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» Success at every life cycle stage hinges on the same challenge: being able to solve problems for your users » Early on, focus on learning about your users and their context and the constraints that affect your problem » Maturity is the most difficult stage for a product, so you have to make the absolute best out of what you have

» In product management, “the basics never change, it’s the more advanced stuff that changes” » Oft-cited company frameworks such as the Spotify model were just a moment in time — everything moves on » When all is changing around you, be an anchor of stability and trust for your team

I seek out “force multipliers” to extract multiple benefits from the same work, like my very own workplace fusion reaction. Can you find your own?

» Early in your career, focus on building one skill at a time » Find out what a company’s really like by meeting a contact there informally before the interview » Practice experts can enjoy a varied career, but may find it harder to work in some domains » As a product leader, what are your identity, superpower, mission and impact?

» An inflexible process means working with incomplete information and making the wrong decisions » Treating work as closed-ended projects leads to context switching and discontinuity » A way to increase value in Scrum is to involve the team members in the discovery and strategy work » Respect is not deference; it demands that we challenge each other to be the best we can be

You can help your company to sharpen up its vision and strategy with these straightforward questions and worked examples.

» Wartime vs peacetime leaders employ different skill sets » Airbnb’s changes to product management could be just what is needed in wartime or equally a retrograde step » Working from home is a particularly polarising debate because it aligns with the leader-employee divide » Discussions about productivity are often a proxy discussion for some other dysfunction

» To buy your product, the value users perceive from the product must be greater than its price » The biggest, worst-kept secret of monetisation UX: ask, ask and ask again

» Every decision is a trade-off — deciding what not to do is just as important as deciding what to do » A good product vision captures customer, user, value proposition and links to organisational objectives » Interrogate your goals: “For this to happen, what must be true?”, then mark which are facts or assumptions » Avoid jumping on the first idea — check what problem we think it solves, then ask, “How else could we do this?”

» User and market research is more easily accessible, yet the opinions of senior managers still bias product decisions » Confidence in an idea only truly comes from gathering evidence

» When strategic frames grow rigid, companies, like nations, tend to keep fighting the last war » If organisations (incorrectly) view change as gradual they will have resistance to the change » The innovator’s dilemma: cater to current needs or attempt to anticipate future demands? » Many common financial tools distort the value, importance, and likelihood of success of investments in innovation

» Match your product’s units to how your customer measures value » Changing your pricing model regularly needn’t be a bad thing — it just has to be done carefully » With usage-based pricing, help your customers to anticipate their likely costs » Care has to be taken to keep dynamic / surge pricing transparent