The Ockham Bugle - 25/3/22
The Ockham Bugle - 25/3/22
I’m going to do 12 of these newsletters between now and the end of June. The formula: A bit about product management, and a few bits and pieces I’ve read, listened to, watched and (perhaps) bought during the week.
Product management
Product & Design - Inside Intercom
I wish I’d seen Intercom’s Product Management and Design blog earlier: as much for the overall impression it gives of them as an organisation as any of the indivdual posts. I like this bit on R&D, Product Design and Engineering Principles is good - as much for how it talks about Principles in general as some of the specifics. Looking forward to them going a bit deeper on some of these.
Then again, I don’t agree with everything in there. I don’t buy the ‘RICE’ system for prioritisation (scoring against Reach/ Impact/ Confidence and Effort); because in my experience those systems sound great and feel great when you’re filling in lots of numbers, still leave you having to make subjective decisions based on factors you can’t capture in a spreadsheet (which they kind of admit at the end).
Another take on this: Why you should avoid prioritisation frameworks.
Building Products at Stripe - by Ken Norton
This is from last May - but it’s still a great read. There’s a real focus on both writing and reading documents; and moving fast. This quote from Stripe’s Michael Siliski sums it up..
“There’s a lot we have in common with tech broadly, but one thing that distinguishes Stripe is that it’s an incredibly deep-thinking culture. It’s a written culture really focused on getting to the right answer. Going really deep and getting all the way down into the details around things, then distilling it down to a form that makes the complexity broadly consumable and actionable.
Another thing is a sense of urgency. The company is especially dedicated to moving very, very fast. That urgency comes from [Co-founder and CEO] Patrick [Collison] who even has a page on his website dedicated to fast projects in history, ones that were unreal and unreasonably quick.2 That has really permeated the Stripe culture.
That deep thinking and speed are combined with a substantial amount of user focus and user empathy. That’s something that you see talked about everywhere as being important, but I haven’t ever quite felt it as I have here. And finally, Stripe is a humble and low-entitlement culture. There’s a high degree of kindness between people, and I don’t think you can ever take it for granted.”
It’s made me think a fair bit about the world of Decks vs the world of Docs...more of which another week.
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A Reality Check on Product Management: 5 Typical Scenarios and How to Navigate Them
I don’t quite buy the solutions here - but I like the focus on real world problems… as we all know it’s not all fun Discovery workshops and Post It Notes..
TV pick of the week
At a time when there’s no shortage of dramas and documentaries covering awful people and the awful things they get up this was a mind expanding, entertaining, and at times tear-jerking drama about the disability rights campaigners Barbara Lisicki and Alan Holdsworth. It will change the way you think about disability rights..
Like this review says the only problem with it was that it was cramped into a single episode when it could so easily have been a series. When you think how many shambling middle class pot boilers get dragged out over 6 episodes, it was a shame to squash this into 90 minutes.
If you’ve already watched it, and you want to know more - this is their story.
Our own version of ‘The Wire’ (although without the police and journalists). Currently bingeing through this. With subtitles on (my excuise: that way you get the music credit when a track comes on)…
Podcast Corner
I loved this journey through the world of spritualism - with the central focus being the self-confessed fake Lamar Keene - who coined the term ‘True believer syndrome: 'No amount of logic can shatter a faith consciously based on a lie’
I’m persevering with this, which has been on my ‘must listen’ list since February. This is from Serial Productions, and brings together Brian Case ( S-Town ) with British journalist Hamza Syed and while I remember the story vaguely - about alleged ‘Islamicization of state schools in Birmingham’, I knew none of the details. Well, now we have every detail you can imagine. The style is what we’ve learned to expect from Serial - complete with the slightly annoying chimey background music. As a podcast, it’s great, binge-worthy stuff as a podcast. But is it’s main thesis (and I’m only half way through, but the agenda seems pretty clear pretty quickly) right? I made the mistake of reading this and this and these letters to the Guardian…while I was still listening, and I’m thinking the story needed a different treatment all together.
I also learned..
Global warming is causing trouble with coffee production in Africa
Everything is on track with the (utterly gobsmacking) James Webb telescope
You can buy yourself some AR glasses to replace your laptop
Orangutans use slang to show off how cool they are
Corporate America needs more than innovation - it needs wisdom
What happens to an oligarch’s super yacht after it’s been seized
The prices of Jeffrey Epstein’s private islands
There’s gold in them there laptops
It’s time to visit Tate Britain
A weekly round up of Product Management goodies - all very grounded in the real world. Plus: updates what I've been watching and listening to. Every Friday, from deepest Surrey.
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