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Mind the Product

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How to build a companion product and win user trust

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Join us at #mtpcon London in 2025 – mark your calendars

Connecting fans to creators at Spotify (Dariusz Dziuk, Product Lead, Spotify)

Why teams often struggle with OKRs: A conversation with Jeff Gothelf

5 ways to invent and simplify as an AI/ML product manager

Louron serves as the Editor at Mind the Product, bringing nearly a decade of experience in editorial positions across business and technology publications. For any editorial inquiries, you can connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Louron Pratt

<p>In the first month of 2022, we&#8217;ve published a whole lot of content to keep us all up to scratch with the product management craft and here we&#8217;re taking a look back at a few of the best bits.</p>
<p>Read on for a recap of the five most talked-about pieces this month. Let’s dive right in…</p>
<h2>Don’t let your first Product Requirements Document be your last</h2>
<p>Our most popular piece of this month was written by Adam D&#8217;arcy, Chief Product Officer at Prodigy Finance. He explains how publishing your first Product Requirements Document (PDR) can be a daunting task, especially if you’re new to a tech company.</p>
<p>He offers up fresh research on how product managers are feeling when writing PRDs followed by a practical tool to hopefully solve this problem.</p>
<p>Due to previous painful moments in his career, he has decided to create a more flexible PRD Generator that could attempt to solve all these pain points. Product managers can pick from a shortlist of boilerplate sections depending on the type of PRD being created to get a clear logical structure in place from the beginning. If you fancy trying it out, take a full read of the article below!</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/dont-let-your-first-prd-be-your-last/">Don’t let your first Product Requirements Document be your last</a></span></p>
<h2>Managing mature products — Simple steps to success</h2>
<p>Not every product makes it to maturity, but most products have a lifecycle of growth, maturity, and decline. A mature product has found product/market fit, it’s stopped growing, and its role is to be a cash cow for the business.</p>
<p>In this post for Mind the Product members, Editor at Mind the Product, Eira Hayward, delves into a step-by-step guide into ensuring that products continue to thrive.</p>
<p>She explains that tracking performance, staying competitive by managing your salespeople carefully, and being conscientious about your best practices are key to thriving.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/managing-mature-products-simple-steps-to-success/">Read: Managing mature products — Simple steps to success</a></span></p>
<h2>A case study: Building a product without any full-time product managers</h2>
<p>This popular blog post asks the question, do you need a full-time Product Manager in your team? The case study by Francesco Wiedemann, co-founder at Kyte delves into how small teams can achieve growth in product creation without the need for full-time Product Managers.</p>
<p>Francesco encourages all teams to instil the principles of extreme ownership, integrate easy processes, and set a clear north star in their culture.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/a-case-study-building-a-product-without-any-full-time-product-managers/">Read this case study on building a product without any full-time product managers</a></span></p>
<h2>Managing “must-do” initiatives in empowered teams</h2>
<p>How do you approach “must-do” initiatives when your team is empowered? And do you tell empowered teams they have to do something, and how do you handle it well? This popular members&#8217; post for the month discusses how to maintain authority with your empowered teams.</p>
<p><span style="font-style: italic;">“The key to maintaining authority with your team is to be transparent, says Emily. If you pretend you believe in a bad decision your team will see through it and stop trusting you.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-style: italic;">Discover insights on </span><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/managing-must-do-initiatives-in-empowered-teams/">Managing “must-do” initiatives in empowered teams</a></span></p>
<h2>QUICK READ: How do you innovate in a risk-averse environment?</h2>
<p>Enterprise businesses are often risk-averse, making it challenging for a product manager trying to innovate. How do you work around the problem? How do you learn to sell the dream and encourage your risk-averse stakeholders to innovate with you?</p>
<p>In this engaging membership piece, Eira Hayward shares six suggestions from product people who have found successful ways to work in a risk-averse environment.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/how-do-you-innovate-in-a-risk-averse-environment/">QUICK READ: How do you innovate in a risk-averse environment?</a></span></p>
<h2>Coming up in February…</h2>
<p>There are plenty more exciting pieces of content to unpack in February. To ensure you won’t miss out on a thing, keep your eyes peeled on our<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/"> homepage</a></span> as well as visiting the <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/membership/leader/dashboard/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">membership dashboard</a>.</p>

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Product Management Community

The role of an AI product manager by Hiroki Nakamura

Unusual business in the product discovery stage by Kristian Collin Berge

The good, bad, and ugly of OKRs by Jenny Herald

What we learned at #mtpEngage Hamburg 2022

Robotics and society by Cynthia Yeung

Building an industry product by Nick Eales

How to encourage clicks without shady tricks by Paul Boag

Mindset – Being Empowered To Manage Your Stakeholders With Papa Akuffo

Mindset – Blaming the Framework, Core Team Communication, and Remote Working With Matt LeMay

January’s top product management content

Louron Pratt

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