Kristján G. Mathiesen (KGM)

✨ A lesson in writing clear requirements… with a little Friday humor! ✨ Picture this… You’re on a cross-functional product team—whether as a product manager, designer, software developer, or QA engineer—and it’s your job to communicate exactly what needs to be built. Your colleague depends on your instructions to successfully create the end product. Sounds easy, right? Well, not always. Clear requirements can make or break whether a product solves the intended problem. But what does clear really mean? A recent video gave me a funny reminder of this: A dad challenged his kids to write down instructions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and he followed their instructions EXACTLY—with not so exact results 😂. After a few rounds of trial and error, the kids finally got better at explaining, and voila! A successful sandwich. It’s just like product development. Requirements need to be clear, complete, and delivered in a way that your team can follow without missteps. Along the product development lifecycle, you’ll come across several requirement types, such as: ✨ Business Requirements: Why are we doing this? What value are we creating? ✨ User Requirements: What do users want or need to accomplish? ✨ Functional Requirements: How will we implement these features? ✨ Design Requirements/Specifications: How should it look, feel, and behave? ✨ Technical Requirements: What infrastructure is required (databases, APIs, etc.)? And, as the video hilariously reminds us... ✨ Testing Requirements (a.k.a Test Cases): How do we verify that we built what we set out to build? Each one is crucial. Each one can either launch or derail a product. Throughout my career—whether as a research leader, product leader, or now CTO—I’ve had to write (and refine!) requirements of all kinds. It’s truly an essential skill for any PM to master. So… what do you think? Can you tell me how to make a PB&J? 🍞🥜🍇 #productmanagement #productdevelopment #fridayhumor #innovation #thoughtleadership

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Pete makes some great points here. Its worth reading and a viewpoint I've also shared. In addition to the questions he raises about if the "under performing" individuals were given opportunities to improve. I would add how much coaching did these individuals receive if they did receive any? How long had they been “under performing” and were they given adequate time to improve those areas of deficit? Claiming to have over 1,000 “under performing” employees to lay off tells me there is a massive failure at the management level. My personal opinion is that it was a failed attempt to manipulate their reputation in the midst of this decision. Further showing they knew full well that it was wrong. Announcing in the same memo that they are hiring 800 staff MORE than they laid off was telling. It was made a point that the new staff will be trained in new areas like AI. So it’s clear this was a business shift. I wonder, were the "under performers" offered the opportunity to be trained in the new areas of focus such as AI? The hiring process is expensive. How much will this cost them as opposed to offering training opportunities for the original staff to switch roles. Perhaps those new roles would have been a better fit for their skills and experience thus eliminating the “under performance” issue. This whole thing was just a fancy way of showing just how badly they have failed. And their complete lack of ownership and accountability. Shame on you Intuit. #dobetter #really

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As a Product Manager, being part of numerous meetings is inevitable. Balancing interactions between business stakeholders and the engineering team often makes it feel like I’m in meetings all day. That’s why I truly value my mornings, especially working for a West Coast company. It’s the only time I can think critically and get actual work done beyond the meetings. Given my packed schedule, I avoid scheduling additional meetings whenever possible. When I do schedule one, I always ensure to provide a clear agenda. Without an agenda, meetings tend to go off-topic and we rarely achieve our initial objectives, often resulting in yet another meeting. Working remotely seems to exacerbate this, as people might be hesitant to use email due to inbox overload. However, emails can be checked asynchronously, whereas meetings require everyone's synchronous presence. I would also argue that some try to multitask while on a meeting, which causes people to forget what actually needs to be done. I have been guilty of that, especially if I am not running the meeting. Before setting up your next meeting, consider if it can be accomplished without one. Here are 5 effective ways to determine if a meeting should be an email: 1. There’s no agenda. 2. You’re giving a status update. 3. You’re providing feedback. 4. It’s a routine meeting. 5. You’re simply sharing information. Read more on this topic here: [5 Effective Ways To Tell if a Meeting Should Be an Email](https://lnkd.in/dVzzeJyx). #ProductManagement #RemoteWork #WorkEfficiency #MeetingManagement #Productivity #Business #WorkLifeBalance #TechIndustry LOL who feels this way when you get a meeting canceled, I know I do 😂

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