Niko Noll

A Product Operations leader reached out for advice on building their team and evaluating solutions to connect decentralized products. Smart timing to ask before they buy. ❌ The mistake I see too often: Companies buy a tool first, then try to figure out their structure and taxonomy afterward. 🙃 Result? They end up organizing roadmaps and portfolio tracking around what the tool can do, not what they actually need. Here's what I've learned after working with dozens of Product teams - the ones that succeed do this instead: ✅ Define your hierarchy of needs first (roadmapping, outcome metrics, portfolio management, etc.) ✅ Establish your data structure and taxonomy upfront ✅ THEN evaluate tools against your requirements Why this matters: I've watched teams spend months trying to force their needs into a tool's limitations instead of finding tools that amplify their strategy. Your Product Operations needs should drive your tool selection, not the other way around. What's the biggest Product Operations tool mistake you've seen (or made)? #ProductOperations #ProductManagement #ProductStrategy #producttools #AItools

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9 Kommentare

Free tier or not? As a VC and I’ve seen this pattern many times: founders launch with just a free tier, no monetization plan, and monetization rarely ever follows. You end up building for an audience that will never pay. The early feedback loop gets shaped by free users who aren’t your actual customer segment. What I always recommend: launch with some form of monetization. Even a symbolic €1/month support tier. Not because it’ll make money, but because it forces the question: does anyone care enough to pay, even a little? If they do, you’ve got something. If they don’t, better to know now.

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4 Kommentare

Another engineering manager just described the exact problem I hear over and over: " Feels like we are still getting top down product requirements and team isn’t allowed to “think” when it comes to the product. CEO tells CPO what we need to focus on, CPO and PM hammer out a bunch of cards based on customer feedback, and PM goes and tries to flush out requirements and talk to customers to spoon feed requirements to engineers. PM isn’t technical so half the shit isn’t feasible or will take exponentially longer than he thinks so engineering will either fail and get blamed or convince the PM that his scoping is off and we should reconsider what goes on a card. It’s a circus and no one outside engineering wants to acknowledge the issue. " This is everywhere. And it’s not a process problem. It’s not a communication problem. It’s a leadership problem. When there’s no shared ownership or trust, and no real clarity around the customer, this is what teams default to. This is why I wrote Product Driven. Because I’ve lived this. And I’m tired of watching smart teams break under bad leadership. If you're seeing this in your org, don’t fix the process. Fix the way you lead. Start with one move: Have your PM and tech lead co-write the next ticket together. Not after the spec is done. Not once the PM is “finished.” Sit down, talk through the user problem, and shape the scope as a pair. It’s not just about scoping. It’s about creating shared ownership. About rebuilding collaboration. About ending the us vs them. Because until your builders and planners are solving the same problem together, you're not building the right product at all.

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57 Kommentare

Product Marketers... Designers and PMs aren't the only ones who can rapid prototype. In fact I think PMMs are super well suited to do this! A few weeks ago I used Lovable to turn a positioning idea into a simple working prototype. It quickly got to our CEO and a couple of days later it was in a quarterly planning deck. It's now in production! I've done a version of this in the past, maybe once or twice. And it took quarters to make it happen. It took hours of positioning workshops and and long docs and alignment meetings. It took me maybe 10 minutes to build the prototype in Lovable. When its the right idea, and people can see and interact with it, you don't need to sell it. Want to see it? Well a version of it that was improved 10x by our design and PM team? Sign up for Pendo's Autumn Release webinar - October 8th - details in the comments. Are you rapid prototyping to influence the product roadmap? I'd love to hear about it if so.

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Everyone loves building features. So we jump straight from “our metrics are bad” to: - talking about solutions - building features - clogging the roadmap A few months later, we have: - a roadmap with no clear story - a backlog full of tickets - and still the same metrics Because we skipped the hard part 1. Understanding the root cause — what’s actually driving the problem 2. Developing strategic bets — clear, focused responses to those causes 3. Uncovering unmet customer needs — the opportunities hiding in behavior 4. Testing ideas before building them — validating what really works Everyone wants to move fast. But speed without direction just gets you lost faster. Build fewer features. Build with understanding. That’s how you move metrics and the company forward.

