Writing

Should PLG and enterprise software companies staff a product person to build what the sales team asks for? When a sales leader comes knocking on a product manager’s door, a product person’s response is often, “Sorry, it’s my job to say no, please don’t promise things in prospect calls anymore, they’re not on the roadmap.”…

I used to doubt vision-led founders. “No research? No evidence? No proof? No way can we start building when we have no data to know if this is a good idea.” Today, I don’t think that “evidence of idea good-ness” is the right way to think about the gap user research fills for vision-led founders.…

One of my fave things to do when I’m learning how to build and sell a new product is so simple and so old school: I like to set up two “Complaint Boxes.” First is the Customer Complaint Box. I send an onboarding email that asks an open-ended question, “What’s going on in your world…

I used to think “If we aren’t hearing feedback or pushback about this then there must not be a problem.” “People will tell us if they don’t like it.” “We have a long list of problems people *are* telling us we need to deal with. Let’s chip away at those before we go hunting for…

Here are 7 questions you can ask people on your buying committee to find out why they aren’t *exactly* pushing back on what you’re selling but also aren’t saying, “Shut up and take my money.” 1. What was going on in your world that led you to ____? 2. Where were you when you first…

The category wasn’t brand new, but it was certainly new-ish to many users. And because it was so new, the team hadn’t yet nailed down a way of describing who it was for, when someone should reach for it, and how it benefited users. And yet – that wasn’t the case for everyone. Even though PLG…

When your champion sees the vision but the rest of your buying committee is dragging their feet like, “Okay yeah you sell software whatever, bruh” I like to find the most vocal detractor from a deal that recently closed and get them on the phone. For our example here today, assume this cast of characters:…

Talk to your sales leaders and you might hear, “I can’t get anyone in product to listen to me. Every time I ask for a feature, they tell me there’s no demand. But I am literally on the phone with buyers who won’t move without this.” Talk to your product leaders and you might hear,…

This is the Commander’s Intent strategy framework I used to help my teammates navigate the ambiguous moment of launching a new product from 0-1. It’s a leadership framework of military origin (Prussian then American). I have found it useful for asking others to help you transform an ambiguous vision that lives inside your head into…

4 years ago I led a team of 10 to launch an enterprise fintech product. The lesson that most helped me turn our vision into reality was this: Buy-in is something you build. In previous roles, I blamed everyone else when my projects stalled. “Woe is me, no one wants to do research.” “Grumble grumble,…

That’s the first half of a joke (“joke”) I used to tell with new copywriting clients. They would hire me to create a deliverable to improve a single metric owned by a single department. But a few weeks later each and every client found themselves confronting difficult truths about their company-wide strategy, even before they…