Looking Back, Leaping Forward: 2023 Retrospective
In the last episode of 2024, I go through a retrospective of the show for 2023, and share some of my plans for 2024.
A few stats, lessons learned, things that went well and went badly, and then a sneak peek into what I’m planning for 2024.
2023 recap
I released a total of 34 episodes, including seven reruns. Five of the episodes were interviews.
I introduced some interesting new topics like anti-fragility and the PRD as the product bible. Both of those need more coverage in 2024!
As well, of course, the show continued (and will continue) to hit on all the old favorites like storytelling, go to market, psychological safety and basic product management skills.
Stats & achievements

* My monthly downloads almost doubled since mid-2022.
* The best month hit 2,481 downloads.
* My most popular episode reached 320 downloads in the first 30 days.

Challenges

* Some of the usual suspects – consistency, content ideas, all that stuff. (It’s a creative endeavor, and so creative blocks are gonna happen, I don’t care who you are!)
* And then there were indeed a few technical challenges, including one interview I recorded where half the recording disappeared at one point. Luckily, I was recording it with another tool as well, so I think I’ll be able to save it.
* ChatGPT was not the helper I thought it would be (although it did contribute a lot to these show notes, based on the transcript of the episode).

Looking ahead to 2024
Expect a higher ratio of interviews in 2024. As I mentioned, I only did five interviews in 2023. I expect that to go way up. This is both to widen the content because (haha!) I don’t know everything. And also to widen the audience because a lot of folks have audiences that would be interested in what we do here on the podcast. And I want to get that out to them.
I plan to explore the Descript tool further and ramp up the marketing side of the podcast.
My goal for the year is 52 episodes, although not all new. I don’t know why this wouldn’t be possible.
Content goals

I will continue exploring go-to-market strategies, getting jobs, being mentally successful in product management. And some newer topics like AI (as I explore it for myself and report on what others are doing), the product bible concept, and anti-fragility, among other topics.
I’ll be working on “filling the well” in 2024, to help me have more ideas and insights to share. I’ve set a personal goal to read 24 books in 2024, 1/2 fiction, 1/2 business/non-fiction. Currently I’m reading User Stories Applied, by Mike Cohn. I rag on user stories a lot, so I thought it would be a good idea to read one of the original guides on how to write and use them.
Coaching episodes!

In 2024 I will be introducing coaching episodes where you, my listeners, can participate for guidance and learning.
Let me know if you’d like to get some coaching from me on some issue that you wouldn’t mind being shared to the world. It’ll be fun!
(I love the way Dallas Travers uses coaching in her podcast “Coaches On A Mission.” Adam Scheuble is another master of this on his podcast “Podcasting Business School.”)
Episodes I mentioned

*
Dan Balcauski on pricing in episodes 134 and 135.

* Evading “product management gatekeepers” in episo...

Welcome back Chris Butler!
My guest on this episode is Chris Butler, whom we first heard from in episode 107! It’s great to have him back, sharing some of his new projects since we last talked 18 months ago.
Chris is a self-described “chaotic good” product manager, as well as a prolific writer and speaker. His work focuses on helping product managers operate more effectively – helping teams make better, less biased decisions, and build new and innovative products. He has been a product leader at Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Cognizant, KAYAK, and Waze. He created techniques like Empathy Mapping for the Machine, Animistic Design Mapping, and Confusion Mapping to create cross-team alignment while building AI products.
I first met Chris in a product manager meetup, and then I happened to watch his amazing video on Adversarial Product Management, the topic of his previous appearance on this podcast.
Some of what we cover in this episode:

* Why meetings are actually good and other insights from the Uncertainty Project.
* A new way to think about strategy
* Concrete ways that AI might change our lives, and his futurist work with the Near Future Laboratory

Links

* Connect with Chris on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbu/
* Check out the Uncertainty Project, which Chris co-founded.
* The Near Future Laboratory, the inventor of “design fiction” and host of Chris’s “Employee Manual Design Fiction” project.
* A playlist of 120(!) of Chris’s videos on YouTube, including Adversarial Product Management, The Future of Meetings, and Decoding Decision Making in Product Management.
* We talked about complexity and complicatedness, using the Cynefin sense-making model. Worth watching this video series from Dave Snowden (inventor of Cynefin) to learn more.
* Wardley Mapping: An Intro To Wardley Maps (by Simon Wardley), Learn Wardley Mapping.

