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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: Seeking control in a crisisby Jock Busuttil on May 22, 2023
» To reduce coordination cost, partition the work by time or space » Behavioural design considers customers’ levels of mental energy, cognitive biases, and their existing patterns » Successful organisations reinforce psychological safety in different ways » Adding more people to a team makes communication a more significant overhead
- PRODUCTHEAD: What do you worry about on a Sunday night?by Jock Busuttil on May 15, 2023
» To reduce coordination cost, partition the work by time or space » Behavioural design considers customers’ levels of mental energy, cognitive biases, and their existing patterns » Successful organisations reinforce psychological safety in different ways » Adding more people to a team makes communication a more significant overhead
- PRODUCTHEAD: ‘Better’ decision makingby Jock Busuttil on May 8, 2023
» Decisions should be the result of rational and deliberate reasoning, but not all are perfectly rational » Almost every decision has associated downsides or compromises » Avoid trying to please people or to allow individuals to dominate the decision-making process » It’s easy to conflate transparency on the decision-making process, with transparency on the actual decisions
- 89: What games taught me about customer onboardingby Jock Busuttil on May 3, 2023
The most successful games and products share a common attribute: they help the user become more skilled throughout their journey. Customer onboarding is a continual process.
- PRODUCTHEAD: Games and customer onboardingby Jock Busuttil on May 1, 2023
» The best moment to teach a user to use a new feature is when it is valuable for them » Uncompleted tasks stick in a person’s memory, completed tasks are more easily forgotten » Provide a safe, controlled environment to help users experiment and learn a new skill
- PRODUCTHEAD: How technical does a product manager need to be?by Jock Busuttil on April 24, 2023
» Developers and managers often have conflicting views of what constitutes value in software » Software engineers should ideally understand both what they are building and why » Unforeseen edge cases can cause headaches at roll-out, but provide valuable lessons
- PRODUCTHEAD: 3 ways to handle team conflictsby Jock Busuttil on April 17, 2023
» When delivering difficult news at work, you are not there to seek sympathy » Tie business impact to deprioritised work to highlight the problem to your CEO without sounding whiny » An organisation’s emotional culture governs which emotions people express and suppress at work » Many organisation equate “fixing” to basically “patching holes in the slowly sinking boat”
- PRODUCTHEAD: The strange attraction of desire pathsby Jock Busuttil on April 3, 2023
» Desire paths spring up as users’ needs and goals change » The effort paradox: the effort of forming a new path versus the desire to take the path of least resistance » In digital products we use analytical tools to help us observe desire paths » When a new desire path emerges, question your old assumptions — user behaviour is changing
- Should I take a product manager job in a sales-led company?by Jock Busuttil on March 29, 2023
“Hi Jock, I’m currently applying for loads of product manager jobs. I’ve received an offer from a sales-led company where the Product team reports in to Sales. Should I take the job?”
- PRODUCTHEAD: How to transcribe and analyse your user research recordingsby Jock Busuttil on March 27, 2023
» Thematic analysis identifies the main themes emerging from qualitative data, such as interview transcripts » It can be a great activity to do with your team for establishing empathy with the users and their context » Good research means being intentional, conscientious, and ethical at every step
- PRODUCTHEAD: How to record your user research interviewsby Jock Busuttil on March 20, 2023
» A mobile phone may be all you need to record an interview » For in-person recordings, keep your setup simple and portable » The simplest way to record video calls is to use the local or cloud recording option » Consider carefully whether to record an interview or to have a dedicated note-taker
- PRODUCTHEAD: How to plan a user research interviewby Jock Busuttil on March 13, 2023
» Ask your team: what do we actually need to know, by when, and how confident do we need to be? » Don’t ask users what they do. Ask them for an example of a time they have done something, and then ask if it was typical » When recruiting participants, say what the study is for, how long it will take, and what’s in it for them