Abhishek Dwivedi

Product Sense: The X-Factor for Exceptional Product Leadership In recent times, the concept of "Product Sense" has gained significant traction across the product management community. It is being widely discussed, assessed during interview processes, and evaluated during performance reviews. However, there seems to be a lack of consensus on what precisely constitutes Product Sense, and how one can develop and refine this critical skill. Since writing about something is the best way to drive clarity of thought, here is my attempt at describing my understanding, and I would love to get the readers' thoughts on it, especially if they disagree, which will allow me to expand my own thinking. Defining Product Sense Product Sense is the innate ability to anticipate market dynamics, empathize with user needs, and make strategic product decisions that drive differentiation and product success. It is a rare combination of user empathy, market awareness, and execution prowess, manifested through a series of innovative product moves. The Core Elements of Product Sense A. User Empathy and Perpetual Learning At the heart of Product Sense lies a deep curiosity and empathy for users, their motivations, needs, and pain points. This empathy, coupled with a perpetual learning mindset, enables product leaders to understand the full landscape and identify impactful opportunities aligned with business objectives. B. Attention to Detail and User Experience When building solutions, product leaders with strong Product Sense sweat the small stuff – they obsess over the user experience, ensuring it fits seamlessly into the overall product flow and maintains consistency across the entire product experience. C. Testing and Validation Effective product leaders test their ideas across various user perspectives, including novice, mid-level, and power users. This approach highlights friction points and ensures an enjoyable experience for all user segments. D. Go-To-Market Strategies Successful product leaders understand that building a great product is only half the battle. They work tirelessly to ensure users discover, try, and derive value from the product, driving adoption and impact. Developing Product Sense While Product Sense is often described as an innate ability, it can be cultivated and enhanced through continuous learning and practice. There is a wealth of literature and resources available to develop and refine the core dimensions of Product Sense, including strategic thinking, customer discovery through empathy and curiosity, opportunity prioritization, solution ideation and testing, and go-to-market strategies. Aspiring product leaders are encouraged to explore and adapt these techniques to their specific contexts. Great products are not conceived through methodologies or frameworks alone. Product Sense is this elusive "art" that must be practiced and refined continuously.

5

AI IS EATING PRODUCT MANAGER ROLES! Okay. That's a shameless clickbait. But it's also partially true. Read on to know more. I tried ChatPRD today. It's a service to assist PMs in writing product requirement documents. And to be honest, it's surprisingly effective. The service takes minimal input about the product and chucks out a fairly detailed PRD. I gave a one liner about an idea/product and the service threw a 200 word document. The document ticks many points for a PRD checklist. It was detailed and had most sections required for a PRD like problem narration, user scenarios, goals, success metrics, etc. It uses a fairly professional language that most PMs are used to. Although the output is probably generalized, I can tweak individual sections by giving additional prompts. When I asked it to expand on the user stories, it listed out more stories covering much more spectrum on the scenarios. If it doesn't eat our jobs immediately, it will help us to be more productive by detailing out the PRD text, automating the mundane writing (rather typing) part. What I wonder is typing PRD is not just a mundane routine. It involves hard thinking on the PM part to think in the user shoes, empathize with them and cover their scenarios. In that view, a PM is more of a wingman for a user, a bestie within the context of the problem the product is solving. Imagine a PM recognizing every pain point in every instance of usage of the product and address the important ones in a never ending cycle. I'm not sure how much of the user empathy part the service will be able to replicate. To this part the PM is not losing his job, at least for the foreseeable future. So my click bait statement is not fully true but this also raises one pertinent question. How many of us do real product management? How many of us work with users to discover problems? It's a known fact that many or most companies operate feature factories where a stakeholder, mostly a large client or a revenue center partner like sales or marketing prioritizes and hands down enterprise level problems. Individual product teams break that big problem down to smaller constituents that their products deal with and work towards solving those sub parts. In this parlance, AI product management services may end up eating PM roles. Peripheral functions like program, design and development can use these services to list down requirements without a PM and develop functionalities. There is some potential to a threat here. To summarize, AI PM services may end up eating the routine mundane parts of PM role. This may impact feature factory PM roles more than discovery PM roles. But these services will not take away the hard PM role for products involving human interaction, involving empathy. The future looks interesting. Do try ChatPRD if you're into or interested in product management. It's a good tool to improve your PRD productivity. 