Welcome back Chris Butler!
My guest on this episode is Chris Butler, whom we first heard from in episode 107! It’s great to have him back, sharing some of his new projects since we last talked 18 months ago.
Chris is a self-described “chaotic good” product manager, as well as a prolific writer and speaker. His work focuses on helping product managers operate more effectively – helping teams make better, less biased decisions, and build new and innovative products. He has been a product leader at Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Cognizant, KAYAK, and Waze. He created techniques like Empathy Mapping for the Machine, Animistic Design Mapping, and Confusion Mapping to create cross-team alignment while building AI products.
I first met Chris in a product manager meetup,

This episode is a rerun of episode 323: The Secret Product Management Framework. Use that link to visit the show notes page.
This episode is a rerun of episode 323: The Secret Product Management Framework. Use that link to visit the show notes page.

Product Manager’s Guide To Cognitive Biases
That sounds funny, doesn’t it? I’m not giving you cognitive biases in this episode. I’m giving you information about cognitive biases so you can manage them better.
What’s a cognitive bias? According to Wikipedia: “A cognitive bias is a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment.”
Cognitive biases lead to bad decision making and other bad, or at least, non-rational outcomes. Knowing about them can help us manage them, because we all have them, even if we think we don’t. (The name for that is the “Blind Spot Bias” – which makes our own cognitive biases invisible to us.)
Links and resources

* Julia Galef’s TED talk about Soldier Mindset and Scout Mindset, Why You Think You’re Right, Even If You’re Wrong.
* Wikipedia articles on cognitive biases and the list of cognitive biases.
* Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahnemann, Nobel Prize-winning researcher, with Amos Tversky, who established many of the ideas around cognitive biases.
* Influence, by Robert Cialdini (and here’s a great podcast interview with him talking about the ideas in the book).
* The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us, by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons
* More info about Dr. Semelweiss (the play by Mark Rylance) and Dr. Semelweiss (the person – Wikipedia article).

Join my (free) weekly product management meetup
Every Friday morning at 8am Pacific time I and whoever shows up talk about topics like the ones I share in the podcast. The conversation is a lot of fun and full of insights.
If you’d like to join, go to the signup page at secretsofpm.com/meetup to get on the notification list and I’ll send you an email whenever we have one scheduled. I’d love to have you join.
 
Product Manager’s Guide To Cognitive Biases
That sounds funny, doesn’t it? I’m not giving you cognitive biases in this episode. I’m giving you information about cognitive biases so you can manage them better.
What’s a cognitive bias? According to Wikipedia: “A cognitive bias is a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment.”
Cognitive biases lead to bad decision making and other bad, or at least, non-rational outcomes. Knowing about them can help us manage them, because we all have them, even if we think we don’t. (The name for that is the “Blind Spot Bias” – which makes our own cognitive biases invisible to us.)
Links and resources

* Julia Galef’s TED talk about Soldier Mindset and Scout Mindset, Why You Think You’re Right, Even If You’re Wrong.
* Wikipedia articles on cognitive biases and the list...

Deconstructed storytelling can be your secret weapon
I talk about “telling a story” and “using stories” all the time on this podcast.
But I don’t mean sitting everyone around a campfire with a mug of hot chocolate and someone starting out “Once upon a time…”
“Storytelling” often doesn’t mean literally “telling a story” in the context of product management. It means using components of a story in specific ways to achieve certain results. To get there, you need to be able to deconstruct your story (or your customer’s story), and then remix.
In this episode, three examples of how using a component of a story can make a business presentation or a marketing campaign more persuasive, engaging, and effective.
Apple iPod billboard example
A whole story in one image. (And I didn’t mention in the episode, but they did it again – telling a story in an image – with their “Shot on iPhone” series of billboards.)

