Nathan Broslawsky

A successful systems design and delivery strategy begins by assuming that change is likely the only constant. Be adaptable, or fail.

2

> you always have a strategy, even if it is implicit and not written down. Writing helps you sharpen it, have a shared understanding. > one of the simplest yet most powerful things you can do, is to write your strategy down.

50

4 Comments

Check yourself before you wreck a product manager’s career. Is a PM on your team struggling? Before writing them off, take a look at systemic issues. This isn’t just about fairness; it is essential to ensure you aren’t going to repeat the same problem with your next hire. Some organizational issues to watch out for include: * Is the PM role clearly defined and understood in your org? * Does the PM have the resources they need to execute effectively? * Has the PM received enough support as they ramped up? * Does your org communicate effectively across departments? * Do you have clear product-market fit, or are you still searching? And some tough questions to ask yourself: * Have you put in the time to establish a relationship with the PM? * Have you made it safe to come to you with problems and questions? * Were you clear about what it takes to succeed on your team? * Have you provided the air cover they need to make tough calls? If you answered 'no' to many of these questions, consider whether the issues you observe in a PM’s performance may actually be symptoms of more fundamental organizational problems. (Check back in the comments soon for a longer article on this topic.)

16

1 Comment

A critical mistake many product managers make is getting too wrapped up in the tactical aspects of Agile and feature prioritization. While these are important, neglecting strategic skills like user research and vision development can limit your impact and career growth. Focus on what truly matters to elevate your product and your career.

29

6 Comments

I have worked with Karyn in the past and have seen the impact she can make through her thoughtful facilitation. Are you interested in how you could leverage systems thinking to scale innovation in complex product development organizations? Worth the read!

4

1 Comment

My biggest fear as a product manager are Friday afternoon code deployments. 😄 Kidding (but really, please don’t). My actual biggest fear is that I’m not driving the value my teams and customers need from me. 🔗 As product managers, our job is to drive value for our product’s teams and customers. We aren’t necessarily the people who deliver the tangible results that our peers and customers see – a lot of what we do is traditionally “behind the scenes” work. It makes sense, product management is often seen as the bridge between business and technology, customers and solutions, etc. 💡 That’s where a lot of my fear comes from. I’ve felt it the first day I served as a product manager, I still feel it over a decade later even with a list of achievements saying otherwise. But fortunately, I’ve had the opportunity to work with coaches and mentors in the product space, each of which assure me that the feeling is normal. I recently had a conversation with a product manager from the MAANG space; several more years of experience than I and an even longer list of achievements. He, too, still holds a fear that he may not be driving value. But, he counters that fear with a few affirmations like these: “I am the reason my developers know what to build and why it matters.” “I am the reason my marketing and sales teams know who the product is for and how to engage them.” “I am the reason my product is solving a problem that people in my space want to solve in the first place.” 💭 Today, I still use affirmations to overcome my fears. They remind me that fear is “False Evidence Appearing Real.” What are you most afraid of as a product manager? How do you face your fear and overcome it? #productmanagement #productmanagers #impostersyndrome #fear #affirmations

3

Dealing with ***very*** surprising changes will be your most important skill in the next 5 years. As product managers, we often encounter unexpected changes that can disrupt our well-laid plans. Whether it's a feature redesign, shifting priorities, or unforeseen challenges, how we respond can make or break our projects. Here are a few key questions to ask yourself when faced with such situations: How flexible is my current plan? What are the top priorities right now? How can I communicate changes effectively to my team? What steps can I take to adapt quickly and efficiently? How do you handle unexpected changes in your projects? Share your experiences. #productmanager #Agile #projectplanning #adaptability #productdevelopment #leadershiplessons #productor

12

5 Comments

“If there is no clear owner, then it’s the PM that owns it.” I sat down with Esteban Contreras from #ProductState to discuss Product leadership, or Prioritization process at Productboard. We also dug into the concept of Extreme Ownership, which is a principle I firmly believe in. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eVN47mWn #productmanagement #productexcellence #ownership

59

4 Comments

Having examined the careers of 1,000+ product managers, I find five "hidden" roadblocks that surprised these talented folks: 1. Being Stuck in Non-Product Land: Many find themselves in environments prioritizing outputs over outcomes, stifling essential skills development like customer insight and strategic vision. 2. Getting Known Only for Execution: Excelling in execution can, unfortunately, pigeonhole you into more of the same, preventing you from taking on more strategic roles that drive significant impact. 3. The Comparison Trap: Comparing your career to others can be detrimental. Each journey is unique, and focusing on your own path and progress is vital. 4. The Upper Limit Problem: This psychological barrier where you subconsciously limit your success can significantly hinder you. Recognizing and pushing beyond your internal limits is key to achieving greater career heights. 5. Extreme Manager Dependence: Relying too much on your manager for career progression can leave you passive in your own career development. Taking ownership and advocating for yourself is essential. Remember, your career is your story to write. Inspire your teams and stakeholders by transforming your environment and narrative. If you're stuck in a less product-led role, find ways to steer towards a more outcome-focused approach. Share your vision, and slowly shift the culture around you. If you would like to see an entire video that discusses these findings in depth, please comment "video," and I will send you the link.

