Krishna Panicker

I would zoom out a bit. A/b testing is just a side effect of following a scientific approach to building a business and product. Not everything I worked on at Booking.com was an a/b test. We still needed to find a way to validate each hypothesis. Still don’t copy Booking’s playbook blindly. There are more nuances that make this approach successful. Your business might be operating under different constraints and context that requires a different playbook.

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There are a lot of newsletters out there, but the Product Leadership Essentials newsletter is your monthly guide to building up your product leadership skills. Subscribe and join and get the latest news and top tips sent straight to your inbox. 📩

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Last night I was on a panel about product coaching hosted by The Product Group London. When Asomi Ithia invited me to participate, in my head I was thinking "Really? Who wants to hear anyone talk about this?". I find it interesting, but that's only because it's how I spend my time. Surely no one else cares, right? But I went along because I got to spend time with fellow panelists Phil Hornby, Marton Gaspar He/Him and Evie Brockwell who are some of my favorite London product people. And let's face it, I'm a bit of a homebody, so Asomi's invitation gave me the perfect excuse to get out of the house. 🤭 My assumption that it would be a boring conversation was completely wrong. There was so much interest in the topic that we WAY overran our time and got kicked out by our hosts (thank you Cleo for hosting, I have office envy!). We covered topics like: ▶️ What's the value of product coaching vs mentoring? ▶️ What kinds of things can you work on with a product coach? ▶️ How do you find the right product coach? ▶️ How do you make the most of the relationship? ▶️ Is product coaching right for everyone? ▶️ How do I get my manager to coach me? And then of course there were a few cheeky coaching requests in disguise...."I have a friend with issue X, how would you coach them?". Sure, a friend, wink wink. The room was mostly full of individual contributor PMs. So my message today is really to every manager out there. ❗ Your team is looking for more support than you're giving them. If you don't know how to provide that, I encourage you go get your own coach. When we upskill ourselves, we improve the performance of the entire team. Thanks again for inviting me to participate Asomi! --- P.S. - if you're London-based, and you haven't been to The Product Group London event yet, I highly recommend you check them out. The format is quite different to other meet-ups, and is facilitated in such a way that 150 of your peers feel like friends after just one event. Fab job Asomi and @rgcrook. Keep an eye here for the next event: https://lnkd.in/eeuX-bV8

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Last night at ProductTank London we heard from 4 different speakers on the topic of Product Culture. My key takeaway is this... 'Good' product culture lacks definition. You might read about the importance of product culture, or ask about it when interviewing. You may even try to evaluate how good or bad the product culture is at your company. But here's the bottom line: product culture 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 something that you'll usually find written down, like you would a strategy, a roadmap, or a vision. Hearing someone describe it will inherently be biased. Product culture is the shared values, beliefs, behaviours, and practices that shape a team, org, or company's identity. It changes when you change your beliefs, behaviours, and practices. Not satisfied with the product culture at your company? You're more empowered to change it than you might think. How have you gone about improving product culture at your company?

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The are just a few spots left for me 2h masterclass Essential Coaching Skills for Product Leaders, which I'll be offering to both US and UK/EU time zones. Pick the option that suits you and we'll go from there. My masterclass will aim to answer these three core questions: - What do we mean by “coaching”? - How can a coaching approach change your leadership style? - What is it about asking open-ended questions that make all the difference? The course is a mix of theory and practice, giving everyone an opportunity to put your learnings into practice. If you have any other questions, just drop me a DM and I'll be happy to have a chat.

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August’s Product Group London saw the group discuss Product Frameworks as the topic of the night alongside an insightful conversation with Randeep Sidhu, Healthtech Product Leader. • Product Frameworks – most people use product frameworks and find them (somewhat) useful (✅). What product frameworks is clear (✅). But from here the conversation varied with positives such as frameworks creating a consistent approach; helping align around a common language; providing a process to follow and guardrails; being repeatable, and supporting stakeholder engagement. And some negatives such as frameworks being useful when setting out, but losing their value as the team/individual become more experienced; causing confusion and wasting valuable time as they need to be explained, and reducing in value as they are customised. Plus, there were a few soundings about there potentially being too many frameworks! Sometimes at the end of an event there is a leaning in a particular direction, this one felt a bit more inconclusive – maybe we need a framework to help us decide J! • Randeep Sidhu – starting with details of his early career in education and consulting, Randeep then took us on a journey through his time working on the UK Covid app. A pressurised time, at the height of the pandemic, when he used Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to uncover unmet needs in the UK population and deliver a new app in 6 weeks. He also talked about his broader healthtech experiences around the world and give us a bit of an insight into his advisory work for Aviva (congrats on this recent appointment 👏), NHS Business Services Authority, Terrence Higgins Trust and the London Transport Museum. In particular, how working with these organisations enables him to use his digital skills and knowledge to support their work and have impact in areas that he really cares about. Thank you Randeep Sidhu 🙏. Thanks to everyone who came and engaged in the discussions 🙏. Thanks to Aspire 🙏 for hosting us and providing the refreshments. See you on 5th Sept! #tpglondon #prodmgmt #productmanagement #productframeworks

