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Jock Busuttil publishes articles regularly on I Manage Products, a blog for product people to learn about product management from the ground up.
PRODUCTHEAD is a newsletter of the best articles, videos and podcasts from product leaders and commentators all over the world, curated by Jock Busuttil. All neatly packaged up in a regular email delivery for your reading, viewing and listening pleasure.
- PRODUCTHEAD: The backlash against the Spotify Modelby Jock Busuttil on Monday, 14th October 2024
» The Spotify Model was only ever a snapshot in time at Spotify » It existed in the context of a company whose leadership valued trust, self-organisation and change » As Spotify grew, it failed to strike the right balance between autonomy and collaboration » Alignment to product strategy remains crucial for autonomous teams to deliver valuable work
- PRODUCTHEAD: Ways to structure your team for efficiencyby Jock Busuttil on Monday, 7th October 2024
» Rather than existing in a bubble, each product team should have core members, collaborators and supporters » How you should divide up teams depends on your product’s overall flow; avoid ambiguous ownership » Teams should have end-to-end responsibility for a part of the user journey with minimal dependencies » One approach is to delineate between teams working on a core problem domain, and on those enabling their work
- PRODUCTHEAD: In a flat spin from a failed product launchby Jock Busuttil on Monday, 30th September 2024
» Sonos is working through a major user backlash after launching a flawed app » Pressure from senior management forced the launch to happen before it was ready » Tips for recognising and managing tension as a product manager » Round-up of lessons learned from failed product launches
- PRODUCTHEAD: Coding in the openby Jock Busuttil on Monday, 23rd September 2024
» A common misconception is that openly sharing code presents security risks » Keeping code open clarifies ownership and can avoid vendor lock-in
- PRODUCTHEAD: What is a product? What is a service?by Jock Busuttil on Monday, 16th September 2024
» Services are best identified as verbs rather than nouns » You cannot have services without products, nor products without services » A service is something that helps someone to do something
- The power of openby Jock Busuttil on Wednesday, 11th September 2024
4 valuable product and culture lessons from the UK’s government digital teams. This was a talk I gave for Product People in September 2024.
- PRODUCTHEAD: Deconstructing Duolingo’s growthby Jock Busuttil on Monday, 9th September 2024
» Dissect your monolithic metrics to drive growth in more easily influenced segments » Don’t kill the golden goose of growth by oversaturating a channel » If growth is your goal, have a sense of urgency
- PRODUCTHEAD: Trust in photos is dead and goneby Jock Busuttil on Monday, 2nd September 2024
» Sarah Jeong on why the Pixel 9’s Reimagine feature is the final nail in the coffin for trust in photos » 9 Sept: I’m giving a talk for Product People on lessons about org culture
- PRODUCTHEAD: When Sales ask for stuffby Jock Busuttil on Monday, 12th August 2024
» Knowing what kinds of customer you want and don’t want help you to prioritise ‘one-off’ feature requests from sales » “Enterprise customers look at our roadmaps as the starting point for negotiations” » Are feature requests a deliberate strategy or a reactive wild goose chase?
- PRODUCTHEAD: Wicked problemsby Jock Busuttil on Monday, 5th August 2024
» The uncertainty of a problem should influence how we respond to it » Misdiagnosis of a problem can compound it » We frame our solutions through the lens of our social predisposition » Wicked problems can only be addressed by collaboration between different social types
- PRODUCTHEAD: Spheres of influence and buy-inby Jock Busuttil on Monday, 29th July 2024
» The only thing you can truly control in life is yourself » Securing buy-in is meaningless if you let people go back on their agreement without challenge
- PRODUCTHEAD: Context changes everythingby Jock Busuttil on Monday, 22nd July 2024
» At C-level, focus more on “what’s in it for you” and less on “here’s what I need” » Get your strategy, priorities, risk-taking heuristics, and goals straight, and treat allocation as a hypothesis