Derek Ferguson

Stop gathering requirements. Anyone can make a list of features. Anyone can write down what people say they want. That’s not product discovery. Product discovery is about going deeper. It’s about understanding your customer’s pain points. Feeling their frustration. Seeing the gaps in their work. It takes time, patience, and empathy. It takes stepping away from the solution and sitting with the problem. Great product leaders don’t rush this process. They fall in love with their customer’s problems first. Because when you truly understand the problem, the solution will rapidly emerge. Are you giving yourself the time and space to discover your customers’ problems? #Discovery #Product #Agile

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A handy visual guide for Product folks about to contemplate and communicate, well, just about anything. As with so much in our domain, simple at surface, elaborate to execute, but priceless when proper.

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Product is fun, complex, messy, and there are no shortcuts. Once you accept that—and embrace it—amazing things happen to your career. Cat Hicks, PhD puts this better than anyone: "Doing research with developer teams, something that really strikes me is how much people look for ways to make complex problems easy rather than make it easy to work on complex problems What I mean is, sometimes it's really useful to admit we just are trying to accomplish tough things. Asking how we can support our teams who NEED the time and space to work through that, it's often a much more tractable lever than trying to change the inherent nature of the work I think it behooves me to say as a psychologist here that I think people are actually really excellent at working on complex problems! It's one of the reasons research with developers is so great. Overall devs love to learn, love to be curious, love to innovate. It is core stuff. What would it look like if we could ask, "how do I make this the absolute best environment for complex problem-solving" instead of "how do I take away all these annoying hard problems." The stuff we want to accomplish in the world is hard. But can be joyful to accomplish."

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Gotta love lunchtime conversations around my house. These were just from today! This is what happens when you have two product people under one roof. - How to handle WCAG compliance recommendations - Dealing with scope creep - How to document assumptions around R&D for quarterly planning

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There's an oft-cited stat from Pendo that 80% of software features are rarely, if ever, used. While it's impossible to know the accuracy of that, it's not hard to believe. I've been part of multiple feature factories, where emphasis was put on new features to 'claim' rather than taking time to ensure we've actually solved the desired problem before moving onto the next. If you're a Product Manager/Leader in the Indy area, join us on August 14 for a conversation around best practices for measuring product success. We'll have food, drinks, and hopefully some great learnings! (Registration link in the comments)

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We're looking for a senior-staff PM now at Honeycomb, who will drive and own a multi-year vision for a net-new, permanent and significant expansion of Honeycomb's product surface area: https://lnkd.in/g2sM_TfC I’ve sat in this role for 3.5 years now, on and off, so you’ll be inheriting a lot of my regretful decisions. But I’m here to help you navigate that! It involves big data (for real), deep OSS involvement, lots of customers who love the product, and a great team to boot. If you like the idea of thinking through how you’ll turn 10M events per second into 100k, without breaking the bank, and making it as semi-automatic as possible, without losing signal on that data, and building a compelling UI that lets people build and monitor this stuff, this might be up your alley! Wanna talk with tons of customers and spicy sales engineers who have to sometimes commit code crimes to make stuff work, and then tell you about it? Wanna make painful prioritization decisions? Wanna find a way to execute on a multi-year vision and not get lost along the way? Click the link above. Wanna eat shit in front of a customer whose exact set of constraints violates every tradeoff decision you made? And then go back to them 4 months later with the good news that you’ve fixed it all? Come say hi! Wanna try to wrap your head around someone's perceived notions of how observability works, and find creative ways to reorient their worldview? Hi hello please apply. Wanna get deeply involved in the #opentelemetry community, become a core contributor, attend lots of community events, and be continuously infused with customer problems and feedback and also overall industry directions? You know what to do. Wanna work with a very product-minded engineering team who will push you to get stuff done? Wanna be a part of a group that is usually fast, usually right on the first go of things, and isn't afraid to try things and maybe pull them back if they're not working? Wanna have fun too? Clicky clicky.

