Hustle Badger

Real case studies that landed product managers jobs 👇 These four real-life case studies helped Ed, Faith, Amelia, and Ryan land VP & SVP Product roles. ✅𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀 / 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: . Ryan Al-Sharieh (VP Product, Giraffe360): 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗳𝗮𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮? Ryan literally put $2,000 of his own money on the line to test his blockchain/real estate concept, gaining unique insights that set him apart and won him the VP Product job Faith F. (Chief Product & Growth Officer, Vonto; then Dext) 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁?  Faith demonstrated end-to-end product leadership (across product, design, growth, analytics, support) in her Vonto case study, highlighting how holistic impact can lead to a successful exit ✅𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Ed Biden's job case study for SVP Job and Talent: 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻? Ed used a strategic product vision to nail his final presentation and secure the SVP Product role at Job and Talent.  Ed's deck delivers a strategy masterclass, laying out how he’d deliver real ROI on product investments. Amelia Waddington  (then VP Product, now CPTO Captify) job case study: 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝗯? Amelia took a deep-tech ad platform and made her strategy crystal clear. She delivered a snappy, data-driven plan for Captify’s complex ad-tech platform, impressing the team and securing her VP Product position 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 - https://lnkd.in/eS6NnZdw

💡 Are you de-risking your product ideas early enough? Marty Cagan's Four Big Risks Framework is a great way to think through how concepts might fail. Here’s a quick breakdown of Cagan’s Four Big Risks and how to address each: 1️⃣Value Risk (Will customers buy/use it?) “Sometimes customers just aren’t as excited about this idea as we are, so they choose not to use it or buy it (the value isn’t there)” De-risk by testing for real customer interest early (fake-door experiments, user interviews, prototype demos) to ensure you’re solving a problem people truly care about before you invest in building it. 2️⃣Usability Risk (Can users figure it out?) “Sometimes they do want to use it... but it’s so complicated that it’s simply more trouble than it’s worth... the users don’t use it (the usability isn’t there)” De-risk by rapidly prototype and observing users trying to use your solution. Usability testing will reveal where people get confused or frustrated, so you can simplify the design before full build. 3️⃣Feasibility Risk (Can our team build it?) “Sometimes the customers might have loved it, but it turns out to be much more involved to build than we first thought, and we simply can’t afford the time and cost to deliver (the feasibility isn’t there)” De-risk by involving engineers early to probe what’s possible. Do technical spikes or proof-of-concepts to uncover complex areas up front. 4️⃣Business Viability Risk (Does it work for our business?) “It’s not enough to create a product your customers love; the product must also work for your business” De-risk by vetting your product idea against business constraints. Bring in stakeholders from finance, legal, marketing, to sign off that the solution makes business sense before you go build. ✅ Great product teams tackle these risks early in discovery, not after launch. Want to learn more about how to de-risk product development by using discovery?  Check out our Product Discovery course here - https://lnkd.in/gYfqZw9i "There’s a straight line between not using one of the risk taxonomies, and failed product efforts. Especially failed MVPs.” - Marty Cagan

Great products don’t always win. Sounds harsh, but it’s true. If your product is easy to copy, then: ⚠️ Competitors will clone it ⚠️ You’ll struggle to charge premium prices ⚠️ Margins will shrink as you compete for share ⚠️ Growth will slow as your budgets get maxed out ⚠️ Your company as a whole will need more cash to win The best companies don’t just solve problems—they build moats that make them hard to copy. 7 Powers is a great way to think about this: 1️⃣ Network Effects – More users make your product more valuable 2️⃣ Scale Economies – The bigger you get, the cheaper you are to run 3️⃣ Switching Costs – Leaving is painful for customers 4️⃣ Counter-Positioning – Incumbents can’t copy you without hurting themselves 5️⃣ Cornered Resource – Exclusive access to something valuable 6️⃣ Branding – Same product, higher perceived value 7️⃣ Process Power – Unique ways of working that create an advantage Most products fail because they don’t build moats on these principles. Check out the full guide to the 7 powers framework here - https://lnkd.in/egXhd3XE

