We usually think in additive terms.

Building the next feature, the next 'big bet', or expanding into a new market.

It's always adding more.

But what if growth could be found in removing instead?

I believe this is true for most products.

And it's was why I decided to create a NOT doing list rather than a todo list this year (full list at the end).

2024 was a crazy year for product management; it got canceled more times than I can count…

…and I can count to at least 11!

From Airbnb “getting rid” of Product Managers to my LinkedIn feed being filled with posts about how ‘product is dead’ and ‘all hail AI.’

It’s been a wild year!

Between the 150,000 people who read this newsletter and the most common challenges across my clients, here are the top 5 challenges that product people like yourself faced in 2024:

I'm sure you’ve run into this thinking before too, that involving engineers in discovery is a waste and will slow down delivery as they’re spending less time doing. But as counter-intuitive as it may feel, when you involve the whole team into product discovery it should speed up delivery not slow it down.

Being data-driven can be an awful trap.

We believe we’re collecting data that portrays an unbiased view of the world.

Data that will help us make the ideal decision.

After all, that’s what the data says, right?

Bad news. Your data is biased.

One of your primary responsibilities as a leader is to create clarity.

Clarity on:

-context, strategy, vision, goals

-roles, careers, expectations

-culture, boundaries, what’s acceptable vs not, etc…

A lot of problems I see in orgs can boil down to a lack of clarity.

Product Discovery activities by risk. This isn't supposed to be an 'ultimate list' or 'must do' I created it as a guide to help give you an idea of some of the discovery activities that you might do depending on what you need to test.

This post will make you rethink prioritization through the lens of urgency.

Lessons and reflections from John Cutler’s Effective Prioritzation Workshop.

A common mistake is treating the platform the same. Defining your users and customers as the teams that consume your platform.

Instead what you really have is a daisy chain. Where those consuming your platform are trying to achieve something for an end user.

Why you should stop saying “Don’t Bring Me Problems, Bring Me Solutions”

Over the years working in an agency, navigating my own career and today as a Product Coach I’ve probably onboarded to 20+ different companies now.

Over that time, I’ve refined approaching my first 90 days into 3x 30 days sprints:

• Sprint 1 (first 30 days) = Discovery

• Sprint 2 (30–60 days) = Quick wins

• Sprint 3 (60–90 days) = Establishing trust

Below you’ll find a write up on:

• What is Dual Track (continuous discovery and delivery) and how does it work

• Why you should move away from project discovery towards this model

• The mindset that you need to make it successful

• and common practices that I’ve found helpful

In this week's post you’ll find:

• What is product discovery?

• The 3 Core Components of Product Discovery

• What the definition of done is for discovery

• Why product discovery should help you STOP ideas

• And who does product discovery

Over the years coaching teams and product leaders all around the world, I’ve seen a wide range of different teams.

Teams who weren’t teams at all. More like groups of individuals.

Dysfunctional teams caught ‘spinning their wheels.’

And what you might call high-performing teams where they flow and effortlessly work off each other.

These small, cohesive teams run circles around teams twice their size - even whole departments in some cases!

In this week’s issue you’ll find advice on:

• Ways to implement product stratey in a sales-led company

• Building a business case to sunset a product that’s not performing

• Balancing commercial, customer and tech goals

• Building alignment on your product vision and strategy

• Best questions to ask in user interviews

• and more…

Psychotherapist and relationship expert Esther Perel has this great framing:

"a paradox to manage, not a problem to solve.”

Many aspects of life, business, product, leadership, relationships, etc are paradoxical.

• Strategy vs execution

• Customer vs business impact

• Explore vs exploit

• Realistic vs ambitious

• Take risks vs have security

• etc…

“Deciding to invest in your Product sense is among the highest ROI decisions you’ll make in your career.” - Shreyas Doshi

I want to do two things in this post:

1) Give you actionable ways to build product sense.

2) Explain what the hell Product Sparring is and how product leaders can use it to build product sense in their teams.

4 of the most common Product Discovery mistakes that I see teams make and actionable steps to avoid them and level up your Product Discovery game!

Your OKRs don’t live in a vacuum.

Yet this is exactly how I see many organizations treat their OKRs.

They jump on the bandwagon and create OKRs void of any context.

Here’s what I see all the time…

Did someone say ‘boat’?

…followed by ‘party’…?

You can stop reading. My only takeaway from Leading the Product this year was the boat party!

Ok I’m kidding - here are some of my notes from the day.

Quick one from me. Busy week with:

A late night talk on Breaking Outcomes Down, Not initiatives

and attending Leading the Product conference Sydney.

Here’s the talk and some of my notes from the day!