Jock Busuttil's Blog: I Manage Products, page 11

PRODUCTHEAD: On brand

PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADtalk show product manager

every PRODUCTHEAD edition is online for you to refer back to

tl;dr

Brand provides emotional context, which creates a contact between you and your customers

Brands evoke a subtle mix of people’s hopes, dreams and aspirations

Apple’s famous “1984” Super Bowl ad began a branding campaign that portrayed it as a symbol of counter...

PRODUCTHEAD: When everyone’s using genAI to apply for jobs

PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADproduct a

every PRODUCTHEAD edition is online for you to refer back to

tl;dr

Larger companies are far more likely to hire for intern, junior or associate level PM positions, but competition will be greater

Product success comes from the way its product manager makes decisions, thinks, communicates and relates

hello

The job market for product m...

PRODUCTHEAD: A deep dive into crowdfunding

PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADproduct babies

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tl;dr

“First comes the crowd, then comes the funding.” — Brad Guigar

Done well, a crowdfunding campaign helps with market validation and publicity, as well as raising cash

Make sure you repay your campaign backers’ loyalty, faith, and patience

hello

There is a certa...

PRODUCTHEAD: Navigating change

PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADhail to the product

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tl;dr

Navigating change is hard because we don’t want to be seen as villains

Don’t simply cut-and-paste another company’s organisational model without understanding the context

Consider how the members of your team will understand the change, embrace it, and work through...

How do I make my product roadmap a better communication tool?

Hi Jock,

My product roadmap is not getting the right information across to other people in my company. In particular, my customer success and marketing teams are struggling to plan their work for upcoming product releases. I’m also not sure how I can show my roadmap’s relationship to the half-yearly OKRs we set. How can I improve it?

Thanks,

J

Hi J,

First and foremost, your product roadmap is a communication tool, so if people are taking away the wrong message or not getting...

PRODUCTHEAD: In search of deeper alignment

PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADeverything in its right product

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tl;dr

A precursor to alignment is a clear product strategy

Alignment needs you to tell the same story over and over

Creating an assumption map can help to verify whether the team is actually aligned

hello

We talk about alignment all the time in prod...

PRODUCTHEAD: What if …?

PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADbanana product

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tl;dr

Scenario analysis frees you to consider how things would be different without limiting constraints

Innovation can occur when challenging received wisdom on what is possible or not

Scenario analysis can also help you to consider alternate strategies in a dynamic ma...

PRODUCTHEAD: Beliefs and uncertainty

PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADi might be wrong

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tl;dr

In business, certainty tends to be rewarded, even if artificial

Beliefs save cognitive effort and so are difficult to dislodge

The scientific method allows us to constructively try to disprove beliefs

We can retrain ourselves not to associate uncertainty with...

PRODUCTHEAD: A red team mindset

PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADa product at the door

every PRODUCTHEAD edition is online for you to refer back to

tl;dr

A red team mindset benefits information gathering, sense-making, decision-taking and planning

Red teaming is similar to ethical hacking, in which a simulated attack uncovers flaws

Consquence scanning is a technique for clarifying intended and unintended eff...

PRODUCTHEAD: Personal user manuals

PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADi product

every PRODUCTHEAD edition is online for you to refer back to

tl;dr

Written well, personal user manuals can build psychological safety

However, they can also be abused to excuse certain counter-productive behaviours

hello

It’s become fashionable for people in tech to publish a personal user manual (aka “personal README” or “manu...