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PRODUCTHEAD is a newsletter of the best articles, videos and podcasts from product leaders and commentators all over the world, curated by Jock Busuttil. All neatly packaged up in a regular email delivery for your reading, viewing and listening pleasure.
Jock Busuttil publishes articles regularly on I Manage Products, a blog for product people to learn about product management from the ground up.
Recent articles
- PRODUCTHEAD: This too shall passby Jock Busuttil on October 21, 2024
» A pursuit of job stability can easily translate into an unproductive ‘inertia’ instead » Self-sealing arguments are no-win situations: every defence you make is co-opted the by other party as evidence you’re wrong
- DevRel and Product Management with Jock Busuttil on the Voxgig podcastby Jock Busuttil on October 16, 2024
I’m chatting with Voxgig’s Richard Rodger about common challenges in product management and DevRel: » Why learning by soundbite gives a superficial understanding of the craft » Why we’re finding it hard to communicate value to our bosses + more :-)
- PRODUCTHEAD: The backlash against the Spotify Modelby Jock Busuttil on October 14, 2024
» The Spotify Model was only ever a snapshot in time at Spotify » It existed in the context of a company whose leadership valued trust, self-organisation and change » As Spotify grew, it failed to strike the right balance between autonomy and collaboration » Alignment to product strategy remains crucial for autonomous teams to deliver valuable work
- PRODUCTHEAD: Ways to structure your team for efficiencyby Jock Busuttil on October 7, 2024
» Rather than existing in a bubble, each product team should have core members, collaborators and supporters » How you should divide up teams depends on your product’s overall flow; avoid ambiguous ownership » Teams should have end-to-end responsibility for a part of the user journey with minimal dependencies » One approach is to delineate between teams working on a core problem domain, and on those enabling their work
- PRODUCTHEAD: In a flat spin from a failed product launchby Jock Busuttil on September 30, 2024
» Sonos is working through a major user backlash after launching a flawed app » Pressure from senior management forced the launch to happen before it was ready » Tips for recognising and managing tension as a product manager » Round-up of lessons learned from failed product launches
- PRODUCTHEAD: Coding in the openby Jock Busuttil on September 23, 2024
» A common misconception is that openly sharing code presents security risks » Keeping code open clarifies ownership and can avoid vendor lock-in
- PRODUCTHEAD: What is a product? What is a service?by Jock Busuttil on September 16, 2024
» Services are best identified as verbs rather than nouns » You cannot have services without products, nor products without services » A service is something that helps someone to do something
- The power of open: lessons from UK government, hosted by Product Peopleby Jock Busuttil on September 11, 2024
4 valuable product and culture lessons from the UK’s government digital teams. This was a talk I gave for Product People in September 2024.
- PRODUCTHEAD: Deconstructing Duolingo’s growthby Jock Busuttil on September 9, 2024
» Dissect your monolithic metrics to drive growth in more easily influenced segments » Don’t kill the golden goose of growth by oversaturating a channel » If growth is your goal, have a sense of urgency
- PRODUCTHEAD: Trust in photos is dead and goneby Jock Busuttil on September 2, 2024
» Sarah Jeong on why the Pixel 9’s Reimagine feature is the final nail in the coffin for trust in photos » 9 Sept: I’m giving a talk for Product People on lessons about org culture
- PRODUCTHEAD: When Sales ask for stuffby Jock Busuttil on August 12, 2024
» Knowing what kinds of customer you want and don’t want help you to prioritise ‘one-off’ feature requests from sales » “Enterprise customers look at our roadmaps as the starting point for negotiations” » Are feature requests a deliberate strategy or a reactive wild goose chase?
- PRODUCTHEAD: Wicked problemsby Jock Busuttil on August 5, 2024
» The uncertainty of a problem should influence how we respond to it » Misdiagnosis of a problem can compound it » We frame our solutions through the lens of our social predisposition » Wicked problems can only be addressed by collaboration between different social types