Product Coalition

Set your 90 day plan as part of your new role application. Joni Hoadley shares why the PM Role Clarity canvas can help new hiring manager and new hires establish a happy-days onboarding plan! Grab the full episode 👉 https://lnkd.in/dQSchAFP

We’d just wrapped up another one of those “full circle” design reviews — you know the kind. Our UX designer, Mia, started with a polished new design. The room was silent for a beat, and then the feedback started rolling in. “Can we make the button bigger? Feels like it’s hiding,” someone chimed in. “Shouldn’t the navigation bar be fixed? Scrolling might confuse users,” added another. “Oh! What if we swapped the dropdown for a toggle? Users love toggles,” said yet another voice, with far too much enthusiasm. Mia nodded, listened, and jotted down notes. She didn’t push back — not yet. Instead, she let us workshop her design like it was a group art project. The design shifted. Blockers popped up. Tweaks were made. Problems were solved. And then, drumroll please… we landed right back at Mia’s original design. “I appreciate all the feedback,” Mia said, with a knowing smile. “But I went with this layout because our usability tests showed it’s the fastest for users. We want them focused on completing the task, not hunting for buttons.” Mic drop. Mia knew her stuff. She didn’t just have a good design. She had the receipts to back it up. Regrettably, in our response, we’d just spent an hour doing laps around her brilliance. That meeting was a lightbulb moment for me. Maybe it’s time for the team to lean a little harder into trusting the experts at the table. If all we’re doing is spinning in circles to end up where we started, what’s the point? What are we really contributing to the process? So, I decided to experiment with something — I’m calling it the art of not having an opinion. Now, let’s be clear — this isn’t about not caring. I care deeply about my products and the people creating them. This is about trust. It’s about stepping back and letting the incredibly smart, capable people around me do their thing without me hovering. Holding back unnecessary opinions doesn’t just make me a better product manager — it can do the same for you. Here’s how it works. By Justin Hawkins https://lnkd.in/eZqDrQFj #productdevelopment #productmanagement

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, the first real taste of freedom after the pandemic. I was walking my Yorkie through the neighborhood, marveling at how life was coming back to the mom-and-pop shops. The dry cleaners had reopened, the Chinese takeout was buzzing, and the neighborhood pub was finally pouring pints again. My personal favorite, though? The little café on the corner with coffee beans so good they could probably cure heartbreak. As I strolled, I couldn’t help but reflect on the surreal, exhausting rhythm of working as a digital product manager from home during the pandemic. Endless Zoom calls filled my days, with hours and hours of meetings that felt like they could’ve been resolved with a quick in-person discussion. The misunderstandings were frequent — people’s struggles to communicate effectively over video chats laid bare how reliant some managers were on their micromanagement techniques, which Zoom simply couldn’t replicate. It was frustrating, to say the least, and disheartening to see how much productivity and connection were lost to virtual fatigue. And then there were the closed shops, the quiet streets — a constant reminder that the vibrant, living world we knew had been paused. Seeing the neighborhood come back to life felt almost miraculous. There’s nothing greater than seeing a civilization finding its way back to normalcy. That’s when I spotted Killian. He was sitting outside the café, balancing a slice of homemade cake and wrangling his little boy, Arthur, who had somehow managed to get frosting on his face. “Jon! Long time no see!” Killian called out, waving me over. “Killian!” I replied, grinning as I approached. It was good to see an old friend, especially in this new, hopeful context. Life was returning to the streets — and, it seemed, to the people. We exchanged the usual pleasantries — “How’ve you been?” “How did you survive lockdown?” And then Killian dropped a bombshell. “I started a SaaS business right before the pandemic,” he said, casually, as if he’d just mentioned picking up a new hobby. Now, I’ve been around enough product managers and startup founders to know this wasn’t your average weekend project. Starting a SaaS (Software as a service) business is like deciding to build a spaceship in your garage. It’s ambitious, messy, and guaranteed to make you question your sanity. Naturally, I was curious. “So,” I said, taking a seat, “you started a business during one of the most unpredictable times in modern history? That’s insane… and kind of brilliant. How’s it been going?” Killian exhaled like he’d just run a marathon. “Honestly? It’s been… a ride,” He admitted. “The joy-to-pain ratio is about 1 to 20. Every success is hiding a hundred disaster moments. But I’ve learned a lot — mostly the hard way. Want to hear the war stories?” How could I say no? https://lnkd.in/ezq6Sd35 #productdevelopment #productmanagement