 
Links

* Previous episodes on storytelling:

* In episode 70 I go on at length about using stories in your go to market processes.
* Episode 71 continues the storytelling theme with “more proven secrets for brilliant storytelling.”
* Episode 61 is all about reducing your prospect’s perception of risk during the sales process, by pre-handling objections using customer stories and other techniques.
* 103: The Many Uses of A Customer Success Story


* Want to attend the Secrets of Product Management bi-weekly meetup? Get on the notification list.

Three things you can start doing today to put these ideas into practice

If you are thinking about or presenting about a technical feature, figure out how to personalize the impact of that feature. Or its lack. And then find a picture to illustrate that. The next time you present about that feature, use the picture and tell the personalized story. You can also put the picture in a PRD or a feature spec.
Remember that any problem has a personal impact, even a “business problem.” Someone will lose if that problem continues and isn’t solved. Conversely, someone will win if the problem is solved. And by win, I mean something important – like not getting fired! Or getting a promotion. When you’re doing discovery on one of these problems, make sure to ask questions that get at the personal impact. It could be as simple as asking, “How do you feel about that?” in the context of the problem. Or you could ask, “Is your job at risk if this problem keeps happening?” or “What happens to you and your colleagues if this problem isn’t fixed?”
Start paying attention to great marketing around you, and see if you can find the stories. Find the way the problem and/or the transformation is encoded and personalized in the marketing. They might be one picture. It might be a great headline. Or a combination.

What do you think?
If you want to help me out, and more importantly, help other product managers find and enjoy this podcast, please subscribe on your podcast system of choice. And consider giving me a review on iTunes or “starring” the episode on your player. It helps other people find the podcast, and makes me a little happier as well. I might even read your review in an upcoming episode.
If you have comments, questions, or complaints about this episode or the podcast, please leave a comment down below and I’ll get back to you immediately.

There are no rules that define who will make a great product manager
This episode was inspired by a “rant” (actually, a well-reasoned post) from Graham Reed on LinkedIn, and another post by Greg Prickril. Both were about the ridiculousness of the people posting nonsense and disinformation about product management and what it “really” is and who you have to be to be a successful product manager.
But the reality is that we know great product managers can come from any background – some were great developers, some couldn’t code their way out of a paper bag. Some started as business analysts, some as retail clerks, some as attorneys.
Links

* Graham Reed’s post on elitism in product management.
* Greg Prickril’s post on elitism and disinformation in product management (and his appearance on this podcast)
* My related post on LinkedIn on “What do a retail worker, a chef, and an art history major all have in common?” (Answer: They might all make great product managers.)
* A post from Andy Bowden that inspired the section about job descriptions.
* My episode about some of the characteristics of successful product managers.

My product manager meetup

* If you’d like to get on the notification list for my free weekly product manager meetup, go to https://secretsofpm.com/meetup.

Product Manager Grad School
Product Manager Grad School is a personalized tutorial and coaching program where you will learn and apply the types of power skills I talk about on this podcast – from storytelling and persuasion, to the Minimum Viable Product Knowledge that’s critical for successful go to market, to the specific tools you need to crush your day-to-day challenges.
I am 100% confident that this program will help you become a better, more confident product manager, and transform your career.
Go to pmgradschool.com to sign up for a free consultation call/coaching session.
 
There are no rules that define who will make a great product manager
This episode was inspired by a “rant” (actually, a well-reasoned post) from Graham Reed on LinkedIn, and another post by Greg Prickril. Both were about the ridiculousness of the people posting nonsense and disinformation about product management and what it “really” is and who you have to be to be a successful product manager.
But the reality is that we know great product managers can come from any background – some were great developers, some couldn’t code their way out of a paper bag. Some started as business analysts, some as retail clerks, some as attorneys.
Links

* Graham Reed’s post on elitism in product management.

