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Building internal products
If every company is truly a software company now, it stands to reason that product management will become more prevalent in organizations that develop software for their use. A common term for this type of software is an internal product, implying that you can approach this scenario with an approach similar to building digital products for external users. There are, of course, differences as well, which we highlight in the resources below.
Meanwhile, in product news, AI takes center stage (I know that comes as a surprise) as a competitor to Google Docs, which promises protection from AI’s prying eyes, two different AI-powered search engines take on Google, and Figma walks back on its use of AI because it was too similar to Apple apps.
A guide to internal products. An internal product is software your organization does not offer for sale to others but uses to support its various business activities. Internal products generally satisfy users' needs internal to your organization or enable your organization to meet your customer’s needs. In this guide to internal products, Kent McDonald explains when it makes sense to use product management techniques for software your organization builds for itself.
How internal products help Zalando meet customer needs. Internal and customer-facing product management have similarities and plenty of differences. Not only are the context and audience of your product different, but how you manage the project and communicate with stakeholders are also vastly different experiences. Mariana Tibuh, Senior Product Manager at Zalando Lounge, knows just how different product management is for internal products. Mariana sheds some light on what it means to be a Product Manager for internal products.
Internal product management is hard. How to mitigate this? Many internal teams still use poor or nonexistent tools to support their daily work. Inefficiency is everywhere, you barely have to pick up a couple of rocks to find it. Unfortunately, the flip side to that issue is that everyone always wants everything fixed. Yet doing that will take forever, not least because new processes are created daily, which always start pretty ‘manual’, even if not quite paper-based. If this feels familiar, you’ll feel stakeholders' pressure to get it all done yesterday. So Caspar Mahoney shared a few ideas to help you through the complexities of internal products.
Strategies for keeping your stakeholders educated when building internal products. When creating internal products, all sorts of internal stakeholders need to be informed, educated, and empowered. In this video, Mike Belsito (Co-Founder of Product Collective) shares some strategies -- while highlighting insights from Vanathy Lakshmi (JC Penney and formerly Walmart) in her past keynote talk at INDUSTRY: The Product Conference.
Deep Dive: Building internal products. A crucial yet frequently overlooked aspect of product management is creating and optimizing internal products—digital solutions designed to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization’s workforce. This practice, internal product management, is becoming increasingly common, especially in large enterprise organizations. Mike Belsito explores internal product management’s unique challenges and opportunities, examines best practices for success, and considers how this emerging field reshapes how organizations approach their digital transformation efforts.
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This week on Rocketship.fm:
Move Fast and Build AI - The AI Story of Amplitude As Told By Its CPO
In this episode, you'll learn from Francois Ajenstat -- the CPO at Amplitude -- as he discusses the integration of AI into Amplitude's product practices over the past year. Francois emphasizes the importance of rapid experimentation, customer-centric problem-solving, and embracing discomfort in the AI era. He even answers the question -- might AI have bigger implications than the mobile revolution?
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We're 73 days from INDUSTRY: The Product Conference, and pricing increases on August 1st.
Check out the agenda, which covers topics ranging from Artificial Intelligence's impact on the Product Manager's role to developing product strategies and roadmaps.
We have even more significant discounts for teams. Hit reply if you need that code or have any other questions!
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The little talked about importance of building internal products
We often talk about the glitz and glamour of external software – but the truth is so many product managers and product leaders are focused on building internal software – and it’s just as important. It's a little-known fact that many of today's indispensable tools began as solutions to in-house problems. Take Basecamp, for instance. Jason Fried, co-founder of 37signals, candidly admits they built it out of "desperate necessity." Drowning in project management chaos, with existing tools falling short, they created their own solution.
What happened next with Basecamp is where things get interesting. After solving their own problem, they noticed clients asking, "What is this? We could totally use this!" Recognizing the potential, they polished their internal tool and released it to the market. The result? An instant hit. Basecamp was outearning 37 Signals’s core business within a year, catalyzing a pivotal shift in their company's direction.
This story unveils crucial insights for product leaders. First, your next big product might be lurking in your company's pain points. Internal tools serve as real-world testing grounds, allowing you to iterate and refine before market release. Basecamp's success also underscores the power of simplicity - they focused on "simple, straightforward tools" that addressed specific needs. Perhaps most importantly, it highlights the value of listening to your users, even when those users are your colleagues.
As you navigate your product strategy, consider the challenges your team faces daily. Could solving these internal problems lead to a marketable product? Are you potentially overlooking goldmines in your day-to-day operations? Remember, some of the best products emerge from scratching your own itch. Keep your problem-solving hat on and stay attuned to internal needs - your next big win might be closer than you think.
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Keep your eyes off my docs. Proton, a company founded on privacy, announced a new end-to-end encrypted, collaborative document editor that puts your privacy first. Docs in Proton Drive are built on the same privacy and security principles as all their services, starting with end-to-end encryption. Docs let you collaborate in real-time, leave comments, add photos, and store your files securely. Best of all, it’s all private — even keystrokes and cursor movements are encrypted. That means the contents of your docs won’t be used as sources for AI hallucinations.
Search with a touch of AI. Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, improved Pro Search to tackle more complex queries, perform advanced math and programming computations, and deliver even more thoroughly researched answers. Some key additions include multi-step reasoning and more powerful data analysis, debugging, and content generation. Perplexity introduced these changes to make research faster and more efficient than simply googling.
Search with a touch of AI part deux. Former Humane Strategic Partnerships Lead Brooke Hartley Moy and Head of Product Engineering Ken Kocienda have started Infactory, a fact-checking search engine. One thing that will set Infactory apart from others is knowing when to — and when not to — use AI. Infactory will use large language models (LLMs) to create a more natural language interface with the platform, but it will not use AI in the results. Instead, Infactory plans to pull information directly from trusted resources with citations. The initial rollout will feature subscription pricing aimed at enterprise customers.
Maybe imitation isn’t the sincerest form of flattery. Figma CEO Dylan Field said the company would temporarily disable its “Make Design” AI feature after being accused of “heavily” training the tool on existing apps. The feature, unveiled at the company’s annual Config conference, aimed to jumpstart the design process by generating UI layouts and components from text prompts. However, it faced criticism after it seemingly mimicked the layout of Apple’s Weather app.
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Unlocking the Power of Agentic AI: What Product Managers Need to Know
Wednesday, July 17rd @ 01:00 PM EST
This session will dive into Agentic AI and its transformative potential for enterprises. From its ability to autonomously pursue complex goals and workflows with limited human supervision to its potential to optimize operations and enhance human-AI collaboration, we will explore the key capabilities and benefits of Agentic AI — highlighting the issues that are especially relevant to Product Managers and Product Leaders.
After this session, you'll understand how Agentic AI can be leveraged to solve complex, high-impact problems across various domains and industries and how it promises to usher in a new era of empowered productivity. Plus, we'll cover your questions, too!
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