/Product

How to Build a Rockstar Product Management Team

tl;dr: Olivia Ryan, PM at Slingshot, runs through three hiring tips, and ways she keeps her team engaged, connected, and on task in an increasingly remote work environment. Promoted by Stream

featured in #239

Product Management In Infrastructure Eng

- Will Larson tl;dr: Infrastructure teams have 2 modes of operation: (1) A foundation mode where tasks are mandatory e.g. compliance, security, scaling a popular product. (2) Innovation mode where teams have the flexibility in prioritizing and solving problems - teams have less experience here so Will guides us through the process of problem discovery, prioritization and validation.

featured in #237

Mandate Levels

- John Cutler tl;dr: John came up with nine "levels" of work, "ranging from very specific, to very general." calling them Mandate Levels, "to capture the idea of a sphere of authority and autonomy." He discusses how they operate here.

featured in #236

The Siren Song Of the ‘User’ Model

- Chelsea Troy tl;dr: The concept of a user "pigeonholes us into ideas that mislead our product direction and corrupt our technical choices." Chelsea notes three fundamental issues with the term "user:" (1) It doesn't describe how someone uses the product - reading, listening, playing, etc... (2) It implies addiction or manipulation (3) Inevitably screws the data model. Chelsea highlight this with examples.

featured in #235

Product Management in the Age of Hybrid Teams

tl;dr: "Working on a fully distributed team isn’t the asynchronous collab disaster I once thought it might be... It's actually a blessing in disguise." New to managing a distributed team? We have a new way of thinking for you.

featured in #234

Choosing Your North Star Metric

- Lenny Rachitsky tl;dr: Lenny surveyed current and past employees at over 40 of today’s most successful growth-stage companies to compile a table of the metrics commonly used. He also has a a framework for choosing a north star metric based on company type.

featured in #234

An Inside Look At How Figma Ships Product

- Yuhki Yamashita tl;dr: Yuhki guides us through a new product roadmap doc and process. Meetings start with a silent review of the doc. Then the team (1) vote for certain topics to be discussed, (2) reflect on recent launches, (3) team leads complete weekly updates, (4) wins are celebrated.

featured in #221

Assign Problems (Not Work) To Your Teams To Build Extraordinary Products

- Raphaela Wrede tl;dr: A top down approach when a product manager mandates, with little buy in from the team, yields low engagement. A collaborative sprint with members of product, design, engineering, research, support, and analytics creates much higher engagement.

featured in #216

From YAGNI To YDNIY

- Itamar Turner-Trauring tl;dr: The goal of YAGNI - You You Ain’t Gonna Need It principle - and YDNIY - You Don’t Need It Yet - is to get something useful into users’ hands as quickly as possible.

featured in #208

Ask the EM: How Can I Work Better With My Product Manager, As An Engineering Lead?

- Gergely Orosz tl;dr: A healthy relationship between engineering and product lead has (1) two people, one voice inside and outside the team. (2) Frequent communication. (3) Empathy towards the other. (4) Clear understanding of where roles start and end. Gergely discusses how to forge such a relationship.

featured in #200