Notes: May 23, 2025
product, strategy, organizational culture and how to pitch ideas in the SaaS world
#1
3 Crucial Questions to Define Your Product Strategy:
Which customers or users do we want to target now?
Which of their problems do we want to solve with this project now?
When do we want to give those customers those solutions?
While the product leader should answer these questions, they don't always know the answers. That’s why I like it when the project manager also asks these questions to create a successful project.
(Johanna Rothman / May 21, 2025 / ProjectManagement.com - PMI / permalink)
Notes:
- How many times should these questions be asked as the requirement travels from the vision/strategy realm (usually top management) to the engineering department to be implemented?
- Why, while the first 2 questions are positioned in now, the 3rd one is about when?
- Is this about scope? Can the aforementioned questions - when repeatedly asked by different stakeholders as we move from requirement to be implemented feature - define scope better?
- If scope is identified correctly, could this help a company to better handle work in progress (WIP)? Could it perhaps lead to cleaner and more modular code?
- How can we use them in our companies? Which roles of our Engineering department could ask these questions? Which roles in our companies (more broadly) could provide more clarity on these questions?
#2
Next time you’re about to share an idea—whether in Slack, a meeting, or a doc—pause and ask yourself:
What’s the point?
Write it in one sentence. If you can’t, you’re not ready to share it yet.Why should they care?
Make sure the framing speaks to their priorities (not just yours).Is it structured clearly?
Put the most important thing first. Then add context or supporting details.
(Irina Stanescu / May 15, 2025 / The Caring Techie Newsletter (Substack) / permalink)
Notes:
- I guess writing Slack posts are like talking to people for remote teams! So yeah, the above probably applies here as well... perhaps even more so than a face-to-face meeting...
- "Make sure the framing speaks to their priorities (not just yours)." Easier said than done. Sometimes the manager's audience includes diverse roles and yet the message and the medium (i.e. same generic Slack channel) are the same for every target group :/
- Call to Action: These points are gold for change management situations. I should revisit past announcements related to change management to see if my message was clearly and appropriately framed for each audience.#3
Before you stand in front of an investor, you need to ask yourself a few key questions:
Are you solving a real problem?
Do you have a solution that adds value?
Has anyone thought that before you?
Do you truly understand your market?
Do you have a strong team?
Can you tell a story?
Bonus: Pay attention to your visual image.
(Odysseas Spyroglou / May 16, 2025 / The Generalist Papers (Substack) / permalink)
Notes:
- Odysseas is giving advice to founders / makers / teams interested to receive funds from VCs. Which means we are mainly in the startup realm.
- What if the same advice can be used in the context of larger, corporate-level SaaS companies, that want to add new, innovative features to their products and potentially unlock a new market, or better position themselves in a market they are already targeting?
- How could these points internally help the company's stakeholders think and operate like 'startups', regardless of the size of their products or businesses?
- Can this pitching template be a guide to an aspiring product manager, business developer or sales representative that wants to propose a new feature or product to their leadership?
- How can a company nurture such a mentality internally? Occasional hackathon? Occasional 'pitch' or 'fund your idea' days?#4
Thoughts:
❓ Are the kinds of agile methodologies at company practices, relevant / important today?
❓ Are the job titles or roles in engineering at tech companies, important or even relevant today?
❓ Is visibility of a product, an opinion, or its implementation a motivator for a team member?#5
Let's briefly revisit the fundamentals. Westrum's typology classifies organizations based on how they process information:
Pathological: Driven by power and fear. Information is hidden, blame is rampant, and cooperation is scarce.
Bureaucratic: Ruled by processes and policies. Safe but rigid. Problems get stuck in formalities.
Generative: Focused on mission and performance. Information flows freely, mistakes are learning opportunities, and collaboration is high.
DORA research has shown that organizations with generative cultures have 30% higher organizational performance.
(Mirek Stanek / May 19, 2025 / Practical Engineering Management / permalink)
Notes:
- Could it be that the 30% statistic is due to the sample consisting mainly of startup companies?
- Could the generative model be efficient for larger software companies (complex in structure and encapsulating several departments and teams)?
- When a company grows from a startup to a more mature or corporate institution, what is the balance between generative / bureaucratic elements?
- "Westrum's typology classifies organizations based on how they process information". (How) is information processing correlated with governance?