Jai Gandhi

As Product Managers, “we must create more value for our customers than we capture back… our customers must feel like they’re getting more value from our solution than they’re paying for it. “ To drive sustainable business growth by continuously delivering monetizable customer value, you must: 1. Understand your product's business reason for existing 2. Understand your product’s go-to-market 3. Understand the company's business goals 4. Understand your product's current strategy and goals 5. Evaluate every product opportunity in terms of monetizable value 6. Tie your activities to business results that matter These points also help us speak the language that matters to business leadership (CEO, CFO, etc.)

6

💡 The Sean Ellis test is a simple yet effective method to gauge product market fit. Just ask your users, "How would you feel if you could no longer use this product?" and if 40% or more respond "very disappointed," then you have a leading indicator that you achieved product market fit. Sean Ellis highlights on Lenny Rachitsky's podcast that you can further ask your users why they feel this way to understand what resonates with them the most. In the past, I've run this test at the end of the product journey, however, some companies like Nubank go one step further and optimize for product-market fit down to the feature level. #ProductManagement #ProductDiscovery

36

I've been following  Nikhyl Singhal's newsletters and podcasts, and his latest on how a company's stage shapes a product manager’s role was insightful (https://lnkd.in/gAgRDaSe)  However, he didn't address whether core PM skills, like product thinking, change with the company/product stage. For example, in B2B companies, how does product thinking evolve from the "Drunken Walk" stage to "Scaled"? Shreyas Doshi defines product thinking as understanding customer motivations, conceiving solutions, and picking a path based on desired effects. My view is that while product thinking skills remain constant, the interpretation of customer motivations shifts as the product grows. PMs must continually re-evaluate the job customers hired the product for, possibly redefining the product’s mission at each stage. Taking Atlassian/Jira as an example, the core of product thinking stays the same, but the mission and jobs to be done evolve: • 𝗗𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗸: Sprint planning/execution product. • 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗙𝗶𝘁: Agile software development. • 𝗛𝘆𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵: End-to-end product development. • 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗱: Customer solution development. The trade-offs in these stages, like choosing between going deep or broad, can significantly impact the product's trajectory. Atlassian’s growth might have been different if they had made different strategic choices. Let me know your thoughts—I could be off, but as PMs, we pick a path and stand by it. 😊

1

Who Killed Product Management in India? 🔎 This was the title of of a recent article by Praveen Gopal Krishnan on The Ken, he puts forth some interesting points (link the comments). One key point that stood out was someone saying - 90% of Product Manager roles have become redundant. Engineers, designers, and business professionals can now take on tasks once exclusive to PMs. Harsh? Maybe. True? To some extent. So, what does the future hold for PMs? I believe the future lies in the rise of the Full Stack Product Management and in everyone gaining a strong product sense. Let’s dive into details below. Article Insights: Product Management has shifted from a creative, intuitive role to a bureaucratic, data-driven one. Instead of creating innovative products, PMs are bogged down with frameworks, PRDs, and justifying decisions to stakeholders. AI is also automating many PM tasks, further pushing PMs toward obsolescence. Companies like Airbnb have even removed traditional PM roles, showing how product development can happen without them. Know thy Product: The core issue, in my view, is that we don’t truly understand what their product is. Too often, the "product" is mistaken for the app or the website—the enablers—rather than the value delivered to the customer. -> What’s the Real Product? Flipkart/Amazon: Not the app, but the goods they deliver 📦 Netflix: Not the platform, but the content 🎬 Zomato/Swiggy: It’s the food 🍔 Gmail/WhatsApp: The network effect they create 📱 The actual product is the core value, and whoever is owning it is the one owning the customer too. There are spaces where PMs can own the product, like in B2C tech (Gmail, YouTube) or B2B SaaS Applications; but in industries like e-commerce or D2C, the product isn't the app; it's the actual goods experience or service. Everyone Needs Product Sense: It’s not just PMs who need to get this. Whether you’re in business, ops, engineering, analytics, or business ops, having a product mindset is crucial to understanding the end value delivered to customers. Companies should encourage leaders and ICs alike to gain product exposure. Product sense helps you understand users, business impact, and how to solve real problems. Whats the moat for some wanting to be a PM or who is a PM: Enter the Full Stack Product Manager The future of PMs is Full Stack, blending creativity, data, and technical skills. The Full Stack PM can: Identify customer problems, Conduct discovery, Prototype and build solutions, Collaborate with engineers to build scalable products, Market and sell the product, Iterate based on feedback. AI and no-code tools are enabling this shift, allowing PMs to own the entire product lifecycle. What do you think of this? Share your views in the comments below and follow me (Vellanki Sriharsha) for more such insights. #ProductManagement #FullStackPM #AI #ProductLeadership #FutureOfWork

92

11 Comments