28

3 Comments

After a year of work my book Building A Startup - A Primer For The Individual Contributor is finally available! https://lnkd.in/erThxvpP If you’re working in or around startups as an IC or technical leader this book is for you. It’s based on 20 years of startup work and will help set you up for success to do more with less, move faster and more correct, and spend more time building features and product people love and less time banging your head at roadblocks and bottlenecks.

115

12 Comments

Product Rockstars in tech....It's not about strategy. It's not about frameworks. To play big...it's about the soft skills. Yep....your EQ is critical to level up and lead. You need to master the human side of work.  Treating people with respect Understanding how to communicate Executive presence Managing politics (yep...,I said it) Treating people as human beings To level up in the world of tech....it's about the human game. #productmanagement #techleaders #womenintech Are you ready to level up into leadership? Are you ready to learn how to play the human game? Respond with 'yes' and I'll send you my E-Book on The Next Generation of Leadership in Product

1

Alistair Gray gave a great talk at Write The Docs Portland, going into detail about our investment in Internal Docs at Stripe. He breaks down our thoughts about issues of fragmentation, discoverability, and document quality - and how we’ve tried to build great tools to improve the state of internal docs at Stripe across all of these axes. In Q&A, he touches on an important theme which is essentially “how do we convince engineers to use the tooling we build.” The answer really boils down to “ruthlessly build what engineers want” while maintaining our core primitives (eg, ownership, doc quality) that we know are vital to the health of Stripe’s knowledge base all-up. Let me know if y’all have any questions - happy to expand more on these themes! https://lnkd.in/em4QRFmH

26

Great article by Ray Carnes. In my 20+ years in the software industry I've seen companies learn and relearn the basics again and again because each generation of leaders think things are "different this time" because of such and such technology. The frameworks, platforms, underlying technology changes but the principles and foundations are still the same. #softwareengineering

20

3 Comments

Sometimes I get asked why as someone in the design and product areas I end up referring so much about remote work (in terms of policies) and async work (in terms of operations). It's often a matter of leverage, and this of course has more impact the larger the company is. For example, shifting design critique from calls (doesn't scale, creates silos, verbal feedback is not precise, conversations can tail easily) to async posts means automatically documenting decisions, have a clear log of feedback that can be analyzed, have space for tail discussions that can happen, opens up to the whole company. One operational change becomes the conduit for a massive gain in terms of quality of the work, time saved, documentation, and transparency. So if I have to choose... sometimes I end up focusing more on these changes in processes that are universal across the company more than a smaller change that is design specific. It's just more efficient and reaps major advantages.

58

2 Comments

I rarely post on LinkedIn, but I'm curious to find some folks to chat with about some ideas for an Enterprise Product Management product. My thesis is that the current suite of tools do not do a sufficient job providing features for managing sprawling, complex suites of products + product lines that mature tech organizations maintain. Most PM products are geared toward startups and smaller companies with simpler products, but few tools help PMs and other leaders manage the sprawling complexity of a situation like 30 products over 6 product lines, 14 industry solutions, and components from a dozen acquisitions. Let me know if you'd be down to chat for 20 minutes one day about it!

23

2 Comments

I like this sentiment and I think it points to psychological safety, but not in a way that we normally think of. People think of psychological safety in terms of inside teams or within reporting structures. Product management is a great example of cross-organizational leadership through influence and persuasion rather than direct managerial control. If you don't make people comfortable raising concerns you will definitely not get the outcomes you expect. Psychological safety seems like such a heavy term, but there are subtle, small things that can make people withdraw, and as John says, people have long memories.

4

If you are ever wondering if you are in a product-led environment or not, ask yourself this one thing: Are you given outputs to deliver or outcomes to achieve? [Hat tip to Marty Cagan] On a feature team, you're given a roadmap. 🗺️ You design, build, test, deploy. You're given dates and timeframes. The goal? Deliver output. But here's the catch. 🎣 Output is easier to deliver than outcomes. And let's be real - Product Managers in a feature team? Might as well be called Program Managers. Now consider an empowered product team. 💪 They're given problems to solve. The measure isn't just shipping the product. It's about solving the problem. Strong product companies get it. 🎯 It's all about outcomes. No points for just shipping. Points for delivering value.

74

5 Comments

📣 Product Folks: 😡 Have you and your team hit the wall with trying to focus on value? That *could* look like: ▶ No steady stream of data to inform strategy, prioritization + roadmaps ▶ Stakeholder misalignment ▶ Competing priorities ▶ Duplicative or overlapping work streams 🤓 Are you ready to put Product Operations into practice at your company? Join me for Produx Labs' Product Operations June 5 Masterclass! Snag your seat today. https://lnkd.in/ephFvTwf #productmanagement #productops

4