Christos Kritikos 🚀

Product Management has only a little to do with building products. It has more to do with: * It's about understanding your customers' pain points and bridging the gap with effective solutions. * Prioritizing problems worth solving and ignoring the rest * Aligning vision with execution, translating ideas into tangible outcomes. This is the essence of Product Management - solution-focused thinking, always keeping the user at the center of everything we do. Because in the end, it's not just about the product, but the problems it solves, and the value it brings to the table. --- Thanks for reading, and if you enjoyed this: 1. Save it 2. Repost it to share with others 3. Comment with your favorite takeaway Then hit follow → Shobhit Chugh for more posts on product management.

91

12 Comments

🎙️Tonight is the night! Join Bosky and me for a deep dive into the importance of soft skills in product management. We’ll discuss how EQ can help you grow your career, enhance your products, and build better relationships. See you at 8:30 PM CET at this link 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/e3RiyHjE

12

1 Comment

Simple, but really useful idea from Will Larson: Every company has engineers who complain, "There's no product strategy. Why don't we even have a product strategy?" Then, you talk to product managers, and they say, "There's no business strategy. How do we function without a business strategy?" When you go back to the engineers, they lament, "There's not even a technology strategy. What kind of company are we?" This pervasive belief that there's no strategy anywhere is common, but I've come to believe that strategy is everywhere—it's just rarely written down. The challenge is that unwritten strategy can be effective but difficult to use and refine. When strategies are updated, people have different understandings of the changes. It's tough to onboard new hires when there's no written strategy. You often have senior leaders who come in and just assume their last company strategy is your strategy because you don't have your strategy written down anywhere. Explaining confusing points becomes a series of one-on-one conversations or trying to interpret past decisions like case law. It's confusing and inefficient compared to just writing it down. One of the biggest improvements we can make in the quality of strategy across all areas—engineering, product, business—is to commit to documenting it. Once written, people can disagree, iterate, and revise the strategy. Unwritten strategies are hard to engage with, and writing things down, even imperfectly, can lead to significant improvements almost overnight. Without documentation, improving your strategy is incredibly challenging. Read the entire Review article featuring Will by following the link in the comments.

502

26 Comments

🎙️ Have Burning Product Management Questions? Ask away! Ever found yourself grappling with product strategy, navigating user research, or juggling stakeholder demands? Maybe you're just curious about the ins and outs of product leadership? Well, you're in luck! Join me on the Dear Melissa segment of my podcast, where I'm diving deep into YOUR burning questions about Product Management. Here's the scoop: ✅ You can keep your questions broad or specific, but give me enough context so I can answer as accurately as a I can. ✅ Your privacy matters—rest assured, your name will stay anonymous. ✅ Don't hold back! Feel free to submit as many questions as you like! From revamping company strategies to mastering the art of product leadership and even picking the perfect tools and frameworks, we're covering it all! Head over to DearMelissa.com and share your questions. Yours could be featured on an upcoming episode! (P.S. Need a quick response? Drop me a voicemail—I'll give your questions top priority!) 🚀

16

Lenny Rachitsky I listened to your amazing podcast with Todd Jackson about product market fit. The 4P framework ( persona, problem, is amazing. All the benchmarks, strategies, and tactics that Todd Jackson shared are spot on. Recently, Sequoia Capital put out a solid framework, the ARC Product Market Fit Framework for Hair On Fire, Hard Fact, and Future Vision. When I combine these two, 4P relates well with the Hair on Fire category of the products. I wonder how the 4P framework would work with the products' Hard Fact and Future Vision categories. Lenny Rachitsky Todd Jackson I wish I could hear more about PMF in the Hard Fact and Future Vision categories. For rest, These are amazing content about #productmanagement, #productmarket fit, #startups Here are links: 1. This is the link to the entire podcast: https://lnkd.in/eTX5tGtE 2. This is where the 4P description starts: https://lnkd.in/eTX5tGtE 3. This is the link to the ARC Product Market Fit podcast. https://lnkd.in/ezprPT-Q

