How to Onboard a New Product Manager

Onboarding new product managers is not a trivial task. They need to learn many different things, but more importantly – they typically take ownership of an area that was owned by someone else before. Here is a three-phase method to make it a smooth transition.

Measuring Product-Market Fit: The Full Mixpanel Interview

Can product-market fit be measured? And if so, how? What are the most important things to keep an eye on during your journey towards the holy grail of startups? Here are the answers that I gave Mixpanel to their questions about this super-important topic.

Black Box vs. White Box Product Leadership

There is an inherent conflict between the product leader and the CEO, which can often be summarized into one question: who has the final say. To start resolving it, remember that it is not a zero-sum game. Here are two leadership styles that define the spectrum, and a guide that will help you find your sweet spot between them.

3 Things Missing From Your Product Requirements

Product requirements are there to help the team understand what you want to build. Whether you write them in detailed documents or share them briefly and verbally with the team, it’s easy to go directly to the bottom line and give clear instructions. However, there are many more important things to include if you want the team to succeed. Here are three things that if you include in your product requirements would make your life easier and help your developers deliver on what you really intended, not on what you told them to build.

How To Help Your Team Make Better Decisions

Managing smart people is a privilege, but can also be confusing at times. When is it time for you to step in, and where should you let them lead without interference? When it comes to decision making, especially with important decisions, there is a lot you can do to help this balance feel natural and beneficial for everyone involved. That’s true even if your people are more experienced than you are.

How To Manage People Who Are More Experienced Than You Are

Product management requires so many diverse skills that most likely your people are more experienced than you at least in some of them. When these skills are core to what your team needs to achieve, it can become confusing. If the people reporting to you know better how to do their job, what is your role as a manager? Don’t worry, you are still needed. Here’s why and how.

Your Problem Isn’t the Leaky Bucket, It’s the Clogged Pipe

The leaky bucket is a known metaphor in sales. If your funnel isn’t converting well, there is no point in adding more leads into it, since they will not convert and there is no gain here. But the truth is, that not only will it not result in a positive impact, it can also actually cause you harm. To understand why, we need to switch to another water-related metaphor: the clogged pipe.

Educating the Market Starts With a Need

Educating the market is hard enough as is, but there is one thing without which you cannot succeed. There has to be an unmet need that you can answer. And yes, even Facebook had one.

The Four Components of Product Success

Strategic product thinking is hard. Especially when done as an afterthought – when the product is already in the market – it is nearly impossible to rise above specific features and metrics. Here is a framework that will help you do just that.

Are You a Real Problem Solver?

Problem-solving is one of the core characteristics of product managers. But the ability to solve customer problems does not always translate into the ability to solve problems for your own company. It is a slightly different skill to master, but very important for your ability to succeed.

The Product Cannot Be Your Only Tool

When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. As a product leader, other people, and maybe you as well, will lead every conversation with you towards features and product capabilities. While this is where your direct ownership is, as a product leader you don’t have the luxury to focus only on that.

3 Ways Your Metrics Can Help You Even if You Never Use Them

Fully applying a data-driven approach to your product is hard. You need to invest a lot in building the infrastructure that will allow you to measure everything you want, see it clearly in a dashboard, and take action based on it. But metrics are a very powerful tool that you don’t want to give up on, even if you will never measure anything.