Mental Models for Product Managers – fundamental tools for creating impact
Mental models are like tools in a toolbox. If you have only a few tools, you can only solve a few kinds of problems. Like the famous saying – If you only have a hammer, then you have to treat every problem as a nail. If you have a full toolbox you have a lot more flexibility and subtlety about how you can go after problems. And tools that aren’t quite up to the job is almost as bad as not having the right tools. You can’t fix a sink if you don’t have some plumbing tools.
What is a mental model?
“Any concept that helps explain, analyze, or navigate the world.”
I’d also add, specifically

* That helps you make better decisions
* That guides you on how to take better actions

We have some great mental models in product management. But we have not been doing a great job of using them to help us make better products. While I think a lot of us have intuitive ideas about “how to think about” product management, my observation is that these mental models are not as widely used as they should be.
Links

* Charlie Munger’s talk at USC Business School in 1994, where he talks about the “latticework” of mental models he and Warren Buffet use to make good investment decisions.
* Mental Models I Find Repeatedly Useful by Gabriel Weinberg.
* A list of cognitive biases.
* Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm where I got my version of the value proposition. I’ve written about value propositions at greater length in A Weak Value Proposition Is A Symptom, Not A Disease.
* Doug Hall’s Three Laws of Marketing Physics are from his excellent book Jumpstart Your Business Brain!
* My V.A.L.U.A.B.L.E. rubric for product requirements. I have a podcast episode all about it.
* Chip and Dan Heath’s book Decisive will help you make better decisions. The book is a great and entertaining read.
* My article 5 tips for when your release is running late, where I illustrate the 10/10/10 rule from Decisive.

My product manager meetup

* If you’d like to get on the notification list for my free weekly product manager meetup, go to https://secretsofpm.com/meetup.

Product Manager Grad School
This is a personalized tutorial and coaching program where you will learn and apply the types of power skills I talk about on this podcast – from storytelling and persuasion, to the Minimum Viable Product Knowledge that’s critical for successful go to market, to the specific tools you need to crush your day-to-day challenges.
I am 100% confident that this program will help you become a better, more confident product manager, and transform your career.

86: Data-Driven Product Management (Rerun)
This episode is a rerun of episode 86: Data-driven Product Management. Use that link to visit the show notes page.
86: Data-Driven Product Management (Rerun)
This episode is a rerun of episode 86: Data-driven Product Management. Use that link to visit the show notes page.

Antifragility is the word of the day!
The idea of antifragility kept coming up today and yesterday (more on that in the episode itself), so I thought I’d do a quick episode introducing the idea.
Antifragility is the quality of a system that it gets stronger when bad or unexpected things occur. It’s like a super-version of resilience or robustness.
The term was invented by Nicholas Nassim Taleb in his book Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder.
Links
I mentioned several other podcast episodes, both mine and others, as well as a video from Chris Butler, some of my blog posts, and a Farnam Street post from which I got the quotes from Antifragile.

* 107: Overcoming Biases Using Adversarial Product Management, with Chris Butler
* 109: Mehmet Baha On Psychological Safety
* 148: How To Improve Your Fundamental Product Management Skills
* 149: Product Bible Part 1 – PRDs Are Problematic
* 150: Product Bible Part 2 – What Is It?
* Science of Success podcast interview with Josh Kaufman, author of The Personal MBA.
* My blog posts about mental models for product managers: Part 1, Part 2. (Soon to be a podcast episode!)

My product manager meetup

* If you’d like to get on the notification list for my free weekly product manager meetup, go to https://secretsofpm.com/meetup.

 
 
 
 
Antifragility is the word of the day!
The idea of antifragility kept coming up today and yesterday (more on that in the episode itself), so I thought I’d do a quick episode introducing the idea.
Antifragility is the quality of a system that it gets stronger when bad or unexpected things occur. It’s like a super-version of resilience or robustness.
The term was invented by Nicholas Nassim Taleb in his book Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder.
Links
I mentioned several other podcast episodes, both mine and others, as well as a video from Chris Butler, some of my blog posts, and a Farnam Street post from which I got the quotes from Antifragile.

* 107: Overcoming Biases Using Adversarial Product Management, with Chris Butler
* 109: Mehmet Baha On Psychological Safety
* 148: How To Improve Your Fundamental Product Management Skills
* 149: ...

