Author: Ryan Donovan
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Recap: Harder Core Product
This winter and early spring has been a fun writing exercise for me, as I was able to capture some of the most prevalent topics arising whenever I speak with organizations about their respective product endeavours. For those who have read every post, thank you! For those getting started, please…
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“Sometimes the only way to win is not to play.” OR – Don’t Peanut Butter
The aforementioned is one of my absolute favorite quotes from the cult 1983 movie War Games. There are few quotes that I think of that apply more to product leadership, as it is widely agreed that the art of product management is identifying what doesn’t get done… When defining long-term…
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Understanding How to Realize Your Full Potential; Having a Long-Term Perspective
In my conversations with many companies, two key questions that one would expect product teams to have the answers for, but most do not are: *Authoritatively Win is defined as having a market-leading feature-set against competitors, no major gaps in Jobs-to-be-Done or adoption funnels (which implies best-in-class UX), unique functional…
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Finance and GTM Metrics ARE Product Metrics
Many of the organizations I have spoken to define their product metrics entirely within the realm of user activity and adoption. Yet, at the same time, there is an inherent desire for product leaders to act as General Managers or CEOs of their product lines. In the current market/economy the…
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The Scope of Product Management is Anything that Touches Product
Time and again, one of the largest challenges I see affecting companies with their product teams is having unclear and/or incomplete definitions of what constitutes the product. My rule of thumb is that if it touches the product, it is within the scope of product management. The rationale behind this…
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How Product Leads with Seamless GTM Alignment
Most product organizations have varying degrees of alignment with their various Go-to-Market (GTM) organizations. Best-in-class organizations have a systematic, organized process whereupon: Conceptually, it comes together as referenced in the following diagram. To summarize the journey for shipping/ready-for-market products: For those wishing to deliver pre-release products to market for early…
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Quantitative Adoption Funnels and Growth Loops are for Everyone
I have found that it is the belief of many executives that investing in product analytics and measuring product adoption (including identifying up-sell opportunities, or growth loops) is something exclusive to B2C, consumer, and/or product-led-growth (PLG) businesses only. I would argue the counterpoint that these are for everyone, regardless of…
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Get the Basics Right in the Eyes of the Customer with Jobs-to-be-Done
I can’t name any organization that doesn’t conduct some form of qualitative user research. However, very few do so on a systematic, end-to-end basis. This results in deep understanding within pockets, but no clear picture of how things fit together end-to-end from the customer perspective. My suggested alternative is to…
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Harder Core Product: My Theme for 2024
This post is about how Harder Core Product became one of my key themes for 2024. Last fall, as I started exploring new roles and ventured back into consulting/fractional roles – consistent struggles with the Product discipline emerged. A tighter, more demanding economy and marketplace are principal drivers. What became…
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OpenAI Drama Seemingly Over; Microsoft Wins (inevitable); and Why Big Tech is a Builder’s Friend when Mission Criticality Matters
Yesterday Sam Altman of OpenAI announced that it was back to business as usual (not that they missed many, if any steps) at OpenAI, the board has been re-constituted, and Microsoft now has a non-voting seat at the table. Further governance changes are forthcoming to prevent what happened from recurring,…