What Seven Years at Airbnb Taught Me About Building a Business
Jun 2019
Some of the biggest conversion gains came from simple tweaks that gave users fewer things to think about—opening listings in new tabs, removing links in payment flows, defaulting settings. Don't underestimate the power of focus as a design and organizational principle.
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Gibson Biddle on his DHM product strategy framework, GEM roadmap prioritization framework, 5 Netflix strategy mini case studies, building a personal board of directors, and much more
Jun 2022Features used by only 2% of your customer base create complexity for everyone else without meaningful business impact. Netflix called this 'scraping the barnacles'—ruthlessly removing low-adoption features to maintain simplicity and focus. Reach matters more than the quality of an idea.
28 Ways to Grow Supply in a Marketplace 📈
Jun 2019"Avoid spreading your team too thinly across many tactics (aka focus), double down on the things that show promise (aka focus), and never lose sight of your north star (aka focus). Also, focus." The author's emphasis suggests that focus is the meta-lesson that transcends all 28 tactics.
Where Great Product Roadmap Ideas Come From
Jun 2019Direct customer conversations beat large brainstorms for generating breakthrough ideas. The closer you are to actual user problems—whether through direct talks, observing behavior, or using the product yourself—the better your roadmap ideas become. Scale of input matters less than quality of signal.
Gokul Rajaram on designing your product development process, when and how to hire your first PM, a playbook for hiring leaders, getting ahead in you career, how to get started angel investing, more
Jun 2022The biggest pitfall is founders becoming too tactical and dictating features instead of presenting problems. Present the goal—'increase weekly usage from 2x to 5x'—and let the team brainstorm solutions. This creates ownership and prevents the feature factory trap.
This Week #2: Tackling the chicken-and-egg problem, building a growth team from scratch, and addressing overlap with PM peers 🤔
Sep 2019In early-stage growth, focus on opportunities that can deliver exponential returns rather than incremental gains. Unless your product has viral mechanics built in, chasing small conversion improvements won't move the needle.
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