What do you say when people ask you what you do? How do you explain the value of Product Management? 🤔 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 They change the P&L by delighting customers, in hard-to-copy, margin-enhancing ways • Delight customers by creating far more value than they can get elsewhere • Maintain this value by making it hard for competitors to copy • Extract some of the value created as margin for the business 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 As a rule of thumb, a product team costs $1m a year to run. That’s about: • $4.5k per day • $20k per week • $83k per month Investing in technology is expensive, and everyone wants to see a pay back on this. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸𝘆 Traditionally this would be called innovation or R&D. No one has done it before. 4 risks prevent you creating value: 1. Value risk – Do customers really want this? Do they value it? 2. Business risk – Can the business deliver this operationally? Is this legal? 3. Usability risk – Do users understand this? Can they use it? 4. Technical risk – Can we build this? Is it scalable, secure and reliable? The core role of PMs is managing big, risky investments. 𝗔 𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗼 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 You want to spread your investments across high risk/return and low risk/return initiatives. The balance you have depends on your company's life stage. You fund solving a problem, rather than building a solution: • User problems are stable, and you can put a value on solving them. • The impact of solutions is unknown before they are built. 𝗣𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 An operating model reduces risk as things are built. This has four key phases: 1. Discover – Understand which problems we could solve to create value for user 2. Define – Define a specific problem to solve 3. Design – Generate different solutions which could solve the problem 4. Deliver – Build and release one specific solution In practice, this is a pattern of meetings (e.g. product reviews) and documents (e.g. PRDs) that accelerate and magnify the impact of teams. This is a complex, multi-disciplinary undertaking. This process helps you tackle the biggest risks first, so you gain confidence as you invest more in an idea. This isn’t a linear process • Every time you ship something you learn more about your users. • Working out what to build is a continuous, iterative activity. 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 Outcomes rely on outputs • It doesn’t matter what you ship, as long as you deliver a return. • There are no prizes for shipping lots of stuff. • But you can’t create value if you don’t ship, and ship the right things. Longer explainer with more charts here: https://lnkd.in/etQmSj4h

How much discovery is enough? That's a tricky question to answer, because as always "it depends"... Let's start at the beginning. 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗧 𝗜𝗦 𝗔𝗡 𝗜𝗡𝗩𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗘𝗖𝗛 • Product teams are expensive (~£1m a year) • That's an investment in technology from the CEO • She wants a return on that investment • PMs are primarily responsible for making sure the CEO gets that return 𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗖𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬 𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗖𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗥𝗘𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗞 • Discovery reduces the risk of not making a return • There are four main risks (value, usability, tech, business) • Discovery is expensive, so you only do as much as necessary. Faster is better 𝗕𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗖 𝗘𝗤𝗨𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗢 𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗩𝗘: Confidence > Risk 𝗗𝗥𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗞: • Effort to build. i.e. engineering cost • Downside scenario. i.e. what happens if we're wrong • Company maturity. i.e. revenue at risk • Opportunity cost. i.e. what else we could build 𝗛𝗜𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗛𝗬 𝗢𝗙 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗙𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘: • Intuition. i.e. you thinking on your own • Planning. i.e. you thinking with your team • Anecdotal. i.e. speaking with a few customers • Research. i.e. lots of customer interviews, surveys, references • Data. i.e. AB testing, closed betas, fake door tests If you've got more risk, you need to go higher up the hierarchy of confidence. BUT BUT BUT That's all theory. In reality, discovery is politics. You need enough evidence to have buy-in. And life gets in the way: • Hitting short term metrics. • Down-time of engineering. • Showing you’re delivering at all. • Marketing releases. • First mover advantage. You need to balance theory with pragmatism. Talk about risk. • What are you all comfortable with? • How can you reduce it as fast as possible? • What are the alternatives? Full article, including template and worked examples here: https://lnkd.in/e5EicHsA

Pirate Metrics (AARRR) isn’t a funnel—it’s a growth loop People think of Pirate Metrics (AARRR) as a step-by-step funnel: 1️⃣ Acquisition – Get users through the door 2️⃣ Activation – Get them to experience the product’s value 3️⃣ Retention – Keep them coming back 4️⃣ Referral – Get them to bring in others 5️⃣ Revenue – Monetize effectively But thinking about AARRR as a strict linear process can limit growth. Pirate Metrics is actually a growth loop with two built-in flywheels: 🔁 Retention Loop → The longer users stay, the greater the compounding revenue. 🔁 Acquisition Loop → Happy users bring users, lowering acquisition costs 🚨 Don't always go top down, intervene where it makes sense 🚨 AARRR isn’t a rigid process where you must fix Acquisition before thinking about Retention. You intervene where it makes sense based on your growth cycle.  💡 Case Study - Gabor Papp CEO at the Pitch shifted from AARRR to RARRA 💡 Gabor felt good about his acquisition metrics, and his cost per acquisition but his retention was horrible (as is the case for many new mobile apps).  Put it simply, the company was spending to bleed out. By working top down they were getting lost in vanity metrics - our acquisition is good, we must be good, right? Right? 👉 Acquiring users without retention = burning money 🔥 👉 Activation & retention = product-market fit indicators 👉 Without PMF, acquisition is just noise. So he reordered the focus internally to RARRA to drive team attention 🔹 Retention → Activation → Referral → Revenue → Acquisition The result: Teams fixed the product first—not just artificially inflating user counts. 🚀 Growth isn’t top down. It’s a loop. Intervene where it matters most. Depending on your PMF stage, that will change. Check out our write up on Pirate Metrics here - https://lnkd.in/eV3rszcm

