Thread by @ibscribe

we all suffer from imposter syndrome at work - one of the biggest instances for me when switching into PM was product vision

a 🧵on “instincts”

I had a hard time keeping up with folks who would just rapid-fire toss out product ideas and debate pros/cons in a brainstorming session.

I had a hard time keeping up with folks who would just rapid-fire toss out product ideas and debate pros/cons in a brainstorming session. (I much prefer to spend some time forming my thoughts, writing them down, and iterating on my point of view vs jumping in off-the-cuff.

The biggest learning for me on this front has been realizing that folks with "instincts" are just keen observers of user behavior + business drivers + market trends

and that is a skill that can be acquired

User Behavior

I’ve shared before that products are workflows, and the biggest reason to observe and absorb user behavior is to comprehend the workflow as it exists (vs how your product would like it to exist)

Some techniques for wrapping your head around user behavior:

•use the product!
•watch users use the product live / recorded (qual)
•analyze user behavior with data science lens (quant)
•read feature requests

Business Drivers

Software purchases are not solely determined by user behavior - much of buyer motivation comes from trying to solve business problems and drive outcomes. The

The best way I’ve found to understand purchase behavior is to talk to the folks involved in the sales / success cycle.

•talk to customers
•talk to prospects
•talk to GTM folks who interact with customers (sales, success, consulting)

Market Trends

The hardest part of crafting a product vision is pinning down what emerging trends are here to stay vs flash-in-the-pan.

I find blending long-term forecasts with short-term results is a good method for separating signal from noise.

•read analyst reports
•read win / loss reports
•read churn forecasts
•read your competition's messaging

If you're trying to hone your product judgement, I recommend you just do ANY 1 of the above activities for 30 minutes a day, and you'd be surprised where you are in a week, a month, a quarter, a year.

If you enjoyed this 🧵, follow me @ibscribe (same handle, different content on Instagram)

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And, I’m teaching a class where we’ll cover this and other advanced topics for PMs in B2B SaaS

scholarsite.io/pages/multi-pr…