Dear product leaders,

This month, I'm thinking a lot about how we drive forward decision making effectively in the workplace. While a component of it is figuring out the right decision through experimentation, a sizable amount of it is about how we influence the people around us. We have to communicate and collaborate with our coworkers in order to achieve this.

I'm sharing an article from Casey Winters on how his teams drove investment in "non-sexy" product areas, perspective from Ken Norton on what he calls the art of product management, and a podcast episode with Maggie Crowley on the importance of the non-technical skills to product leadership.

I'll be talking more about this in May at Women in Product and Dubai's UX Design Conference, so join me at one of those if you'd like to hear more from me on the topic.

Warmly,

Holly

How to Justify "Non-Sexy" Product Investments

Casey Accidental

This article from Casey Winters is chock full of examples of how teams have successful made the case for "non-sexy" product investments, from user experience improvements to performance to developer velocity to SEO. I love the concrete cases of measuring and showing improvement that he shares.

The Art of Product Management

Bring the Donuts

In this article, Ken Norton talks about the so-called "soft skills" of Product Management, describing them as the 6 C's: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking, Curiosity, Consciousness. These skills are so important for getting buy-in and being effective in the workplace, no matter your role.

The Maggie Crowley Hypothesis: Great Product Leaders Excel at Non-Technical Skills

The Product Science Podcast

In this episode, we talked with Maggie Crowley about the skills needed to excel at product leadership and how it differs from the skills needed to excel as a line product manager.

Podcast Season 4 Has Begun

We're working hard on Season 4! In addition to the episode above, check out these recent episodes:

• The 2nd Tommi Forsstrom Hypothesis: Effective CPOs are Executives First and Product Leaders Second
• The Jason Knight Hypothesis: Popular Product Principles Can Be Adapted for B2B Realities
• The Rick Neuman Hypothesis: Great Teams Are Built With Clear Communication and Focus
• The Radhika Dutt Hypothesis: Vision-Driven Products Have a Clear Reason for Being

I'm Speaking at the 2022 Annual Women In Product Conference!

On May 10th I'll be speaking at the Women in Product Conference on Becoming a High-Growth Product Leader with Continuous Discovery.How do you successfully transition to practicing effective continuous product discovery, especially if you're not yet the head of product? And why do some teams that practice continuous discovery achieve sustainable high-growth, while others feel like they are constantly on a grind with little result? In this talk, I'll share with you how to tell where your team is at on the path from agile product developer to high-growth product leader and what next steps to take.Check it out here.

And I'm Speaking at Dubai UX Design Conference!

I'm excited to be speaking on the topic of High Impact Product Design Experimentation at the Dubai UX Design Conference, May 16-17, 2022. Check it out here.

Brought to you by H2R Product Science

Our team at H2R Product Science partners with startup founders and product leaders to share The Product Science Principles and the accompanying framework, the Product Science Method, which I've developed over my time in tech startups. Through our coaching and consulting work, we help our clients figure out which product growth opportunities they should pursue and build the product management skill to deliver on their goals. Reach out if you'd like to explore working together, whether as a client or a team member!

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