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.
Read moreONE THING on Handling Change
Is it OK to change your roadmap mid-cycle? Your Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) mid-quarter?
Yes, if you have new information or if the situation that informed those targets has changed significantly.
ONE THING on the Iron Triangle
ONE THING on Saying No to Good Ideas
It is impossible to please all of your stakeholders at once — or even over time. At startups and big companies alike, you have to assume that you will run out of money (or resources or executive patience) and have to stop at any time.
Read moreONE THING on Scalability
Product people ignore scalability at their peril. Think about it: A prototype of your product can be produced relatively quickly as long as there are only a few users on the system at a time. On the other hand, a system can theoretically be designed to support almost any number of users, but it will take proportionately longer to design and develop. Which are you aiming for? You can't have both.
Read moreONE THING on How You Got Here
Theater professional? Graphic designer? CS nerd? How did you get to product? An unusual path? What have you learned from your background that has translated well into product? What are the skills you wish you had? Me: I was an English major. Communication is one of the top skills needed in product. What's your story?
Read moreONE THING Stop the Feature Checklist War
It is tempting to get into a Feature Checklist War with your competition. They have Feature A, we have Feature A.... But then your product becomes just a commodity.
Read moreONE THING Contest! Glad I Didn't Listen
Fred Smith, founder of FedEx, got a C on his economic term paper describing his business idea because the professor said it wasn’t “feasible.”
Your turn. Contest: What business advice are you glad you didn't listen to?
ONE THING on OKRs: We're All In!
Members of product teams devoted to Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) may take on new roles to get the job done for their customers.
Read moreONE THING on Product Learning
Many Product skills you have to learn on the job, especially those focusing on leadership. I'm curious about the Product classes springing up around the world, and in some business schools. What is your view of these courses? Do they do a good job of training people?
Read moreONE THING on Entering the Voice
“Each customer-facing team creates their own top-10 list and then all those teams merge their lists together to come up with an overall prioritized list representing the Voice of the Customer.” Does this sound like your organization?
Read moreONE THING on Themes
Themes are a way of communicating what’s important to your customers — their needs, problem, or jobs to be done. I use them as the main organizing principle of a roadmap. The features might change but important customer problems will likely remain the same.
Read moreONE THING on Product and Customers
"Our larger prospects need to know they have a direct line to the product team itself. The PM is involved in those deals and starts to build that relationship. The fact that they could actually talk to people on the product team blew them away. They would say to us, 'Wow, our internal team doesn’t even talk to us.'"
Read moreONE THING on Product New Year's Resolutions
2020 resolutions I would want for you as a product person. What would you add?
Read moreONE THING on Stocking Stuffers for Product People
I have made a list of my favorite books on ProductCuture. It has recommendations for Product books (don't forget Product Roadmaps Relaunched!), but also business, tech and my favorite Sci-Fi reads. I'd love your comments on this list.
Read moreONE THING on OKRs Backwards
"The biggest issue with OKRs is sometimes they are created backwards. Teams start with 'What's on our backlog? OK, perfect. Let's put that on our OKRs.'" That's my friend Shobhit Chugh, Google Product Manager.
Read moreONE THING on OKRs Backwards
"The biggest issue with OKRs is sometimes they are created backwards. Teams start with 'What's on our backlog? OK, perfect. Let's put that on our OKRs.'" That's my friend Shobhit Chugh, Google Product Manager.
Read moreONE THING on Vision
"Unleash the world’s creative energy by designing a more enlightened way of working," —Dropbox’s new mission statement. A product vision is the change you want to see in the world and just a hint of how you will make it happen.
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