Yannik Süß

About "Software Product Management: Finding the Right Balance for Your Product" by Timo Wagenblatt. Here are the key takeaways: 1️⃣ Holistic Approach: Wagenblatt shatters the siloed view of product management. He emphasizes a holistic framework encompassing market viability, development, go-to-market strategy, training, and organizational maturity. It's a refreshing reminder that product success hinges on a delicate balance across all these facets. 2️⃣ Balancing Act: The book's central theme is finding the right balance. Balancing customer needs with technical feasibility, short-term goals with long-term vision, and agility with stability. This resonated deeply, as I constantly grapple with these very tensions. Wagenblatt provides practical tools and frameworks to navigate these trade-offs with confidence. 3️⃣ Focus on Value, Not Features: The book rightly emphasizes shifting the focus from churning out features to delivering real value to customers. It encourages asking "why" before "what," ensuring our product roadmap aligns with genuine customer needs, not just internal checklists. 4️⃣ Data-Driven Decisions: Wagenblatt champions data as the lifeblood of product decisions. He outlines strategies for gathering and utilizing data to validate assumptions, track progress, and optimize product iterations. This resonated especially, as data is often under-leveraged in product decision-making. 5️⃣ Building a Winning Team: Product managers are not solo heroes. The book emphasizes building a strong team with diverse skills and perspectives. Wagenblatt offers practical tips on fostering collaboration, communication, and alignment within the product organization. ⚡⚡⚡ Overall: This book is a valuable asset for any product leader. It's packed with actionable insights, practical frameworks, and real-world examples. Wagenblatt's holistic approach provides a refreshing perspective on product management, reminding us that success lies in balancing competing priorities and driving real value for our customers. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to level up their product game. 🦄 Bonus: Wagenblatt's writing is engaging and relatable. He shares his own experiences and insights, making the book feel like a conversation with a seasoned product leader. It's not just theory; it's practical wisdom that you can apply right away. So, fellow CPOs, grab a copy, get ready to be challenged, and prepare to elevate your product strategy to the next level! https://lnkd.in/gtahHu4C * We at PYPR Software Product Management reviewed #GoogleGemini's short summary about the key takeaways and endorsed it ✅ 🏁

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During the coronavirus lockdown many people took their time to send me their questions and requests about product management and PMTK. Reflecting on the volume of questions I had received I noticed that one particular topic was absent. No questions about the product manager vs product owner issue. A quick google search shows that most of the articles on this topic range from 2016-2019. After 2019 there is a significant drop. Have we exhausted or resolved this issue? Is it because of new Agile methods such as SAFe which very explicitly separate the product manager vs product owner roles? Perhaps I am no getting these questions since my position on this matter is well established. Regardless, this may be a sign that we are finally moving on and that Scrum will be rightfully considered an internal debate for product development without product management getting involved. Send your questions at https://lnkd.in/dwiUKt5 #pmtk #productmanagement #prodmgmt #prodmktg #methodology #agile #scrum

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What actually is product-market fit? Product-Market Fit (PMF) is more than just creating a desirable product For True PMF, you need to achieve 3 things: 1. Product-market fit: Enough people want your product 2. Product-business model fit: You can make a profit selling your product to these people 3. Product-growth engine fit: You can acquire these people sustainably #pmf #startupjourney #startupsuccess

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Question for the Product Managers out there ❗ Share your story.. How do you build a Product in a Tech Scale Up?? Head of Product at JEX, Esther Kuijpers-Bastein will tell you about her experience on how to build a product in a tech scale-up. 👉 How this can affect your product strategy, what we have learned from it. 👉 How we stay on track despite making major changes, but always with the end goal in mind. #productmanagement #productmanager #software #product #devworld #devworldconference

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As a Lead Product Manager, you often get trapped in the Bermuda Triangle: Lead multiple squads, while being the PM on a x-functional team, and mentor and grow 1-n PMs. You have to switch hats so many times. 💙 When reporting to your product leader, you are the direct report. 💚 When building with your team, you are a fellow PM to the other PMs. 🧡 When talking to the PMs that you mentor, you are their leader, whether they report to you or not. 🧙 Here's one thing that you can try to help yourself wear the right hat at the right time: If you have an accessory that you typically wear, like a ring, watch, bracelet, hair tie... ... whenever you talk to the PMs as a mentor, wear it differently than usual. For example if your ring is usually on the left hand, wear it on the right hand. Why only then? 💙💚 Because as a normal PM, you'd be the direct report of your product leader and the PM on your team anyways. 🧡 The real difference is that you now have to act as a leader to others... ... and you might need something that reminds you to be in a different state of mind in those conversations. If that's you, try it out. And let me know if it works for you. What's your trick to get yourself in the right state of mind? Share with the community and help product people grow together 👇

