It is with a heavy heart that we cue the music..
…Tum jeeto ya haaro, sunooo. Humein tum say pyaar ha….
It’s been a disappointing end to the hopes of Pakistan cricket team fans who were eagerly awaiting to see the team lift up the cup! The outcome of the matches may have rained on our parade but here’s to hoping that our team will use this as an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and perform better at the upcoming World cup!
Win or lose, the show must go on.
After our last newsletter on the backlog management, we ought it would be nice if we talk about the dynamics of managing stakeholder expectations and executing a sprint chunked with high-value features. So here’s our take on what not to do if you want to live, and let your product live in peace.
Here’s what you can find in this newsletter:
3 Mistakes you can avoid as a Product Manager
Dhoom at Karachi/Islamabad SochCafes in August
Latest Sochology session
Latest Jobs
3 Mistakes you can avoid as a Product Manager
1. Being too polite
⚓ Lesson: While humility goes a long way, it's imperative that your teams do not dilute your stance unreasonably. Influence without authority by maintaining a professional rapport.
2. Looping in stakeholders every step of the way
⚓ Lesson: While it is important to keep stakeholders informed throughout discovery, they should be kept at bay till you have developed a strong case (whether in terms of data or research) for your proposal. Bringing them in early can jeopardise your ask because no matter how strongly you know it's right, you may not have the right tools to defend your hypothesis.
3. Wanting to do everything everyday
⚓ Lesson: Being a PM, we wish we'd be omnipresent. As sad as the truth is, you will have to cut off some items off of that ambitious to-do list, and THAT'S OKAY. Taking it one step at a time drastically improves our ability to think through stuff more critically and take better decisions.
Soch Café (PM Meetup) Updates
Ye kahaani he ek khoobsurat Soch ki, aur kaheenk khoobsurat saathiyon ki.
PMs in the major cities have been honing their story telling skills at our SochCafes (can we call these StoryCafes? KahaniCafes?). Here are some highlights from Soch Cafés across our chapters:
KARACHI
Karachi kicked off our story-telling series with an enthralling meetup at Sastaticket.
Most significant contributor: Aatir Sohail, a Lead Designer @ Sastaticket.pk with a former experience in Filmmaking.
Most significant profile: Fahad Javed, a Harvard PHD currently a Research Lead @ Motive
Looking forward to the next Karachi SochCafe already? Mark your calendars for the 21st of September, make sure you follow us on all our socials for more details to come!
ISLAMABAD
We had a wonderful session at Quixel in Islamabad where Product Managers from the twin cities shared their anecdotes and stories as we discussed “Story telling for PMs”
Also, Quixel has one of the best office spaces we’ve seen in the city. Worth a visit next time in case you missed this SochCafe at Quixel!
Fun times ahead!
🧠 Sochology: Continuous Product Discovery
We had the pleasure of hosting Paweł Huryn for the latest instalment of our Sochology EduSeries, and it was truly remarkable!
Paweł has over 9 years of PM experience and his product newsletter has over 33K subscribers. He's also an active contributor on Linkedin who shares super helpful content for product managers in all stages of their career.
Paweł discussed how to build better products by engaging in continuous product discovery.
You can hear all about it here.
💼 Latest Jobs
Are you in the market for jobs? Well, our Slack group’s #job-portal channel has been blowing up with product vacancies.
These employers are looking for product peeps with solid Soch:
Looking to make an impact? Join DeafTawk as a Senior Product Manager
SELL 360 is looking for a Product Manager for their SaaS-based product. Head to our slack channel for the details.
Trikilc is looking for a rockstar Tech lead. Think you can rock this role? Send your resume to umaima@trikl.co
Got at least 1 year of Product Management? South Asia's fastest growing fashion platform, Laam, is looking for you!
The opportunities are not over yet! We Over I is looking for a Product Designer.
If you or someone you know is looking for options, you might want to jump into our Slack. Our job portal channel is heating up!