16

2 Kommentare

ChantalAI will likely surpass me in capabilities within a few years. However, AI cannot replicate the complex nature of human relationships or business decisions. Even if ChantalAI becomes demonstrably more accurate than me, I don't believe it will replace me. Why? Because humans, despite possessing knowledge of what's right, often fail to make the most rational choices. Do companies follow the advice of consulting firms? Not often Do you listen to your doctor that tells you to stop eating food lower your chesterol? Not often We live in an age of information overload, yet people still struggle to follow the best course of action. We know what we need to do, but we often lack the willpower to act on that knowledge. I foresee a similar situation with AI. People and businesses will consult their AI and communicate with other AIs to gather information, but ultimately, they will rely on their own judgment to make decisions. #ai #artificialintelligence

18

6 Kommentare

𝐄𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭:   Of late a few friends reached out to me to draw the distinguishing essentials of platform product management(PPM) and how it differs from traditional product management practice    𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐭? Platform Product Management is a discipline that fosters the development of a platform that assists other products or services to help end customers.   𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐏𝐌 : Unlike traditional PM, PPM will have a greater role and wider responsibilities including the following: 1. 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: PPM will have to manage a two-sided market eco-system - Internal Users and External customers  a. External Customers are the ones who pay and consume product/service offerings on our platform  b. Internal users on the other hand are the ones who build these services and experiences for external customers (Developer Personas) 2. 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 : PPMs focus on enhancing the experiences by building core functionalities/capabilities 3. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐏𝐌𝐬:   a. Internal User Metrics: Developer Engagement, API Usage, Availability of Services   b. External Customers: User Acquisition, Platform Engagement, Adoption of Platform Capabilities 4. 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 : The platform must have a smooth experience offering for internal devs to replicate the same to the external stakeholders. Emphasis must be on documentation tools, easy-to-use developer tools, API Management, Community Exposure 5. 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚, 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 : PPM to go big must find the sweet spot among data tech and business strategy for long-term sustenance   𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐏𝐌𝐬 : 1. Thorough understanding of the platform architecture 2. Deep expertise in ecosystem experiences like Developer, Customer, Community and others 3. Long-term business strategy alignment with platform scaling and developments Plus all that of traditional PM   Examples of great platforms : 1. E-commerce: Amazon, Shopify 2. Tech: Salesforce, ServiceNow, Atlassian 3. Payments: PayPal, Stripe 4. Social Media: LinkedIn, Meta, YouTube 5. Sharing : Airbnb, Uber, Ola, Rapido Do share your thoughts on how you see PPM evolving and changing course with AI as a new layer on top of it! #𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 #𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 #𝐊𝐏𝐊𝐑

42

3 Kommentare

Mistakes that I make as a #ProductManagement mentor/ leader Mistake 4: Focussing to mentor only on the hard skills- problem structuring, product discovery and prioritisation. And not mentoring on the soft skills like relationship building, proactive communication and messaging for different stakeholders to build trust and credibility in the system.

41

Just explored some fascinating insights on driving product adoption! 🎯 Product Adoption: It's all about how many users are grabbing your product out of the total addressable market (TAM) and finding that product-market fit (PMF). Key Paths: Marketing Funnel: A fascinating trek from the moment of discovery to the ultimate purchase. 🛍️ Network Effects: Especially with cross-side effects on 2-sided platforms. 🔄 Why Bother? Boosts revenue, retention , and Net Promoter Score (NPS) . Spurs growth in users, profit, and average revenue per user (ARPU). 📊 Key Metrics to Watch: DAU/WAU/MAU, RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary value), retention rates, and referral rates. Adoption Drivers: Accessibility, user insights, compatibility, and trialability. Common Hurdles: Misaligned solutions, unmet needs, pricing issues, and unclear value propositions. Winning Strategies: Leverage social proof, gamification, personalization, and referrals. ✨ An insightful read on the nuances of product adoption!

