@davidjproduct
Product leader/transformation coach/advisor. I love to help companies scale. Family guy, sports fan & sometimes soccer player. Crescendo Product Group, Prodify, DoorDash, Fetch Rewards, Groupon, Gaia Online, eBay. buildcrescendo.com
Agree that coding isn't a substitute for all the other work that has been/continues to be core to the PM role.
Quick prototyping can be useful, just as long as they use that for feedback and don't fall in love with what they created too much/too fast.
It was better when "hitting the tech lottery" meant only being a millionaire not billionaire.
The vast amount of money has had a way of both attracting the mercenaries and bringing out the worst in people.
Flaw and odor
Flaw and disorder
The new bottleneck for most products won’t be coding but evaluation post launch: data collection or even sales cycles.
Solving for these means maximizing the success rate of launches by understanding customer problems deeply.
This isn’t new to PM but now is more important than ever.
When execution is cheap, those without discipline will overbuild and have cluttered experiences.
Rigorous discovery, post-launch evaluation and iteration will be even bigger advantages.
Most teams are bad at these and fast coding will make that worse, not compensate for this weakness.
The new bottleneck for most products won’t be coding but evaluation post launch: data collection or even sales cycles.
Solving for these means maximizing the success rate of launches by understanding customer problems deeply.
This isn’t new to PM but now is more important than ever.
When execution is cheap, those without discipline will overbuild and have cluttered experiences.
Rigorous discovery, post-launch evaluation and iteration will be even bigger advantages.
Most teams are bad at these and fast coding will make that worse, not compensate for this weakness.
So they are meeting to decide how to have fewer goals?
I had assumed it is the day they get relegated since that is when their fate is sealed.
Having two in one season would be a special treat.
Andrew is opening a board game club in Berkeley and coding software to do personalized player introductions for his son’s little league.
Hope you can join us for this virtual event. Rich's book is excellent and I am excited to hear him discuss this live.
4 March, 4pm Central US time.
I heard this from a CEO yesterday. Their platform + AI enabled them to launch a product in 3 months yesterday -- much faster.
6 months later they realized their persona won't pay for this use case. 9 months wasted.
AI for prototyping and coding is great.
It isn't a substitute for discovery.
I won't judge if you do post on LinkedIn! But happy you are also posting here as I hope this becomes a more positive version of Twitter.
You often hear "software development is changing, and we must adapt" because of Claude Code.
But for my entire career, code has been the *easiest* part of making shit people care about, and we still haven't adapted.
The easier coding becomes, the less often we ask "do users actually NEED this?"
It's your choice to share what you want, and their choice who they want to support.
While we're at it, I wish more product people were not on Substack. But I digress...
This is not all UXR, but @spavel.bsky.social has a list worth checking out. bsky.app/starter-pack...
I have one on product content in general. bsky.app/starter-pack...
I really should try and engage with the UXR community but I have no idea where to start
"We have no success metrics but we launched on time."
😨
Chart showing decline of US Democracy Index following Citizens United ruling. Score goes from 8.2 in 2010 to below 7.9 in 2024. Below 8 is considered a "flawed" democracy. Source: Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index.
Sonia and Adam are great. Congratulations to them!
It did not feel great that I needed to edit my website's client list to remove a company that has openly cooperated with ICE.
Benfica's goalkeeper scored yesterday against Real Madrid to advance in Champions League. He'd never touched the ball in opponent's half all tournament.
Product teams need this mindset: everyone's job is helping the team win, not defending role boundaries.
www.buildcrescendo.com/blog/team-su...
Bonus: I arrived at my new connection & confirmed with an agent that my checked bag wasn't on my flight. However I am unable to open a ticket to resolve this until I reach my final destination. The explanation: I might not make my next flight. They are just inviting dissatisfaction. @united.com
These don't come up much, but they are painful when they do happen. Nearly 20,000 flights canceled past two days. Airlines should do E2E customer journey map & fix.
Automate and fix these and you would have my loyalty. They don't even require AI, though that would make solving these easier.
6/6
4. Bags
• Had to gate check a small carry-on due to full flight
• Waited 90m in line to provide new flight information after second cancellation
• Would have been additional 4h wait to retrieve bag to use overnight
• Instead: let me make choice and submit new flight details online
5/6
3. Food voucher
• $15 for a meal at airport -- not even quite enough for breakfast sandwich and coffee
• Must spend less than amount without exceeding total
• Instead: ability to apply partial credit towards larger total
4/6