The Product Bible
In the previous episode I made a lot of complaints about PRDs, and then I made some claims that they could be better. In this episode, how you might actually make a better PRD.
(This might be me tilting at windmills!)
The overall argument

PRDs are problematic. They go stale. No one reads them. They are mainly (often) focused on the technical solution, and not on the fundamental problem a product is solving nor on how to take the solution to market.
But, there might be some things we can do.
To get to grips with that, let’s think about what we’re trying to accomplish, both with the PRD itself, and also overall with our product process.
Is there a way to accomplish more of what we want overall by improving the way we do PRDs, that will also make the PRDs themselves more valuable and more enduring?

More on the MVPK
I mention the Minimum Viable Product Knowledge in several podcast episodes, the most recent of which is #127, A Repeatable Sales Process And Why You Don’t Have One.
Support this podcast

* The easiest and best way to support the podcast is to leave me a comment or question, drop me a message or comment on one of my posts on LinkedIn, or just send me an email at nils@nilsdavis.com.
* You can also rate and review the podcast on Apple iTunes – that really helps others find it.
* And you can just share the podcast directly with your product manager friends – they’ll probably really appreciate it!

 
The Product Bible
In the previous episode I made a lot of complaints about PRDs, and then I made some claims that they could be better. In this episode, how you might actually make a better PRD.
(This might be me tilting at windmills!)
The overall argument

PRDs are problematic. They go stale. No one reads them. They are mainly (often) focused on the technical solution, and not on the fundamental problem a product is solving nor on how to take the solution to market.
But, there might be some things we can do.
To get to grips with that, let’s think about what we’re trying to accomplish, both with the PRD itself, and also overall with our product process.
Is there a way to accomplish more of what we want overall by improving the way we do PRDs, that will also make the PRDs themselves more valuable and more enduring?

More on the MVPK
I mention the Minimum Viable Product Knowledge in several podcast episodes, the most recent of which is #127, A Repeatable Sales Process And Why You Don’t Have One.
Support this podcast

* The easiest and best way to support the podcast is to leave me a comment or question, drop me a message or comment on one of my posts on LinkedIn, or just send me an email at nils@nilsdavis.com.
* You can also rate and review the podcast on Apple iTunes – that really helps others find it.

PRDs are problematic
Among other things, PRDs have problems like this:

* “They go stale fast”
* “No one reads them”
* “They are about what and not why”
* At the beginning of a real product effort, you have very high uncertainty
* There’s lots of experimentation
* What you know changes constantly
* They often don’t talk about the customer, the market problem we’re solving, why that market problem is worth solving, etc.

PRD problems and potential solutions
In this episode, I start a series about PRDs and how we can make them better. To start with: What’s wrong with PRDs?
Support this podcast

* The easiest and best way to support the podcast is to leave me a comment or question, or drop one into my Twitter mentions (I’m @nilsdavis), or just send me an email at nils@nilsdavis.com.
* You can also rate and review the podcast on Apple iTunes – that really helps others find it.
* And you can just share the podcast directly with your product manager friends – they’ll probably really appreciate it!

 
PRDs are problematic
Among other things, PRDs have problems like this:

* “They go stale fast”
* “No one reads them”
* “They are about what and not why”
* At the beginning of a real product effort, you have very high uncertainty
* There’s lots of experimentation
* What you know changes constantly
* They often don’t talk about the customer, the market problem we’re solving, why that market problem is worth solving, etc.

PRD problems and potential solutions
In this episode, I start a series about PRDs and how we can make them better. To start with: What’s wrong with PRDs?
Support this podcast

* The easiest and best way to support the podcast is to leave me a comment or question, or drop one into my Twitter mentions (I’m @nilsdavis), or just send me an email at nils@nilsdavis.com.
* You can also rate and review the podcast on Apple iTunes – that really helps others find it.
* And you can just share the podcast directly with your product manager friends – they’ll probably really appreciate it!

