Product Management Insights

A PM at Google asked me how I managed 30+ stakeholders. 'More meetings?' Wrong. Here's the RACI framework that cut my meeting load by 60% while increasing influence. 1/ 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙫𝙨 𝘼𝙘𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 Most PMs drown because they invite everyone who's "interested." Instead, split your stakeholders into: - R: People doing the work - A: People accountable for success 2/ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙥 Stop asking for approval from everyone. Create two clear buckets: - C: Must consult before decisions - I: Just keep informed of progress 3/ 𝘿𝙤𝙘𝙪𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 > 𝙈𝙚𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 For "Informed" stakeholders, switch to documented updates. They'll actually retain more than in another recurring meeting. 4/ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙘 𝙋𝙝𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙚 "𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲, 𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲." Use this in every email. Watch the right people emerge. 5/ 𝘼𝙥𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙖𝙡 𝘼𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 Build your approval flows around your R&A stakeholders only. Everyone else gets strategic updates. --- This isn't about excluding people. It's about respecting everyone's time while maintaining momentum. If you found this framework helpful for managing stakeholders: 1. Follow Alex Rechevskiy for more actionable frameworks on product leadership and time management 2. Bookmark and retweet to save these tactics and help other PMs streamline their stakeholder management

I am constantly thinking about how to foster innovation in my product organization. Building teams that are experts at execution is the easy part—when there’s a clear problem, product orgs are great at coming up with smart solutions. But it’s impossible to optimize your way into innovation. You can’t only rely on incremental improvement to keep growing. You need to come up with new problem spaces, rather than just finding better solutions to the same old problems. So, how do we come up with those new spaces? Here are a few things I’m trying at Duolingo: 1. Innovation needs a high-energy environment, and a slow process will kill a great idea. So I always ask myself: Can we remove some of the organizational barriers here? Do managers from seven different teams really need to say yes on every project? Seeking consensus across the company—rather than just keeping everyone informed—can be a major deterrent to innovation. 2. Similarly, beware of defaulting to “following up.” If product meetings are on a weekly cadence, every time you do this, you are allocating seven days to a task that might only need two. We try to avoid this and promote a sense of urgency, which is essential for innovative ideas to turn into successes. 3. Figure out the right incentive. Most product orgs reward team members whose ideas have measurable business impact, which works in most contexts. But once you’ve found product-market fit, it is often easiest to generate impact through smaller wins. So, naturally, if your org tends to only reward impact, you have effectively incentivized constant optimization of existing features instead of innovation. In the short term things will look great, but over time your product becomes stale. I try to show my teams that we value and reward bigger ideas. If someone sticks their neck out on a new concept, we should highlight that—even if it didn’t pan out. Big swings should be celebrated, even if we didn’t win, because there are valuable learnings there. 4. Look for innovative thinkers with a history of zero-to-one feature work. There are lots of amazing product managers out there, but not many focus on new problem domains. If a PM has created something new from scratch and done it well, that’s a good sign. An even better sign: if they show excitement about and gravitate toward that kind of work. If that sounds like you—if you’re a product manager who wants to think big picture and try out big ideas in a fast-paced environment with a stellar mission—we want you on our team. We’re hiring a Director of Product Management: https://lnkd.in/dQnWqmDZ #productthoughts #innovation #productmanagement #zerotoone

Vlad Loktev taught me more about product management than anyone else I've ever worked with, and is responsible for the biggest inflection in my PM career. Vlad spent 10 years at Airbnb where he started as an IC PM and quickly advanced to lead product, and then GM the entire Airbnb homes business, managing over 1,000 people and reporting directly to CEO Brian Chesky. He recently left Airbnb and joined Index Ventures as their newest partner. Prior to Airbnb, Vlad spent a year at Zynga, where he helped grow Words with Friends to over 14 million daily active users. In our conversation, we discuss: 🔸 Insight into Brian Chesky’s leadership style 🔸 Why success as a PM is all about impact, impact, impact 🔸 Why chaos can be good 🔸 Why as a leader it’s OK to let some fires burn 🔸 Why you should learn to “poke the bear” 🔸 Balancing product release speed with quality 🔸 Lessons on prioritization, decision-making, and organizational design 🔸 Advice for founders on building company culture 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gMrECh5z - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gG8yRXh2 - Apple: https://lnkd.in/g8rKdAjm Some key takeaways: 1. Relentlessly focus on impact. Start by identifying the highest priorities for your organization or team. Each day, ask yourself: What are the most critical tasks or projects that align with these priorities? Ensure your efforts are directly contributing to these goals. 2. Don’t be afraid to “poke the bear”: When you have a strong opinion or concern, don’t shy away from voicing it, even if it challenges the status quo. Poking the bear means confronting difficult issues constructively and openly, which can drive meaningful change and improvements. 3. Lead with curiosity and dial down advocacy: When entering a conversation or meeting, start by asking open-ended questions to understand others’ perspectives fully. This approach shows respect for differing opinions and helps you gather important information. Only after you have actively listened and absorbed the other viewpoints should you advocate for your own perspective. 4. Let some fires burn. You can’t address everything at once, and if you feel a need to do so, that’s a sign you don’t understand what’s most important for your business. You need to be explicit with yourself and your team about what the priorities are and what you’re willing to let burn in service of them. Aligning on this in advance will help you resist the urge to put out fires as they start. 5. Two tools to help you calm your mind: a. The serenity prayer: “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” b. The shit bucket: Designate a specific place, like a physical trash can or a digital file, as your ‘shit bucket’ for frustrations and issues you can’t change.