2

Top 5 PM Post on LinkedIn 1.Shravan Tickoo The Key to Product Success: Solving the Right Problem for the End User https://lnkd.in/gymQuAR3 2. Ankit Shukla The Boom and Bust Cycle of Product Management Roles https://lnkd.in/gzXSCk5E 3. Vishal Bagla Mastering Product Development with the CIRCLES Framework https://lnkd.in/gSKCugrM 4. Manoj Aiyer The Art of Stakeholder Management for Product Managers https://lnkd.in/gsHKY5J2 5. Paweł Huryn 🇺🇦 Essential Product Metrics Every PM Should Track in 2024 https://lnkd.in/g-n7Jx8x Fuel your curiosity! Follow Growjunction for more content. Don't miss out on our Product Management Program! Secure your spot today.    Secure your spot: https://lnkd.in/gS3cJWBb #ProductManagement #UserFocus #CareerInsights #StakeholderManagement #ProductMetrics #GrowJunction

7

I loved this episode because it really spoke to the reality of what many PMs face in their daily practice. Gupta raises an interesting point about how all roads lead back to the feature factory, contrasted with the ideal of Empowered product teams as referenced in Marty Cagan's books. Many companies can be successful without having empowered teams. What Cagan highlights is that the the companies with stellar performance are more likely to have empowered teams. That distinction is significant. I agree generally with the advice in this episode. If you find yourself in this situation, embrace the factory and look for ways you can add value to that reality within your sphere of influence. You might find you're a happier PM. And if not, you'll have stories of impact you can share as you look for a place that will make you happy. And, above all, know that as an IC not all anti-patterns are yours to solve!

3

One of the sneakiest but an effective way to test product hypothesis and guage user demand is Fake door tests PS: done these in Uber and a startup , both times it helped give us rich data and informed product strategy A good tool in the arsenal of #Startups and #ProductManagers Do not overdo it though . https://lnkd.in/geZ9QNQZ

14

What can product managers learn from the world's most popular cricketer? Here's the latest surprising lesson "All the need to do is to put on our spinners. He will slow down." For those of you who don't know cricket, this statement might as well be in a foreign language that you don't speak. So, let me take a step back. Virat Kohli is the world's third most followed athlete on Instagram, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. He is also by far the most popular cricketer. He is 35, which many people consider to be the latter half of his career. They expect him to retire in 2-3 years. People have accused him of being slow to bat against spinners (i.e., he scores runs slowly against a particular kind of bowler). But he proved them all wrong in this year's India Premier League. He scored 30% faster than before. And above all, he addressed this glaring weakness in a way you can only expect from him. Virat Kohli, a true icon, demonstrated a hallmark of greats - re-inventing himself when he had many years of success behind him. His story is a testament to the power of career transformation. And that's exactly what some of our best students do. Getting another job is probably doable all by yourself. It's not about a job. Consider the success stories of our students. They have transitioned from various roles and industries, proving that with the right guidance, you can achieve your career goals. They have gone from senior product managers to directors, from non-AI roles to AI/ML roles, and from small companies to the top names in the world. This could be your success story, too. What's holding you back from re-inventing yourself and addressing your glaring weaknesses? If you partner with us, you might still face obstacles, but a lack of coaching and advice will never be the reason why you can't reach the next level. If you want to reinvent yourself, here's a chance - book a call with us. If you're ready to embrace change and take your career to new heights, we're here to help. DM me for a link to book a call with us

20

Calling all Product Managers! Want to level up your UX skills? Watch now: https://lnkd.in/gPx7YXkF In this insightful video Ravish Bhatia, Head of Product at indiagold deep dives into mastering heuristics and wireframing techniques, essential for any PM. HelloMeets - Upskilling platform for PMs. #UX #ProductManagement #Wireframing #Indiagold #HelloMeets

23

Product management is like being a Bollywood director. You gotta write the script, pick the perfect cast, and make sure the movie leaves everyone saying 'Paisa vasool!' Product gets the box office success, the actors get the fame...well, maybe next film! #productmanagement #productmanager #productstrategy #madeinindia #indianstartups #marketingchai #uxindia #productfun #pmlife #humor #productmemes

2

A badly marketed good product has better chances of success than a bad product that has been over marketed. While the former will rely on word of mouth to gain traction, the latter will just be heading towards an impending doom, faster. #productmanagement #productmarketing