 

What’s the first skill you should teach a new product manager?
Carl Vellotti asked this question on LinkedIn a few months ago. (I can’t actually find the post, unfortunately.)
My answer was about learning to do inquiry – asking good questions. I’ve covered this on the podcast before, in episode 114: Great Questions for Market Discovery.
But of course, there are other skills, aptitudes, and characteristics that product managers need to be good (not even great – these are table stakes) at the job. And in this episode I share some of those, and how to get better at them.
Three things you can start doing today

* Take Ryan Gottfredson’s Mindset Assessment.
* I highly recommend taking the Clifton Strengthsfinder assessment (the link is to the book, which you buy to get the code to take the test) to find out your strengths. Once you’ve done that, check out Lisa Cummings’ Lead Through Strengths podcast for some guidance on how to use what you’ve learned.
* For an even more detailed assessment of your aptitudes, check out the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation’s two-day aptitude test. It’s pretty amazing and revealing – also not cheap at about $800. You have to do it in-person – unless they have a remote option now since the pandemic. In any case, put it on your wishlist for the future.

Even more stuff!
If you want to learn to tell your own stories better – make them more exciting, engaging, and persuasive – check out my online course on “Telling Your Own Stories.” Go to secretsofpm.com/masterclass to sign up.
I mentioned my book The Secret Product Manager Handbook in the episode. If you’d like to check that out (it’s pretty good!), you can find it on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle form.
I have a bi-weekly product manager meetup that I’d love to invite you to join. It’s Fridays at 8am Pacific time/11am Eastern time, and it’s free. Sign up to get on the notification list and I’ll send you an email reminding you one or two days before each meetup.
Support this podcast

* The easiest and best way to support the podcast is to leave me a comment or question, or drop one into my Twitter mentions (I’m @nilsdavis), or just send me an email at nils@nilsdavis.com.
* You can also rate and review the podcast on Apple iTunes – that really helps others find it.
* And you can just share the podcast directly with your product manager friends – they’ll probably really appreciate it!

 
What’s the first skill you should teach a new product manager?
Carl Vellotti asked this question on LinkedIn a few months ago. (I can’t actually find the post, unfortunately.)
My answer was about learning to do inquiry – asking good questions....

Manan Modi, author of The Startup Product Manager
My guest on this episode is Manan Modi, author of The Startup Product Manager, just published and available on Amazon.
Manan reached out to me as part of his go to market plan for his book  (good thinking, by the way!).
And I was intrigued by his focus on startups, which we cover in the episode.
He has some counterintuitive and provocative ideas about product management – and an interesting path in his own career which we get into.
Links

* The book, The Startup Product Manager on Amazon.
* Manan’s contact information: LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/manan-n-modi), his website (mananmodi.com)

My sponsors (i.e., me)

* My semi-weekly product manager meetup – get on the notification list at secretsofpm.com/meetup. The meetups are Friday mornings at 8am Pacific time. Get on the notification list to find out when the next one is!
* My online course “How To Ace The Behavioral Interview.” Most people – not just product managers – are terrible at telling their own stories. In this course I give you the tricks – which are seriously the same tricks that Hollywood movies use to keep you on the edge of your seat – to turn your stories from boring to Wow! I give you the tools, templates, and questions I use when working with clients one-on-one to accelerate their job search. You can find the course at secretsofpm.com/masterclass.

 
Manan Modi, author of The Startup Product Manager
My guest on this episode is Manan Modi, author of The Startup Product Manager, just published and available on Amazon.
Manan reached out to me as part of his go to market plan for his book  (good thinking, by the way!).
And I was intrigued by his focus on startups, which we cover in the episode.
He has some counterintuitive and provocative ideas about product management – and an interesting path in his own career which we get into.
Links

* The book, The Startup Product Manager on Amazon.
* Manan’s contact information: LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/manan-n-modi), his website (mananmodi.com)

My sponsors (i.e., me)

* My semi-weekly product manager meetup – get on the notification list at secretsofpm.com/meetup. The meetups are Friday mornings at 8am Pacific time. Get on the notification list to find out when the next one is!
* My online course “How To Ace The Behavioral Interview.” Most people – not just product managers – are terrible at telling their own stories. In this course I give you the tricks – which are seriously the same tricks that Hollywood movies use to keep you on the edge of your seat – to turn your stories from boring to Wow! I give you the tools, templates, and questions I use when working with clients one-on-one to accelerate their job search. You can find the course at Show more...