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 2022CEOs sometimes need to override product teams for focus
Reed Hastings didn't ask Gibson's permission to kill advertising—he knew Gibson's pride and ownership would cloud his judgment. Sometimes leaders must make decisions unilaterally to maintain strategic focus, even if it disappoints the team. This requires trust and clear explanation afterward.
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 2022Clarify what you implicitly allow, don't assume understanding
Netflix allowed account sharing for years without explicitly stating household-only restrictions, then had to clarify the rules later. Ambiguity about product boundaries creates problems at scale. Make your constraints and permissions explicit early, especially around monetization and usage rights.
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 2022Customer choice may trump simplicity and delight
When Netflix faced growth challenges, Reed Hastings shifted from prioritizing simplicity to prioritizing customer choice—offering an ad-supported tier even though it added complexity. Sometimes market conditions force you to serve different customer segments differently, even if it contradicts your original strategy.
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 2022Kill advertising to stay manically focused on one thing
Reed Hastings asked Gibson two questions to justify killing Netflix's profitable advertising business: 'Who will be best in the world at advertising?' (Google) and 'Who needs to be best at personalization?' (Netflix). Simplicity and singular focus on your core strength often beats incremental revenue.
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 2022Distinguish between reversible and irreversible decisions
Amazon calls reversible decisions 'two-way doors' and irreversible ones 'one-way doors.' Most product decisions are reversible and lower-stakes than they feel. Understanding the magnitude and reversibility of a decision helps you avoid over-analyzing low-stakes choices and frees you to experiment.
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 2022Kill features that only 2% of users adopt
Features 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.
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 2022Test the ideal, don't assume what customers want
Netflix's Perfect New Release Test revealed that customers claimed they wanted faster DVD delivery, but A/B testing showed minimal retention improvement. What people say they want in focus groups often differs from what actually drives behavior. Always test hypotheses rather than relying on stated preferences.
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 2022Delight customers in hard-to-copy, margin-enhancing ways
Product strategy should balance three elements: delighting customers (10X better experiences), building defensible advantages (hard to copy), and creating business value (margin enhancing). The tension between delight and margin is where strategy lives—you must constantly trade off customer joy against business sustainability.
Jackie Bavaro on getting better at product strategy, what exactly is strategy, PM pitfalls to avoid, advancing your career, getting into management, and much more
Jun 2022Spend first six months learning, not strategizing
New PMs should focus their first six months on customer research, product learning, and executing existing strategy. Only after six months should you draft your own strategy—and even then, start with a half-day of focused writing to get ideas out, then iterate with your product triad.
Jackie Bavaro on getting better at product strategy, what exactly is strategy, PM pitfalls to avoid, advancing your career, getting into management, and much more
Jun 2022Management is lonelier and less fun than IC work
Being a manager fundamentally changes relationships with your team—they treat you differently at social events, you carry secrets you can't share, and you're torn between what's best for individuals and what's best for the company. It's a real downside worth acknowledging before assuming management is the natural next step.
Jackie Bavaro on getting better at product strategy, what exactly is strategy, PM pitfalls to avoid, advancing your career, getting into management, and much more
Jun 2022Cross-apply strategy frameworks from unrelated domains
When YouTube struggled with whether to link to videos on competing platforms, the answer came from observing how Google Shopping framed a similar dilemma: consistency versus comprehensiveness. Studying how other products make strategic choices—even in completely different categories—provides new mental models for your own decisions.
Jackie Bavaro on getting better at product strategy, what exactly is strategy, PM pitfalls to avoid, advancing your career, getting into management, and much more
Jun 2022Strategy improves through accumulated pattern recognition
Expertise in strategy, data analysis, and product decisions comes from seeing enough examples to instantly recognize patterns. Staying at a company long enough to run multiple experiments, iterate on decisions, and observe results over time builds intuition that no amount of reading can replicate.
Jackie Bavaro on getting better at product strategy, what exactly is strategy, PM pitfalls to avoid, advancing your career, getting into management, and much more
Jun 2022IC paths pay as much as management—choose wisely
A senior PM at major tech companies earns as much as doctors or lawyers. The assumption that you must climb to management to earn well is outdated. Understanding salary transparency (via levels.fyi) reveals that IC and management paths offer comparable compensation, so career choice should be based on what work energizes you, not assumed financial necessity.
Jackie Bavaro on getting better at product strategy, what exactly is strategy, PM pitfalls to avoid, advancing your career, getting into management, and much more
Jun 2022Saying yes to everything taught me collaboration
When my coach challenged me to say yes to everything for two weeks, I realized my defensive 'no' mindset was preventing real collaboration. I learned that even if someone's proposed solution isn't ideal, the problem they're identifying is probably real—and their idea is a way of surfacing that problem worth exploring together.
Jackie Bavaro on getting better at product strategy, what exactly is strategy, PM pitfalls to avoid, advancing your career, getting into management, and much more
Jun 2022Listen for confusion to find strategy gaps
The only way to discover what's missing from your strategy is by communicating it repeatedly and paying close attention to where people seem confused. People hide their confusion, so you must listen actively for unstated assumptions and missing logical connections that prevent others from following your reasoning.
Jackie Bavaro on getting better at product strategy, what exactly is strategy, PM pitfalls to avoid, advancing your career, getting into management, and much more
Jun 2022A numerical target is not a strategy
When executives say 'increase revenue by 50%,' that's a goal, not a strategy. A PM's job is to connect that target to specific product work by identifying which features best match the business goal and explaining why—filling in all the missing dots between high-level objective and tactical execution.
Jackie Bavaro on getting better at product strategy, what exactly is strategy, PM pitfalls to avoid, advancing your career, getting into management, and much more
Jun 2022Strategy has three non-negotiable components
A complete strategy requires: (1) Vision—an inspiring picture of the future; (2) Strategic Framework—the market, success definition, and big bets to win it; (3) Roadmap—working backward from vision to validate feasibility. Most strategies fail because they're missing one of these three elements, making them incomplete regardless of how polished they seem.
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 2022Hire your first PM from within your team
The first PM should be an engineer, designer, or analyst already at the company. They understand the founder and team dynamics, are trusted by both, and can assimilate culturally. External PMs with different processes often get rejected by the organization.
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 2022Empower teams with problems, not solutions
The 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.
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 2022Founders should spend two hours daily on hiring
One hour on systematic outreach (LinkedIn, process development) during low-mental-energy time, and one hour meeting 1-2 people daily. Over 30 days, this yields 60 conversations and a dramatically better talent pipeline than sporadic hiring efforts.
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 2022Hire lieutenants from best-in-class companies
Don't hire the head of function from competitor companies—instead, identify the best-in-class companies at that function in your space and hire their lieutenants and up-and-coming leaders. Build an org chart, spend time on LinkedIn, and systematically source from proven talent pipelines.
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 2022A bad PM can derail 10 engineers' work
While good engineers are important, the leverage of a good PM is disproportionately higher. One bad product manager can create cascading errors across an entire engineering team, making PM hiring and development one of the highest-leverage decisions a founder makes.
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 2022Organic growth is the real product-market fit test
If 90% of your customers come from paid acquisition, the music will eventually stop. A healthy product should have 40-50% organic growth and 50% paid. If your product isn't remarkable enough for people to talk about, you're building on a fragile foundation.
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 2022Join winners, not just winning moments
Being the top person at a mediocre company is worse than being a junior at a category leader. The brand halo, talent quality, network effects, and learning from winners compound throughout your career in ways that far exceed title or immediate seniority.
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