The problem that I want to write about today has always been a problem, but in truth, the pandemic has made this problem substantially worse. In particular, I am worried about teams reverting back to the heavy use of artifacts...
One nomenclature clarification before we dive into this: Normally in my writing I try to be consistent and say that when I reference “design” I am speaking specifically about user experience design. However, for this particular article, when I say...
In this article I’d like to continue with the series on common problems with product discovery. So far I’ve talked about the difference between learnings and insights, the differences that result from focusing on the problem versus the solution, the...
One of the most common requests I’ve received over the years is to share a good job description for a product manager of an empowered product team. And for about as long as I can remember, I’ve forwarded on the...
To continue with the series on common confusions regarding product discovery, in this article I want to tackle a very damaging anti-pattern that can sometimes arise where the product team essentially devolves into two different teams, where one team is...
To continue with the series on common sources of confusion regarding product discovery, in this article I want to talk about the critical role of judgement in product discovery. This may in fact be the single most common confusion I...
To continue with the series on common misunderstandings about product discovery, in this article I’d like to discuss a very fundamental confusion that exists with a remarkably large segment of the product community. For some people, this is even an...
I introduced the term product discovery about 15 years ago, and I’ve loved watching the industry gradually broaden its mind from the concept of someone – either an old-school business analyst or a product manager – defining requirements, to the...
In the previous article discussing product vision versus mission, I received quite a few follow-up questions. Most of these have been addressed in earlier articles and in INSPIRED, but I thought it would be useful to gather together an FAQ...
There has never been more interest in becoming a product manager. There has also never been so many strong and helpful voices that can help these aspiring product managers (at the end of this article I’ll share several of my...
Normally the question I focus on in my work and in my writing is “How can we leverage the best practices of the very best companies in order to give ourselves the very best chance for continuous innovation?” While there...
Continuing on our series on product strategy, at this point we have focused the organization on a small number of truly important problems, and we have identified the key insights that we will leverage, and have converted these insights into...
Continuing with the product strategy series, in this article I’d like to discuss my favorite, yet the most difficult, aspect of product strategy, which is to generate, identify and leverage the insights that will provide the foundation of the product...
Ultimately, empowered product teams are all about giving teams hard problems to solve, and then giving them the space to solve them. But, how do we decide which problems they should solve? Answering that question is what product strategy is...
This article is certain to upset many people. I’m sorry for that, but the degree of ongoing noise and confusion surrounding the role of product at tech companies is only getting worse. Moreover, I see the issues and problematic behaviors...
