Let your users reset
I wish that more products had an option to reset to factory settings. Whether I'm using a product I haven’t used in a long time or just finding a new way to set things up, there are plenty of reasons to go back to square one. In
Elliot Smith
The Signal and the Noise Review
Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise successfully walks the fine line of communicating a complex set of ideas in enough detail to be both interesting and informative. The book introduces the reader to statistical modelling through examples in sports, politics, finance, and science. It makes no attempt to
Lessons from one too many model spreadsheets
Few things can be as helpful and potentially time-wasting as modelling your business with a spreadsheet and setting metrics. A clear model of how you make money is a great tool to help identify bottlenecks or risks. On the other hand, it is very easy for models and the team
Know which type of goals you're chasing
It’s important that you know what kind of company you are working for. In particular, if your company has reached the stage where things are steady and predictable or if they remain mostly unknown.
Some companies, especially bigger ones, tend to move in a fixed direction. Goals and projects
Talk to your users
Once, a long time ago, I was at an event where a local 'business leader' came to talk. Their talk was the story of their business, how they grew it and what made it successful. By some metrics their business was a success. It wasn't a
Notes from the four Silicon Valley Product Group Books
Over the last three months I read all four of the currently published SVPG books They cover a large range of topics in what they call ‘the product operating model’. This model spans high level product strategy, day to day product discovery and fields like product marketing. I recently collated
Avoiding antipatterns in product discovery
Product discovery works best when you have no favourite ideas. Spending time with real users validating problems and potential solutions is a critical part of good product discovery. Often ideas that sound great around the office white board fall flat when tested with real users. An important part of maturing
Book Review: INSPIRED by Marty Cagan of SVPG
I have found myself on somewhat of a SVPG book binge recently. A binge kicked off from an episode of Lenny’s podcast with Marty Cagan on what he calls ‘Product Management Theater’. Product management theater is the idea that many product teams end up doing things that sound like
The Minimum Marketable Difference
There are lots of reasons that startups don’t make it. Sometimes they build the wrong thing. Sometimes they build the right thing too early. Sometimes, amongst all the others, they build something great but can’t convince the world to use it. That’s what this post is about.
My path to working in Product
There was never a moment where I felt that destiny was pulling me towards a career in product. Though I have come to realize that those moments tend to live mostly in fiction. Despite all that, I currently find myself as Head of Product in a growing technology startup. I