10

10 Essential UXR insights every #productmanager and #founder should know from Sr Staff #UXR and Phd, Laura Vardoulakis. Insight 1: UX research elevates the user's experience with your product "I think where user research comes in for the company is being able to elevate the experience people have with your products...There's no one right way to create a solution for a problem. There's many, many ways you can design things to solve people's problems. And so it's all about creating a solution that's really good and meets people's needs." Insight 2: Focus UX research efforts on three key areas "I tend to categorize UX Research into three big buckets. The first is usually called foundational research. What problems exist? What do we solve? What are the user needs? The second big bucket, which is much more tightly connected to design, is how do we solve it? This is often iterative research, by nature. How do we build it? How do we make the thing?...And then the final bucket, which is very important, is evaluative research: did we do what we set out to do?" Insight 3: Get your engineers into the field to build empathy "And almost every engineer, I think it was around 100 engineers at the time, had never visited a business who used these products in real life...We visited a hundred businesses over the course of two months in the United States and India, because that's where our engineering teams were...The real impact there was simply exposure. People actually, you know, there's an intangible feeling of connection that people who are working on these solutions get when they see them in use in real life and see people other than themselves and who are very different from themselves." Insight 4: User exposure can unlock new opportunities "So from a business perspective, it put a lot of attention, as you can imagine, on these users that did not get much attention from engineering resources at that time...That kind of exposure of the users in these areas, not just the administrators in these areas, prompted a giant wave of recognition that this is an opportunity that we can explore." Insight 5: Look at the user journey across your entire product suite "It was like, if you assumed your only goal as a user is to send an email. And, you know, people receive files over email and calendar invites over email. And they go between these products all the time...So I was inspired by someone else within Google who took a similar approach to higher level critical user journey research, where we set out to understand, explore, and define the user journeys for cross-app experiences." See the full interview summary on the Fireside PM substack for insights 6-10: https://lnkd.in/gWgQk_He

44

2 Comments

Product managers, designers, and engineers working on GenAI feature development should avoid spending time writing long, detailed PRDs and static design docs that become outdated too quickly. Instead, take a dynamic and agile approach: - Build functional prototypes - Craft engaging prompts - Develop robust evaluation sets - Continuously iterate This approach will only work if your organization has a bottom-up experimentation and iteration culture. Otherwise, it could cause more chaos than desired! #productmanagement #generativeai #productleadership

16

3 Comments

HELP YOUR INVESTORS HELP YOU B2B Startup founders: don’t rely on your investors for intros to early design partners. You must get those yourself. However, once you prove real value (eg grow revenues, reduce costs, increase operational efficiency) with a small number of paying customers, your best investors will be able to help make scaled intros to prospects. Your investors are excited to ping potential customers on your behalf once they feel like they are doing a favor to the company by introducing them to your product. So - give them the ammunition and data to do so. The more quantitative the metrics, the better.

357

7 Comments

I'm loving this debate between John Cutler and Ed Biden - both are thinkers and leaders I deeply admire. Zero-interest PMs were hired by zero-interest Product Leaders, who were probably hired by zero-interest CEOs. It's turtling all the way up 🐢 Are they all incompetent? Nah, they are just a product of the environment. It would've been foolish to not take advantage of the zero-interest capital. The key question is whether these people - at all levels from the CEO to the PMs - are capable of adapting to the current environment where profit margin and sustainability are key. Everyone needs to 'sober up' after years of being drunk and high with cash. Zero-interest leaders focus on acquisition at all costs. Sober leaders focus on bringing solid value that leads to retention and sustainable growth. Zero-interest leaders double, triple, even quadruple the size of their team. Sober leaders realize that team size != productivity, that spending hours in alignment meetings for a small feature isn't any fun. Running lean is the way forward. Zero-interest leaders build or even acquire aggressively, trying to capture as much market as possible. Sober leaders are thoughtful in choosing just 1 or 2 things to do. Zero-interest leaders care about framework and rules "This is the only correct way to do product." Sober leaders care about results, knowing that those frameworks and rules are merely vehicles to achieve results. Ultimately, sober leaders are accountable for business performance, not just acting like consultants in suits talking big words and making pretty slides. It's not easy to sober up - but it's adapt or die.