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While the Chrome UX report (CrUX) can provide a high-level view of Interaction to Next Paint, it's no substitute for having your own RUM data that you can group and filter by dimensions such as the different page and device types. Andy Davies has created an excellent and detailed guide to debugging and optimizing INP. Whether you're just getting started with INP or you're already deep in the weeds, this is a must-read. https://lnkd.in/gqnhyHC7 #webperf #webperformance #corewebvitals #ux #sitespeed #pagespeed

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I've long struggled with calling saying something has "Good" or "Bad" Developer Experience (DX) because it's extremely binary and doesn't really help product teams improve their DX. For that reason when I started the Developer Advocacy program at Twilio and began to work with product teams on improving their DX we ended up creating the "DX Spectrum" framework that is helping product teams evaluate their DX better and helps to answer the question "How do we create a magical developer experience?" https://lnkd.in/ggMmCx_e

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I love this more nuanced approach from David Morris for determining what product ideas should get on the roadmap. The technique I use and coach most often is a bit simpler. It's "doable" vs "desirable". David's Viable + Feasible is a nice way to split out the two aspects of my "doable". I define great product management is a simultaneous exploration of the doable vs desirable space to find the optimal tradeoff between the two. So, the exercise I facilitate has people put post-its up on the wall on a two-dimensional graph where the x-axis is how "doable" the idea is. The y-axis is how desirable it is. The "best" ideas end up closest to the upper-right corner. I then draw two squiggly lines on the chart, generally meandering, going from upper-left to lower-right. The first line is quite close to the upper-right corner, meaning that only a small fraction of the ideas will be above and to the right of it. Anything above and to the right of it is considered a commitment for the roadmap timeframe under consideration. The second line is close to the first and catches the stretch goals for the roadmap timeframe. I'd love to host such an exercise for anyone who's interested, using David's nuanced version of "doable". Thoughts? Owen Farrell, Tony Reinert, and Tony Mantoan, you've seen me host these exercises many times. How well do you think this alteration to my exercise would work? https://lnkd.in/eaTGz6ep

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What do we mean when we talk about "continuous performance monitoring"? It's all about creating guardrails to prevent #webperf / #ux regressions: 🟡 Performance budgets 🟡 Automated testing 🟡 Detailed diagnostics 🟡 Annotated test history Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gDX_9Zuf #pagespeed #sitespeed #webperformance

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The title may appear intimidating, but the core message is actually very encouraging and exciting. We are entering an era of creators, whether we refer to ourselves as designers, engineers, or product managers. By mastering the power of AI, we can unlock a new level of autonomy in our ideation and creativity.

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Traditional requirements gathering is dead. To truly understand customers in our fast-paced world, many product teams have adopted design thinking. 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 fosters innovation by focusing on understanding user needs, encouraging creative problem-solving, and rapidly prototyping solutions that are both user-centric and practical. 𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘀 is a design thinking technique popular for Product Discovery initiatives. It helps product developers to develop empathy for customers and understand their problems on a deeper level. #UserPersonas #DesignThinking #ProductDisocvery #ModernProductivity  --------- My name is Steven Granese, and I post daily on Modern Productivity topics like Agile, OKRs, and Product Discovery. 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘀? Add a comment to this post!

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Normally I'm a huge, huge fan of John Cutler and his newsletter, which you *should* subscribe to if you want to learn how to be an effective dev or PM. However, his missive yesterday is off the mark. What he's observing is 100% a failure of leadership. People can blame the tools all they want, but if you're not creating a culture that supports these principles they go nowhere. https://lnkd.in/gdCg3-VR #PMI #softwaredevelopment #productmanagement #agile

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How do you tackle technical debt? Every software company has technical debt, and the majority struggle to pay it back. After reading Shape Up, we've been trialing 8-week cycles of a 6-week build phase followed by a 2-week cool down. The cool down phase allows us to catch our breath and prepare for the next cycle. More importantly, it also allows us to focus on technical debt. The 2-week window gives us plenty of dedicated time to focus on large issues that will have significant benefits for future cycles.

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While some folks hire entire Figma design teams for their personal websites, I'm here at 6:30 AM explaining to my partner why I need a third coffee to "write stuff." 2022: "I'll share monthly insights about building companies!" 2024: checking it -> Writing consistency matches crypto winter performance 📉 But look - AI got better at English faster than I got better at writing. That's what we call product-market fit. New strategy for 2025 - Actually write 12 articles - Convince partner these dawn coffee raids are essential business ops Track my progress (or lack thereof) here: https://lnkd.in/e6bkkxvH P.S. If my partner reads this - yes, this is exactly what I'm doing at 6:00 AM either wiring or reading the book. Note: Will open source my coffee consumption metrics in Q3 2025. Full transparency, like web3 promised.

