A podcast you can't miss + Lahore PM meetup
+ Top 3 Product posts of the week & an educational webinar for 0 to 1 PMs
As we March along in this month and come to the close of quarter 1, many PMs will be shuffling their roadmaps to reset stakeholder expectations. Hota hai. Tension not.
Since you have tons of things to attend to, let’s dive into today’s edition:
Top 3 Product Posts of the week
SochCafe Meetups: Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad
Sochology episode featuring Alejandro Simkievich
SochCast episode with Yasser Bashir (Arbisoft)
Latest discussions from Slack
Latest product jobs
Let’s dive in then, shall we? We won’t let you drown, don’t worry.
Top 3 Product Posts of the Week
(1) What is Product Management? (by Shreyas Doshi)
Sounds basic? Well, many have tried defining what product management is. And many have failed to do justice. Asaan nahee hai. It’s difficult to articulate and get all the necessary ifs-and-buts in.
However, Shreyas Doshi’s latest Tweet created a lot of refreshing clarity in a few paragraphs. Dil khush hua.
What is product management? (a memo) Product management is the art, science, and practice of making products successful. You can begin evaluating product success via the product’s User adoption, Customer satisfaction, and Business impact. Consistent product success only comes… https://t.co/Qw75P9FXwC
Read the rest of the amazing tweet here.
(2) How Elon Musk showed what a PM should not do (by Aakash Gupta)
Ever since Elon took over Twitter, his product decisions have been shrouded in mystery & ridicule. Kafi PMs ke liyay toh yeh shock therapy hai. While some of Elon’s business decisions were bold and necessary, several of his product decisions were fairly controversial.
Aakash Gupta recently wrote a post to summarize the sentiments of many PMs and explained what we can learn from Elon’s takeover. Dil ki baat kar di.
Aakash writes:
Elon’s Twitter takeover has been a masterclass on how NOT to PM.
5 lessons from Elon of what NOT to do:
1. Prioritize by user likes
Elon tweeted for feature suggestions and said he would prioritize by most likes and least work. This is also a common product strategy: build what the users ask for.
The problem is that users don’t know what’s best for the business. In the Venn diagram of business and user value, the best product features sit at the intersection.
Users don’t know what those features are. You have to invent on their behalf. Start with a deep understanding of their needs, layer on what’s only recently possible, then ship…
….
Read the full LinkedIn post here.
(3) A Product Metric that most PMs don’t look at (by Moe Ali)
Product Managers look at a number of adoption, activation, revenue and retention metrics. Jaisay registrations, DAUs, GMV, transactions, cart size, churn rate etc.
But Moe Ali recently wrote a post highlighting a metric that many PMs aren’t using that got a lot of PMs talking.
Moe Ali writes:
Here’s a metric that I bet you aren’t using…
I want you to check it out, and start using it. It could be a real wake up call about how inactive your users are.
I’m talking about the XD28 metric. A lot of teams have never bothered to collect this data - but you can get started after 28 days. Here’s how the metric works👇This metric looks at a user and determines how many days they used your product/feature in a 28 day cycle.
If your user used your product just once in the last 28 days, they’re identified as 1D28. If they use it 5 days out of 28, they’re categorized as 5D28 and so on…
Read the full LinkedIn post here.
🤝 Soch Cafe Meetups
Lahore Soch Cafe
Finally, Soch Cafe returns to Lahore! Wooh!
We’re super stoked about returning to Mindstorm’s premises to host all our amazing Sochlets. We’ll be discussing how we PMs arrive at the right products to measure.
Date: Friday, March 10th, 2023
Time: 7 pm Pakistan time
Venue: Mindstorm Studios, Lahore
You can register here - don’t forget to RSVP!
Islamabad Soch Cafe
Islamabad never fails to disappoint. Thank you to our fantastic Sochlets in Islamabad for turning up!
We had a cozy gupshup at Emumba this past week led by Abdul Hannan on an interesting topic: Finding a Product-Market Fit for your product.
Karachi Soch Cafe
Karachi held yet another fascinating Soch Cafe at Bykea’s premises on March 9th, 2023. The topic was also around how to find a Product-Market Fit for your product led by Sarrah Moiz.
Stay tuned to our page for pictures!
🧠 Sochology EduSeries: Webinars for PM Learning
Recent Session: Sochology # 12 - Alejandro Simkievich
Last week on Sochology, Alejandro Simkievich - founder of Produkando (http://produkando.io) took stage to share his wisdom on the different stages of a product. Product Management in each stage is different and it’s critical to understand how one needs to adapt.
Past Sessions
In case you missed it, make sure you catch the past Sochology sessions on our Youtube channel e.g.
Episode 11: JJ Rorie, author of the book IMMUTABLE: 5 Truths of Great Product Managers, shared ways on Improving our Judgment & Decision Making for Better Products.
Episode 10: Zeeshan Syed, author of the course Tech Talk for Non-Developers, expanded on how Product Managers can be fluent in speaking tech.
Episode 9: Reham Fawad, senior product leader at PointClickCare, spoke about the importance of data when storytelling.
Episode 8: Christian Idiodi, partner at SVPG, shared what it takes to be a great Product Manager.
🎙 SochCast Podcast Episodes
Fresh out: Tech Entrepreneurship in Pakistan feat. Yasser Bashir
This week, Abdul sat down with Yasser Bashir - CEO & Co-founder of Arbisoft - one of Pakistan’s largest software firms. Yasser spoke candidly on the investment/funding future for startups in Pakistan, the impact of AI on the tech landscape & advice for tech entrepreneurs. This is a must-listen for anyone looking to scale their startup.
Watch the full episode Spotify Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts
Past Episodes
In case you missed it, a couple of interesting episodes we recommend:
Role of AI in Product Management featuring Ali Rehan.
Ali Rehan, Director of Engineering at Motive. They dove deep into the role AI will play in the future of products, how AI product management is different from other types of PM roles & the ethics of AI. This is a must-listen for those who are planning to venture into this field.
Watch now Apple Podcasts Spotify Google PodcastsTeaching Product Management featuring Clement Kao.
Clement talked about the traits of great Product Managers, how AI will change things in the future & makes some great reading recommendations.
Watch now Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts
💬 Slack Discussions
Interesting Threads
On Slack, there are lot of interesting discussions on story points, GTM strategies and e-commerce platforms.
Do you want to dive into the conversation? Der kis baat ki - join us on slack.productsoch.com.
💼 Jobs Posted
Product Soch is looking for energetic volunteers to drive our vision of helping PMs in Pakistan build globally admired products. If you’re interested, you can apply here.
Are you in the market for jobs? Well, our Slack group’s #job-portal channel has been blowing up with interesting vacancies.
For example, these employers are looking for product peeps with solid soch:
Buscaro is looking for a Performance Specialist. Email resumes here. Mention Product Soch when you apply!
A global fintech player is looking for senior PMs (5+ years) in Karachi. Email here.
If you or someone you know is looking for options, you might want to jump into our Slack.
May the Soch be with you.
Salaam,
Sarrah Moiz