Blog

Blog

Accelerate your business with regular tips and expert guidance on building better products and what pitfalls to avoid.

Change doesn’t happen overnight

#generativeai today is where Covid was 3 years ago. And .com companies and #internet was 23 years ago. Everyone on social media is an expert but nobody knows anything for sure. Covid times Remember washing hands every few minutes. No need to mask. Then mandatory masks and then N95…. Also, going through whole body sanitizer sprays and finally realizing that

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The challenges of product management

Have you ever sold something that is yet to be created? Is that legal, you might ask… It is. As long as you deliver… That is what great product managers and capable founders are able to do. It is easier said than done. Making promises you can’t keep is perhaps easy but selling a vision and then delivering is much

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What are you waiting for?

Are you waiting for “syzygy”? No, it is not a made up word In scientific terms or Astronomy It means alignment of 3 or more celestial bodies In common language “when the stars are aligned” Whether at work or in personal life We are often waiting for something Something to happen Something to complete Something to go our way People

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Don’t ape the West

Is India aping the West a bad idea? Often is, though not always But certainly is a bad idea in one area that I know of Product Management It may sound harsh or bitter, but it must be said and I have lived and worked in the US most of my working life Whenever a Product Manager is stuck Or

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Show me the roadmap!

Are you a product manager? If yes, you have surely faced this: Most of your day goes in dealing with the routine – sprints, scrum, backlog, review, customer requests, fires… And then you are suddenly hit with “Show me the roadmap” And usually the people asking are the ones who are key stakeholders Keeping them happy is important How do you

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Do you talk about value?

If you are building a b2b product, one of the trickiest things is pricing. Lots of information is available on this topic, and there are books, sites, tools dedicated to this. While product managers, marketers and founders discuss and debate pricing, something more important is often missed. * Articulation of value * Nobody buys business products for fun – and

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Take pride in your product

The question that often stumps people… What does it take to build great products? How come some products are “world class”… And others are just around – good and making money But you would not call them leaders in their space. As a #productmanager, I am tempted to talk of all the science and theory You need to have customer

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Pointers for a new PM role

I was not smart enough, or simply too proud to ask this question when I started. But someone, one of our #productmanagement interns asked this. What do you do when you take up a new #productmanager role? It got me thinking… Here are some pointers: Keep reading and learning how to apply new concepts – Best learning happens when you

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Jargon, jargon, go away!

As techies, many of us love and hate jargon If it’s some term that other people are using then you may find it silly If it’s a term that you are using then it just seems cool Off course terms come and go Hype cycles rise and crash Newly coined terms come into vogue and fade Anyone remember SMAC? What

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Product management is a team sport

I got a lot of things wrong when I became a #productmanager. I was asked to take over a product that was rapidly declining in revenues and relevance. Before that I was an engineering manager who had done well. Like many who are promoted rapidly in a fast growing organization. I was aggressive, sometimes arrogant and sometimes ignorant; taking over

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Building products requires focus

This is a classic trap. For many startups I fell into this a couple of times. Founders study the market. It’s usually filled with solutions. Many solutions. Same or similar problem. There is overlap, but nothing does it alone. Or hardly anyone seems to be. Grand strategy is unveiled. Be the one-stop-shop. Unfortunately, it’s a bad idea. More often than

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The art of negotiation

In business as in life you don’t get what you deserve you get what you negotiate. I read this for the first time several years ago in a book on #negotiation (Later I found out that there is even a book with that as its title). At the time I was seeking a pay raise and promotion after working in

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