I once spent two months building a feature that was used exactly once. One. Single. Time. And that’s when I realized: if you think you’re getting actionable info from customer interviews, you’re fooling yourself. But here’s the kicker: it’s not their fault — it’s yours. We’ll take a look at how human brains sabotage product development and how a little-known Air Force technique can save us from wasting time, money, and our customers’ goodwill. In the process, we’ll learn how to build fewer wasted features for problems that don’t exist. A solution is born We were interviewing users to uncover the next few features to address the biggest problem on our “problem”-based roadmap: overcoming internal user resistance to using our product. Driving internal adoption for our product had been a focus for several quarters since we rolled out nationally. Fortunately, we were regularly speaking with our users. In one session, our Product Trio was speaking with a generally supportive user who was convinced they needed a very specific new feature to make our product a central part of their daily workflow. As our product manager spoke with them, they fed off each other: “Tell me more about this feature you want.” “Do you really feel it will help you do your job better?” “That’s a great idea. Never thought of that. How exactly should it work?” “And what would you like it to do when this happens?” “…and then how about if it did this? No? How about that instead?” Once they had described this “perfect” solution in detail, our product manager made it our team’s #1 priority, pushing back other features on the roadmap. https://lnkd.in/et9nUqzb #productdevelopment #productmanagement

To those who don’t know, Continuous Integration, or CI is like having a friend who keeps your juggling act steady. Every time you make changes to your app’s code, they are automatically tested to make sure nothing breaks. CI is like a little checkpoint saying, “Hey, you’re good to go,” or, “Hold up, there’s a mess to clean up here.” The beauty of CI is that it keeps your app’s code in harmony. Instead of waiting until the end of the week to merge your work with your teammates’ and discovering a digital train wreck, CI encourages you to merge small changes constantly. It runs automated tests, catches conflicts early, and saves you from those “Oh no, everything is on fire” moments. It’s about working smarter, not harder, and keeping the chaos in check. Now, with Continuous Delivery, or CD — if CI is the friend who makes sure your juggling act stays smooth, CD is the one cheering you on to take the stage. It automates the process of getting your app out there, whether that’s to your staging environment for a test run or all the way to production where the real users are. CD is like having a super-organized assistant who handles the nerve-wracking part of deployment while you focus on making your app better. CD’s secret sauce is automation. Once your code passes all the tests, it can flow through the pipeline, ready to be deployed at the push of a button — or even automatically if you’re feeling bold. This means you’re not scrambling at midnight trying to figure out why the app isn’t live. It takes the guesswork out of deploying your code, making sure everything is smooth, efficient, and ready when you are. And when CI and CD work together, it’s the example of a smooth, continuous process of building, testing, and delivering software. Imagine this — you write some code, CI checks it for problems, CD packages it up and gets it ready for the world, and before you know it, you’ve got updates rolling out faster than your team’s caffeine supply runs out. You make small changes, testing them quickly, and getting them into users’ hands without all the drama of massive, high-stakes launches. This is all about freedom and momentum working together. https://lnkd.in/eFkfdqt7 #productdevelopment #productmanagement

It’s Monday morning at the office, and here I am, one hand wrapped around my latte, the other scrolling through a lineup of user stories that could keep me and my development teams busy. The smell of coffee and bagels is practically the backdrop here, cutting through the hum of my thoughts as I prep for what’s ahead. This morning feels different, though. Not just another meeting-heavy Monday, but one of those turning points where I know I’m about to test myself — actually push beyond the usual. Because today, it’s all about strategy, the kind that doesn’t stop at getting users to love the product, but takes it all the way to profitability, where numbers line up with purpose. The CFO’s joining the meeting today, and I know I need to meet him on his terms, using what I know about product with the commercial picture. I sip my latte, settle in, and remind myself why I’m here. This isn’t just about making something functional or even beautiful. It’s about building a product that moves the business forward, that pays for itself and makes its mark. And, as we count down to the go-to-market (GTM) strategy meeting, I can feel it — today’s the day I step fully into this “CEO of the Product” role. Time to put my commercial side to the test. https://lnkd.in/eH7mMDNx #productdevelopment #productmanagement