69

10 Kommentare

Deep Dive: Lessons from 50+ Conversations with VP Product / CPOs Over the Last Year 🔍 In the past 12 months, I've engaged in enriching discussions with numerous VP Product and Chief Product Officers. These conversations have been insightful, revealing both challenges and best practices shaping the product management landscape today. Here’s a detailed list of the top 10 takeaways: 1. Integrative User Research: Successful products are built on a foundation of continuous user research, integrating feedback loops into every stage of the product life cycle to refine UX/UI. 2. Agile Leadership Evolution: Dynamic markets demand leaders who not only advocate for but actively implement agile methodologies, ensuring rapid adaptability and resilience. 3. Advanced Analytics for Predictive Insights: Leveraging sophisticated analytics tools to not only interpret current data but also predict future user behaviors and market demands. 4. Building Scalable Systems: Emphasizing the need for infrastructure that supports scaling, particularly as products grow and evolve in complexity and user base. 5. Enhanced Cross-Functional Synergy: Encouraging seamless interaction between product, marketing, sales, and tech teams to ensure a unified approach to product development and launch strategies. 6. Focus on Product-Led Growth: Shifting strategies to center around the product as the primary driver of customer acquisition, conversion, and expansion. 7. Emphasis on Continuous Learning and Development: Investing in continuous education and professional development to keep skills relevant and teams innovative. 8. Strategic Experimentation: Cultivating a culture where calculated risks and strategic experiments are encouraged to quickly test new ideas and learn from the outcomes. 9. Enhanced Customer Journey Mapping: Detailed mapping of the customer journey to understand and anticipate every touchpoint, improving personalization and identifying opportunities for product improvement. 10. Regulatory Compliance and Security: Staying ahead of regulatory changes and enhancing product security to safeguard user data and comply with global standards. Each of these points reflects a broader trend in product management that demands attention and strategic action. I’m keen to hear how others in the industry are navigating these complexities. What challenges have you faced, and what solutions have you found effective?

21

ShareChat PM interview questions [1] How would you improve Swiggy revenue? [2] What metrics would you, as a PM, track for WhatsApp? [3] Estimate the number of airplanes in the Indian sky at noon? [4] How could you use hashtags on Sharechat to drive engagement? [5] Design a camera for the elderly. [6] How would you design Uber for blind? [7] Assume that the page views on Flipkart’s product pages have declined over the last 3 weeks. How would you go about investigating this? [8] What metrics and goals would you focus on for Instagram stories? Liked this? Follow Vishal Bagla for more. #ProductManagement #ProductManagers #InterviewPrep #Jobs

110

4 Kommentare

This is an invitation for an introductory webinar on "Design Psychology for Product Managers & UX Designers," scheduled for July 3rd, 2024, from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM IST. Register for Webinar: https://shorturl.at/1G5LR Product managers and designers can apply the knowledge of "Design Psychology" to conceptualize and innovate product ideas, features, and functionalities that cater to users' psychological needs. With the emergence of AI, the digital technologies have gained the capacity to predict and adapt to users' mindsets. In this challenging and changing context, the knowledge of "Design Psychology", empowers the product managers and designers with groundbreaking techniques for user research, human-AI interaction design, and innovation. As a distinguished researcher in the field of HCI, Dr. Dinesh Katre has invested many years studying and experimenting to carefully curate the body of knowledge for Applied Design Psychology. More about the presenter: https://shorturl.at/mBGI7 #productmanagement #ProductCulture #ProductDesign #ProductSuccess #ProductOwner #ProductVision #hci #userresearch #designpsychology #PsychonomicDesign #humancomputerinteraction #uxdesign #userexperiencedesign #interactiondesign

48

3 Kommentare

Gaining buy-in for building 0 to 1 products inside large companies relies on effectively communicating the product vision.. Lenny Rachitsky recent podcast with Mihika Kapoor (product leader at Figma) is packed full of insight on building new products inside large companies and her process for building compelling product vision documents 𝗚𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗽𝘂𝘁: "The first is that you cannot go into a vacuum and come out with a compelling vision that does not exist. You have to be fundamentally inseparable from your users, and also, fundamentally inseparable from your team. And so, I think that there is sort of this important cross-pollination of functions that is really important in crafting a compelling vision" 𝗦𝘆𝗻𝗰 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗢𝗿𝗴: "And then if you're on the larger side, I think that having a really tight relationship with your sales team is really important. And basically, just being on sales calls because you want to be in a situation where the customer pain points on sales calls are cross pollinating into the product roadmap. And so I think really leaning into that, building that relationship between these traditionally more siloed orgs and hopping on those calls is something that I'd really recommend." 𝗔𝗱𝗱 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗼𝗰: "So, when I put together a vision with my team at Figma, it's all about not just your traditional, "Okay, here are pain points. And then, here are solutions. And then, here is the timeline and costing." But rather how can you bring all of those things together and how can a vision pitch effectively Because at the end of the day, simply describing a product idea in words is not as compelling as seeing a testimonial from a user on top of a prototype or a mock, and really feeling the pain points." Link to the episode in comments for those interested, love to hear reactions from anyone else who listened in 👇

15

1 Kommentar