Blog

Blog

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

Change takes time

It was the winter of 1999 I was a recent graduate With a masters from MIT, no less Working at one of the hottest companies in the US Just over 25 years old, a year into my first job (Paper $millionaire already!) I was attending a conference on innovation And the future by local business group When called on stage

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How do PMs get creative ideas?

What is the top challenge facing Product Managers? Last week’s poll of product professionals revealed the following: The top challenge is not what we thought… It is “Ideation and creativity” – nearly 50% of those surveyed find this to be the top challenge. Does seem to make sense? Product Managers often orchestrate innovation. They are required to collaborate between teams,

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Narrow your focus

FOMO and YAFO can kill. FOMO – you know this one well YAFO – Yet Another F…ing Opportunity, in case you don’t Are you a founder? Are you building a tech product startup? Please read on… One of the ADVANTAGES of tech products is that underlying tools and tech can be often used to solve multiple problems. One of the

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Making standard PMs turn super

To build great products you need a capable team, product thinking and excellent product managers. Product Manager is now one of the hottest jobs in tech with starting salaries over 10L p.a. More experienced employees are making on average 20-30L. People in product leadership roles can make over 50L or even over 1cr in some cases. In spite of this

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Why security is critical to product building

Security breaches and data theft headlines dominate global news every few days. The worldwide cost of this to business is estimated in USD trillions. Same holds true for India. In recent times, many large scale data breaches occurred. In some cases companies discovered the theft only after customer data was put up for sale on the dark web. Air India

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Never judge a (product) book by its cover

Lot of great books on product thinking and product management continue to come out of the US, especially Silicon Valley. They paint a picture of highly evolved product teams and companies. Capabilities and intent are high and it’s easy to get inspired by the world described in them. Unfortunately for people building products in evolving economies, the benefits are akin

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5 common traps to avoid for IT services companies building products

Few years ago services to product became cool when the IT majors launched their efforts. Now it’s seen as an imperative by many including Government of India and NASSCOM. The advantages that product companies enjoy such as higher valuations, stickiness with customers, attracting better talent are the #envy of many services companies. Several small and mid sized IT services companies

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How much of the story is the grind?

Storytelling is a wonderful thing. But sometimes it can be a bad thing. Stories of product success. Stories of startup success. These come with an extra dose of “special effects”. Unfortunately, such stories can be misleading. And sometimes, misdirect those who are building. Usually what’s missing from these stories is the grind. Just like Bollywood or Hollywood movies. All the

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The art of customer listening

You will often come across this ‘wisdom’. If you are a founder or CEO you must always be selling. But this is a trap. Especially when you are building a new product. Or service. I fell in to this one myself. When I started my consulting business, it was all about me. It was all about what we could do.

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A Fresh(works) shot in the arm

It was a delight to read about the Freshworks IPO and listing on Nasdaq. For many SaaS founders and startups this will be a shot in the arm. Same for the India product ecosystem. Someone has actually been there and done that now. Incredible feat indeed by Girish Mathrubootham and team. It is also one of the less common examples

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Welcome to Firestarter for Intrapreneurs

What’s cooler? Being an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur? Both require ideas and execution. Both require initiative and creativity. Founders may have to do more with less. Intrapreneurs may have more. But they also need to manage a lot more. And still find ways to do it all. We certainly had the opportunity to meet and work with some cool entrepreneurs

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Just keep doing it

There is big difference between knowing and doing. For instance, everybody knows this. If you want stay healthy: Eat right Sleep enough Exercise regularly Simple, right? But how many do it? Everyone wants to, but most struggle. Billions are spent on solutions for each of those steps. We see the same thing. When it comes to product creation. And building

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