Why are teams still locked in feature factories?
It's time to break free from this circle of madness.
I'm hosting a free lightning session to share insights on costly mistakes teams face with product discovery. This will take place at Maven.
Join us for free:
maven.com/p/525669/how...
📍 If you want to know how to apply discovery that works, I can help you.
Check out my self-paced course to help you stand out as a product professional:
www.d-pereira.com/product-disc...
5. Proxy communication
Proxy discovery doesn't work. Plain and simple. Why?
You cannot:
. Understand customers without first-hand observations
. Empathize with customers without direct interaction
If companies are serious about creating products, those doing the work should talk to customers.
4. Lack of direction
You need to understand what's most important now and focus your discovery efforts on uncovering value drivers for that objective.
Without direction, you'll get overwhelmed with all the possibilities.
3. Lack of structure
Without structure, teams will discuss the work more than they will do it.
Here's a simple structure:
. Define the objective
. Explore the problem space
. Name value-drivers
. Prioritize
. Ideate
. Test assumptions - agree on how you document it
. Decide based on evidence
2. Lack of prioritization
You will always have more to do than capacity.
If you don't prioritize, teams will stretch themselves too thin.
It's fundamental to know what you're after and what you're leaving out.
My learning: First, define what you want to explore, then start discovering.
Yet, 5 mistakes set discovery and success apart
1. Research obsession
If delivering something is faster than discovering it, then ship it
Don't do:
. Open-ended research without an objective
. Extensive research without de-risking ideas
Follow this:
The more complex, the more discovery you need
Is discovery a time-waster? Yes, but it depends.
Here are 5 reasons discovery fails.
First, good discovery results in ideas worth pursuing. To get there, you will:
. Explore the problem space
. Connect value drivers to goals
. De-risk ideas
. Drop bad ideas fast
. Decide based on evidence
Bullshit management demotes PMs into Backlog Managers!
Let's break free from that.
After 15+ years of playing this game, it's clear what blocks PMs from thriving. My course, Anti-BS PM, helps you unlock your growth.
Limited offer of 25% until Sunday.
Join us to become a stronger PM
bit.ly/4hlUd2T
To rock your career, I have a limited offer: A self-paced video course to help you master the art of product discovery.
Check it out to learn what most PMs miss:
www.product-masterclass.com/deep-dives/p...
5. Do What Business Wants vs. Do What Customers Need
Focusing on stakeholders wants is the quickest way of delivering solutions customers couldn't care less about.
You need to understand the business wants while finding the overlap with the customer's needs.
4. Keep Low-value Features vs. Remove Low-value Features
The more features you have in your product, the more complex it becomes
A great product is the one you have nothing to remove, not the one you have nothing to add.
3. Follow Plans vs. Follow Goals
Hard Reality = following a plan becomes the goal while everyone forgets the real goal
A better way:
. Set a goal
. Use your knowledge to define the next step
. Step into the unknown
. Learn from reality
. Adapt action based on reality, not theory
2. Measure Velocity vs. Measure Impact
Knowing how fast you can create output tells you nothing about how fast you drive value.
I discourage teams from velocity reports.
I encourage teams to measure the impact of their work and, based on their learning, decide what to do next.
1. Maximize Features vs. Maximize Value
More features ≠ More value
Creating features without evidence that they solve a problem is a bad product practice. Sadly, that happens too often.
Focus on removing bad ideas fast enough instead of accelerating delivery.
What's the difference between trapped teams and product teams?
5 critical differences of successful product teams.
The product game is often unnecessarily complicated.
Not because of its complex nature but because of distractions.
Here's what I've seen over the last 15 years:
Good morning to those doing #productmanagement, and good luck to those playing the BS bingo!
BS management is the art of doing things that bring no value but drain our energy! The more bullshit you handle, the less value you create.
You can transform the game. Be brave, relentless, and patient.
Product management is hard because everyone gets distracted by the wrong things.
I put together 33 reasons product managers become backlog managers!
medium.com/p/0fe85fbd05f7
Let's break free from nonsense.
#productmanagement
Too often, product strategies trap teams. That sucks.
I'm working on a new cohort to help product people break free from this challenge.
I'd love your perspective on your challenges and how I could help you.
Please share 2 minutes of your time helping me
maven.com/forms/2b4c41
Everybody wants you to be a backlog manager.
It's hard to be a PM; nobody apart from you wants that.
Yet, a few skills will pave the way to transform you into a robust PM!
I crafted a free e-mail course to boost your career: www.d-pereira.com/how-to-becom...
Let's rock together!
Courage is my only wish for product folks in 2025.
You cannot achieve what only a few people get by doing what most people do.
You've got to have the guts to do what most people don't do.
Let's rock 2025!
#productmanagement
5. Transform Data Into Insights
How long does it take for you to transform data into insights?
AI can do that in seconds, which is surprisingly good :)
. Data alone means nothing
. Transforming data into insights is the magic
. Use AI to accelerate that for you
4. Interactive Prototypes
You can create interactive prototypes in less than a minute with a few AI tools, such as Uizard by Miro Labs.
. Curate your prompt
. Get your interactive prototype
. Tweak it
. Test it
. Learn and adapt
3. Level Up Your Work
Feedback is present, but not everyone will give it to you.
Use AI to boost the quality of your work.
. AI can give you feedback, e.g., Miro offers that
. You can immediately benefit from multiple angles
. Ultimately, leveling up your work
2. Write Product Experiments
The faster you learn, the sooner you succeed.
. Product experiments don't need to take weeks
. AI can help you uncover multiple experiments
. You can start in hours and scale up as you gain evidence
. Beyond that, AI can give you guidance on how to run your experiments
1. Identify Assumptions
Untested assumptions are the mother of f*ck-ups
. With AI, you can quickly name what you believe to happen, but lack evidence
. You can craft powerful prompts, resulting in testable assumptions
. AI can accelerate how you uncover multiple assumptions
AI is here to stay. PMs ignoring it will pay a high price.
Here are 5 simple ways to benefit right now.
Striving to help PMs rock their careers, I combined AI with my cohort, and the result was outstanding!
Do you want to learn more about it? Check it out:
maven.com/david-pereir...
The core is to collaborate so we all get on the same page.
It's time to move away from stakeholder management to alignment.
Everyone in the company should contribute to drive value :)
Keep rocking it!
Watch out for how you craft your 2025 roadmap!
Don't:
- Define features
- Assign tasks
- Create a Gantt chart
- Believe you know everything now
Do:
- Ruthless prioritize
- Give teams a chance to focus
- Prioritize now, next, later
- Move from upfront investment to placing bets
#productmanagement
