Ditch the frameworks, focus on the basics of PM

"Failure is a powerful teacher. Here’s what I learned from a product launch that didn’t go as planned—and how it shaped my approach to ownership." Every Product Owner has one — that one launch that didn’t go as planned. For me, it was an early phase of our Marina Management platform. We had the vision, the support, and the excitement. But what we didn’t have… was enough patience. Here’s what went wrong—and what it taught me: 1️⃣Customer Pressure vs. Product Readiness We pushed for a go-live to meet stakeholder expectations instead of validating user readiness. Lesson: Business pressure shouldn’t override user experience. Launch when ready, not when convenient. 2️⃣Skipped Testing Due to Timelines In our race to meet deadlines, testing took a backseat. Predictably, small bugs became major disruptions post-launch. Lesson: Testing is not a phase—it’s a culture. Quality delayed is value denied. 3️⃣Poor Resource Allocation Our best people were stretched thin across multiple priorities. We assumed availability equaled productivity. Lesson: Effective ownership is about protecting focus and managing capacity, not just assigning tasks. 💡The Outcome: That experience reshaped how I approach every project since — with a focus on prioritization, validation, and resilience. Failure wasn’t the end of that story — it was the foundation for every success that followed. #ProductOwnership #ProductManagement #DockIQ #BusinessAnalysis #Leadership #Agile #DigitalTransformation #ProductStrategy #LessonsLearned #MaritimeTech #Innovation #ProductLaunch #ContinuousImprovement

The Difference Between Building Fast and Building Right We launched a critical onboarding flow in record time. Perfect sprints. Zero blockers. Everyone celebrated. Then the data came in: activation dropped by 22%. We built fast — not right. That moment defined our understanding of Lean Product Management. It taught us the key difference: Agile vs. Lean: The Core Distinction Agile: Builds efficiently — “How fast can we ship it?” Lean: Learns effectively — “Should we even be building this?” The Lean Product Mindset — 4 Pillars Start with “Why.” Every roadmap item must begin with a validated user problem. If the why is weak, the what doesn’t matter. Velocity = Learning. Innovation isn’t about commits — it’s empathy (discovery) + experimentation (testing). Discovery Never Ends. Hypothesis testing isn’t a pre-build activity — it’s a continuous loop. Measure Learning, Not Delivery. Success = validated assumptions + quantifiable user value. The Compounding Loop Ideate → Discover → Plan → Build → Measure → Iterate Skip Discovery or Measure, and you’re back to guesswork — exactly how we ended up with that –22% drop. The Takeaway We’ve learned not to stop at MVP (Minimum Viable Product) — but to aim a little higher. The real goal, for us, is often an MLP (Minimum Lovable Product). Products that work may get users, but products that connect keep them. Still learning every day that the best PMs aren’t the fastest builders — they’re the most curious learners. What practices help your team ensure you’re building the right thing — not just building fast? #LeanProductManagement #ProductLeadership #Innovation #DesignThinking #UserCentricDesign #Agile #LearningCulture

💡 Failure Is a Powerful Teacher — Here’s What a Product Launch Gone Wrong Taught Me About True Ownership Every Product Owner has that one launch — the one that humbles you, tests your patience, and reshapes how you lead. For me, it was the early phase of our Marina Management Platform. We had the vision, the stakeholder support, and the excitement… But what we didn’t have was enough patience. Here’s what went wrong — and how it changed my approach forever 👇 1️⃣ Customer Pressure vs. Product Readiness We rushed to go live to meet stakeholder expectations rather than ensuring user readiness. Lesson: Business urgency should never outweigh user experience. Launch when ready, not when convenient. 2️⃣ Testing Took a Backseat In our sprint to meet deadlines, testing became a checkbox — not a culture. Post-launch, small bugs snowballed into big issues. Lesson: Testing isn’t just a phase; it’s a mindset. Quality delayed is value denied. 3️⃣ Poor Resource Allocation Our top contributors were stretched across too many priorities, and we mistook availability for capacity. Lesson: True ownership means protecting focus and managing bandwidth — not just assigning tasks. 🔹 The Outcome: That project didn’t fail — it taught. It reshaped how I approach every delivery since — with sharper prioritization, deeper validation, and a renewed respect for resilience. Failure wasn’t the end of that story. It became the foundation for every success that followed. #ProductManagement #Leadership #ProjectManagement #LessonsLearned #GrowthMindset #Ownership #AIinPM #PMO