I’m a product manager with nearly 20 years of experience in the software industry. If I could sit down with a Jr. Product Manager today, here are 11 pieces of advice I’d share - lessons I’ve learned along the way: 1- If your product targets a small user group, focus on delivering core value quickly and keep the roadmap simple. But if you aim for millions of users, you need scalable infrastructure, solid user segmentation, and robust analytics. 2- If you’re the only PM shaping the product, lightweight processes and direct communication work. But with multiple teams involved, invest in clear roadmaps, regular syncs, and strong prioritization frameworks. 3- If a feature failure impacts only a small user segment, a quick fix and transparent communication is enough. But if a bug breaks critical workflows, you must have incident response plans, clear escalation paths, and backup solutions. 4- If you’re gathering user feedback informally, simple surveys or chats might do. But if you’re scaling, invest in structured research, usability testing, and customer journey mapping to truly understand your users. 5- If you can rely on gut feeling for early decisions, that’s okay initially. But as the product grows, leverage data analytics, A/B testing, and customer metrics to guide your roadmap. 6- If your data needs are small, simple dashboards and reports work. But when handling large datasets, build scalable analytics, automate data pipelines, and use data warehouses effectively. 7- If you’re working solo, inconsistent documentation might not slow you much. But in a larger team, clear user stories, acceptance criteria, and consistent terminology avoid confusion and speed up development. 8- If your support volume is low, handling customer issues via email or chat may be enough. But when the product grows, set up help desks, ticketing systems, and real-time customer feedback loops. 9- If deadlines are tight, deliver MVP features that work. But if the product is strategic, focus on maintainability, testing, and designing for future growth. 10- If you’re collaborating with one or two stakeholders, informal check-ins might suffice. But with multiple teams, establish regular planning sessions, shared documentation, and clear decision-making processes. 11- If your product is in early stages, prioritize speed and learning. But once it matures, clean up tech debt, optimize processes, and rethink features carefully to avoid “maintenance hell.” People often think product management is just about building features. But really, it’s about: – Knowing when to say no – Being ready to pivot or remove features – Making tradeoffs with imperfect data The best product managers don’t just move fast. They build the right foundations that allow their teams to move fast safely.

When everyone can build, everyone needs to think like a product person. AI tools are democratizing the ability to create features across engineering, design, and product roles. Engineers can prototype interfaces, designers can generate code, and suddenly the lines between disciplines are blurring fast. Just because we can build something quickly doesn't mean we should. I'm seeing teams fall into a new kind of build trap. They're shipping AI-generated features without asking the fundamental question: does this solve a real customer problem? To spread product thinking beyond product managers, your engineers need to understand customer jobs-to-be-done. Your designers need to grasp business strategy. Your entire team needs the critical thinking skills to keep customer satisfaction at the center of everything they build. This shift is already happening at forward-thinking companies. They're training cross-functional teams in product fundamentals, not just their functional expertise. Because when building becomes effortless, thinking becomes everything. At Product Institute, we're seeing demand for product education across all roles. Teams are realizing that product thinking can't be siloed when building capabilities are distributed. How is your organization preparing for this shift?