49

8 Comments

> you always have a strategy, even if it is implicit and not written down. Writing helps you sharpen it, have a shared understanding. > one of the simplest yet most powerful things you can do, is to write your strategy down.

50

4 Comments

Alignment. The most frustrating part of the product marketing job. One way to make it easier? A little psychology. One perpetual challenge of product marketing is achieving a semblance of stakeholder alignment around product launches, messaging, and go-to-market strategy. Imagine the assortment of opposing viewpoints, priorities, and personalities you're attempting to unite: ➖The CEO wants big swings and is impatient for explosive growth ➖The product manager considers their labor of love an uncompromisable masterpiece ➖The sales team is skeptical of any potential disruption to their cadence ➖A myriad of conflicting agendas from CS, marketing, legal, and beyond Having so-called “synergy” with this eclectic group takes an impressive feat of diplomacy. The main issue is that people are hard-wired for psychological biases that cause resistance to unified alignment. Some tendencies working against you: 1️⃣ Confirmation Bias We instinctively discredit or dismiss information that doesn't adhere to our preconceived beliefs, no matter how valid. 2️⃣ Authority Bias We inherently trust and defer to authority and hierarchy rather than objective facts, data, or logic. 3️⃣ Sunk Cost Fallacy We're irrationally inclined to continue courses of action we've already invested in, even if changing paths is wiser. 4️⃣ The Anchoring Effect We latch onto the first piece of information as a reference point, distorting subsequent judgments. So how do you achieve stakeholder buy-in and alignment despite the psychological opposition? Being as intentional about addressing the core psychological drivers as your actual strategy. Balance data-driven influence with personal rapport-building to make stakeholders feel genuinely heard. Use intellectual humility to earn trust and establish objective credibility from the outset. Most importantly, leverage psychological biases in your favor: ✅ The Mere-Exposure Effect Repeated exposure builds familiarity and leads to buy-in. Gradually introduce information, rather than an information overload. ✅ Loss Aversion Frame alignment as an opportunity to avoid losses or negative consequences rather than solely focusing on potential gains. ✅ Social Proof Befriend respected internal champions. Their advocacy carries weight in selling your vision. ✅ Decoupling Isolate issues to avoid conflation and overwhelm. It's meticulous work, but mastering psychological angles is equally vital as any technical PMM competency. Your entire launch falters if you can't align a diverse collection of personalities. So be like Freud (well maybe only 50% like Freud to comply with company drug policy).

11

2 Comments

One of the most significant challenges I've observed when working with Fortune 50 companies is the creation and deployment of product strategy. Without a solid product strategy to guide our product managers, we risk veering into a realm of uncertainty and confusion regarding our priorities, which can leave our teams unsure of their direction. Crafting a cohesive product strategy is far from simple, and it requires asking lots of questions to understand the correct approach. Each company's distinct context will shape how you create the appropriate product strategy. Some organizations are better suited to be thought of as whole platforms, where leveraging backend data and services can enhance the strength of each customer-facing (and internal) product. Other companies operate more like separate entities within their business lines, necessitating individualized product strategies for each line. Regrettably, I often encounter companies that should be harnessing their platform capabilities but instead function as isolated business units, forfeiting the chance to capitalize on cross-product line collaboration and value creation. In this episode, I delve into how to formulate a product strategy within a large enterprise, considering the various factors that influence its design. Regardless of your ultimate objective with product strategy, a great chief product officer can be instrumental by: ▪Developing a portfolio strategy that utilizes technology to propel customer value and business expansion. ▪Fostering collaboration among product leaders across different silos to discover synergies and develop scalable platforms. ▪Immersing themselves in the nuances of product strategies to ensure they are in lockstep with the broader corporate vision. ▪Harmonizing priorities across our collective resources. ▪Working in close partnership with technology leaders to evaluate feasibility and maximize our use of software. The result? A clear link between our corporate ambitions and the tangible actions of our teams, all under the guidance of strategic product leadership. I'm keen to learn about your insights and experiences in surmounting the alignment challenge within your organizations. Drop your comments below! Listen now 🎧 Youtube: https://lnkd.in/eAQey-Zc Website: https://lnkd.in/gHdeqkUD Do you have a burning product-related question for me? Feel free to submit one here DearMelissa.com and you might find your question featured and answered in an upcoming episode. #ProductThinking #ProductStrategy #CorporateAlignment #DigitalTransformation