The Framework That Changed How I Make Product Decisions When I first started learning about product management, I thought good decisions came from instinct just “knowing” what the user needs. Turns out, it’s not about guessing. It’s about structuring how you think. That’s when I discovered the RICE framework and it completely changed how I approach product decisions. RICE = Reach × Impact × Confidence ÷ Effort At first, it felt mechanical like just filling in numbers. But the more I used it, the more I realized it’s not about math. It’s about clarity. Reach forces me to ask: Who really benefits from this feature? Impact reminds me to measure outcomes, not outputs. Confidence makes me admit when I’m guessing. Effort keeps me grounded in the team’s bandwidth. Sometimes, the “top-scoring” idea doesn’t make it to the roadmap and that’s fine. Because the real value of frameworks like RICE is how they make your trade-offs transparent and your thinking visible. As someone early in my PM journey, I’ve learned this: You don’t have to have all the answers. But you do need a structured way to find them. I’m curious what frameworks or mental models do you rely on for product decisions? #ProductManagement #DecisionMaking #RICE #LearningInPublic #ProductStrategy #CareerGrowth

Why MVP Isn’t About Cutting Corners—It’s About Learning Fast In product management, the term Minimum Viable Product (MVP) often gets misunderstood. It’s not about launching a half-baked product or doing the bare minimum. It’s about maximizing learning while minimizing waste. An MVP is the smallest version of your product that delivers value to early adopters and allows you to gather meaningful feedback. It’s a strategic tool to test assumptions, validate demand, and iterate quickly—before investing heavily in features users may not need. “The goal of customer discovery is to test your understanding of the customer’s problem and see if your solution would prompt the user to use/buy your product” - Fumnanya Okeleke-Kooper Here’s what a great MVP does: - 🎯 Focuses on solving one core problem exceptionally well - 🧪 Tests a hypothesis with real users in real conditions - 🔁 Enables rapid iteration based on actual feedback Think of it as a conversation starter with your market—not the final word. In a world where speed and adaptability are competitive advantages, MVPs help teams learn fast and build what truly matters. What’s the most surprising insight you’ve gained from launching an MVP? #ProductManagement #MVP #LeanStartup #Innovation #Agile

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 — 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝘀. Everything feels important when you’re building a product. Every request sounds valid. Every idea feels urgent. You end up with a half-built product that tries to do everything and pleases no one. Here’s the truth I learned the hard way. Not every problem deserves your attention right now. I stopped chasing every new idea from users and started focusing on two things. 1. Deepen what my best users already love. 2. Remove real blockers for the next group of users. Everything else can wait in the backlog. I also stopped obsessing over frameworks and fancy tools. A simple Google Sheet with columns for impact, effort, and reach did the job. What mattered more was speed of learning, not perfect scoring. Sometimes the best question is “What happens if we don’t build this?” If the answer is “nothing,” that’s your clue. I learned that clarity doesn’t come from more feedback. It comes from knowing what your product stands for and what truly moves the needle this week. Prioritization isn’t a spreadsheet skill. It’s a judgment skill. You build that by saying “no” a lot more than you say “yes.” - 𝗔𝗻𝘂𝗵𝘆𝗮 𝗞𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗿𝗮𝗷𝘂 ❤️ #ProductManagement #Prioritization #Leadership #ProductDesign #BuildBetter #UserExperience

Frameworks don’t replace thinking; they guide it. As a Product Manager, frameworks help you make sense of chaos. They give structure to your ideas, decisions, and priorities so you can move faster and smarter. From MoSCoW to RICE to OKRs, each one helps you answer different questions: → How do we measure success? → What do we build next? → How do we stay aligned as a team? You don’t need to use all of them; just the ones that fit your product and process. Swipe through to learn 5 frameworks every PM should know. #Prodseda #ProductManagement #PMFrameworks #TechCommunity #ProductStrategy

