The Product Book: How to Become a Great Product Manager

by Product School

Furthermore, as a PM, you’ll be put into positions where you have to negotiate taking on technical debt, meaning you need to ask Engineering to write kludgey code that isn’t sustainable in the long term to get something done in the short term. Engineers hate taking on technical debt—they want to write a complete answer from the outset. If you come from an engineering background, taking on technical debt can be hard. As a PM, you’ll often have to make hard tradeoff decisions, accepting short-term debt to provide customer value faster.

The Kano model defines three principles that a product needs to achieve to be successful over time: Value attracts customers. Quality keeps customers and builds loyalty. Innovation differentiates your product from others and keeps you competitive.

While plussing is arguably not fully in line with lean thinking, you’ll likely discover that plussing your initial MVP is key to building products that customer’s don’t just use, but also love.

Creating a select group of customers to give early access is useful because it gives you a group of people who actively use your product, and they’re the most likely to use the new features and to have valuable feedback. Early access also makes these customers feel special, and they’ll often want to share that status with the world when your product is released. Specifically, this group often becomes product experts, providing tips and support to other customers and advocating for your product among their peers.