65

9 Comments

As a product builder, one of my favorite concepts is Balaji Srinivasan's Idea maze (attached below). End users of a product only see the final decisions made. They don’t see every tradeoff the builders agonize over and the alternative universes that could’ve been. Great product are designed by builders that put an incredible amount of thought behind each decision. Steve jobs talks about a similar feeling in building the Mac. IMO this is the essence of finding product <> market fit, and makes a world of a difference in outcomes. For example, “video on the Internet” in the early 2000’s was an obvious emergent trend. But Youtube and Vimeo are very different products, and company outcomes. I think about this concept often for the market of “GTM signals” and "AI for Sales." It’s hot right now, many GTM teams are talking about using signals and AI, and there’s a wide diversity of products to choose from. Some tenured GTM operators gripe about how this is nothing new and it’s a renaming of age-old concepts like ABM, intent, B2B marketing, etc. There’s some truth to that and as a builder I’m always curious about the history of our space, but I also believe that AI (specifically LLMs) are unlocking new use cases that were previously not possible. So next time you see a new product in a confusing market, keep an open mind and see if it helps you accomplish something radically new. You could be looking at the next Youtube.

25

3 Comments

There is a common, fatal mistake that most product managers make without realizing it. The other day, I spoke with an accomplished product group product manager who was looking to advance to the director level. He possessed all the relevant skills and experience. He had the opportunity to participate in numerous interviews, a testament to his marketability and the demand for his skills. But he failed to convert them into offers. He had been through five of his "top tier" target companies and not landed a role. Why was this case? He had joined our program, and after some mock interviews, we dug into the feedback he had received from our coaches [who are often product managers and leaders at these target companies], and I helped him see this pattern. He was interviewing for the job that he had rather than the job he wanted. Interviewing for roles you have held vs. the ones you want is a fundamental mistake that I see many product managers make repeatedly. They are telling the story of their experience, but the framing is entirely wrong. See, the hiring managers and other interviewers really have no interest in your past. They only care about it if it's retold from the perspective of "Why are you a clear fit for the role that you are applying to?" There is no silver bullet to fix this, but there are many lead bullets. Your words matter, as does how you shape the interview and move from one question to another. How you tackle product design, execution, metrics, and leadership interviews also matters. Our coaches understand the difference between the different levels of interviews and can help you reshape them. This approach enabled us to help a Senior Product Manager land a Director role recently (more on that in the next few days). But for now, remember - interview for the job you want, not the job you've had.

23

3 Comments

Really pumped to share a new resource: My quick guide to product-led growth for pre-PMF startups --> Step 1: Don't do it. -- There's always a lot of hype around PLG. There are some exceptions, but here's why PLG is way cooler in theory than in practice for most early-stage B2B startups: 1 - When it doesn't work, it's really hard to know WHY it doesn't work. "How do we know if it's not working because the wrong kinds of people are coming in, we have the wrong message, we're targeting the wrong kind of person, our onboarding flow is bad, or one of 3,000 other variables?" Hint: the answer ain't in the data. It's in users' heads, and they don't want to talk to you. AKA: takes a ton of volume & money to learn anything, vs. just having a few sales calls. Your idea is always wrong in some way you can't know ex-ante -- the best way to debug it fast is to try to sell. 2 - PLG is often an excuse to avoid selling. I get it, selling "doesn't scale as efficiently." You don't want to be sales-led. You can make a TON of logical arguments against selling, but most of the time we're ACTUALLY trying to do PLG because deep down, we don't like how uncomfortable selling can feel. Even if you want to do PLG eventually, it's still worth selling in the early stage to figure out what buyers really want, in THEIR words... and this only emerges when you ask them to pay for stuff. (Sales, not "discovery" interviews.) 3 - PLG is a motion that makes sense for a very particular kind of product & buyer. And that's probably not you. Is your value prop most salient for directors or VPs? Cool, PLG's probably not for you. Does it require change management to get value out of it? Great, go sell & deliver. Your horizontal AI workflow tool? Yeah no. When it works, PLG is generally: 1) a surprise to the founders (see the stories of Loom, Segment, etc.) 2) a very narrow tool where the individual contributor is both the user and buyer Of course there are exceptions. But there's a very big, very full graveyard of non-exceptions. - PS - nothing against free trials, ungating the product, etc. I actually might be launching a PLG company. But PLG will unfold as the GTM approach if it is the right thing for the shape of the market & product opportunity, and I'm only figuring that out through 1:1 sales. PPS - I have a BIG problem with influencers shouting that the "new way to build a startup" is PLG or bust. It's hard enough to start a company when you're not getting steered into the iceberg.