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Product Management is being instagramified.... and we are all suffering.... Tomorrow at 8:45 (Berlin) it is time again for one of our beloved round tables. In the last one, we talked about: 🌟 The instagramification of product management Product Managers start to get massive imposter syndrome by their shiny perfect LinkedIn feed world of how product should be done, while looking at their organization and seeing the mess. 🔥 Our Key Takeaways: - People do not post the bad stuff, but highly polished stories - The PM job is in fact really messy - Nobody has the perfect setup - LinkedIn pushes the fancy content - A lot of the problems, we are facing already starts with how our company is selling products Seats are limited to 20 people. Check out link in comments. Dominik Dern could you please post the link, so that LinkedIn is not penalizing the post 😉

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🥰📙 Sharing my new article about Discovery Phase of Product Development for future Product Managers. Feel free to share feedback and ask questions! https://lnkd.in/dBAHppt8 #productdesign #product #development #discover #ideas #article #productmanagement

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This is an evergreen topic: who should you hire? A domain expert? A generalist PM? A unicorn who excels at both? (If you can afford it.) For years I was squarely in the "generalist" camp, but now I'm not so sure. Your choice should be driven not by what's easier learn. It should be driven by the company-building risks you want to mitigate with every new hire. For example, existential company-building risks in heavily regulated or complex industries (fintech, medtech, life sciences) are NOT related to product development practices. There, it's more effective to upskill a domain expert than to help a generalist PM get to the PhD level of knowledge that's required to _really_ understand the domain.

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Do you believe that a PM's job is to "protect the team" and help them focus on execution? That product management should own the WHY and WHAT, being the expert on the customer and business, leaving the HOW to the team? I used to think this way too, until I realized it significantly blocked innovation. When I took sole responsibility for the why and what, I found that I was: • Keeping my team from direct contact with stakeholders, making me the only person exposed to different perspectives on a problem • Providing strategic context without really allowing the team to work with it • Delivering predefined solutions, holding the team accountable only for the final step Even when the team was given a problem to solve, I bore much of the responsibility on my shoulders, thinking it was for the best. Until I realized it was not. True innovation comes from considering different perspectives from the beginning. The entire team should feel responsible and accountable for the why, what, and how, and work together to define how to best get there. Since I started to think this way, I’ve witnessed: 📋 Easier prioritization as we collectively weigh different perspectives and take responsibility for the product in the short, medium, and long term 💝 The team's understanding of customers has deepened, allowing them to empathize and innovate more effectively 🤝The team’s grasp of stakeholders' point of view has improved, unlocking a better understanding of business constraints and opportunities 🪽A lighter burden on my shoulders, as I no longer feel the pressure of always having to have all the answers Below, I've shared my old and new sketches of the product's role within a team and how I coach my PMs to think about responsibilities within a product team. I’m curious, how would you define the roles of different competencies in your product team? #ProductInsights #Innovation #ProductDevelopment #ProductManagement

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Go from the Objective in OKRs to a sub-task on Jira (Complete taxonomy). I'll use YouTube’s 2012 OKR example. 🚀 Atlas - start with your goal and objectives. Objective: One billion hours in daily user watch time Key Result 1: Increase watch time on search team + main app (+XX%) Key Result 2: Launch YouTube VR Experience and grow catalog from A to B. 💡 Jira Product Discovery - continuous discovery and ideation. Idea 1: Improve Search Algorithm Idea 2: Enhance Main App User Experience 🛠️ Jira Software - incrementally build, test, and launch. Epic 1.1: Search Algorithm Enhancement Epic 1.2: Main App UX Improvement Task 1.1.1: Research and analyse current search algorithm performance. Story 1.1.2: As a Mobile User, I want to experience the new algorithm so that I can have improved search results. Sub-task 1.1.1.1: Collect data on current search algorithm performance metrics. Sub-task 1.1.2.1: Implement new algorithm enhancements. Sub-task 1.1.2.2: Conduct A/B testing of the new algorithm. Content on best-practice in comments. --- Atlassian Atlassian Jira #OKRs #Atlassian #ProductDiscovery #agile #scrum