11 things I wish I knew when I was starting out as a Product Manager. Now that I’ve been in product for 3 years, here’s what I would tell my younger self (or any PM intern/new grad) before they start their journey: 1️⃣ You’re not expected to know everything. Your superpower is asking the right questions, not having all the answers. 2️⃣ Learn to say “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.” Stakeholders respect honesty more than guesswork. 3️⃣ Clarity is more important than jargon. You don’t need fancy words in PRDs. You need clear thinking. 4️⃣ Start with the user, not the feature. Before building anything, ask: “Who is this for, and what are they struggling with?” 5️⃣ PM is a team sport. You don’t “lead” designers or engineers by authority. You lead through collaboration and trust. 6️⃣ Every “no” saves you from building something useless. Saying “no” to an idea isn’t rude it’s responsible. Back it up with data or context. 7️⃣ Documentation is underrated. A simple Notion page with problem, scope, decisions → can save hours of confusion later. 8️⃣ You will get timelines wrong. It’s okay. Just communicate early and often. Transparency > perfection. 9️⃣ Start using simple tools. Draw wireframes on Excalidraw, jot down flows on Miro. You don’t need Figma pro skills to communicate your vision. 🔟 Don’t chase “impact” from day one. Focus on learning, contributing, and making your team’s job easier. The big wins will come. 1️⃣1️⃣ Keep a “What I Learned” doc. Every sprint, note what went wrong and what worked. You'll thank yourself 6 months later 💬 If you’re a new PM starting your internship this summer: Don't worry about proving yourself. Just focus on understanding, contributing, and growing. Your job isn't to be the smartest in the room. It's to bring everyone on the same page. 🚀 Good luck to all incoming PMs! #productmanager #internships #learning #advice

"𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽" sounds glamorous. Everyone wants to do it. I wanted it too. I also worked with multiple startups and scale-ups (like Snapdeal, Zomato, RummyCircle) But on the inside, it isn't as fancy. Instead, it was chaotic, confusing, and draining. But... despite the chaos, I learned so much so quickly. And ended up building a fulfilling and thriving career in product management. The goal is to tackle the challenges, focus on maximising learning, and create impact (and building a solid career) This is how to to it: 1. 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗼𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂: Startups thrive on chaos—it’s part of the game. Don't resist it. Instead, focus on what you can control. Ask yourself: “What’s the one thing I can do today to make progress?” This mindset will keep you making progress when everything else is overwhelming.     2. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲. 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁 𝗶𝘁: Priorities will shift, projects will pivot, and yesterday’s roadmap will become irrelevant. Don’t fight change—anticipate it. Do things (like regular catch ups, stand ups, etc.) that allow you to keep aligning and realigning with the relevant people.     3. 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲. 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗱: With constant firefighting and changing priorities, you might lose sight of the 𝘸𝘩𝘺. Always ask: “How does this help the user?” Repeatedly share in team discussions, so even others can refocus on the user.     4. 𝗕𝗲 𝘃𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹. 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸. 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀: Silence never solves problems. If something isn’t working, speak up—whether it’s about a process, a feature, or a bad decision. Be clear and solution-oriented: “Here’s the issue I’m facing, and here’s what I think could help.” Teams value transparency, and startups reward action.     5. 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗶𝘁𝘆: Many times you will not have all the answers. In fact, no one will have all the answers, and that’s okay. When things are unclear, ask questions: “What does success look like?” or “What’s the next step?” Don’t wait for perfect clarity—it won’t come. Start small, test, and iterate as you go.     6. 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗻: Startups move fast, and your work will get overlooked. Keep a running doc of your wins—features shipped, metrics moved, feedback implemented. Share them publicly every chance you get. It’s not about bragging; it’s about ensuring your work and impact is visible.     7. 𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵: Your manager will not have time to focus on your career. Even if she does have time, she might not know what you want—so tell her. In your next 1:1, say: “I want to grow into [X role]. What can I do to get there?” Startups are a great place to fast-track your growth, but only if you define the path. What else can I add to the list? Share in comments.

We vastly underestimate the ways startups get lost in the 0-1 pre-product-market fit stage. Most of the worst ways are iatrogenic - caused by the way we're taught to build startups. Here's a non-exhaustive list of 16 to watch out for. I have made all of them: 1 - Thinking that your "research" (e.g., customer discovery interviews) is actually real, and only realizing it's nonsense when you start selling (which you delayed because you were told that "research is about learning, not selling"...) 2 - Thinking your "design partners" represent real demand, and only realizing they don't when you try to convert them to real customers 3 - Thinking you need a "complete" product in order to start selling, delaying real learning by months or more 4 - Thinking you need to have a full vision and plan for the future, then treating that as non-negotiable and building for it, to such an extent that you believe your early customers must "buy into" your vision (thereby converting nobody) 5 - Finding any and every excuse to avoid and delay sales. Too busy! 6 - Working closely with one customer, thinking you need to "nail it" once first, which leads to a product that works really well for one person but doesn't replicate 7 - Convincing early customers to buy, versus looking for real demand where they convince you to let them buy. 8 - Thinking 7 is a reason to "build it and they will come" 9 - Trying to serve multiple different customer segments at once in the early days, not realizing this is basically like building multiple different businesses at once (and one is hard enough) 10 - Trying to maximize optionality by creating the most abstracted product and pitch in the early days that equally confuses everyone 11 - Misdiagnosing the reason people aren't buying as a "sales problem" versus a "demand problem", hiring sales reps / leaders / advisors who, even if they are exceptional, cannot solve it 12 - Imposing your view of what customers "should want" or "would benefit from" - like you're their savior rather than their servant 13 - Relying on wildly simplistic models of human decision-making like "vitamins vs. painkillers", "10x value", etc. that all just lets you go build what you want to build 14 - Never actually understanding what customers actually need, because you've never done the job with them... just relying on secondhand "research" and never knowing how far off you actually are (you're almost always speaking a foreign language to customers) 15 - Having too few meetings with potential customers (usually because you find outbound "gross" and try to outsource or avoid it it, don't go to conferences, etc.) 16 - Not asking the very hard question -> "Is it ok if they don't buy this?" And being intellectually honest with yourself. You wind up with a few customers who could have not bought your product, they could have used something else and been fine, they just didn't think very much, and so you struggle to scale beyond a few customers