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It's wild to see how many product teams still "performing activities" rather than realizing business outcomes. And even if you're a PM who feels the need to "perform work" (so that you won't lose your job), helping move forward your business can protect, well, you and your team! Go attend Matt LeMay's webinar tomorrow! On impact-first product work.

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The Product role is changing…. Recently I hear product teams talking as much about preparing business cases as PRDs. 🤔 I think this is driven by a) CEOs looking to better align with technical teams on business objectives and b) product teams becoming more commercially savvy.  Both are positive moves.  Learning to navigate a P&L early is a sensible move.

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Should you only hire PMs and Product Leaders with relevant industry experience? We recently explored this question with Oliver Armstrong, a highly respected product leader. Industry experience is advantageous for a mature product that needs to evolve incrementally. However, a start-up looking to revolutionize a stale industry needs to question the assumptions that prevent industry insiders from being able to leapfrog their current generation of products. As a product leader, it's easy to rely on industry assumptions and limitations when considering your product. To truly innovate and create something groundbreaking, you must approach your work with a Zen-style "Beginner's Mind" and use first-principles thinking to understand your customers' needs. A "Beginner's Mind" in Zen Buddhism refers to openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even at an advanced level. This mindset is crucial for PMs tasked with innovation. It involves shedding preconceived notions and viewing the product landscape afresh like a novice. However, shedding years of conditioning takes much work. First-principles thinking is another powerful tool for product innovation. This means breaking down complex problems into their most basic components and building up from there. Instead of relying on analogies or existing solutions, start from scratch and consider what your customers need. What are their goals and pain points? What would an ideal solution look like, regardless of current availability? Key recommendations: 1️⃣ Question Basic Assumptions: Challenge the fundamental truths in your industry. Ask questions like, "Why are things done this way?" and "What if they were done differently?" This can uncover new paths for innovation. 2️⃣ Go to the Root: Strip down problems to their most basic elements. Instead of building on what’s already there, reassemble from the ground up using these fundamental truths. This helps identify and solve the correct problems. 3️⃣ Leverage Broad Learning: Draw on knowledge from diverse fields. Cross-pollinating ideas from different disciplines can spark unique solutions that a deep dive into a single field might miss. 4️⃣ Embrace Failure as a Teacher: Innovation involves risk and potential failure. Every setback is a lesson. You either win or you learn; when you learn, you win. 5️⃣ Stay Customer-Focused: Constantly engage with and learn from your customers. Their needs and feedback will lead to insights that redefine product boundaries. By approaching your work with a "Beginner's Mind" and using first-principles thinking, you can break free from industry limitations and create truly innovative products that meet your customers' needs in new and better ways. If you are hiring for the product team and looking for innovation, drop the industry experience requirement. It might hurt more than help. #productmanagement #innovation #start-ups #firstprinciples

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Recently I've noticed that some of the product leaders I've coached have been facing some real challenges when it comes to giving feedback to their team members. It's not that they're short on things to say; rather, they're hesitant to dive into those tough, human conversations with someone they work with. Their reasons for avoiding these challenging discussions run the gamut, from operational concerns to deeply personal fears: "I don’t have time." "We work remotely, and I prefer face-to-face conversations." "What if I’m wrong? I don’t want to hurt my team members' feelings." Giving feedback can be uncomfortable at times. But as a manager, you have to remember that it's part of your job to help your team members grow and develop. So it may be uncomfortable, but at the end of the day, we need to MAKE time and get it done. I've written more in my blog, it's linked in the comments below. ⬇️

