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John Cutler Profile picture
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Nov 22, 2019 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Some common loops #proddev #systems

1/7 Why does that team seem to always take on too much work?
2/7 Why does that shared resource seem to be perpetually under-staffed?
3/7 Why does the team keep slipping into planning big batches?
4/7 Why does a myopic focus on increasing velocity eventually hurt quality?
5/7 Why are the team’s stories never “good enough” ?
6/7 Why does my team hide things from me?
7/7 Well…you saw what happened when we tried to just hand them a problem, right?
BONUS (that wraps up lots of these)

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John Cutler Profile picture
Feb 20
This is one of the biggest traps in scaling a company

Everyone should be aware of it.

1/n
 At some point, someone will decide that one things is working well. It is time to try 2 things. This almost always involves the assumption that there are some common things between the two
2/n
 But it isn't that easy.

#1 is more stable and practiced

#2 is less stable and practiced

The assumption that you can support both with common services is a little shaky. These are very different motions.
3/n
 ....and even that is based on the premise that #1 was actually working, and that the decision to do #2 wasn't based on a flawed premise (that #1 was working).

OR...that #1 had "flattened out" (we assume there wasn't room to grow there)
Read 10 tweets
John Cutler Profile picture
Feb 16
"what do we wall thing about being more data-informed?"

AMAZING

1/n cool, so I'd like to replace my feature-focused roadmap with a list of experiments and a target input to impact

"wait a sec..."
2/n yeah, and when we find better measures for things, we can iterate.

"hold on, we can't change wha...."
3/n we'll double down our investments in the things that are impactful, and teams can disband and reform around what's working

"hold on a minute...nooooooooo"
Read 10 tweets
John Cutler Profile picture
Feb 10
"we need to find someone who has done X before"

can be a dangerous slope

1/n it involves knowing what X is. And if you need X, there's a good chance you don't know what X really is ...
2/n
It means that you need to be able to figure out if the person really did X. Very few people operate in a vacuum. To ascribe X to one person is a dangerous slope.
3/n
It means that you are somehow able to predict whether the person can do X in your culture/situation. That is a huge stretch.

You are looking for someone who has done X ... in a similar context. Much harder
Read 6 tweets
John Cutler Profile picture
Jan 16
I've been reading a lot of great threads about the difference between "idealized" product management & "real world" product management.

as someone who contributes a fair amount of content, and interacts w/ a wide cross-section of teams, it has really gotten me thinking

1/n
2/n
It goes w/o saying, but one problem we have here is communicating about "the real world" is exceedingly hard! Even in books. It takes...words.

Much easier?
1) Generalized, high-level, good-sounding advice
2) Angst
3) Pragmatism ("apply in context","be curious")
3/n
One of my big challenges w/social media is that -- and I have the data to prove this -- the more angsty, pragmatic, or generalized the advice...the more it is consumed.

The more nuanced ... the less it is consumed.

Constant puzzle: reach or breadth?
Read 12 tweets
John Cutler Profile picture
Jan 10
"our product is terrible, we're in trouble!"

"our product is amazing! we're golden"

the crazy thing: both things can be true-ish

How?

1/n
2/n
People who care deeply about putting things in the best light will seek out information that confirms that.

People who care about fixing things that are broken, will seek out information that confirms that.
3/n
Companies tend to draw from the same channels, and speak to the same customers over and over.

The same customers who complain the loudest.

The same "rock stars" who are the poster-children for the product.
Read 10 tweets
John Cutler Profile picture
Dec 31, 2021
What actual, specific, behaviors would we observe if someone was good at product thinking?

Specific enough that someone without a lot of tacit knowledge would be able to say “that’s happening”.
some off hand

1/n
Better Proxies for Value. We'd observe them challenge a "success metric" and ask if there was a better proxy for actual value exchange. Fewer overt vanity metrics (or at a minimum, leading indicators mapped to trailing indicators)
2/n
Consider multiple options. We'd observe them weighing a range of options to achieve the same effect (vs. simply prioritizing a list). "Well... some potential experiments might include..."
Read 32 tweets

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