34

12 Comments

What really changes on the journey from a "Product Manager" to a "Principal Product Manager?" Two things: ambiguity and scope. Let's dig in. At the product manager level, you're handed a problem and a rough solution. Your task? - Dive deep into the business and customer issues. - Polish the solution and test its viability. - Launch, measure, refine. Moving up to senior product manager, the problem is clear, but what is the solution? Not so much. Your role expands to: - Define the solution from scratch. - Drive alignment. - Execute as you did at the product manager level. At the principal level, things get murkier. The problem isn't well defined. Your mission, should you choose to accept it: - Identify the problem. - Drive alignment. - Repeat the Senior Product Manager process. - Have a point of view beyond your own scope. As you ascend the professional ladder, ambiguity becomes a fascinating and ever-present challenge, your constant companion. But here's the good news: If you can demonstrate to your manager and stakeholders your adeptness at handling any ambiguous problem of increasing scope, you can accelerate your journey to success and professional growth.

74

Product managers, designers, engineers who are successful have an "impact transcending ability", according to Aleks Bass, M.A, Chief Product Officer of Typeform. Learn what she means by that in this short clip. The full conversation on the Product Leader's Journey pod is at: https://lnkd.in/gshXfyMx #productmanagement

9

Here are some levers to get unstuck on your path to product market fit. The 4Ps (no not the classic marketing 4Ps): Persona, Problem, Promise, Product. The persona: Who would benefit most from your insight? Do you have a person in a specific type of role or function who faces a set of challenges in mind? The persona can be the buyer (CTO or CRO), the company type (e.g. Fortune 10,000 financial services) or both. As you look to make adjustments here, consider whether it’s too narrow, too broad — or needs to be abandoned altogether.  Example from Plaid: Consumers didn’t need another budgeting app, but fintech apps needed the integrations the team had built on the back-end. The problem: Is this an urgent and important problem that your target persona has? It’s the classic painkiller versus vitamin question. You’re looking to solve a problem that is urgent and, if solved, will provide huge relief to your potential customers. If not, you may need to explore adjacent problems for your persona, or rethink your persona and problem entirely. Example from Lattice: Stayed focused on people leaders, but went from building a solution for OKRs to solving performance management. The promise: Are those customers interested in what you’ll do to address that need — your unique value proposition? It’s easy to confuse this for your actual product, but the promise is how you communicate the benefit your product will deliver. This is the lever that is most overlooked. Example from Ironclad: Repositioned from an AI legal assistant (that promised to automate lawyers’ tasks) to a Contract Lifecycle Management platform (that promised to help enterprise companies create and manage legal contracts end-to-end) in order to play in an existing category. The product: Will the product that you’re building actually deliver on this promise? Are customers interested in this particular solution to their problem? Would they pay for it? Example from Alma: Pivoted during the pandemic from a community-based physical office concept for therapists, to giving providers a suite of digital tools to build thriving private practices.

13

2 Comments

To land Director to CPO jobs, Product Leaders must leverage Executive Search firms. They hold the keys to the hidden job market. Here is a lay of the land. Aakash Gupta and I wrote in depth about this in the Product Leadership Job Search and I followed up recently with the Tech Exec's Job Search Playbook. I recommend both reads. Comment if you want contacts or my thoughts on working with them as a candidate or hiring manager

99

27 Comments