The hottest Product Management Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Business Topics

TBM 278: The Power of Firsthand Experience

The Beautiful Mess • 662 implied HN points • 17 Mar 24
💼 Business Product Management Team Dynamics Customer Insights Product Development Decision-making
  1. Having firsthand experience is crucial in understanding product concepts, like observing failed launches or successful market fit.
  2. Seeing a team hit dead ends before succeeding can encourage more leeway for experimentation and resilience.
  3. Direct access to customers, effective team dynamics, and confronting false assumptions can greatly impact decision-making and product success.

Notes on Product management theater | Marty Cagan (Lenny's Podcast)

The Beautiful Mess • 276 implied HN points • 17 Mar 24
💼 Business Product Management Career development Tech Companies Leadership
  1. Common principles and practices among top product companies exist but may not fully capture the uniqueness and nuances of each company's success.
  2. During challenging times like the pandemic, companies may overhire, lower hiring standards, and create unnecessary roles instead of addressing core issues.
  3. Companies globally should strive to evolve product development methods based on customer needs, regardless of their location, and individuals should take more control over their product management career.

📝 Guest Post: How to Build the Right Team for Generative AI*

TheSequence • 994 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
🕹 Technology AI Engineering Product Management Tooling
  1. You may not need ML engineers for Generative AI projects due to the availability of pre-trained models like GPT-4.
  2. Prompt engineering, the clear articulation of needs in natural language, is a crucial skill for AI application development.
  3. Product managers and domain experts play a significant role in shaping AI products through prompt engineering, reducing the need for technical experts.
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[Launch] I wrote a book on Growth Marketing

Channels of Growth • 687 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
💼 Business Marketing Startups Entrepreneurship Product Management Sales
  1. The book 'Channels of Growth' focuses on a Growth Marketing Framework for dominating channels and building better products.
  2. All users come from channels when it comes to growth, emphasizing the importance of understanding and optimizing these channels.
  3. The book aims to provide a personal Growth Marketing framework based on lessons from over $100M+ spent on growing products.

Tech gamble

Alex Ewerlöf Notes • 353 implied HN points • 25 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Software Development Product Management
  1. Tech gamble is about paying the price of hypothetical future tech debt upfront without proper data or insight, leading to waste and friction for the product.
  2. Symptoms of tech gamble include complex technical solutions for simple problems, big bang improvement projects cancelled mid-execution, and rewriting systems without clear pragmatic checkpoints.
  3. Tech debt is reactive, while tech gamble is proactive, with tech debt giving engineers a bad conscience and tech gamble representing naive ambition or malice.

Data will not tell you what to do

Inside Data by Mikkel Dengsøe • 184 HN points • 21 Feb 24
💼 Business Decision-making Problem Solving Innovation Product Management Efficiency
  1. Data may not reveal the best ideas, so trust your intuition and explore beyond the obvious data points.
  2. Focus on solving the big problems first, as they have a more significant impact than smaller issues.
  3. Think in small bets and iterations to make progress in the right direction, even if data may not provide immediate clarity.

Briefing: Instagram nudges, Stripe retries, Chrome AI

Department of Product • 275 implied HN points • 25 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Product Management AI Browsers Startups E-commerce
  1. Instagram is implementing a new safety feature to deter teens from night-time app use.
  2. Many companies struggle to train employees on GenAI tools, but new visual AI workflow tools like VectorShift aim to simplify the process for product teams.
  3. Netflix's success in ad-funded plans raises questions on whether this model will extend to other product categories like SaaS.

The 9 Fundamental Ingredients to Thrive with Product Management

Untrapping Product Teams • 157 implied HN points • 07 Feb 24
💼 Business Product Management Ingredients Vision Strategy Learning
  1. Product management is like cooking: it's not just about the recipe, but also about how you do it and the ingredients you use.
  2. Recognize the fundamental ingredients for thriving in product management, such as product vision, strategy, goals, and testing assumptions.
  3. Having a strong product vision is crucial for inspiring and motivating teams to progress in the right direction.

💻 Zoom

First 1000 • 1513 implied HN points • 13 Jul 23
🕹 Technology UX UI Product Management
  1. In UX design, smart defaults can be very powerful.
  2. Sometimes, a design that looks slick and communicates well may not perform as well as another in tests.
  3. Don't underestimate the impact of smart defaults in design choices.

TBM 227: Explicit vs. Implicit Strategy

The Beautiful Mess • 1258 implied HN points • 18 Jun 23
💼 Business Strategy Leadership Team Dynamics Product Management Company Culture
  1. A strategy should be a clear description of challenges, decisions on what to address, and specific actions to impact those challenges.
  2. Translating strategy into tangible goals and budgets is crucial for making it meaningful to people in the organization.
  3. Creating a safe space for hard discussions, dedicating time for strategy development, and focusing on deployment are essential for making a strategy effective.

Navigating the Shift from Feature to Product Teams and Building a Product Mindset

An Innovator's Sketchbook • 98 implied HN points • 04 Feb 24
💼 Business Product Management Feedback Team Dynamics Leadership Organizational Culture
  1. Transitioning from feature to product teams involves empowering cross-functional teams focused on outcomes and value.
  2. The localization industry is evolving with AI, leading to job destruction but also creating new business opportunities.
  3. Feedback is important for team growth, and using the 'Situation-Behavior-Impact' framework can lead to effective and powerful feedback.

