🏆 Favorite Product Management posts from around the web in 2022

Favorite Posts of 2022 From Around the Web

Throughout the course of the year, we share the best the internet offers on certain topics. As we get close to the end of another year, we’d like to share some posts that didn’t fit into the topic for a given week, or came out after we’d already covered a particular topic.

Crawl, walk, run, and the fragility of frameworks. John Cutler explores what happens when organizations bring in consultants to help them improve their product development efforts. Companies perceive the challenge as one of adopting the framework instead of creating conditions similar to healthy companies (or other learning situations). They blame their teams for being slow to figure the framework out when things aren't working. Frameworks become their crutch. John reminds us to be skeptical of frameworks. And be skeptical of explanations like “crawl, walk, run” that infantilize people and don’t describe healthy adult learning environments.

(via @johncutlefish)

Prioritization is a political problem as much as an analytical problem. At the leadership level in organizations, Rich Mironov sees a fundamental disconnect between the folks defining/building software products and the folks marketing/selling them. The "maker" side of the house defines prioritization as committing to fewer things in order to finish the most important ones. The "selling" side of the house defines prioritization as getting commitments for all the important things we need to do. Rich explores these different worldviews about prioritization and how to reconcile them. 

(via @richmironov)

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The future of AI is here

I feel like this week, the AI talk has been heating up – with OpeanAI and its ChatGPT finding its way into every other thread in my Twitter stream. So for today’s write-up, I figured we’ll see how good this ChatGPT really is. I asked simply, “Write a funny but informational 250-word post about OpenAI, ChatGPT, and the implication of AI for Product Managers.” The result is below…

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As Product Managers, we're always on the lookout for ways to make our jobs easier and more efficient. And let's be real, who doesn't love a good robot to take over some of the tedious tasks? That's where OpenAI and ChatGPT come in.

OpenAI is a research institute that's all about developing AI in a safe and responsible way. And ChatGPT is their latest creation - a natural language processing model that can generate text just like a human. It's like having a robot assistant that can write your emails for you!

But the implications of AI for Product Managers go beyond just saving time on writing emails. AI algorithms can be trained to analyze customer feedback and identify patterns and trends, providing valuable insights into customer behavior and market trends. This can help Product Managers make better product decisions and drive business success.

So, what does this all mean for us as Product Managers? In short, AI is the future and we need to get on board. Sure, it might mean our robot assistants will eventually steal our jobs, but at least they'll do it with a witty email or two.

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Okay, it’s very clear that AI is probably “good enough” for so many use cases out there – including writing content for newsletters. That can be awe-inspiring… or downright scary. You can make the call on that one!

Discovery Is Messy: How Do We Keep Track of All That We Are Learning? As you adopt the continuous discovery habits, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by how much stuff you generate. That stuff can include opportunity solution trees, experience maps, interview snapshots, interview notes and recordings, story maps, assumption maps, assumption test plans, and results. Inevitably, you might wonder, “How should I keep track of all of this stuff? Do I need to save it for posterity?” Teresa Torres explores a few different ways you can think about what to keep and for how long.

(via @ttorres)

Should I replace my hunch with data? When he works with teams, James King sometimes pays attention to what is going on, forms a hunch and then acts on it. Since hunches are often based on people’s biases, James often seeks to use data to help teams make improvements beyond just a hunch about what might work and a feeling that they probably made a difference. James explains how you can use data to create visibility of what is happening, so that your team can make improvements in how it approaches product development.

(via @jamesking42)

Explaining product management to the leadership team. As organizations look to improve the effectiveness of their internal software development, they are changing the way they organize work from project based to product based. To make a smooth transition, you need to convince the leaders in your organization to make that switch. Kent McDonald provides some suggestions on how to explain product management to non-product leaders hoping they become some of the most fervent supporters of your product transformation.

(via @hellofahren)

Growing a Product Organization from the Early Days

Managing a product team is hard enough. But what happens when you're tasked with building the team when you're in the beginning stages? There are a whole set of new challenges that come along with building and growing a product organization. We'll get into those challenges — as well as ideas on how to flourish and set yourself up for success — in this interactive discussion.