This post is part of a series about making better product decisions. You probably estimate every day. How long will it take to build a given feature? What impact will it have on your customer base? How will it impact business outcomes? It’s too bad you probably aren’t very good at it. Don’t worry. You aren’t […]
How the 10/10/10 Rule can Lead to Better Product Decisions
This post is part of a series about making better product decisions. Three customers are at risk today. You don’t have a feature they want and your sales team is concerned they will switch to your competitor’s product who does have the requested feature. What do you do? You’ve done your homework. You know that many […]
How to Write Product Requirements Iteratively
You have an idea. You write it down. Maybe you sketch it on a white board. You talk to some engineers. You write user stories. And away you go. You start building. That sounds right. Isn’t that what we are all doing? It’s what many of you are doing. And it’s exactly why your requirements […]
The Awful World of Email Deliverability
It’s not enough to just design a good email template. You also have to put in the work to make sure your email gets delivered. Fortunately, there are a lot of great services to help make this happen. Understand Email Deliverability First, let’s go over how your email gets delivered. This is going to be […]
Designing Product Emails That Convert
We’ve already established that sending product emails is absolutely necessary. So let’s take a look at how to design product emails that convert. After all, ineffective product emails aren’t much better than not sending product emails at all. Start With a Great Template I like to start with a good email template. There are a number […]
Are you sending enough email to your users?
I know. Email is dead. Everyone is Facebook messaging, texting, and tweeting instead. So why am I asking about email? Because when it comes to products, email is far from dead. I’m not going to beat a dead horse. Lots of people have written about this. Instead, I’m going to focus on why building email outreach into […]
Be Truthful, Be Concise, Be Relevant, Be Clear
Whether it’s dashing off a quick email or laboring over user stories, how you communicate can have a big impact on the outcomes you drive. Writing well is a critical product skill that you should deliberately practice. As an undergraduate, I learned about Paul Grice’s maxims for effective communication. While Grice’s version was ironically more […]
Why Ignoring Bugs Will Make Your Product Better
Do you have a bug management system with thousands of bugs? Do you have meetings to review high priority bugs? Do you argue over how to use priority and severity? Why? Bug management is a waste of time. Bugs fall into three categories: Bugs that need to interrupt work. These are urgent bugs. You don’t […]
