🗓️Recap of Oct 2020 content

Includes:
-15 Product Principles
-Book Recos by PM Level
-Product-Focused Companies
-Do We Have an Execution Problem?
-Product Dogma
-7 Cognitive Biases
-On Clearer Thinking
-On Product Prioritization
-On Conceiving Great Products
& more....

Thread👇🏾
On Product-Focused Companies (and B2B Products)
Do We Really Have an Execution Problem?
On Avoiding Dogma in Product Work
A Video Thread on The 7 Cognitive Biases of Product Teams
(probably the highest ROI piece I'll ever create)
A Meta-Thread on Clear Product Thinking
An Important Part of Conceiving Great Products
A Technique for Better Product Decisions: Start-with-Principles
On "Changing People" as a Manager
Ask "Why" before "What/How/When/Who"
To access these & other Oct 2020 threads:
twitter.com/search?q=from%…
(link will keep you in the Twitter app)

Happy reading!
❤️

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More from @shreyas

31 Oct
Start-with-Principles—a technique I learned @stripe

Problem:
Should we do X or Y?

My prior approach:
X looks like this
Y like this
X&Y's pros/cons
Decide

Start-with-Principles:
Here are N proposed principles
Do we agree on them? Discuss
A new option Z emerges
Decide btwn X,Y,Z
Alright, let's see an example.

Problem:
How should we onboard users for our new prosumer productivity tool?

1. Should we build world-class self-serve onboarding, along with slick tutorials?

2. Or, should we provide a white-glove onboarding experience, Superhuman-style?

👇🏾
Start with Proposed Principles:

For now, we
A) Prefer few power users (depth) over many casual users (breadth)
B) Want an intimate view of user motivation
C) Want the brand to feel premium
D) Need to limit onboarding ops costs
E) Want a product with built-in learning & discovery
Read 15 tweets
30 Oct
Product teams tend to operate in 4 modes.

1) Assemble-mode:
Getting the team together

2) Produce-mode:
Predictably making stuff

3) Differentiate-mode:
Consistently making good stuff

4) Replicate-mode:
Making other teams better
Modes may overlap. Every product team has a *primary* mode at a given time.

Assemble-mode is about starting.

Produce-mode is about practicing execution.

Differentiate-mode is about winning via distinct value.

Replicate-mode is about cross-pollinating ideas, processes, people.
Some product teams get perpetually stuck in one of these modes.

It’s fine if you’re “stuck” in Differentiate-mode or Replicate-mode.

Not fine if you’re stuck in Assemble-mode or Produce-mode. Identify this & call it out to your team. Discuss what’s needed to get unstuck.
Read 5 tweets
24 Oct
“My team has a prioritization problem. Help!“

Product prioritization, a thread:
(1/30)
Most product prioritization problems are really strategy problems.

So you need to start with strategy.

There are 4 types of strategy problems.
4 strategy problems

-Acceptance: “we dont think strategy is important”

-Creation: “we know it’s important but we dont have one”

-Substance: “we have one, but it’s flawed”

-Communication: “we have a good strategy, but the team doesnt grok it/can’t recall it/can’t describe it”
Read 36 tweets
23 Oct
The 7 Cognitive Biases of Product Teams, a video thread for very busy product people:

(these ~15 minutes could save your company ~15 million or more on opportunity costs)
(1/15)
Why care about studying our own cognitive biases
(2/15)
You do not rise to the level of your plan, you fall to the level of your decision-making
Read 18 tweets
20 Oct
3 book recos for PMs, by level

Entry level (APM/PM1/2):
Inspired
Getting Things Done
7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Mid-level (SrPM/GPM):
Super Thinking
High Output Management
Understanding Michael Porter

Leadership (Dir/VP):
7 Powers
Are Your Lights On
The Charisma Myth
Why book recos by level?

- Book lists for product ppl are often one-size-fits-all.

- A great book can be career-changing.

- But the timing is almost as important as the actual content.

- We can only appreciate certain lessons & frameworks based on our accumulated experience.
For more books, check out this thread:
Read 6 tweets
17 Oct
PM feedback framework:

Skills—to build/enhance (level-specific)

Mindset—for ⬆️effectiveness (agency, even keel..)

Activities—to improve product/team (better process, horizontals..)

Results—expected Outputs+Outcomes

Training—resources to achieve all this

Review plan monthly.
Product Manager feedback tends to be unstructured & is often not easily actionable.

This had bugged me for years, until I starting applying this framework a few years ago.
Structuring feedback in these 5 categories forces more specificity & action-orientation.

It's a joint plan in which the manager is equally accountable.

How to start?

Managers: write up to 3 prioritized points per category

All others: share this framework with your manager🙂
Read 5 tweets

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