How to Get Stakeholders Onside (before they kill your roadmap) You've done all the meetings and made your plans, but come annual planning or OKR season: Engineering is "too busy." Marketing is launching something else. Leadership is “not convinced.” You just lost a battle you didn’t even know you were fighting. 🚨 Good PMs don’t just manage roadmaps. They manage stakeholders. Influence is the job. A great framework to structure your influence efforts is the The Power-Interest Matrix (aka, “who actually matters and how much time should I spend on them?”) 📌 How it works 1️⃣ High Power, High Interest (🚀 Key Players) → Manage closely They can make or break your launch. Get them on board early. 2️⃣ High Power, Low Interest (👀 Keep Satisfied) → Check in when needed Legal, finance, or leadership who don’t need the details—but DO need reassurance. 3️⃣ Low Power, High Interest (🫶 Keep Informed) → Keep them in the loop Great allies (marketers, junior engineers, sales), but they won’t block you. 4️⃣ Low Power, Low Interest (👋 Monitor) → Minimal updates Inform via email or status updates. 🎯 Why This Works: ✅ Stops low value status updates for the wrong people.  Who comes to meetings is as important as the meetings. ✅ Ensures key decision-makers are bought in. ✅ Brings more people into the loop by automating updates. Want the full breakdown, go here - https://lnkd.in/e2e649zE

The 5 Whys: Why Your Website Broke You launch a big campaign. Traffic surges. Then—🚨—your website crashes. “The server’s down!” “Did we test it?” “Why is this happening?!” Good question. Actually—five good questions. 💡 The 5 Whys in Action Asking “Why?” five times helps find the real root cause: 1️⃣ Why did the website go down? → Too many visitors overloaded the server. 2️⃣ Why couldn’t the server handle the traffic? → It wasn’t auto-scaling. 3️⃣ Why wasn’t it auto-scaling? → We never set up dynamic scaling rules. 4️⃣ Why didn’t we set up scaling? → It wasn’t in our launch checklist. 5️⃣ Why wasn’t it in the checklist? → Because… we don’t actually have a checklist. 🎯 The Root Cause? A process issue. The team didn’t have a structured launch checklist, so scaling was never planned. Why the 5 Whys Work ✅ It stops the blame game ✅ It prevents temporary fixes (restarting the server isn’t the real solution). ✅ It helps teams think systematically, not just reactively. 🚨 When It Goes Wrong Stopping too early. Keep asking why to uncover real root causes. Turning it into a witch hunt. The goal isn’t to find who messed up, but what went wrong. Only using it after a disaster. The best teams ask “Why?” before things break. 💡 Next time something goes wrong, try the 5 Whys—and don’t stop until you hit the real fix. 💡It's also a great interview or coaching technique to uncover why people think the way they do - Why do you think that is the solution?  Why? Why? Why? Why?

RACI - mostly useful, sometimes disastrous No one knew who was doing what?  Everyone thought someone else was doing it? You’ve seen why RACI exists. The Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed framework is a simple but powerful tool to assign roles and make sure work actually gets done. 🔹 Why RACI is Useful • It clarifies who’s in charge of execution (Responsible) vs. final sign-off (Accountable). • It ensures the right stakeholders (Consulted) provide input—without drowning everyone in emails. • It keeps broader teams (Informed) in the loop so no one gets blindsided. • Done right, RACI prevents decision paralysis, miscommunication, and "I thought YOU were doing it" chaos.    ✅ When to Use RACI • Complex projects with multiple stakeholders (e.g., launching a new product). • Cross-functional teams where role confusion leads to delays. • Scaling teams that need process, not micromanagement. 🚨 Where RACI Can Go Wrong • When it's the wrong tool for the problem - RAPID decision making framework, or 7 levels of delegation are more useful for certain scenarios • RACI bloat - multiple people responsible and accountable for things • Not maintained - done at the beginning, and promptly forgotten about 📌 Alternatives When RACI Isn’t Enough • Need to clarify who actually makes decisions? Use RAPID (Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, Decide). It's better for decision-making accountability rather than just roles. • Need to delegate effectively across leadership levels? Try 7 Levels of Delegation, which gives leaders a structured way to empower teams—from telling them what to do (Level 1) to full autonomy (Level 7).    📌 How to Make RACI Actually Work 1️⃣ Start simple—limit it to key players, don’t over-engineer. 2️⃣ Review & adapt—RACI isn't a contract; adjust as projects evolve. 3️⃣ Make ownership real—ensure Accountable folks have decision-making power. 4️⃣ Communicate it—a RACI chart nobody sees is just busywork. Check out the Hustle Badger article on accountability frameworks here - https://lnkd.in/gtdN97aD

Preparing for interviews? Here's 20 questions from real life product leaders at Calendly, Notion, Reddit, Amazon and more 👇 1️⃣ What did you ship most recently? 2️⃣ Take me through your biggest product flop. What happened and what did you do about it? 3️⃣ Tell me about a time you delivered something impactful 4️⃣ How would you describe a database to a 3 year old? 5️⃣ Walk me through the story of you from college until now 6️⃣ Tell me about a product you love 7️⃣ I ask behavioral questions, and then I ask the interviewee to imagine they are a coworker, and to describe the situation from their perspective. 8️⃣ What is something work-related that you’re trying to get better at? 9️⃣ At this stage in your career, what have you learned about yourself? How are you different from other people? 🔟 A group of scientists have invented a teleportation device. They’ve hired you to bring this to market. What do you do? For the full list from folks like Lenny, Ian McAllister & John Cutler see here - https://lnkd.in/ezbvT9rj