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7 Kommentare

Dev tools grow through word-of-mouth. In my experience probably 50% of signups come from WoM (when you look at self-reported attribution). But growing WoM, influencing it, is where it gets hard. And it feels like it is mostly outside of marketing control. I said it before. Great product == dev love and sharing/speaking about it. Especially, when it is that first dev experience that is awesome. That first "magical" session where I get to the win. I wrote about it here btw: https://lnkd.in/dw5bP8R5 based on the friction log concept https://lnkd.in/dpRFRzkJ I learned about from Ben Williams. But you can also REINFORCE DEV IDENTITY. This weekend I read Hank Taylor take on this https://lnkd.in/dGgUM8RA and loved it. There is something you can very much influence purely from the marketing standpoint. You can reinforce dev identity. You see that in flame wars on Reddit between devs who defend the frameworks they use being "objectively better". You see that in devs really wanting to appear rational, meritocratic, smart, productive. And it clearly isn't objective if you take framework-identity out of it too. Don't get me wrong, to a large extent, devs are those things. But also, more often than not, they aren't. They are humans just like everyone else ;) So if your tool is reinforcing those core perceptions and beliefs about yourself (themselves, devselves ;)? ) that devs hold (smart/fast/productive/meritocratic/rational) the bigger the chance you have of them sharing it. They would share or engage with your content if it reinforces their identity. And wouldn't share/engage if it runs the risk of them looking "stupid". I think they talk about it in the book "Contagious: Why Things Catch On" too. And when you look online (especially at the political landscape) you obviously see that people do like/engage with things they already believe more than with other content. Even if they are too "meritocratic", "rational", or "smart" to see that. So. MAKE DEVS FEEL smart, productive, fast, meritocratic and you will do just fine. Anyhow, great post from Hank, do read it, there are more gems there.

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5 Kommentare

As a PM, chaos is part of the job. Competing priorities. Ten thousand Slack threads. Conflicting opinions. When things feel overwhelming, I’ve learned to pause and ask: 1️⃣ What decision are we actually trying to make? 2️⃣ What’s blocking that decision? 3️⃣ Who really needs to be in the room? It’s not magic, but it turns chaos into a starting point. The role isn’t to control the noise. It’s to create clarity in spite of it.

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8 Kommentare

𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗴𝗹𝘆 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻. If it doesn’t help a customer 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩, you don’t have a product but a mere theory.   Almost 10 years ago, I asked a simple question: “𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘈𝘭𝘦𝘹𝘢 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺?”   We shipped a rough V1, sat with users, and rebuilt (again and again). In 2023, we relaunched around customer pain and Patient Prism took off.   Here’s the 𝗖𝗘𝗢 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 I wish I had on Day 1:   𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁. Time‑box a 30‑day MVP around one painful job‑to‑be‑done.   𝗣𝗠𝗙 = 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲𝗱. We turned weekly customer calls into GitHub stories → features → outcomes.   𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲; 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄. AI only sticks when it’s inside the team’s day‑to‑day, not a side app.   𝗪𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁. Appoint a champion per site, align incentives, and run a 90‑day white‑glove onboarding. Adoption KPIs > vanity metrics.   𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲𝘀. Pilot 5-10 clinics → SOPs → enterprise rollout.   𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗥𝗢𝗜. Founder‑led sales, ground game, trade shows, and LinkedIn. Talk outcomes (e.g., CAC down, conversion up), not algorithms.   𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 → 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 → 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁. Dashboards describe; AI prescribes. Deliver next‑best actions in real time.   If you’re a CEO waiting for perfect, you’re losing to someone shipping useful.   𝗗𝗶𝗱 𝗜 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀 𝗮 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝘃𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘄𝗮𝘆? Drop it below, I read every comment.   #HealthcareAI #ProductMarketFit #GoToMarket #ChangeManagement   💡 I share no‑fluff playbooks on 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲, 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 regularly. Follow for case studies you can deploy tomorrow.

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3 Kommentare

Most people become PMs because they want to be the "CEO of the product." The reality looks completely different: The promise was strategic decision-making. Spend more time with customers. Figure out what problems to solve. Decide what to build and what not to build. But most PMs are drowning in tactical busywork instead. What should be an 80-20 split (80% strategic, 20% tactical) became 20-80. PMs spend 80% of their time on: - Writing PRD documents - Reviewing Jira tickets - Building roadmaps - Firefighting - Endless alignment meetings Organizations pushed PMs away from strategy and into tactics. Now AI can handle the tactical work. This is your chance to return to the strategic core.

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24 Kommentare

We’re entering a new era. Not of unicorns, but of millions of micro-apps. Here’s what’s happening: 💡 Anyone can build now. Tools like Lovable, Replit, Cursor let anyone ship a working product in days. What used to take a team of 10 over 3 months… now takes 1 person and a long weekend. ----->>>>> 💥 That means 1,000x more products. We’ll see endless variations of the same idea—hyper-personalized, hyper-specific, hyper-temporary. Not just “CRM for freelancers.” But “CRM for Dutch-speaking ADHD coaches who work in Notion.” ------>>>>> 💸 Lifestyle businesses become the new default. No VC. No scale obsession. Just $3–5K/month SaaS projects for tiny markets—built by solo devs, designers, or domain experts. And also to add on top - People also stop buying apps… They build them instead. Why pay for an app if GPT can help you spin up your own in 30 minutes? Need a reading log for your 9-year-old? Want a dashboard to track which chickens laid which eggs on your farm? You won’t search the App Store/ Browser. You’ll build it—or tell your AI to do it. 🔁 The app-centric world is ending. We’re heading toward a "don’t buy—build" mindset. Superabundance is here. #futuristic #nocode #indiehackers #ai #solopreneurs #lovable #startups

