A) Goal-driven: What do I need to learn to immediately solve this concrete problem?
B) Interest-driven: What can I learn about this domain that I don’t already know?
To excel in the long haul:
Make B your default & use A when necessary
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An observation:
Majority of people tend solely toward Goal-driven growth.
They don't seek to learn things without a clear & immediate problem.
They don't make this choice explicitly.
It's just how they are pre-wired.
The trick then is to: 1) recognize this 2) re-wire oneself
Why?
Growth isn’t a straight line.
It isn’t fully Cause & Effect
The brain makes connections in ways you can’t predict upfront.
You can’t plan proficiency.
So get comfortable with learning without an immediate problem or purpose.
And grow in ways you never thought possible.
If you liked this thread, check out this thread on growing as a product person and tackling the hardest challenge that most product folks face: finding the time for ongoing growth
-started by identifying the real goal
-decomposed vague concepts
-framed the right questions
-sought more data or experience
-listened to multiple perspectives
-assessed upsides & downsides
-examined your own biases
-acted like an owner
The frameworks & examples shared by @rahulvohra are superb
But perhaps even more important is the product philosophy: deeply understanding user motivations & psychology, and conceiving creative product solutions rather than the “safe” ones
If you want to check out the content right away, @chrishlad has created a nice thread summarizing this episode (but don't forget to also listen to the episode):
All else being equal, it’s often more prudent to prefer teams that tend to Over-Promise & Under-Deliver (OPUD) rather than teams that consistently Under-Promise & Over-Deliver (UPOD)
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What I’ve observed in practice, within talented organizations:
OPUD teams tend to be ambitious for the user & the company. They aim high & might miss at times as a result.
UPOD teams tend to be ambitious for self first. They care more about survival & perception management.
"Over-Promise & Under-Deliver" teams might miss some of their promises, but they still usually end up with greater net productivity & impact than "Under-Promise & Over-Deliver" teams.
A thread of 15 principles for product work (most of which I learned the hard way)
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1/ Before you get all excited about the low hanging fruit, be sure you are under the right tree.
2/ The “product” isn’t just the buttons & other pixels on the screen. Treat everything that touches the user as the product and make sure it is as cohesive as possible.
As a product person, almost nothing can match the fun of working on a B2B Product at a Product-Focused Company
B2B ⇒ Much higher likelihood of success than Consumer
Product-Focused ⇒ Everyone cares deeply about user experience ⇒ You get to build a product you can be proud of
At Product-Focused Companies:
-Strategy matters
-Product quality is vital
-Good design is table-stakes
-Long-term thinking is encouraged
-Org is designed to build great product
-Decisions are rigorous, customer-focused
-End-to-end customer experience is viewed as “the product”
At Product-Focused Companies, the entire fabric of the organization is optimized to help you create high quality products that solve meaningful customer problems.
Includes:
-7 Product Team Biases
-A Product Metrics Primer
-Efficiency vs Effectiveness
-10 Tips for Misery
-Criteria for Joining a Company
-Getting Better at Products
-How/What/Why-first
If you've reviewed all of the Sept 2020 content👆🏾, would you kindly take a quick survey?
(just 1 required question & 2 optional)