Foundations

Dafrink says there are 4 fundemental concepts in product mangement and product orgs, with each one building upon the previous:

1. Strategy: You and your org knows whether you are (a) optimising something that people already want, (b) still looking for solution to a users problem or (c) you are looking for a problem.
2. Cadence: The speed at which you can test and (in)validate hypthosis
3. Empathy: Your ability to understand your users, their jobs/problems/life
4. Design: Your ability to design something that helps them

Most failures come from (1). People flogging a dead horse, or adding features that slowly kill a great product. The entire way you operate is determined by the stage of which your product is at. Initial user reasearch, cast-the-net MVPs and optimising a funnel to a north-star all have different set of tools and skills required to optimise success.

You need to be honest with yourself and shout it from the rooftops if your org is ignoring where your really at - as your doomed to a slow failure.

Cadence is something everyone is familiar with - but sometimes its hard to see the forest for the trees. Its tempting to feel cadence is the speed at which devs work. But cadence is the speed at which a hypothisis is prooven/disprooven. Dafrink has seen big projects finish and celebrated without move the needle slightly or allowing us to learn anything. And seen amazing PMs killing an idea or prooving it before it even becomes a software feature.

Have a definition of success before you start something, and ensure whatever it is your doing it meets this definition or not. This goes for all stages, though how you go about it differs drastically.

Empathy & design are our bread and butter. No need to explain it here. Its why most of us do what we do and its what makes great products. But the they sit atop the foundations of 1 & 2. There is no escaping it. A lot of our effort is wasted due to not understanding strategy and cadence, to the detriment of our ability to make great products.