Author: Adam Thomas
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Helping product teams get better results by putting people first with adam thomas
How does the level of trust after a decision is made impact product teams (and other teams in your organization too)? How much waste might be happening in your organization because of cognitive biases and what are practical ways to avoid falling into the traps of these biases when it comes to decision making? We…
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Can common challenges in project management be solved through calculus?
Because the world moves so fast, product management is seldom a linear process. We can’t afford to let our thought processes be linear, either. Welcome to product calculus. Think back to your school days, and specifically math class. As you moved past arithmetic, you probably started your journey into advanced mathematics with algebra. As you…
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Use a premortem to predict the future
What if there were a way to figure out the problems that a project would encounter before you started work on it? With a premortem, you can do just that. If there is one constant we can count on, it’s that mistakes will happen. When we start a new project, though, that can be the…
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Should you hire a technical pm?
“We need to hire a technical PM.” I’m going to share a harsh truth here. No, you don’t. You need an architect, a project manager, or any number of jobs that directly speak to the problem you are facing. Your issue is that you haven’t defined that problem, and are more than likely listening to outside…
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You need to know when to fire a customer
We work so hard to build a customer base that we despair at the thought of ever losing one. But sometimes, your relationship has run its course, and it’s smarter to let them go. hen you build a product, you work so hard to attract those first customers. Cracking into a marketplace is difficult, and…
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Don’t let ego-driven development drive your product creation
An ego-driven development process is a recipe for failure. Make sure your focus is on the customers and not yourself. Too many times I’ve heard this: “I know what the customer wants.” Immediately, my brow furrows a bit, as I press for more answers. Usually, at this point, I ask, “How do you know?” What happens…
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How to onboard a product manager
So, you’ve made the hire. Congratulations — finding the right product manager who can help your team succeed is a huge burden off your shoulders. As a member of the welcoming committee, you well know that onboarding is extremely important to the success of your new colleague. Here are the stakes, according to Harvard Business Review (HBR):…
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3 common product operations pitfalls
Product operations (product ops), the product management discipline’s latest way to track and understand the inputs that drive product strategy, is important. Far too long companies have had it “easy” in product development accounting, as projects were often “done” when they were shipped, and the numbers were rarely investigated more than superficially after that point.…
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Great product managers leverage cognitive bias
All humans are susceptible to cognitive biases. As a product manager, your job involves turning those weaknesses into strengths for the team. roduct managers (PdM) don’t make anything. Well, at least they don’t in the traditional sense. When it comes to product development, the product manager, unless under duress due to a lack of resources, bad…
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How good product strategy makes decisions easier
Product development requires a team to make a host of decisions. Your strategy should make that decision-making process as easy as possible. Product strategy is hard. And let’s be clear: it should be. It’s a messy world out there, and strategy is all about trying to bring some order to that chaos. Like many things,…
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What exactly is a “full-stack product manager?”
What is a full-stack product manager? Well, I think we should start by breaking down both terms. Full-stack, in the tech sense, describes someone who is a jack-of-all-trades, but (generally) a master of none. You usually see this term on engineering teams, where job descriptions ask for “full-stack” candidates by requiring skills that are critical for…
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Identifying and addressing common biases in product management
Product management is “thinky” work. As a product person, you need to bring about organizational alignment through product strategy while also keeping things running smoothly with product operations. I don’t need to tell you this is a delicate balance. And without time to sit and think, you’ll end up making rash decisions based on your…
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Bluf your way to success – adam thomas on the product experience
BLUF Your Way to Success – Adam Thomas on The Product Experience The one thing every product person needs is a new acronym that comes from the military, and Adam Thomas is here to help. Sarcasm aside, Adam’s made good use of the BLUF technique: Bottom Line Up Front, a short template, clearly laying out…
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The adam thomas hypothesis: if you do research well it never feels like a waste of time
In this episode of the Product Science Podcast, we talk with Adam Thomas does to create a disciplined and clear approach to product research. Adam Thomas is a product manager with 10 years of experience as a “wartime” product person. As Director of Product at Informed, he built a product research and development practice from…
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Beware the tyranny of customer feedback
The customer is always right – right? This adage – one that many of us grew up with – is a guiding principle of product development. If we can just listen to the customer – if we just give them what we want, our path to product success can’t be too far off. Isn’t that…
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What is good documentation, anyway?
Is anyone reading what you are writing? This is a serious question and one you should be asking yourself regarding documentation. As product people, we act as the keepers of documentation throughout every stage of the product development process. We didn’t ask for the role, but since product’s principal job is to foster alignment, it’s…
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Building a better relationship between customer success and product
If I asked you about your relationship with your customer success team, what would you say? Whenever I ask product teams this question, I’m generally surprised by the answer: that there isn’t one. And if there is, it’s barely hanging on. Often, the relationship is very back and forth, with CS handing off customer problems…
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How to create a minimum viable product (without code!)
“I have an idea.” It’s the most dubious phrase that comes from our teams. Why? Because if they have enough pull, we can spend hours building an idea that makes sense to that person, or even internally, and do nothing to the marketplace. I’ve seen it a ton of times in my career, someone swears…
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Why you should exchange your epics for initiatives
So, it’s four weeks into a project, and you’re running into a few problems. First, your teams aren’t sure what resources they need to bring to bear. One engineer, for example, is now half-time after you’d have sworn you had her for a full six weeks. Second, no one is really sure about what this…
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[Lean] Building an internal growth process for your teams
Use these two tools to Lean on learning to get your teams ready to execute better each time they work I’ve seen my fair share of companies. As a former director of strategy for the incubator Cofound Harlem and a product strategist for the agency Philosophie, I’ve had the experience of keeping track of the…
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