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Traveling vs Product Management During my last trip I asked myself, what does traveling has in common with Product Management? At first glance, it looks like Product management and traveling might seem like 2 different activities, but they actually share a lot of similarities. • Both disciplines require meticulous planning. In product management, you need to plan the development roadmap, prioritize features, and set goals. Similarly, when traveling, you plan your itinerary, book accommodations, and decide on activities to make the most of your trip 🗺 • Both needs adaptability. In product management, you need to be flexible to changes. And when traveling, unexpected situations arrise that requires you to adapt your plans on the fly 🕐 • In both realms, feedback is crucial. Product managers gather feedback from users to improve their products. Travelers rely on reviews, recommendations, and personal experiences to create their travel plans and make better choices 💬 • Both product managers and travelers need to manage resources aka money wisely and deal with similar constrains - budget, time, and manpower (in traveling it would be luggage space to ensure a smooth and enjoyable trip) 💲 • Product managers often collaborate with diverse teams, stakeholders, and customers from different cultural backgrounds. Similarly, travelers engage in cross-cultural communication when meeting with locals during their travels 🌏 • Whether it's launching a new product or embarking on a journey, setting clear goals is essential for success ✅ #productmangement #productownership #learning #themoreyouknow

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You don't write your PRD once. You write it over time. If the purpose of a PRD is clarity, then it's important for it to reflect the current state of the team's thinking. Here's the 6 stages of evolution I recommend: 1 — Team Kickoff Often called a speclet, at this stage the idea is 'just enough information' for the team to explore it further. It might even be just a title and a few lines. The idea is: you've identified business metrics to move, and you have 80%+ confidence of the user problem direction you'll solve. You don't know the exact problem or solution, but you're describing your best hunch. It's an exercise in product sense. Then, with your designer and tech lead, you'll explore further. 2 — Planning Review This is when the PRD expands into a 1-pager. You've started to explore the problem space with your design and engineering partners. It's now ready for review with execs—your skip level, those VPs that care a lot about the roadmap, maybe even the CEO. This new document ends planning reflecting the summary of your learning during the process. 3 — XFN Kick Off Once you're ready to take on the solution space, it's time to bring all the stakeholders in: sales, customer support, marketing... This is where you update the PRD for all of the input needed. What you need from legal, from privacy, from compliance, from QA, and everyone else. It has a compelling problem space, initial data, and serves as a canvas to get input before going full on in the solution exploration. 4 — Solution Review The next step for the PRD is generally the most stressful product review. This is the one, if it's a big feature, you might even present to the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). Many times, this will even evolve into a slide deck, or a Notion document that's ready for presentation, or a 6-page PRFAQ if you work at Amazon. The idea is, you put your stake in the ground on the results of the solution space exploration so you can get feedback. 5 — Launch Readiness Once you've gotten all that feedback and completed your exploration of the solution space, it's time to get the document ready for engineering. Your tech lead has been in on the whole process, but now you need to create a concrete document of edge cases, metrics, and flows. Then, the engineers building it can stress the final edge cases only an engineer can find. 6 — Impact Review Many people make the mistake of ending the PRD there. But it's worth going back to the PRD and adding a link to your feature results writeup. And, if you roll back the feature or something, adding a note of it. You want people who find the PRD to be able to trace back what happened after to complete the build-test-learn loop. — Ready to go further with examples and specifics? Check out the deep dive: https://lnkd.in/ef5Yde54

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Licence Compliance: Who’s to blame… surely not a Product Manager…? 🤔   Introduction: I have just recently received an email from one of our consultants containing a short project update. It was a minor project involving an organisation with less than 2,000 users, focusing on cost takeout work. Although we were able to identify considerable cost-saving opportunities 💰, we also found a significant instance of non-compliance with a prominent software publisher 📉.   The Finger-Pointing Dilemma 👈 Unfortunately, the client quickly blamed the product manager, holding them responsible since product managers are typically tasked with budgeting, forecasting, examining user utilisation, and more. While these responsibilities are indeed pertinent, it's crucial to comprehend the broader picture 🌐, especially for CIOs, heads of procurement, or anyone accountable for ensuring that the IT estate remains licensing-compliant and cost-efficient 🛡️.   Understanding Software Publishers' Agendas 📜 Major software publishers are largely driven by shareholders 📈 and have a dual mission: to deliver value to the client and ensure they maintain strong, dependable revenue streams 💸. To achieve this, they implement complex terms and conditions, including midterm changes that are often buried in the fine print on their websites. A single press of a button can lead to unforeseen costs running into hundreds of thousands of pounds 💷.   The Real Level of Detail Required 🔍 Expecting product managers to possess forensic-level detail comparable to professionals such as KPMG auditors is unrealistic 🧐. Without this level of scrutiny, it’s almost impossible to foresee every potential compliance issue. So, if you find yourself in the midst of a compliance audit and no prior compliance issues had been flagged by the product manager, it’s essential not to place the blame on them 🚫.   The Role of Procurement People 🛒 Similarly, procurement personnel often bear the brunt of the blame during such situations. They might be heavily involved in front-end negotiations 🤝, but after deployment, they can still find themselves held liable years later, despite having no contextual understanding of how the product has been used over the last few years. This brings us to the core message: do not blame product managers or procurement teams unfairly ⚠️.   Accountability and Responsibilities ✅ In summary, it is crucial to understand the complexity involved in managing software compliance and cost efficiency. Blaming product managers or procurement teams for compliance failures is neither fair nor productive. Accountability should lie with those responsible for the overall IT estate and its alignment with licensing terms and conditions. Let’s recognise the broader responsibilities and work collaboratively to maintain compliance without unfairly penalising our teams 🤝 #ProductManagement #CostManagement #ITCompliance #SoftwareLicensing #CostEfficiency #Collaboration

