Finest-5 Product reads #57
Learning vs impact, product status report, etc..
Hello and welcome back to my newsletter,
The past week has been filled with drama, especially with the notable events surrounding OpenAI's hirings and firings. We trust this edition finds you well and engaged amidst the dynamic developments in the product world. In this week's newsletter, we present a blend of insightful content and captivating news that has been making waves in the industry.
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Learning vs. Impact
You typically have the greatest impact on your career when you are in a phase of reduced learning, and conversely, you tend to acquire the most knowledge when you are less effective.
Key Takeaways:
Similar to relationships, discovering novelty in your job prevents stagnation, enabling growth within your current role.
Allocating just 10% of your time to activities that energize you can sustain excitement and engagement over a more extended period.
The accumulation of small victories can pave the way for more significant opportunities and heightened impact over time.
How to write a product status report (with template and examples)
Product Status Reports (PSRs) keep stakeholders informed about project progress and facilitate data-driven decisions. Without a product status report, team members may not be adequately informed to support project activities.
Key Takeaways:
Benefits of PSRs: Facilitate collaboration, identify issues and risks, reduce manual workload, track action items.
Components of a PSR: Overview, progress update, risks and issues, action items, and next steps are essential components.
Actionability is also crucial. Keep reports focused on activities, both in progress and upcoming.
Planning With Outcome Roadmaps
Yearly planning often involves debates about the effectiveness of roadmaps. Traditional roadmaps showing releases on a timeline can lead to high planning overhead and waste.
Key Takeaways:
An outcomes roadmap that illustrates the actual work required to achieve the goals, on a timeline, can effectively communicate aspects that most roadmaps omit.
Elements of an Outcome Roadmap: Goals, Research (optional), Product Discovery, Product Delivery, Effect Delay.
Effect Delay: Factor in delays between product launches and desired outcomes; continue tracking results post-launch.
Too many iterations are a huge problem
With rising market competition and evolving consumer demands, iterating has become a go-to strategy.
Key Takeaways:
The concept of “The Sunk Cost of Iterations” is deeply rooted in today’s product development sphere, where iterative processes are not just encouraged but often deemed essential.
Meticulously refining a product can lead to psychological sunk costs, as seen in cases like Google Glass
The allure of eventual success can lead to justifying excessive iterations, as seen with the Concorde jet.
How to Use the Product Discovery Loop to Find Product-Market Fit
Product-market fit isn’t a 'big bang' event. It’s a series of events that happen as you grow the number of market segments, the number of problems addressed, and the value of outcomes reached as your product develops over time.
Key Takeaways:
You want to find a hair-on-fire problem that people are willing to change their behavior to solve.
The Product Discovery Loop is a tool used to break down the components of product-market fit, including market segment, customer pains, desired outcomes, and solutions.
Each successful pass through the Product Discovery Loop increases customer love for your product, growing the addressable market by covering additional customers, pains, or use cases
Interesting around the web:
Google will make fake AI products to help you find real gifts
Tinder introduces dating beyond photos with a new suite of features
Microsoft Teams gets an AI-powered home decorator, voice isolation at Ignite 2023
Product of the week: rewind.ai
Secret Sauce to Supercharged Productivity! Unleash an AI that remembers it all—every detail, every conversation. Stay ahead effortlessly!