#productcohort-diana
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<@U08QMCRN1QX> has joined the channel
Ahead of our call next week, here is a related topic...
Why do customers praise your product but never purchase? This frustrating gap between enthusiasm and action signals "product purgatory"—your solution may be valuable but lacks urgency. The insightful "Magic-Wand Test" reveals whether your product fails due to perceived value or activation hurdles. If prospects would take it fully implemented for free yet still won't buy, your challenge isn't the product but its priority level (usually #7 on their list). The solution isn't to add features, but to narrow your focus to customers facing immediate catalysts like regulatory deadlines or leadership mandates where urgency drives decisions.
Ahead of the tomorrow, attached is a nice product-market fit example from First Round Capital on . Main points being...
- Stay Close to Customers (Really Close) • Direct access to users even via Slack, text, etc. provides constant real-time feedback • Starting with founder-led sales can build deep trust (even more than features) • Manual onboarding is an excellent way to start, especially as you learn the pain points firsthand
- Solve a Real, Painful Problem (Not Just a Cool Idea) • Early pivot moved from "interesting" (LLM memory) → to urgent need (PDF parsing bottleneck) • PMF showed up when customers pulled the product, not when founders pushed it.
- Execute Simply and Quickly • Ugly MVP launched fast - and that's a good thing • Focused on being better at one core thing (reading documents like humans)
- Be Methodical About Growth, Not Flashy • Tiny, high-leverage team (hit $1M ARR with 4 people) • Priced for serious users, filtered out tire-kickers • Said no to one-off feature and asks that didn’t fit the core vision
- Founder Energy and Learning Loops Matter • Obsession with customer success was contagious • Failure at the micro level (bad demos, awkward sales calls) was embraced as part of the learning curve. • Big growth came from iterating fast, caring hard, and staying scrappy.
Hi! If you are building a product with AI, here are a few interesting quotes from a with the CPO of OpenAI re: how to build for the future...
• When you're talking about databases, I bet the database you used this year is probably 5% better than the database you used two years ago, but that's not true at all with AI. It's like every two months computers can do something they've never been able to do before and you need to completely think differently about what you're doing.
• Everything we're used to with computers is about giving a computer very defined inputs. You're confident that if you do the same thing three times, you're going to get the same output three times. LLMs are completely different from that. You probably get spiritually the same answer for the same question, but you don't get the same answer every time.
• We point ourselves in a direction so that we have some rough sense of alignment. I don't for a second believe that what we write down in the roadmap documents is what we're going to actually ship three months from now, let alone six or nine. But that's okay. It's like the Eisenhower quote, "Plans are useless. Planning is helpful,". We're going to throw out the roadmap halfway because we will have learned new things. The moment of planning is helpful even if it's only partially.
• We use ensembles of models much more internally than people might think. If we have 10 different problems, we might solve them using 20 different model calls, some of which are using specialized fine-tuned models, using custom prompts for each one. You want to break the problem down into more specific tasks versus some broader set of high level tasks. And then you can use models very specifically to get very good at each individual thing. And then you have an ensemble that tackles the whole thing.
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<@U08MGT2J91U> has joined the channel
Yup, a great product is stable stakes just to get in the game...
There is so much happening in the product space today. A great from Andrew Chen from A16Z highlights how important your product is today. Quotes [especially Product is (unfortunately) King] that stood out to me were:
• So I have bad news: Your product actually has to be very good. I wish I lived in a world where you could have amazing marketing and growth strategies, have a shitty product, and you would win. Then marketers would run tech, and they do not. It’s the people visionaries that create the products that run tech, and that’s a good thing!
• The reason is that even if you do a ton of work to acquire a bunch of users, it won’t matter if they leak out of the DAU (daily active user) number. I’ve come to think of great marketing strategy as a multiplier effect on your inherent product quality. If you have a great product, you will multiply that into greatness. If you have a shitty product, you will multiply that into… well, you get it.
After a great call with <@U08CN7ATAD8>, I wanted to share an article on product sense. It's a mysterious skill every product leader needs but few can define. I wrote an article on what it actually is, how you develop it (spoiler: it's not overnight!), and why it needs constant refreshing to stay relevant.
At its core, product sense combines two critical abilities:
1. Customer empathy – deeply understanding what makes a high-quality product for your specific users
2. Creative judgment – having strong, validated opinions about what solutions will succeed
It's the skill that helps you:
- Identify important customer problems worth solving
- Build compelling strategies to address those problems
- Know which features to prioritize in new products
- Enhance existing products to better meet user needs
- Interpret data to achieve product-market fit
To learn more visit
Have you heard of Vibe Coding? Here is an intro and what It means for Product
• What is it?
◦ Vibe coding is a new way of building software using AI, where people give simple instructions (like "make the button bigger" or "add a login page"), and the AI generates the code automatically. This means that building software is becoming faster, easier, and more accessible—even for people who don’t know how to code.
• Why It Matters?
1. More People Can Build Software
◦ AI will handle most of the coding, meaning more non-technical people will be able to create software.
◦ Just as social media made everyone a content creator, AI-powered coding will allow more people to build apps and tools.
2. From Coding to Visual Building
◦ Today, vibe coding mostly happens with text-based commands, like chatting with ChatGPT.
◦ In the future, it will shift to visual tools, where PMs and designers can simply describe the experience they want, and AI will build it with no engineering required.
3. Software Becomes Disposable & Customizable
◦ Instead of relying on standard tools and libraries, AI will generate custom code for every project, making software more adaptable.
