Product Habits - What to do before building a product

Hiten's Pick

Is Money the Best Accountability Tool?

Many companies understandably use revenue to measure success. In the end, money matters. But it isn't the only—or even the best way—to gauge the success of a company. In some instances, it hinders imagination. If you had to change the metrics you prioritize, what would they be?

Business

How to Avoid a Job Change Misstep

The past few years have changed the way we think about work. Based on many of the conversations I've had recently, people want to have an impact at work but are simultaneously thinking about a job change. This is a helpful framework for evaluating new opportunities and avoiding career missteps. It's written with PMs and product leaders in mind, but the advice extrapolates to other careers.

Finance for Founders

Early on, founders have to do or oversee just about every company function, including finance admin. You should ultimately spend your time focused on growth, so the sooner you can outsource financial management, the better. This helpful resource will guide you through hiring a CFO, keeping track of critical dates, and setting up early financial processes.

Product

The Three Levels of Product Work

Shreyas Doshi just joined Lenny Rachitsky for a conversation on his new podcast, and it's worth a listen. They cover concepts like using pre-mortems to identify problems early, why ROI thinking is detrimental to product planning, and how to optimize for each level or product work. Listen to the episode here.

The Inventor of the iPhone

Tony Fadell led the original development of both the iPod and iPhone and then started Nest, the company that pioneered the "Internet of Things." He recently did a lengthy interview with Tim Ferriss, and it's filled with wisdom. He even shares how Steve Jobs used stories to define projects and products at Apple, as well as what he thought about taking vacations. Check it out here.

Marketing & Sales

Create the Landing Page Before Building the Product

Before investing a lot of time into building a product, try creating a landing page first and making some progress with product and positioning validation. This is an interesting thread about how you can think through the process and use a landing page for social proof before investing too much into the product itself.

Facebook's Worst Nightmare

Amazon is building an ad business that is already bringing in tens of billions of dollars annually. This service will be a game-changer for small local businesses that rely heavily on Facebook ads to reach customers. How do you think this will shift the advertising landscape for SMBs?

Growth

The Hub-and-Spoke Network Effect

The Hub-and-Spoke network effect is what drove TikTok's hypergrowth in 2016. It occurs when equal "nodes" submit content or goods to a central Hub, pushing out a chosen few to all or nearly all of the other nodes. Here's how it works—and how you can potentially leverage it if you have a similar business model.

Why Are So Many People Quitting?

This thread provides one of the most transparent explanations I've seen for why so many people are quitting their tech jobs—especially in sales. The equity and cultural impact will be enormous, and many companies won't recover. Do you agree?

Management

Make Better Decisions When Starting and Scaling Companies

Startup life is typically overwhelming. No matter how good your product and team are, you'll inevitably make some low-quality decisions. This fantastic tactical guide is filled with mental models and frameworks for making better decisions while you start and scale your company. Two of my favorites are: Making decisions smaller to go faster and interviewing potential hires for decision acumen.

A Different Way To Think About Business Value

One of the most pervasive startup ideas is that there must be some direct relationship between your work and customer value. In reality, much of the work we do that generates value appears to have no measurable or justifiable customer benefit. Here's a better way to think of adding value at work.

Insight of the Week

Picking the Right Product Path

Last week, Jack Altman tweeted that part of being "good at product" involves picking one path with conviction and going in on it all the way. Like a comedian who doesn't fully commit to a joke, it won't land if it's delivered timidly. Go all-in with confidence.

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