Product Punks
By Toby Rogers
subscribers
issues
What Now For Product Punks?
I migrated this newsletter from Substack to Revue a while ago because Revue's deep integration with Twitter looked like a perfect way to build an audience.I love Substack, but since I moved across my reader list has grown from a handful to nearly a thousand.N…
Product Roadmaps aren't Delivery Plans
Product roadmaps aren't delivery plans. Here's why:A product roadmap is a way to articulate your strategy—it's your best guess of the bets you need to take to move your product forward.A delivery plan, on the other hand, is your short-term approach for implem…
Product Management Misconceptions Holding You Back
Nine product management misconceptions that are holding you back:Product managers make all the decisionsAs a product manager it's your job to make sure the right decisions get made—not make all the decisions.Give your team the clarity and context they need to…
Unconventional Truths About Product Management
Nine unconventional truths that changed the way I think about product management:Dates do matterThinking products are done when they're done is naive. Few PMs have the luxury of building what they want when they want—there will always be external pressures th…
In Product Management Dates Do Matter
There's a fallacy in some product management circles that dates don't matter—that product should ship when it's ready, but not before. The reason? Because outcome-based roadmaps get rid of the old-fashioned date and dependency-driven hangover from Waterfall p…
Product Managers Shouldn't Write User Stories
User stories are the lifeblood of agile product development. They help you define your product with clarity and articulate its functionality in a language everyone can understand.Well-written user stories are a powerful tool for communication and collaboratio…
You Don't Need to Think About Product Management All The Time
It's been a couple of weeks since I last published this newsletter. The reason? I've been on holiday, so I've been thinking more about the benefits of drinking Prosecco in a hot tub than the craft of product management.And that brings me back to something I r…
Don't Confuse Having a Busy Calendar with Making Progress
In the modern workplace, busyness has often been regarded as a symbol of status. But just because your calendar looks like Tetris, it doesn't mean you're more important than anyone else. A schedule full of back-to-back meetings and overlapping status updates …
Lessons From The Product Punk Who Revolutionised Popular Music
In 1954, a saxophone-playing engineer changed the face of popular music forever with an electric guitar he couldn't even play. Here are 5 lessons every product manager can learn from Leo Fender and the birth of the Stratocaster.You don't have to dogfood your …
It's Not Your Job To Make All The Decisions
As a product manager, you're bombarded with choices to make.From prioritising the initiatives on your roadmap to picking the right colour for a button, decisions are the lifeblood of the role.But if you think it's your job to make all the decisions, you'll so…
The Reality Of Product Management Isn't Like The Books And Blog Posts
Just because the reality of your product management experience is a million miles away from what Marty Cagan lays out in Inspired, it doesn't mean you're doing it wrong.Like Jason Knight says:
Stop Confusing Your Product Roadmap With Your Release Plan
There are few things that can get a product manager riled up as much as telling them they need to put dates and milestones on their roadmap. A couple of days ago, I posted this tweet which re-ignited the whole roadmap / delivery plan argument in the replies:
To Get Good At Product Management You Need to Put in the Reps
As a product manager, you can read all the books and blog posts you want, but if you’re not regularly getting new stuff into your users' hands, then you’re never really moving forwards. Product management is something you learn by doing. the product manager w…
Work Is Something You Do, Not Somewhere You Go
If you hang out on Product Management Twitter, you can't have missed the PM pool girls TikTok that exploded this week. Here it is, though, just in case:
There Isn't a Right Way to Do Product Management
As product managers, we spend a lot of time talking about the right way to do product management. We read books and blog posts that give us an idealised view of software development, and we're quick to pour scorn on the tools and frameworks that don't fit. Bu…
Be Careful About What You Measure, You Might Just Get It
As a product manager, you need to be able to measure the success of your product.But how do you decide what to measure?Typically, the answer is "it depends". Measuring outcomes is notoriously difficult, as the replies in this conversation on Twitter show:
Shipping Features Isn't a True Measure of Product Success
Just because you've shipped a feature, it doesn't mean you can give yourself a pat on the back just yet. Yes, releasing product is an important milestone on your way to delivering value for your customers. But it's still only a milestone. You can't really con…
The Best Product Managers Are Idea Filters, Not Idea Generators
Earlier this week I published this tweet 👇
You Don't Have to Work 60 Hours a Week to be a Successful PM
It's been a couple of weeks since I published my last newsletter.Why?It was the Easter holidays and I had some time off to chill out with my wife and kids.And that got me thinking about how much time and energy we spend working.In his seminal book, Inspired, …
Product Management Isn't Project Management (Except When It Is)
There were a lot of product management vs project management conversations happening on Product Twitter this week.Firstly, Jeff Gothelf landed in my feed with this 👇