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What Makes a Good Product Market Fit Metric? PMF = “time to start building scalable acquisition channels” There are many definitions of product market fit: → Product market fit is your NPS score → Product market fit is when 40% of your users would be “very disappointed” if they no longer have access to your product → Product market fit is a feeling → You need a good distribution channel to have product market fit → … and the list goes on But while choosing the metrics for their startups, founders often miss asking an important question: 'What makes a good product-market fit metric? I always suggest that... Prior to product market fit, you should be focused on making the product better for your existing users. When a product has “product market fit”, it means that the product is good enough to start shifting focus from improving the product to growing distribution channels. If you distribute a product that isn’t great, even if you are able to get a lot of initial users, a few months down the road your user base won’t grow significantly or may even decline. So, you can also think of product market fit as “time to start building scalable acquisition channels”. A good product market fit metric will have a low rate of false positives and false negatives. It won’t tell you that you should start distributing when your product isn’t good enough, and it won’t tell you that you shouldn’t start distributing when it is good enough. The risk with false positives is that you work on distribution when you should be working on making the product better, which results in wasted distribution efforts due to churned users. The risk of false negatives is that you don’t work on distribution early enough to compete with competitors or meet goals needed to raise your next round before you run out of runway. To summarize, a good product market fit metric: → Will tell you when the product is good enough to work acquisition channels → Minimizes false positives - won’t tell you to work on acquisition channels when the product needs more improvement → Minimizes false negatives - will tell you to on acquisition channels as soon as the product is good enough, to maximize growth You can use these points to evaluate the other definition of product market fit. 1️⃣ NPS and Growth Net Promoter Score (NPS) is often used to gauge product-market fit, but it has limitations. While some of the world’s biggest tech companies have poor NPS, they still manage to grow to millions or even billions of users. This highlights a major issue with using NPS as a product-market fit metric: it can lead to both false positives and false negatives. Just because a product has a low NPS doesn’t mean it can’t achieve massive growth, and vice versa. We have shared a detailed writeup on same topic, in our venture curator newsletter. Check out here: https://lnkd.in/dJgcdwqR . #startups #venturecapital #funding #founders #startuptips #fund #angelinvestors #vc

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One of the major things we hear at SchoolforProductManagement is product managers having “imposter syndrome” at their jobs but have we ever asked ourselves why? Here are a few reasons I believe that happens 1. You never really did learn cross functional collaboration so you found yourself leading teams and you have no idea how those teams operate, think or work yet you’re trying to make decisions that affect them. 2. Due to the first point, your confidence isn’t at par and so you are not very certain of your decisions. 3. Stakeholders hold you by your words and sometimes they don’t because they believe their ideas are better . These amongst many others could resort to imposter syndrome. However, this is what the team at SchoolforProductManagement is trying to help solve! Building a curriculum and learning pattern that ensures that you play your role as a product manager understanding what should be done pertime. Our classes kick off 11th January 2025! Less than 19 weeks away… enroll now as our seats are limited.

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Thanks to the Intelligent People team for keeping this amazing schema running. Working with a diverse palette of product leaders over the past year has been extremely enriching. I'm eagerly looking forward to continuing this journey and meeting more inspiring leaders! Are you a product person (IC, leaders...) looking for some support, a sparring partner or just an external view to help you in your job or product career? The Intelligent People Mentorship program hosts a large number of top-notch CPOs who're ready to help ! #productmanagement #mentorship #productleadership

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Lenny Rachitsky I listened to your amazing podcast with Todd Jackson about product market fit. The 4P framework ( persona, problem, is amazing. All the benchmarks, strategies, and tactics that Todd Jackson shared are spot on. Recently, Sequoia Capital put out a solid framework, the ARC Product Market Fit Framework for Hair On Fire, Hard Fact, and Future Vision. When I combine these two, 4P relates well with the Hair on Fire category of the products. I wonder how the 4P framework would work with the products' Hard Fact and Future Vision categories. Lenny Rachitsky Todd Jackson I wish I could hear more about PMF in the Hard Fact and Future Vision categories. For rest, These are amazing content about #productmanagement, #productmarket fit, #startups Here are links: 1. This is the link to the entire podcast: https://lnkd.in/eTX5tGtE 2. This is where the 4P description starts: https://lnkd.in/eTX5tGtE 3. This is the link to the ARC Product Market Fit podcast. https://lnkd.in/ezprPT-Q

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As a Product Manager… One of your most important relationships will be the one you share with your UX team… We as product managers often fall into the trap of viewing product solely through our own perspective… UX allows us (if not forces us) to view product through the lens of the user… UX toolkits and ceremonies provide us with an efficient and effective means to ensure we are meeting our users’ needs by providing us with critical user informed feedback loops that will ultimately serve to make our products more ‘correct’ and successful… #ProductManagement #FeedbackLoop #UserExperience

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🍭 A TREAT to chat with Sean Flaherty and Paul Gebel at Product Collective's #NYPC last month! 💡 TWO key takeaways around the value of product operations: 1️⃣ *Enables* PMs to make faster and better-quality decisions 2️⃣ Helps PMs focus on the things they were hired to do: deliver value, focus on customer needs, and drive revenue💰 💴 💲 #INDUSTRYConf #productmanagement #productops

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