Ensure everyone knows why, what and for whom they are building. — Part of product discovery is to nail down the user persona and related pain points (see this post for details: #007: Product Discovery and Definition). This aspect may just sound like one of many TODOs on a PM’s list but it is so fundamental that if not done right all…

Crucial steps to undertake prior to writing the first line of code. — Prior to writing a single line of code there is an awful amount of work to be done which is an integral part of the product building process. It essentially consists of two parts: Product discovery: Understand who has what problem. Product definition: Define the solution to a specific problem…

Cultivate a growth- instead of a performance mindset. — As I have described in the previous post, successful software companies have unlocked growth through finding their “aha“-moment, when something suddenly “just works“. But to get there, a systematic approach can be followed — rather than just hoping to get lucky with your product one day. A famous example for…

Don’t overestimate risk while underestimating opportunity. — People are generally bad at estimating risk. We tend to categorize risk in a binary way. Either there is a risk, then we try to avoid it. I assume the reason is evolutionary. Or there is no risk. But then there is usually no opportunity. Yet, people who get better…

Or PM and PMM (a.k.a. product marketing management) — Two very common misconceptions that can be observed in startup land as well as in corporate land are best expressed by the following statements: We build the product and because it will be so insanely good it will — somewhat magically — grow organically until we are profitable (typically the…

Nobody cares about your launch. Just launch asap and ensure a fast learning curve. — For people working at companies — both startups and corporations alike — that have never launched a digital product before it is tempting to think about ‘the launch’ as an event that occurs chronologically as part of a series of other fictitious happenings related to the digital product cycle, i.e., …

Because people spontaneously tell others about it. — In this post, I will point out one of the most overlooked characteristics that all great products exhibit. Often, when first-time founders and corporate innovators try to evaluate the future greatness of their yet-to-be-built product they focus on aspects like awesome features, addressed customer pain points, marketing, market share, inflated…

Communication and a growth mindset is “all” it takes. — A PM needs to have “product building knowledge“. It consists of two fundamental ingredients: Communication skills combined with a growth mindset. It sounds as simple as it is hard to find them in people combined. In today’s post, we are going to dig deeper into it to understand what the…

And what’s the role of a product manager? — In this post, we will look at three key aspects that are necessary to understand what a product manager does: First, we’ll look at the environment a product manager operates in. Then we discuss a product manager’s areas of responsibilities. In the end we will look at the high-level skills…