Have you ever said “no” to a customer? Have you ever said “no” to your CEO? And survived to tell the tale? It’s always hard to say “no” to someone who apparently has power over you. However it can be made easier, at least for product manager s. All good product managers use a prioritization scheme to decide what goes
One of the toughest balancing acts is something many startup founders pull off on a daily basis. You have to deal with multiple issues, make rapid decisions with limited information and also continue to lead the team. When you are short on resources, you have multiple operational fires to deal with. Often one of the biggest challenges is to make
Usually when we talk about leadership, we talk about achievements. Great leaders are the ones who take businesses, movements, countries, science to great heights. However, this view is incomplete. Especially in times like these. To me a great leader not only basks in the glory of success but also takes responsibility of failures. Taking responsibility or ownership is not an
The incongruency sometimes baffles me. Maybe it comes from a fear that nobody will buy. Maybe it comes from not understanding the impact and value. Maybe the importance is simply not understood or overlooked. More often than not founders of b2b startups price their products too low. If you ask a founder whether they are solving an “important” and “urgent”
Change is hard. Changing your mindset is harder. This is likely one of the hardest things to do for the founders of startups. Your eventual scale and success may depend on this. It’s going from “hustle” to “structured growth” mode. When you are a startup you’ll do whatever it takes to get the product built. You might end up coding,
Everyone knows that most startups fail. Year after year CB Insights survey publishes a survey that does post-mortem analysis on failed startups. For many years in a row now – the top reason is: “No market need.” Bad product, lack of funds, and pricing are in the top 5 but not the top most. This is telling. Many founders get
Whether you are building a new product or adding to an existing product, figuring out what to build is key task for a #productmanager. #Prioritisation is a must. It directly impacts the success of a product and often the career progression of a #PM. It is hard because ⁃ usually there are so many things to do when the product
Not too long ago I was talking to one of the best product managers I know. She and I were discussing what it takes to lead cross functional teams. “Product Managers must be multilingual,” she said. It was a “lightbulb” moment. And no, we were not referring to the common meaning of multilingual. Most PMs lead teams made of developers,
Being a PM is a hard job. You have to know a bit about – tech, business, design, marketing and you have to know your customer and market better than anyone else. You have to be good at communication, negotiation, presentation, simplification, persuasion and arguably the hardest – prioritisation. Prioritisation is hard because there are just too many people pulling
If you are a b2b product company selling in any market, you are bound to run into competitors that offer a cheaper solution. This happens very often when you are selling to cost or value conscious markets like India. There will always be someone willing to sell it cheaper. Think of this as a never ending problem. Once a solution is
When I started as a PM, executives would doze off or ignore my points during monthly updates. Not only did I appear to be fumbling in my new role, but also I was doing a disservice to my team that was toiling away and building something great. In one on one interactions I did fine. I could make well crafted
The answer is a bit of both, but more importantly a student. Willing to keep learning. Studied engineering in college and exposure to computers was only for building simulations. – First job: learnt about databases, SQL, Analytics – Learnt to be a developer and then an engineering manager – Then took up a role of #pm. Dev background helped establish
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