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4 Kommentare

Worthy Read: Continuous interviewing with Kristian Collin Berge (CEO & Co-founder at UX Signals) by Afonso Franco "87% of product people say they have built products or features nobody wanted. Only 1 in 5 features in a typical software product are in regular use." 🎯 Learn how continuous user interviews can help you build products people actually want. Kristian Collin Berge, Co-Founder/CEO of UX Signals, shares: 🔍 Why analytics alone aren't enough to understand your users 👥 How talking to users regularly leads to 15-20% faster company growth ⚡️ The story of how Airbnb increased revenue by changing just 7 characters of text 🚀 How to streamline your user interview process: - Automate user recruitment - Build consent collection into your process - Include teammates in interviews - Summarize findings immediately after each session Real example: At Porterbuddy, implementing weekly user interviews led to a 250% increase in their main success metric 📈 Read the article: https://buff.ly/40sQjzZ ❓ When was the last time you talked to your users? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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1 Kommentar

#UX mistake 6 Using Rotating Carousels A rotating carousel is a set of teasers that switch (usually from right to left) after a few seconds. It is often used on e-commerce sites or landing pages that direct users to different content. Some teams love to use carousels to show more information in the same space. What we often forget; the limitations are not set by the space on the screen but by the receptiveness of users. And we didn’t even talk about motion, yet. Evolutionary, it was important to see dangerous changes in the environment – humans focus on moving elements. That’s why rotating carousels are very distracting. Additionally, the rotation speed is always too slow or too fast to digest and tap the desired content, which lowers conversion. Better do this ↓ Remove rotating carousels from your site. Use a combination of one large and some small teasers instead. ◼ Like and follow for more UX mistakes.

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40 Kommentare

Platform Product Management: The Role Everyone Needs, But Few Understand Platform PMs are like the Swiss Army knives of product orgs—versatile, essential, and often underappreciated. They don’t just build features, they create the infrastructure that makes features possible. But here’s the kicker: mastering this role is hard. Like, “solve a Rubik’s Cube blindfolded” hard. In our recent Substack post, Waqas Sheikh and I break down: 1/ Why platform PMs are critical for scaling organizations 2/ The unique challenges they face (spoiler: it’s not just about tech) 3/ The skills that separate good platform PMs from great ones Let me pull out a few highlights from the post for you: “Platform PMs thrive at the intersection of competing priorities, endless stakeholder demands, and the constant need to balance short-term wins with long-term bets. They’re bilingual—fluent in the languages of engineering, business, and customer empathy.” And this: “The core job of the platform PM is to maximize cumulative, long-term impact on end-users & the business, through the development and usage of the platform product. Operating with this mindset encourages you to be strategic in how you set goals & prioritize work, and opinionated in how you build relationships & influence your stakeholders.” As we enter the AI era, platform PMs are uniquely positioned to lead the charge. Their ability to think in terms of capabilities (not just features) is more important than ever. If you’ve ever wondered what makes platform PMs tick—or why they’re so critical to scaling in today’s world—this one’s for you. Check out the full write-up here: https://lnkd.in/gMFAEPR7 Would love to hear your thoughts: What’s been your experience working with (or as) a platform PM?

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2 Kommentare

Should PMMs even have OKRs? Let me explain. OKRs for product marketing sound great in theory. In reality? They’re often messier than the xmas party. Every quarter, PMMs are asked to: 📌 Define clear, measurable OKRs 📌 Tie them directly to business impact 📌 Prove their contribution to revenue Sounds simple, right? Except… PMMs don’t own a single metric outright. 👉 Too many dependencies. Your success depends on product shipping, sales executing, and demand gen driving the right traffic. You’re influencing outcomes, but not fully controlling them. 👉 Misaligned expectations. Leadership wants direct revenue attribution. But PMMs work across positioning, enablement, and launches, things that don’t always show instant ROI. 👉 "North Star" metrics don’t reflect reality. Sure, your company has a big revenue goal. But breaking that down into a clean, quantifiable PMM metric? Not so easy. Take this example: You launch a new product page. The OKR? Increase conversion rates. But conversion depends on: ✅ Copy and messaging (PMM) ✅ Design and UX (Product/Design) ✅ Lead magnets (Demand Gen) ✅ Traffic quality (Growth) Now, if conversion improves… Who gets the credit? Everyone? nobody? And if it drops… Who gets the blame? Just pile it on Greg again? How about this: 1️⃣ Tie OKRs to influence, not ownership. Example: Instead of "Increase product adoption by 20%," track "Enable sales with X new assets to improve adoption messaging." 2️⃣ Use project-based KPIs. Some wins take time. If you’re refining messaging or positioning, set KPIs based on completion milestones, not instant results. 3️⃣ Align cross-functional goals. If your work impacts multiple teams, ensure your OKRs connect with their objectives so you’re measured on collective success. OKRs or no OKRs? What are we saying?

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64 Kommentare