◦ Imagine tweaking an app like you edit a Google Doc, making changes in real-time without needing an engineer.
4. The Role of PMs Will Evolve
◦ Less focus on “how” things are built (since AI handles the code).
◦ More focus on defining the right problem and desired outcomes (e.g., “make signup easier” instead of “add a progress bar”).
◦ Software will adapt itself based on user behavior rather than following fixed rules set by engineers.
5. Changes in Team Structures
◦ If AI makes coding cheaper and faster, engineering-heavy teams may shrink, while roles like PMs and designers could become even more critical.
◦ However, demand for software could explode, leading to even more engineers building at a much faster pace.
6. AI in Marketing & Sales
◦ Just as AI can generate code, it can also automate marketing and sales.
◦ Imagine giving AI a simple goal like “market our app to Gen Z,” and it automatically creates social content, buys ads, and runs influencer campaigns.
7. Challenges & Risks
◦ AI-generated software is still messy—handling complex business rules, security, and edge cases is difficult.
◦ Many early AI-built products feel low quality, but just like AI images/videos improved quickly, software will get better fast.
• What This Means for the Future
◦ Less time managing engineers, more time guiding AI tools to build products.
◦ Faster prototyping and iteration, making user feedback even more important.
◦ A shift from shipping features to defining goals and letting AI optimize them.
AI-driven development won’t replace PMs, but it will change how we work. Instead of asking engineers to build things, we may soon describe what we want, let AI create it, and refine it based on user feedback. 🚀
If you feel stuck when building or maintaining a product, have you considered your team may not be aligned? They hear the same words, but the interpretation might differ from what you expected.
Prompt --> How can you ensure your team members are aligned?
Teams often lack a shared goal, context, and language when being formed. This can be devastating later on, if not resolved.
The Team Alignment Map, created by Stefano Mastrogiacomo, is a visual tool that allows participants to prepare for action: hold more productive meetings and structure the content of their conversations. It can help teams have more productive kickoffs, with better engagement and increased business success.
Each building block illustrates essential information to be discussed with your team. Identifying perception gaps early on can prevent you from being misaligned without even knowing it.
A copy is attached. Enjoy!
Insight to wrap up January and begin February. It's a preview of our discussion for May - Innovation Roundtable Session 5 - Foundation for Product Development.
Successful product development hinges on three core elements: observation, action, and feedback.
1. Observation
a. Start by studying successful products and leaders in your category (there are always competitors) to understand their approaches
b. Gather diverse perspectives from customers and stakeholders.
2. Action
a. Embrace rapid prototyping and iteration rather than seeking perfection - quality emerges from quantity of attempts.
b. Break complex features into smaller, testable steps and focus on critical (most risky) needs first.
3. Feedback
a. Create tight feedback loops by sharing examples and getting real user feedback.
b. Both products and product skills develop in phases - from initial understanding, through experimentation, to optimization
c. Be prepared to unlearn and adapt strategies as customer + market needs evolve.
My first BIG NEWS to kick off 2025! I'm thrilled to announce the launch of my new book, , written in collaboration with two incredible co-authors, is now live on !
Sharing this news with you all as I'm a start-up founder too. The product is "me". Get excited to apply the upcoming branding expertise from @Lysle Wickersham to the product your startup is delivering - whether it be a service, software, or something else.
Looking forward to learning together!
Welcome to 2025! As we look ahead to the year, keep in mind building a business is like building yourself - both are products of your experiences. Instead of waiting for a year end of a new year to reflect, get started today. Why? The most successful products - whether businesses or personal growth - are built through deliberate, incremental improvements (aka consistent small steps).
I was reading recently (I built my business on Saturdays while working full-time), and he posed a powerful question:
"What's the most obvious thing I could do today to make my business better?"
This reminded me of product development. We often overlook small improvements because they seem too minor. But these tiny changes compound over time. The same applies to personal growth. You are a product - constantly evolving, learning, and improving through experiences.
Here's what I've learned:
• Your business is your product - it reflects your learnings, experiences, and passions.
• Your goal is to solve problems and improve lives - whether through your business or personal growth.
• Both paths have ups and downs. Both require consistent small improvements.
So choose a question to ask yourself today:
• What's one small experiment you could run to improve your customer experience?
• What minor enhancement have you been postponing because it seemed too small?
• What tiny step could you take to improve yourself?
Hi! As we get ready to wrap up 2024, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holidays! 🎉 I'm excited to kick off our product community journey together in the New Year! This channel is all about learning how to discover, define, develop, and deliver you product. We'll focus on on the sweet spot where customer needs meet business value.
My background spans 20+ years of product management across various industries, from emerging media to education technology. I've led teams through digital transformation, built products from 0 to 1, and navigated enterprise organizations. Currently, I write a , coach product people + leaders, and advise startups on building customer-centric, scalable products.
Until our product sessions kick off later in 2025 🌟, I'll be sharing product info in this channel to kick off the learning and discussions, covering topics like:
- Creating effective company + product strategy stacks
- Navigating the balance between empowerment and execution
- Incorporating AI thoughtfully into your product development
What excites me most about this channel is the opportunity to learn from each other. Product is a team sport - we go farther together. Whether you're just starting your journey or looking to level up your knowledge, this channel will provide a place to grow together. Reach out with any product questions that come to mind. Thanks!
Have specific product challenges you'd like to tackle? Topics you want to explore? Drop them in the comments below or reach out directly at [email]. Let's shape this learning journey together!
Looking forward to exploring the art and science of product management with you all!