This Week in Product – Oct. 26, 2018

Is This Question Interesting?

Will they use it? That’s customer development. It’s the most interesting thing you can discover. Why aren’t more people do it? Design impact is where it’s at. @calexity #uxrn @ethnio pic.twitter.com/brtn5oBCcg

— Jon 🦊 Fox | UX (@JonFoxUX) October 26, 2018

I love the slide from Lex Roman‘s deck captured in this tweet. “Can they use it?” is only “kind of interesting,” and “do they like it?” is not that interesting. The question you want to be asking, or the question that is interesting, is: “will they use it?” Too often, especially when in the rush of shipping, we forget to ask questions, but this is a good reminder that it’s not only whether you’re asking them, it also matters what kinds of questions your asking that will keep your product in the sweet spot. Keep your questions interesting!

Should Have Slacked Them

I love @SlackHQ and how it changed the workplace, but the UI is too complicated! This is what Slack looks like with every menu exploded. I hope they simplify… pic.twitter.com/EJ1e1cDTpx

— Joshua Sortino (@sortino) October 25, 2018

Non-confrontational tweets are so few and far between these days, that seeing an exchange of this sort truly warms the heart. It’s a compliment, then feedback, from a user who is also a practitioner in his own right (Joshua Sortino is design director at Square), and then a response from the folks at Slack that contests the point, but also hears him out. It’s like opposites day on Twitter, but also a great example of how multi-channel interaction with users can inform your product team.

Humble Brag

“After decades of screening potential leaders for charm and charisma, some employers are realizing they’ve been missing one of the most important traits of all: humility.”

This piece in the WSJ is not technically from this week, nor is it specifically about product, but I did think that the above quote makes it fit snugly within this roundup. Product managers’ role allows for the flourishing of people who wouldn’t have traditionally been considered management materials. It’s a role that allows introverts to shine, and PMs often lead by influence, not control. So really, the world is just catching up to PMs. Is humility something you try to hire for in your product organization?

A Job to Grow In

Growth has been on our minds; last week we published a piece about what tools growth PMs leverage, and then yesterday we published the debate about the growth role and where it fits within an organization. Plus, yesterday we held a live debate in Boston, where one of our guest debaters was Christopher O’donnell, SVP of product at HubSpot, a company that knows something about growth. And so now, it seems fitting to highlight this great position at HubSpot, who are looking for a growth PM, who will “set the vision for growth in your product layer, and execute against ambitious goals.” Is that you?