Every lesson, five minutes each.
Six tracks covering what a product person has to be good at. Read them in any order; the daily rotation picks for you if you would rather not choose.
36 lessons
Outcome Over Output
Shipping eleven things is not the same as changing one number that matters.
5 min read
The Build Trap
How busy, competent teams end up shipping constantly and moving nothing.
5 min read
Opportunity Cost Is the Real Cost
The expensive part of a feature is the thing you did not build instead.
5 min read
Writing a Problem Statement That Holds Up
Most problem statements are a solution wearing a costume. Here is how to strip it off.
6 min read
The Customer Asked For It Is Not a Reason
Requests are evidence of something. Rarely evidence that you should build the request.
5 min read
Saying No Well
A no that keeps the relationship is a skill, and it is mostly about what you say instead.
5 min read
The Mom Test
Ask about what people did last week, not what they would do next month.
5 min read
Interviewing as a Habit, Not a Project
One interview a week beats twenty interviews once a year, and it is easier to sustain.
5 min read
Opportunity Solution Trees
A way to show why you are building this and what else you considered, on one page.
6 min read
Stated Need Versus Real Need
What people ask for is shaped by what they think is possible. Go underneath it.
5 min read
Synthesising Notes Without Cherry-Picking
The quote that supports your plan is the one you will remember. Build a process that outvotes you.
6 min read
Running a Survey That Is Not Garbage
Surveys are good at measuring known things and terrible at discovering unknown ones.
5 min read
What a Strategy Actually Is
Diagnosis, guiding policy, coherent action. Everything else on the slide is ambition.
6 min read
Why Most Roadmaps Are Wish Lists
A roadmap that never had to refuse anything is a record of who asked loudest.
5 min read
When Your Prioritisation Framework Lies
RICE, ICE and value versus effort each fail in a specific, predictable way.
6 min read
A Product Vision People Can Repeat
If your engineers cannot restate the vision from memory, it is not doing any work.
5 min read
Positioning Against the Real Alternative
Your competitor is usually a spreadsheet, an intern, or doing nothing at all.
6 min read
The Cost of Saying Yes to Everything
Each yes buys work once and charges you rent on it forever.
5 min read
Choosing a North Star Metric
One number that represents delivered value, moves in weeks, and cannot be faked easily.
5 min read
Leading and Lagging Indicators
Revenue tells you what happened. You need something that tells you what is about to.
5 min read
Why Averages Hide the Story
A flat average often means two groups moving hard in opposite directions.
6 min read
Reading a Retention Curve
The only question that matters is whether the curve flattens, and at what height.
6 min read
Designing an A/B Test That Can Conclude
Decide the metric, the effect size and the duration before the test runs, or it will tell you nothing.
6 min read
Goodhart's Law and Metric Gaming
Nobody has to cheat. A target quietly rewrites what everyone thinks the job is.
5 min read
Cognitive Load and the Limits of Hick's Law
Why fewer options usually helps, and why the famous law does not prove it.
5 min read
Loss Aversion, Honestly
The finding is real but smaller than the folklore, and the ethics get sharp fast.
6 min read
The Peak-End Rule Meets Onboarding
People remember the best moment and the last one, but the evidence has narrow edges.
5 min read
Progress Bars and the Zeigarnik Problem
The famous unfinished-task effect is shaky; the endowed progress research is stronger.
5 min read
Social Proof, and the Boomerang
Telling people what most others do can move them toward the behaviour you want to stop.
6 min read
The Endowment Effect and What a Trial Should Feel Like
Ownership raises what people will accept, but only when they genuinely own something.
5 min read
Microcopy That Removes Doubt
Most interface text answers the wrong question. Write the sentence that unblocks the click.
5 min read
The Empty State Is Your Best Teaching Moment
A blank screen has the user's full attention and nothing competing for it. Use it.
5 min read
Error Messages That Say What To Do Next
Naming the problem is half the job. The message is only finished when it names the fix.
5 min read
The Anatomy of a Good Default
Defaults are the most powerful design decision you make and the least discussed.
6 min read
Progressive Disclosure Without Hiding the Product
Revealing complexity in stages helps, until the user cannot find the thing they need.
5 min read
Most Confirmation Dialogs Are a Design Failure
Are you sure? asks the user to do the checking your system should have done.
6 min read