Academy of Product Management’s Post

This nearly tanked Trulia. Don't do it, well, not all the time... Here's a snippet of Pete Flint's popular blog post "Don’t Believe Your Own B.S." Ref: https://lnkd.in/g4jAV7iC 🚀 Want more product lessons? Subscribe to my free newsletter at blog.academyofpm.com

How triangles nearly ended NVIDIA 📖 The lesson: Be humble, ask for help, and always work like you're 30 days from going out of business. In case you missed the full video, catch it here: https://lnkd.in/g_uA7UiP

Why NVIDIA wins. 🏆 If you're wondering how Nvidia became so successful, especially in AI, this video explains it. Here are three big takeaways: 1️⃣ Be humble, ask for help, and always work like you're 30 days from going out of business. 2️⃣ Overnight successes often take years of pain and suffering. 3️⃣ Follow your vision and strategically retreat when you go off course. Watch the video or read on Substack for more: https://lnkd.in/g_uA7UiP

What's the difference between a hobbyist, a tinkerer, and an entrepreneur? It's part of the most popular quote from How I Built This, the book. Not only is How I Built This with Guy Raz my favorite podcast, it's also an amazing book. Here's the quote: "There is a name for a person who creates something purely out of passion: hobbyist. There is a name for a person who creates something out of passion that solves a problem only they have: tinkerer. There is a name for a person who creates something out of passion that also solves a problem they share with lots of other people: entrepreneur." Guy Raz gives a great example of this with Lisa M. Price's story. She's the founder of the beauty brand Carol's Daughter. Throughout her founder journey, Lisa was all three: a hobbyist, a tinkerer, and an entrepreneur. This is where so many great startup ideas come from: building something for yourself, realizing more people need it, and adjusting your product to fit the needs of a larger market. It's a lot like Paul Graham's essay "Organic Startup Ideas," which we broke down here → https://lnkd.in/gatBx3-8 You should check it out next! #productdevelopment #startups #entrepreneurs

This is the most popular quote from Noise by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass Sunstein. 📩 Want more fun product management lessons directly to your inbox? You'll love our newsletter. It's totally free and totally fun — subscribe for free at blog.academyofpm.com #productmanager #productmanagement #productdevelopment

Morgan Housel's The Psychology of Money is full of financial lessons, but the most popular quote also has pretty deep career advice. Ready? "There is no reason to risk what you have and need for what you don't have and don't need." The lesson is about knowing what is "enough" for you. Is the risk you're taking for something important to you, or are you chasing something you don't need? Here's the career advice spin: know what's important to you at work, and do not give up what you have and need for what you don't have and don't need. Like giving up a job you love to do something you don't love. Morgan adds, "life isn't any fun without a sense of enough. Happiness, as it's said, is just results minus expectations." I love this, and it's a big part of what I teach in my Product Influence course. You must take time to celebrate wins for yourself and your team. That's why we always acknowledge the team members responsible for hitting a milestone, to give them a result that feels like success, that's greater than their expectations. Because if the results are less than their expectations, it won't feel like enough, and that math doesn't add up.

There are two types of startup ideas, and one is better than the other. We're breaking down another classic Paul Graham essay, Organic Startup Ideas (https://lnkd.in/gGV-H6zk) He says there are two types of startup ideas... 1️⃣ Organic ideas - the ones that are inspired by your own life, when you solve problems that you're facing yourself and build the solution you wish existed. 2️⃣ Ideas for other people - when you solve problems that you believe other people will have, but you don't need the solution yourself. He sees more success from the first type than the second. "The best way to come up with startup ideas is to ask yourself the question: what do you wish someone would make for you?" -- Paul Graham Solving a problem for yourself is easier because you have an initial understanding of the problem. It's much harder to predict what other people will want. Often, the problems you have yourself are experienced by other people, too, so other people may find value in the solution you build. If enough people care enough about the problem to seek a solution, and if those people find *your* solution valuable, you might have a startup on your hands. "If you find something broken that you can fix for a lot of people, you've found a gold mine." -- Paul Graham 🚨 But you can't skip the discovery and validation work to get from the idea stage to something worth building a company around. Getting to product/market fit is a whole other beast, but organic startup ideas are a great place to start. Read this post on Substack: https://lnkd.in/gatBx3-8 📚 If you have an organic startup idea and are not sure how to turn it into a product, my new course on Skillshare can help! Develop Products People Love. Use my referral link to check it out and get one month free on Skillshare! (where available) → https://skl.sh/3wkmGE5 

Managers do two things, first. This is the most popular quote from The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo: "The first big part of your job as a manager is to ensure that your team knows what success looks like and cares about achieving it." I love this. Julie is saying that it's not enough just to set a vision and goals; you need to make it stick. This is underrated advice because it seems obvious, but it's harder than it sounds. Here's how I do it: 1️⃣ Repeat Repeat Repeat - so everyone knows (and remembers!) the destination. 2️⃣ Inspire - so everyone is excited to get there. When your whole team knows what success looks like and cares about achieving it, you'll do big things together. 📩 Want more fun product management lessons directly to your inbox? You'll love our newsletter. It's totally free and totally fun — subscribe for free at blog.academyofpm.com #productmanager #productmanagement #productdevelopment