First and foremost — you’re a product manager dabbling in QA, not a full-time QA expert. Don’t try to replace the pros on your team. The QA professionals are catching bugs and other issues you’d never even think to look for. So let them keep doing what they do best. Your role as a product manager is to complement their efforts, not compete with them. Think of it as a chance to get hands-on with your product and really understand it from the inside out. If you’re lucky enough to have dedicated QA folks on your team, take a little time to learn from them. Ask them how they approach testing and where the skeletons tend to hide in your platform. Not only will you pick up some valuable tips, but you’ll also make sure your testing doesn’t accidentally create more work for them. By Justin Hawkins https://lnkd.in/e7DuqyuU #productdevelopment #productmanagement

Now I realize that diving into budgeting might not set your heart racing like a psychology thriller or unraveling the secrets of the universe. But stick around — you might just learn a few things and discover some relatable moments that make the ride surprisingly worthwhile. Disclaimer: The story I’m about to share is a bit like a budgetary Frankenstein — a mashup of lessons and experiences pieced together from various projects. Since I can’t spill the exact numbers locked away in my company’s vault, I’ve put together relatable scenarios to capture the highs and lows of budgeting. Any resemblance to actual projects — real, fictional, or just plain ironic — is purely coincidental. By Daria Kowalski https://lnkd.in/erKmbTtv #productdevelopment #productmanagement

Think about the last time you fell in love with a product. I’m not talking about “oh, this is nice” — I mean the moment you looked around the room to grab a colleague and tell them “holy cow, let me show you this, did you know this was possible?” Was it when you first logged into the tool? When you completed the onboarding workflow? When you imported your first contact or created your first project or completed your first todo? Nope. By Avi Siegel https://lnkd.in/eTEY6J7S #productdevelopment #productmanagement

It’s the 1st of December, and the scene is out of a holiday ad — sort of. I’m sprawled on the floor, knee-deep in Lego bricks with my five-year-old. The Christmas tree is up, looking like a Pinterest board. I’ve got a half-empty glass of Baileys beside me, and Wham’s Last Christmas is playing in the background. This is the season, where it’s all about — family, lights, and cheesy music. But just as I’m revelling in my Hallmark moment, the cheer does a complete vanishing act. One moment, I’m the Christmas spirit personified. The next, life’s thrown a curveball. Over the next week, I retreated to my introvert hideaway, the one where you lick your wounds and wonder how it all went wrong so quickly. About the Lego… It all went sideways right after I said something about the Lego that apparently didn’t sit well with my boy. He gave me a playful swipe across the face — harmless enough, right? Except for the part where his tiny fingernail decided to double as a weapon and lacerate my actual eyeball. Cue the screaming. Every blink was like a fresh wave of pain. One thing led to another, and before you know it, I was heading to A&E. Shoutout to modern medicine. Part of the recovery plan? An eyepatch. Yep, full pirate mode. The rest of the week? Well, most of me just wanted to crawl into my cave and heal. And honestly, I did exactly that for a few days, no regrets. But eventually, as you can imagine, life doesn’t let you hide forever. Wounded eye or not, I had to step back out into the world — visible and invisible scars in tow. Naturally, my introverted self dreaded the thought of walking into work looking like I’d just stepped off the set of Pirates of the Caribbean — and having to explain it to everyone. Now, in the past, I’d have kept my pain under wraps, like a well-guarded secret. That’s the introvert in me — keep your head down, avoid the spotlight, and dodge anything that feels like “too much attention.” But in doing that, especially in product management work — it’s a fast track to trouble. Leading products and teams? You can’t just fade into the background. People look to you to manage stakeholders, influence decisions, and lead the charge. Hiding? Not an option. Your weaknesses? They’re already on display whether you like it or not. In this role, we are always on show. By Caspar Mahoney https://lnkd.in/etxZsyBv #productdevelopment #productmanagement