Skip to content (Press Enter)
David Quigley

David Quigley

Product Management, Digital Strategy, and Leadership

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Resources
    • Product Manager Learning Resources
    • Inspired Book Discussion Guide

Product Management

Our Product Is Not For You!

by Davidupdated on September 24, 2020September 24, 2020

I attended a talk several years ago by the CEO of a very successful software company, and afterward a current customer asked about a product enhancement. Most CEO’s would respond with something like, “It’s on our roadmap” or “That’s good feedback, we’ll take it under consideration.” Not this CEO! His response, “Our product is not …

Read More

What are you invested in?

by Davidupdated on September 11, 2020September 18, 2020

I’m in the process of selling my car, and making a 20-year old truck my dad gave me my primary vehicle. The car was paid off, reliable, comfortable, and I really enjoyed driving it. So why get rid of it? Because I realized I didn’t want to invest my money in it any longer. I’m …

Read More

The Illusion of Progress

by Davidupdated on September 11, 2020September 16, 2020

Clayton Christensen in Competing Against Luck calls out how many companies have activities that give the illusion of progress, without actually causing it. To use Yogi Berra’s word, “We’re lost, but we’re making good time!” This happens when we fail to understand the “why”. Why do our customers choose our products? Why do they choose …

Read More

Table stakes in product management?

by Davidupdated on September 3, 2020September 3, 2020

I sometimes hear the phrase “table stakes” used to describe a feature. Basically a shorthand for a feature we can’t possibly leave out because the competitors have it, and the customer expects it. As a product manager, this assumption of “table stakes” is dangerous because it assumes knowledge of our customer’s needs and leads to …

Read More

Ignore your customers?

by Davidupdated on August 27, 2020September 2, 2020

Shouldn’t we always listen to our customers if we want to create great products? Yes and no. Blindly following the maxim that good managers should keep close to their customers can sometimes be a fatal mistake. Clayton Christensen – The Innovator’s Dilemma Clayton Christensen goes on to outline the dilemma we face as product managers. …

Read More

What is success?

by Davidupdated on August 19, 2020August 28, 2020

As a product leader, we should never let our teams think success is just delivering a feature, because our product teams don’t exist to deliver features. We exist to deliver business value by solving customer problems. Any time we learn how to solve a valuable customer problem and we launch that, we have succeed.

Read More

Why is simplicity so hard?

by Davidupdated on August 27, 2020August 27, 2020
Complex item

Why do we produce such complicated products when most would with Ockham’s Razor that “entities should not be multiplied without necessity.” How do things end up so complex when we all want to have the simplest possible solution, design, or implementation that we can come up with? I believe there are a few reasons: We …

Read More

What is your product hypothesis?

by Davidupdated on August 19, 2020August 26, 2020
hypothesis

What do you believe is true about your product that you’re actively trying to prove right now? Maybe it’s a new feature, a new subset of features, or even a whole new product, but you need to identify a hypothesis. The power in calling it a hypothesis, is that it declares to everyone around you …

Read More

Limited by your Leadership?

by Davidupdated on August 26, 2020August 26, 2020

There’s an infamous bridge, known on the internet as the “11 foot 8” bridge or the “Canopener Bridge”. Here is a quick example of the bridge in question: I think our leadership abilities can similar to this bridge, in that they can limit us and our teams. And they can do so in a destructive …

Read More

What are your competitors doing?

by Davidupdated on August 19, 2020August 23, 2020

What warning signs from your competitors might you be missing? Just before the start of World War II, pilots from Japan set numerous flight records outlined in a recent Air & Space article: “The flight of the Mitsubishi Ki-15 was the first of an impressive series of Japanese distance and endurance flights during the buildup …

Read More

Posts navigation

Previous Page
Next Page

Popular posts

  • Are you giving back?
  • Why Now?
  • Is our digital future inclusive?
  • Would you switch phones?
  • What Kind Of Team Are You Building?

© Copyright 2023 David Quigley. All Rights Reserved. The Ultralight | Developed By Rara Theme. Powered by WordPress.