Push Business, Not Features

Product Managers need to demonstrate to founders or executives that progress is happening, so that founders can trust that their vision is being nurtured#productmanagement #prodmgmt #startup #startupaus https://t.co/RjDCf7RuIl

— Alana Fisher-Chejoski (@aussiegoldy) April 3, 2019

When you’re a busy PM, it’s easy to focus so much on shipping the next feature that you lose sight of the larger goal. So, if that’s you, look up! Remind yourself that a single feature is just a small piece in a larger vision meant to improve your users’ life in some way. Thinking this way will make it easier to communicate value not just to customers, but to your leadership.

Over-communication > Communication

Probably the best piece of advice from this piece is that “Over-communication is the only communication.” When you’re a PM — and especially if you’re operating in a distributed team — you better be a talker. Or a writer. Or a slacker. Preferably all of the above. Some good insight about the mechanics of over-communication. Take it all.

Early Bird Special

When it comes to building product, company cultures, or even the menu for your next dinner party, it may feel counterintuitive to focus on “special needs”, but doing so early almost always leads to a more widely applicable & scalable solution later.

— Spectra Adaora (SAIA) (@IAmSAIA) April 4, 2019

Sometimes, all you need is a bit of hubris. This is a perfect of example why. You want to build with the assumption that whatever product your making will become so widely-used that it will have to accommodate a diversity of users. If you do that, they will come. A bit of a chicken-and-egg conundrum, sure, but it sure beats having to overhaul your product when it’s out in the world. If you’re particularly interested in this subject don’t miss Benjamin Evans at the ProductCraft Conference, who will speak exactly about this.

Just Don’t

Personal bias moment: eliminate post-mortem from your vocabulary. It should be reserved for very specific uses. A product retro is not one of them (and hopefully you’re never involved with a real one).

Be A Good Neighbor