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The Power of Storytelling
There is substantial research around how well content in the narrative form engages people relative to other formats. Studies show that various parts of the brain are very active when listening to a story. Here is a supporting article from NPR, but many other articles and studies could be cited. While framing content into a…
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Design Principles
For PM’s without a formal background in design, there are a few core principles that are helpful to keep in mind. Simplicity. One of the most fundamental design principles is simplicity. Product teams sometimes lose sight of the goal of delivering value to users in an intuitive way. Flashy or more complex features may be…
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Key PM Traits
One thing I love about product management is that PM’s come from such a varied set of backgrounds. There are relatively established paths into product from engineering, design, product operations, and customer success. Many people break in from other functions and/or thanks in part to serendipity. While people coming from a wide set of backgrounds…
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5 Why’s Framework
Another fairly useful framework for anyone involved in product discovery is the 5 Why’s. As discussed in Defining Product Management, product discovery is all about determining what features should be prioritized and built to best deliver on customer and business outcomes. One major challenge with the discovery process is that customers and prospects do not…
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Outcomes Orientation
A common pitfall for product development teams is to churn out features that do not end up moving the needle on key outcomes in any discernible way. While this may be unavoidable in certain scenarios, it should be relatively infrequent in well-functioning product development teams. So, why does this scenario play out so often? The…
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Defining Product Strategy
Product strategy is often considered the domain of senior product leaders and executives, but it’s important for junior product managers and other cross-functional partners to be aware of the product strategy and to understand how that strategy is shaping their work. Let’s define product strategy. Jackie Bavaro is one of the best product leaders at…
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Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) Framework
There seems to be an ever-expanding set of tools and frameworks meant to address or enhance a wide range of business analyses. This has created a cluttering effect, whereby it can be difficult to successfully select and apply a framework to realize actual benefits. One framework that I do find very useful for product strategy…
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Defining Product Management
Product management tends to vary greatly by company due to factors including lifecycle stage, structure, and culture, among others. My general definition of product management is as follows: Product management (PM) is deeply understanding a problem space, prioritizing based on evidence, and aligning internal stakeholders to develop and implement solutions that drive user and business…
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Growth Mindset 