Product Roadmaps and the Cone of Uncertainty. Balancing Vision with Reality. No roadmap ever goes exactly as planned.  If you’ve led a product or transformation initiative, you already know why. A clear vision of what we want to create, who it will serve, and the value it should offer is the first step in any product roadmap. However, as we look farther ahead, uncertainty increases, our estimates become less precise, our assumptions become wider, and the risks become more significant. That’s where the Cone of Uncertainty becomes a powerful reminder. It visually represents how our confidence in estimates and outcomes improves over time as we learn, test, and refine. As execution advances and discovery deepens, that cone shrinks, knowledge grows, and confidence rises. A successful roadmap is neither a static plan nor a set of deadlines. It is a strategy for progressively reducing uncertainty, insight by insight. Here are some guidelines that have consistently shown value in navigating the cone and producing significant results: 1. Optimize for Outcomes, Not Output Start with a distinct vision and quantifiable objectives that represent value provided rather than just features finished. Objectives are more likely to endure than our initial plans for achieving them. 2. Prioritize Learning the "Good Enough" Decision Don't wait for flawless information before taking action. Find out your main areas of uncertainty, try things out, create a prototype, and pick things up fast.  3. Use Flexible Time Horizons Keep your long-term and mid-term plans focused, but be specific about your near-term work. Delivery teams require clarity on the "what" and "how," while executives require the broad "why." 4. AI tools to Build Confidence To improve assumptions, predict trends, and identify hazards sooner, use AI PM tools. The cone narrows more quickly the more we learn. A product roadmap and document is a living artifact, not a one-time deliverable. Be adaptable, communicate often, and create an atmosphere that values learning and welcomes change. Great product management ultimately involves preparing for the future with courage, clarity, and curiosity. #ProductManagement #Roadmap #ConeOfUncertainty #AIinProductManagement #Leadership #ProductSchool #Agile #PMI

Some call it the "Impact–Effort Matrix", others the "Value–Complexity" Framework. For me, it’s the compass as a product manager that keeps my team focused to cut through noise and stay on course when things don't go as planned. Every product manager faces the same challenge; feature requests, bug fixes,"quick wins" that aren't so quick., and constant pressure to deliver impact. The Value–Complexity Framework is one of the simplest and most effective tools to bring clarity to that chaos. It helps teams evaluate ideas based on two factors: Value: The potential benefit to users or the business. Complexity: The level of effort, time, or coordination required to deliver. Here’s how I’ve used it effectively with my team: Run a collaborative session: Bring engineering, design, and business stakeholders together. Plot features together: Map every idea into four zones: - Quick Wins – High Value, Low Complexity - Strategic Bets – High Value, High Complexity - Fill-ins – Low Value, Low Complexity - Time Wasters – Low Value, High Complexity Discuss openly: Let each team challenge assumptions on value and complexity. This builds shared understanding. Act on insights: Focus first on Quick Wins to build momentum when blockers hit. Reassess frequently: Use the framework whenever priorities or dependencies shift — not just a planning exercise. This framework doesn't eliminate tough decisions, but it makes them transparent and helps you stay agile when plans change. What prioritization frameworks have saved your roadmap? #ProductManagement #Prioritization #ProductStrategy #Agile #PMTools

This sprint tested everything I thought I knew about momentum. We hit technical blockers, dependency gaps, and a few “why is this not working?” moments that slowed us down. So instead of rushing into Edupay's Sprint 3, I did something different, I hit RESET. Because when sprints slow down, speed isn’t what saves you - structure does. Here’s what that looked like 👇 🧩 The RESET Framework When sprint progress stalls - Reflect. Evaluate. Sync. Execute. Talk. 1️⃣ Reflect - What actually went wrong? Instead of glossing over delays, I dug into why tasks rolled over. Turns out, some dependencies weren’t fully mapped at the start. 2️⃣ Evaluate - Which blockers are technical vs. coordination gaps? This helped me prioritize fixes instead of trying to solve everything at once. 3️⃣ Sync - Used Parabol, a new tool I discovered for retros. It made reflection structured, transparent, and surprisingly fun. 4️⃣ Execute - I re-scoped sprint 3 with learnings in mind - smaller stories, tighter dependencies, clearer ownership. 5️⃣ Talk - Communicated openly with the team. Not just about progress, but about pressure - it builds trust and accountability. 💡 Lesson: Sprints aren’t just about what you ship. They’re about how you adapt. The best PMs don’t avoid slowdowns - they turn them into systems that scale. #ProductManagement #Agile #Sprints #Retrospectives #Leadership #PMReflections