Staying relevant as a Product Manager in today's competitive landscape can be challenging, but it's also incredibly rewarding. 🚀🚀 Here are some practical ways to keep your edge: 1. Keep Learning: The tech world is always changing. Dive into online courses, join webinars, and read industry articles to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies. 📚 2. Network: Build and nurture your professional connections. Attend industry events, engage with peers on social media, and participate in relevant discussions. You never know when a valuable insight or opportunity will come your way. 🙋♂️ 3. Stay Close to Your Customers: Regularly gather feedback from your users. Understanding their needs and pain points ensures that your products continue to deliver real value. 🫡 4. Be Agile: Adopt agile methodologies to keep your product development flexible and responsive. Regularly iterate based on user feedback and market demands. ✌️ 5. Use Data: Make data-driven decisions. Analytics can provide a clear picture of user behavior and product performance, guiding your strategy effectively. 📊 6. Broaden Your Skills: Don’t just stick to product management. Learn a bit about UX design, coding, marketing, and sales. This cross-functional knowledge will help you collaborate better with different teams. ✍️ 7. Improve Soft Skills: Communication, leadership, and problem-solving are key. Strong soft skills will help you manage teams and tackle challenges more effectively. 🙂 8. Innovate: Don’t be afraid to try new things. Innovation often comes from stepping out of your comfort zone and experimenting with different approaches. 🧑💻 9. Watch the Competition: Keep an eye on what others in your industry are doing. Understanding the competitive landscape can spark new ideas and help you stay ahead of market trends. 🙄 10. Take Care of Yourself: Maintain a healthy work-life balance to stay productive and creative over the long haul. 👍 By integrating these practices into your daily routine, you’ll not only stay relevant but also lead your team to create products that truly resonate and succeed in the market. 😇 #ProductManagement #CareerGrowth #ContinuousLearning #Innovation #CustomerFocus #Agile #journeyofdang 🚀🚀

6 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗺𝘆 6 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 👇🏻 All these years, I’ve had my wins and made mistakes. But looking back, I wish I had someone to help me skip the trial and error. While I can’t rewrite my early days, I can share what I’ve learned. Here are six lessons I wish I knew sooner: 1. 𝗕𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 - It’s easy to get swept up by new ideas. But part of your job is knowing when to say no.  - Define what you won’t build early on. It saves time, keeps your team focused, and helps you stick to the roadmap. 2. 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗿𝘂𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - Perfectionism is tempting, but it slows you down. Chasing an ideal product can lead to missing key opportunities. - Done is better than perfect. It’s okay to launch a product with a few rough edges; you can always iterate and improve it over time. 3. 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 - PMs often have calendars packed with meetings and catch-ups. This leaves little time for focused work. - Prioritize deep thinking time during your workday to avoid burnout and better productivity. 4. 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗸𝘀 - As a PM, you’re not working alone, you’re leading a team. It’s your responsibility to clearly communicate what needs to be done and how to do it. - Miscommunication creates chaos, so clarity is key. Delegating tasks isn’t just a matter of passing work along, it’s a skill that takes time to master. 5. 𝗔𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - A common mistake for new product managers is to jump straight into solution mode Don't rush to solve. - Take time to understand the problem. Talk to users. Look at data. A well-understood problem leads to a better solution. 6. 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘆 - Tech moves fast. What works today might be outdated tomorrow. And no matter how well you plan, things will change. - Priorities shift, problems pop up, and deadlines move. Adaptability is your biggest asset. It's better to accept it if you can't resist it. 👉🏻 I hope these lessons will help you guide your product management journey. Mistakes will happen, but they're opportunities to grow. What's been your biggest lesson in product management? Share in the comments!