Product Habits - How people discover new products

Lessons Learned Working With Zuckerberg for 13 Years

Dan Rose worked with Mark Zuckerberg for more than 13 years. One of his biggest takeaways was that the best founders, including Zuckerberg, have a "fighter" mentality. In this thread, Rose recounts some of the examples of Zuckerberg's grittiness—from saying no to a $1B offer to sell Facebook to Yahoo in 2006 to renting out a cinema complex so the entire company could watch The Social Network together. In Rose's words, "Going from the garage to the boardroom requires incredible grit, determination, ambition, and yes...fight."

What I Learned About Startups Through 30,000 Data Points

Ali Tamaseb spent four years conducting one of the largest data-driven studies about startups. Now he's sharing what he learned about why certain startups become unicorns and others fail. One idea that stuck out: Painkillers (companies that go after well-defined pain points) are more likely to succeed, but vitamin pills (companies that build sticky, habit-forming products with a strong community) work, too. Do any of these myths about startup success surprise you?

Burnout From an Organizational Perspective

This article presents an interesting perspective on work burnout, breaking it down into individual, team-level, and organizational causes. The main point: Burnout is a spectrum that can be measured, and to really solve for it, organizations have to go beyond layering on wellness programs and create systemic change. Here are some interesting ideas about how you can create a burnout "shield" at your company.  

What Impresses Me When Interviewing Software Engineers

If you want a different perspective on what makes for a good software engineering job interview, this is an interesting read. The author of this article isn't a fan of using coding tests as a method to gauge ability. Instead, he'd rather have a conversation to get at these traits in a potential hire. The quality he's most impressed to find: genuine curiosity. 

The Four Levels of Product Managers

This is a fantastic article by Connie Kwan about the four levels of product managers—and how to choose the right one based on your company's product needs. The four levels: shipping, planning, strategic, and strategic partnering. As a business scales, so do the requirements for a sufficient VP of Product or CPO. If you're working at a startup and want to scale with the organization, this will help you figure out what skills you need to cultivate to make your next leap. 

Your Marketing Strategy Needs a Conversion Funnel

People don't typically buy (or even try) a product the first time they hear about it. The marketing funnel often requires multiple impressions. Before investing a ton of money into marketing, it's important to consider what you want your conversion funnel to look like. This guide will help you understand how to build and optimize your funnel so you have the best chance of capturing high-quality leads. 

How People Discover New Products

This is the question every marketer inevitably asks: Beyond obvious ways to grow, like social media ads and SEO, what else should you be doing to build product awareness? Lenny Rachitsky breaks down the seven ways people become aware of new products, and how to know whether each type of strategy would work for your particular product. Whether you're selling a packaged good or a SaaS product, this is a must-read article for all marketers. 

Top Product and Growth Insights From Reforge's EIRs and OIRs

Reforge has a stellar team of executives- and operators-in-residence. I thoroughly enjoyed this list of highlighted learnings from a handful of them. It covers everything from the false choice of monetization vs. growth to understanding data as more than a team to hire or tools to implement. This read is sure to save you time and help you think of creative ways to scale your product and business.