1/
Had the opportunity to host @gokulr on @gojektech’s product webinar - #FirstPrinciples
Captured some learnings on managing time, culture, customer centricity, experimentation, managing scale, hiring & more👇🏼
Had the opportunity to host @gokulr on @gojektech’s product webinar - #FirstPrinciples
Captured some learnings on managing time, culture, customer centricity, experimentation, managing scale, hiring & more👇🏼
2/
On managing time -
Emails eat a lot of time. Formulate your method around it.
If it takes less than 5 minutes to respond, do it right away.
For anything that takes more than 5 minutes - add it to your list of action items. Keep your mind space free to foster creativity.
On managing time -
Emails eat a lot of time. Formulate your method around it.
If it takes less than 5 minutes to respond, do it right away.
For anything that takes more than 5 minutes - add it to your list of action items. Keep your mind space free to foster creativity.
3/
Limit the number of times you open your inbox. Don’t use your inbox as your to-do list.
Eat the frog - Get the hardest thing done first thing in the day. Beat procrastination and get it done.
Limit the number of times you open your inbox. Don’t use your inbox as your to-do list.
Eat the frog - Get the hardest thing done first thing in the day. Beat procrastination and get it done.
4/
On the biggest challenges he has faced:
The biggest challenges are about people. Don’t ignore the red flags. Make sure they aren’t fatal for the role you are looking for and your company. Culture fit is of utmost importance.
On the biggest challenges he has faced:
The biggest challenges are about people. Don’t ignore the red flags. Make sure they aren’t fatal for the role you are looking for and your company. Culture fit is of utmost importance.
5/
On high agency:
People are motivated by:
A sense of purpose - believing what you are doing matters
Potential - the work you do gives you skills and helps you grow continuously
Play - you are allowed to be creative and aren’t micromanaged.
On high agency:
People are motivated by:
A sense of purpose - believing what you are doing matters
Potential - the work you do gives you skills and helps you grow continuously
Play - you are allowed to be creative and aren’t micromanaged.
6/
On customer obsession & balancing data & intuition:
Every product development team needs to be talking to at least 2 customers each week. Not just PMs, but engineers & designers as well.
Before building a feature you need some hypothesis backed by data or customer insights.
On customer obsession & balancing data & intuition:
Every product development team needs to be talking to at least 2 customers each week. Not just PMs, but engineers & designers as well.
Before building a feature you need some hypothesis backed by data or customer insights.
7/
Learn to run some scrappy experiments to test your hypothesis and iterate before building the feature
Plenty no-code tools to do this, talk to your operators & marketers. Think as if you have 0 engineers while trying to validate your hypothesis and experiment yourself first
Learn to run some scrappy experiments to test your hypothesis and iterate before building the feature
Plenty no-code tools to do this, talk to your operators & marketers. Think as if you have 0 engineers while trying to validate your hypothesis and experiment yourself first
8/
You want your whole company divided around three or four cross-functional pillars - with goals owned by product lead, engineering lead, marketing lead, sales lead, operations lead.
Everyone needs to ultimately work towards those common goals. Everybody is in it together.
You want your whole company divided around three or four cross-functional pillars - with goals owned by product lead, engineering lead, marketing lead, sales lead, operations lead.
Everyone needs to ultimately work towards those common goals. Everybody is in it together.
9/
On North Star Metric:
Define a metric that provides value to the customer + value to the company.
Never use a single NSM - have a corresponding check metric to ensure the quality of NSM is high.
E.g. DAUs need to have engagement, GMV has to be with a sustainable fee.
On North Star Metric:
Define a metric that provides value to the customer + value to the company.
Never use a single NSM - have a corresponding check metric to ensure the quality of NSM is high.
E.g. DAUs need to have engagement, GMV has to be with a sustainable fee.
10/
On experimentation:
Every product feature needs to have a hypothesis backed by consumer behaviour. Regardless of data & insights there’s no way to predict behaviour but you can hypothesise it.
Think of every feature as an experiment first which validates that hypothesis.
On experimentation:
Every product feature needs to have a hypothesis backed by consumer behaviour. Regardless of data & insights there’s no way to predict behaviour but you can hypothesise it.
Think of every feature as an experiment first which validates that hypothesis.
11/
The hypothesis needs to be tangible. Ex: We expect a second-order change by x%…test it on a small set of customers…study the results and iterate accordingly.
The hypothesis needs to be tangible. Ex: We expect a second-order change by x%…test it on a small set of customers…study the results and iterate accordingly.
12/
This forces discipline around:
- Understanding the impact around every feature
- Iterating till you can prove the hypothesis and not giving up not the feature too early
This forces discipline around:
- Understanding the impact around every feature
- Iterating till you can prove the hypothesis and not giving up not the feature too early
13/
A PM is not the CEO of the product. Focus should be on solving the problem and putting a structure in place - to help the team brainstorm and identify the best solution + keep iterating and keep the team focused on the problem.
A PM is not the CEO of the product. Focus should be on solving the problem and putting a structure in place - to help the team brainstorm and identify the best solution + keep iterating and keep the team focused on the problem.
14/
Don’t become a feature junkie. Forget the feature, talk about the impact.
Don’t become a feature junkie. Forget the feature, talk about the impact.
15/
On understanding culture of a company:
Talk to the leaders of the company and observe their behaviour.
How do they answer questions like:
- How do you set goals?
- How do you make decisions?
- How did you launch your last product?
On understanding culture of a company:
Talk to the leaders of the company and observe their behaviour.
How do they answer questions like:
- How do you set goals?
- How do you make decisions?
- How did you launch your last product?
16/
You don’t get successful at a company without being a good culture fit. Observe the behaviour of the people who are successful in their functions and you’ll understand the culture of the company.
You don’t get successful at a company without being a good culture fit. Observe the behaviour of the people who are successful in their functions and you’ll understand the culture of the company.
17/
On advertising:
Getting celebrities or influencers to use the product is in vogue. Clubhouse is doing it, Twitter did it in their early days.
The bigger challenge is retention over acquisition. Hold your acquisition team accountable for retention as well.
On advertising:
Getting celebrities or influencers to use the product is in vogue. Clubhouse is doing it, Twitter did it in their early days.
The bigger challenge is retention over acquisition. Hold your acquisition team accountable for retention as well.
/End of thread
Any ambiguities are mine and not @gokulr’s. Will put out the recording of the session soon.
Thanks for reading. Hope you found it useful. 🙌
Any ambiguities are mine and not @gokulr’s. Will put out the recording of the session soon.
Thanks for reading. Hope you found it useful. 🙌
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