Jock Busuttil's Blog: I Manage Products, page 28

Mission to Mars

Imagine you’ve just been told that you’ll be a member of the team responsible for the first manned mission to Mars.

Now imagine someone asks you how much the mission’s going to cost. The whole thing. There and back. By close of business on Thursday.

You rock back on your heels a little, stunned by the question.

Because you can’t help it, your mind starts to dart around and make guesses about some of the obvious things perhaps based on half-remembered facts about earlier missio...

PRODUCTHEAD: What’s the fuss about Jobs To Be Done?

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

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADyou and whose product?tl;dr

A milkshake is really just a way to pass the time and stave off hunger on a long drive

Users struggling to use your product to complete their tasks have unmet needs

Christensen emphasises the higher order goal, Ulwick the task at hand

Jobs To Be Done is often misunderstood, making it difficult for some to begin apply...

PRODUCTHEAD: The new lamplighters

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

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADexit music (for a product manager)tl;dr

Amazon warehouses are gradually moving towards full robotic automation

Greater automation creates new types of work, but not necessarily for people

Smart contracts are already automating financial transactions, but can be susceptible to coding flaws

Increased use of machine learning in insurance places gr...

PRODUCTHEAD: Recruiting the right stuff

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

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADplanet producttl;dr

Emotional intelligence is more important than technical skills

Hire people who will increase your rate of learning

A head of product needs prior experience as a product manager

Good candidates have initiative and passion to pursue their opinions

hello

In 1969, the Apollo 11 mission landed the first humans on the Mo...

79: The product leader’s guide to interviewing

Because I tend to help organisations build up their product team from scratch, I’m often involved in the interviewing and hiring process, so I’d like to share with you my product leader’s guide to interviewing product managers.

Recruitment is time-consuming

As a product leader, you will inevitably be hiring at some point. Be under no illusions — hiring is a lengthy and time-consuming process. In each of the head of product roles I’ve been in, at least half of my time was devoted t...

PRODUCTHEAD: When did storytelling become so hard?

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

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADproductsnatcherstl;dr

“Requirements” is another way of saying “just shut up and build it”

A user story is deliberately sparse on detail to provoke a team conversation about the user’s goal

We often incorrectly assume everyone does something the same way

The mental model to describe epics, user stories and tasks can be clarified with visual arte...

PRODUCTHEAD: It’s payback time on technical debt

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

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADproduct (mistreated)tl;dr

Don’t ignore technical debt

Devote time for removing some debt in every sprint

Debt can be a prudent choice in some situations

It’s harder to read code than write it — so resist the temptation to start the code base again from scratch

hello

Back in the mists of time (1992), co-author of the Agile Manifesto Wa...

Q&A: Should a product manager have responsibility for profitability?

I’m asked questions about product management from time to time. Here’s one I’ve answered recently:

Hi Jock,

Should the product manager have some level or perhaps a great deal of responsibility for the profitability of the product? Should they understand things like the unit economics, that sort of thing?

Thanks,

R

Read on for my reply!

Hi R,

The short answer is, yes I think they should, because that’s part and parcel of making a commercially viable product.

There’s a good ex...

PRODUCTHEAD: Wrap your ears around these podcasts

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

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADmotion product soundtracktl;dr

Recommendations of product podcasts

hello

For a newsletter loosely themed on a band I rather like, there’s been precious little in the way of audio content so far. So this week, I’m going to rectify that with some recommended product podcasts you can wrap your ears round.

Speak to you soon,

Jock

what to ...

PRODUCTHEAD: The what, why and how of user research

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

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEADsit down. product uptl;dr

User research needs to be proactive as well as reactive validation

Some research techniques are more useful than others at different stages

You must safeguard the welfare of your user research participants

There are many ways to recruit participants for your research without outsourcing

Use a simple format for shari...