How to be the favorite engineer among your product manager and designer

High Growth Engineer • 465 implied HN points • 27 Aug 23
💼 Business Career development Product Management Engineering
  1. Collaboration with product managers and designers can be challenging due to differing priorities and project impacts.
  2. Engineers often face the dilemma of balancing what they can do, what the PM wants, and what the PM thinks they can do.
  3. Maintaining a good relationship and meeting deadlines are key aspects of being a favored engineer among product managers and designers.

From Customer Success Leader to VP of Product

Suzan's Fieldnotes • 98 implied HN points • 15 Jan 24
💼 Business Career development Leadership Product Management Startups Entrepreneurship
  1. María de Antón transitioned from Head of Customer Success to Product Manager by following her instincts and overcoming imposter syndrome.
  2. Transitioning from customer success to product management involved a shift from talking with customers to creating joyful product experiences.
  3. As a leader considering switching functions, trust your cross-functional skills, seek necessary training, and have confidence in yourself.

Forming Habits To Improve Retention

Growth Croissant • 707 implied HN points • 08 Jun 23
💼 Business Retention Product Management Health & Wellness Engagement User Experience
  1. Encouraging healthy habits through features like competitions, goal setting, and streaks can improve user retention.
  2. Popular apps like Strava and Headspace use habit-forming features such as challenges and streaks to retain users.
  3. Habit-forming features must be deeply ingrained in the product to have a meaningful impact on user experience and retention.

Forget Job-to-be-Done theory. Concentrate on Goals and their hierarchy.

An Innovator's Sketchbook • 78 implied HN points • 21 Jan 24
💼 Business Innovation Product Management Health Venture Funding
  1. Focus on understanding consumer goals and their hierarchy for successful product development.
  2. Differentiate between needs, goals, and ToDos as part of the goal hierarchy.
  3. Recognize the importance of designing products or services that effectively remove obstacles or facilitate faster achievement of consumer goals.

Insights from the Research Community: Plans for 2024 and Strategies for Implementation

Askwhy: UX Research, Product Management, Design & Careers • 33 implied HN points • 27 Feb 24
💼 Business Research Implementation Planning Strategy Product Management
  1. Avoid unnecessary research by understanding when it's not appropriate, like for problem-solving issues instead of validation.
  2. Prevent overcommitting by scoping projects well, building in time buffers, and looking at historical data to manage workload effectively.
  3. Enhance visibility for your UX research work by selecting the right method for your audience, sharing updates in product meetings, and knowing your stakeholders.

🌟 Your Ultimate AI Guide for Product Managers: 10-Part Series + FREE PDF & Bonus Resources! 🚀

The Product Channel By Sid Saladi • 13 implied HN points • 17 Mar 24
🕹 Technology AI Product Management
  1. The post celebrates the completion of a 10-part series on AI impact on product management, expressing gratitude for the support and engagement.
  2. The series covers various topics like introduction to AI, large language models, AI product manager roles, ethical AI, and the future of AI in product innovation.
  3. The author offers a free PDF compilation of the series with bonus resources, encourages feedback from readers, and shares additional AI resources for product managers.

Embarking on the Product Management Journey: Product Research and Discovery

Product Power by Samet Ozkale • 196 implied HN points • 19 Oct 23
💼 Business Product Management Research Innovation Development Framework
  1. Product managers can find ideas through user interviews, trend analysis, personal experiences, and input from internal stakeholders.
  2. Criteria for pursuing an idea include satisfying a need, having a unique selling point, being profitable and in demand, and creating value.
  3. Utilizing the Double Diamond framework can guide product discovery and development by focusing on understanding problems before jumping into solutions.

A Complete Product Discovery Guide

Untrapping Product Teams • 412 implied HN points • 21 Jun 23
💼 Business Product Management Entrepreneurship Team Dynamics Product Development Innovation
  1. Product discovery is essential to uncover what creates value, while product delivery produces what creates value.
  2. Having a sustainable balance between product discovery and product delivery within one team is crucial for success.
  3. Product discovery is a journey, not a rigid plan, where you set a business outcome as your north star and make decisions along the way.

Product Delivery Guide

Untrapping Product Teams • 334 implied HN points • 19 Jul 23
💼 Business Product Management Value Creation Team Collaboration
  1. Product delivery is about creating value steadily, not just following a plan.
  2. Key aspects of product delivery include organizing the product backlog, refining tasks, aligning goals, and delivering value consistently.
  3. Be mindful of common traps like treating the product backlog as a wishlist, separating discovery from delivery, and focusing only on output instead of outcomes.

3 Actionable Tactics To Create A Good Data Strategy

Three Data Point Thursday • 39 implied HN points • 01 Feb 24
💼 Business Data Strategy Product Management
  1. Netflix transformed into a data company by focusing on leverage and transitions in their value chain.
  2. To create a good data strategy, consider mapping out your value chain, playing Perfect World scenarios, and performing pipeline analysis.
  3. Use data and algorithms to increase the bottleneck in your value pipelines for impactful data strategies.

The Symphony of Strategic Roadmapping: A Personal Perspective on Product Prioritization

Product Power by Samet Ozkale • 78 implied HN points • 21 Dec 23
💼 Business Product Management Prioritization Strategy Communication Resource Allocation
  1. Product roadmapping is like conducting a symphony with prioritization setting the rhythm.
  2. Key elements of a product roadmap include vision, strategy, roadmap, prioritization, and backlog.
  3. Balancing stakeholder needs in roadmapping, aligning short-term goals with long-term vision, and agile adaptation are crucial for successful product development.