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"In product, we're bombarded by high-level concepts like empowerment, data-driven, product-led, customer-focused, accountability, getting into the details, and high agency. But teams have trouble putting these ideas into practice. Why? And what can you do about it? When I ask people to describe the behaviors these things might entail—what I would observe (see and hear) if these things were happening—I often get blank stares." https://lnkd.in/gFCpYZ7A

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I often find myself trying to communicate how the depth, breadth and nuance of thoughtful, contextualized product design can create systemic ripples across the landscape of society, culture, and economy. The principle of larger effects and systems seems rather timely given the impacts and implications of the work we find ourselves in the weeds. What might mindful, thoughtful innovation look like? If we are disruptive, working from a place of care and positive intent, are we still able to see the larger picture and the possible ripples from decisions? There is a power differential in recognizing the effects on systems. We often hear things like “technology is not neutral” or “the victors write the history”. This may mean there are far-reaching implications of decisions and systemic impacts without the realization of unintended consequences. If we are seeking to consider equity within a product we must increase our awareness and research, design, develop and execute from a space of curiosity without weaponizing approaches based on moral codes, personal beliefs and misaligned values. What does “for good” look like in practice, and to whom is it good for? We are often reliant on dominant narratives and frame things as edge cases. Those on the “edges” are often perceived as more work than necessary, less important, or statistically insignificant. This leads whole human identities to be framed as outliers.   These focused threads demonstrate how a product can drive change by reshaping perceptions and practices at both individual behaviours, choices, industry standards and cultural narratives. It’s about initiating change that can be sustained, leading to a reimagining of systems that have gone unchallenged. This guides us to examine the influence on social structures, economies, and ethical frameworks. A decolonization perspective asks us to critically examine how historical contexts have shaped products. Dismantling the inequities that are embedded within current systems, our journey begins in a world saturated with products designed without the richness of human difference in mind. The one-size-fits-all mentality prevails. Systems innovation would mean designing products that do not perpetuate colonial legacies but instead respect and uplift local knowledge, traditions, and needs. Who benefits from these innovations? Are these technologies accessible to all, or do they widen the digital divide? Do these innovations respect locality, or data sovereignty? Product equity must address global complexities, considering how a product fits into various cultural contexts and the impact on different communities. It's not just about doing no harm but actively doing good. Understanding balance—the need for steady iteration and the courage for radical change. We can build currents strong enough to redefine systems, rewrite narratives, and reshape these ecosystems. #ProductEquity #PrinciplesOfEquity #SystemsInnovation #SystemsThinking #Decolonization

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Thought experiment... delete your roadmap. Stop everything. Now play things out... For the past year or so I have experimented with an activity. I ask teams to imagine that they stop "shipping". Nothing new. No improving existing features. They keep their jobs, and fix major production issues, but otherwise stay idle. When possible, I ask them to refer to some sort of business dashboard or statement. How do these numbers change? They imagine industry press, coffee machine conversations, customer feedback, and board meetings. What happens with the passing months? Could X possibly go unchanged? Would you be surprised if Y doubled? The responses are very interesting. It feels unnatural to imagine doing nothing (even if doing nothing may be the best decision). We're wired to keep ourselves busy and talk ourselves into our grand plans. In some businesses, the impacts of doing nothing are felt quickly. In others, teams find they can go a year or more without real "damage". A competitor gains ground. Cost of acquisition increases. Team members leave for a competitor (or to start their own businesses). It hits home that successful products are a slow burn, the result of many decisions over time. To tackle the exercise, some teams review the past year. How did that work contribute to where the business is today? For new product launches, add-ons, packages, etc. it is easy to say "if we hadn't done this, then X wouldn't have happened." We gravitate to obvious connections, but that is a trap of sorts. The purpose of this exercise is to surface assumptions, and to focus the team on the Opportunity. Yes, it is "not realistic". It takes some practice, but more than practice it takes freedom and safety. Freedom to explore a possible future without judgement. "Non-business" types (if there is such a thing) need to feel free to explore the problem-space. Give it a try! With a big cross-functional group. Folks with more familiarity with “the numbers” should be prepared to teach and guide. Folks with more familiarity with the long-term, slow-burn issues (market share, inertia, product phases, ecosystems, etc.) should do the same.

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