Introducing New Wave Product
Start with why
I’m writing a booklet called ‘New Wave Product’ that’s a sort of manifesto for pragmatic product management. Most popular guidance feels ‘purist’ and narrowly focused on metrics-driven tools, models and frameworks.
Entry and mid-level product managers I’ve managed and met will hoover-up this purist guidance, find it doesn’t work in the messy reality of their organisation and feel like they’re not doing proper product management.
Lots of organisations wanting to be ‘product-led’ will spend time on OKRs and roadmaps and introducing product managers but realise this doesn’t address their underlying problems.
My truth is that a roadmap never really changed anything. The popular tools, models and frameworks can be of help but it’s coaching, managing change and negotiation that have led to the transformation in my work.
I think product’s up in its head and needs to get out into the world and be a little more pragmatic. ‘New Wave Product’ is an argument for broadening product culture so we can think about people as much as metrics. It’s a call for pragmatic product.
How
‘New Wave Product’ will likely have five sections explaining where we’ve got a little lost and how we reintroduce pragmatism. There will be:
- an introduction improving and expanding on this blog post
- a section on the mis-adventures of an organisation becoming ‘product-led’ as a vehicle for digital transformation
- a section on the experiences and signals over the years I missed, all of which were telling me that something was missing in how we often define product
- a little inconoclasm, returning to our sacred texts to see their strengths and weaknesses
- and finally the key principles for new wave product as a call to action and a manifesto for pragmatic product.
I’ve been writing blog posts since the 2000s and writing product-guidance for over a decade, including the popular Product Management Handbook from 2018. I took the Faber Academy’s ‘creative non-fiction’ course at the beginning of 2024 which helped me find my own voice and improve my storytelling.
What
I’m doing this as an A5 booklet, probably around 16 pages in length. I’d like to draft this in just a couple of months and I’d like people to read it in a few minutes. I’d like to do the hard work to make it simple. I’ll print 25-50 copies of the draft and share with folks for feedback, then improve, then do the same thing with a slightly larger print run. I’m going to keep things as simple as possible and strip out anything that distracts from getting it out into the world asap.