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An Argument for Publishing External Roadmaps
Publishing external roadmaps can be a controversial topic and there are drawbacks. Who wants to maintain multiple roadmaps? Would this expose the company to criticism when a target date is inevitably missed? Should we worry about competitors knowing our plans? These are valid concerns and yet I would still tend to advocate for regularly publishing…
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Takeaways from Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke
Thinking in Bets focuses on how natural human tendencies often lead to poor decision making and offers up some tools to improve the decision making process. I found it a worthwhile read and would distill the content down to three major takeaways. Think in Probabilities In business and in life, there is almost always some…
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The Utility and Context-Dependence of MVP’s
Eric Ries popularized the concept of the minimum viable product, often referred to as MVP, in his 2011 book The Lean Startup. In listening to a recent conversation with him on Lenny’s Podcast, Ries noted that the concept of the MVP has been heavily misconstrued over the years. It seems that many founders and entrepreneurs…
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Navigating Biases to Enhance Product Development
With human beings so susceptible to various cognitive biases, it’s useful to proactively consider some common biases that could impact product development. I composed a brief, non-exhaustive list including quick explanations and relevance. Hopefully, by keeping these biases top of mind, product builders can avoid falling prey to them. Selection Bias – A sub-group of…
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Congress Should Protect Private Data Against Unauthorized Monetization in AI Applications
Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) burst into the public consciousness in November 2022, with the launch of ChatGPT3 by OpenAI. The chatbot amazed with its ability to answer a broad range of text-based questions with detailed and generally appropriate responses. The application became the fastest in history to hit 100 million active users, outpacing TikTok and…
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Takeaways from Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull & Amy Wallace
Written by long time Pixar leader Ed Catmull, Creativity Inc. chronicles the rise and evolution of the animated film studio from inception to industry leader. The central question the authors explore is how to maintain creativity and inspiration through unending and constantly shifting obstacles. Let’s dive into some key takeaways. From a product development perspective,…
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Issues with Consensus-Driven Product Development
In listening to Lenny Rachitsky’s podcast with Sanchan Saxena (linked here), Sanchan briefly touches upon the perils of consensus-driven decision making in the context of building great products. He describes how closely listening to all of the relevant internal stakeholders and then working to please them by incorporating their feedback into the product or feature…
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Kicking Off Manager-Employee Relationships
I have built out a couple teams at Juniper Square, and I’ve noticed that the rate at which managers develop trust and camaraderie with new direct reports has a significant impact on individual and team performance over the near, intermediate, and long term. The quicker a foundation of trust can be developed, the better the…
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Product Case Study Approach
Demonstrating “product sense” or “product thinking” in an interview setting can be challenging because these are ambiguous concepts with expectations and success criteria that vary significantly across companies and individuals. But, meeting these criteria can be essential to breaking into product management, which is often quite difficult. One opportunity to definitively check this box is…
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Business Writing Best Practices
Written communication is hard to avoid for PM’s (as well as for many other functional roles). From project updates to product specifications to release notes to help content to user stories just to name a few, there are seemingly endless scenarios where clear writing makes a significant difference. However, many people do not think about…
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Growth Mindset 