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"We want to strengthen our product organization" "We've gone too far without proper product processes" "The relationship between product and engineering isn’t working well" These are just some of the things I hear from potential clients. So what does it take to change the product culture in your company? You need to look at it holistically, from several angles. I always like to start from the top - with product strategy. If you ask me, this is the place that will make the most impact with the least effort. It’s not that there's no effort here, but the impact of a correct strategic process is immediate and easily implemented. It's also one of the areas with the most untreated gaps that must be closed in order to move forward. Strategy comes along with strengthening product leadership - whoever leads the product in your organization (usually one of the founders or VP of Product). By strengthening I mean bringing strategic product thinking into management decisions, along with a shift in the language you use - from features and deliverables to the problems you want to solve and desired outcomes. Next usually comes a strategic roadmap and proper goals, which are connected to the company's business objectives and not just dealing with the product deliverables. When all of these are done properly, suddenly there is a noticeable gap between product leadership and product management levels in the company. In the end, product managers are swamped with execution-related tasks, and it’s not always easy to do anything else. To apply the mindset change to the product managers’ level, again several angles are needed: The strategy itself - needs to be communicated and clear to everyone. Even if product managers don't define the strategy, they must understand it in depth and use it as a context for everything they do. Motivation for change - what I usually see is that product managers want to grow and better connect to strategy and business, and once you start involving them, motivation rises. I still remember what it felt like to be part of important decision-making as a product manager. But this is not always simple, because sometimes product managers don't have the skills needed to succeed. Not because they did something wrong, but because they never learned how to manage a product from the top and not just deal with features. There are various ways to strengthen them in this area - for example through my coaching or participating in the Product Leadership Launchpad. And only at the very end, do we get to deal with the processes - those that brought us here to begin with. It's not that processes don't change along the way, but they change naturally. Finalizing a formal process can only happen after we already know they work for everyone. So what about you? Do you have all the components needed for change? Where are you in the process? If you want my help with this complex transformation, let’s talk >>>> https://bit.ly/3Hbn1es

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Here's a free to steal pricing strategy to drive user adoption of your product/platform. CONTEXT UPDATE - this is for PLG solutions with a freemium capability. Context UPDATE pt 2: this also assumes you know what a value metric is and have defined yours. 1) First value is free as a POC - (or portion of the value if the complete deliverable is greater than the sum of its parts) 2) The next 5 values are $1 - the purpose here is to overcome the mental commit required by users to pay for your product. 3) Once those 5 are consumed, deployed, etc. you can offer values for your market's price equilibrium. By now you've proven ongoing market value. That offering might take the form of an a la cart approach coupled with an active outreach motion to encourage ongoing use. Or, it might also be a monthly subscription (with the requisite 20% discount for annual upfront purchases). Bonus retention pricing strategy: 4) When a user goes to cancel their subscription or delete their account offer them a 70% discount for the next 12 months. Bonus bonus retention strategy: 5) Switch annual purchase users to a month to month payment schedule after the first year (how you choose to maintain or change pricing in the meantime is a different conversation).

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From my experience, I think as a product manager, there are three key skills you need to master: Good Communication 🗣️  ↳ Clearly share your product’s vision and strategies with your team and clients. Empathy 💛 ↳ Understand the needs and challenges of both developers and clients to create a smoother process. Confidence 💪 ↳ Show confidence in your product and team to build trust and credibility with clients. Want to nail these skills? Here’s how ↓ Listen actively. 👂 Boost your emotional intelligence. 🌟 Believe in yourself and your product. 🚀 💡 Which skill do you think is most important? Let’s chat in the comments! Follow me for more tips and insights on product management. What other skills do you think are crucial for a product manager? #nurency

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