Product Planning TIPS

SEE ALL TIPS

GET THE LATEST TIPS EACH WEEK

Get product resources, conference updates, along with access to an exclusive Slack channel by subscribing below.

The Thirty Year Plan

At INDUSTRY, Ken Norton delivered a talk that got everyone in the room talking. In it, he urged the audience to imagine what their product might look like in 30 years. Yes, 30 years. Norton assured us that in doing so, you can avoid being bedeviled with details of little consequence and instead come to terms with rapid technological change. Smart product people will ultimately then be able to take immediate advantage of this new perspective in their shorter-term planning.

OPEN

Lessons from 30 Days in Product Management

Being proactive also means moving fast to get things done. Medha Ghatikesh gives us an example of how a ‘procrastinating manager’ can waste a whole day of a teammates productivity just by waiting to send an email. You must always think ahead and consider how your work, or lack of work, will affect things.

OPEN

How to Make Sense of the Firehose of Ideas for Your Product

Oftentimes, being proactive means carefully not reacting to the firehose of feedback that will come your way each week. Instead, you must foresee the types of requests that you will regularly receive and have a plan to deal with them. As Maddy Kirsch explains, “you can’t afford to prioritize a specific set of feedback just because it appears urgent”. Instead, you should “ask yourself if implementing the suggestion or feedback will advance your product’s strategy”.

OPEN

Product Owners: It’s Time to Rethink Reactive Product Management

It’s important to be proactive, to have a vision and a plan to make it happen. Or as Brad McCarty quotes “plan to work and work the plan”. But he also reminds us that you should also be prepared to be reactive. Without doing so, you won’t be able to respond to shifts in business focus, user feedback or major failures.

OPEN

Predictive Management, Not Reactive Management

Being a good reactive manager is to be admired. It means that you can calmly deal with surprises and quickly come up with solutions (rather than getting stuck looking for root causes). On the other hand, a person who practices predictive management might have been able to remove herself sufficiently enough so as to be able to see the problems arise in the first place. Really, like John Reh suggests, it takes a solid mix of the two to be an effective manager.

OPEN

Related Tips