We ran a contest for the Best Boss Advice you've gotten. Great wisdom all around. The corollary: what is the worst Product advice you've ever gotten?

I've found that starting small with digital transformation (or any change) can bring skeptics to your cause. Successful pilot programs create viral reorientation of thinking within organizations, and bring the awesome to your whole organization faster

A boss once told me I was responsible for more than the code we shipped to customers. He felt that “the whole product” was a solution to the customer’s problem, which might include documentation, templates, packaging, data, consumables, even services — anything necessary to get value from the thing itself.

When starting as the top product person, you first need to understand what your organization needs and expects of you. Is your job to articulate a compelling vision for your product or to run with something you inherited? Will you be judged on strategy or execution? Is it a go-faster play or a reclamation project?

Once you have created a splendid roadmap, who do you share it with? In how much detail? Does it ever leave the building?

Product and UX conferences have a particular vibe, a culture all their own that I enjoy. More than the opportunities to learn new skills, have a beer with interesting people, and pick up schwag, there is the feeling that we’re all in this together. That in some way we are all on the same mission.

World class tennis players have coaches. The job isn’t to hit the ball, but to bring out the best in their clients. As the Product world has grown, coaching has grown with it. In my career, I've worked as a Product coach, an executive coach, an agile coach, an OKRs coach, and more.

Focus on “why” in your roadmap instead of “what.” It communicates more clearly where you are headed, and what success looks like. 

User research as it is practiced by user experience professionals is very aligned to what good product people do (or know they should do). Both need to do qualitative research with users and buyers, to watch in person and ask questions, to understand the larger context for the business.

When you are a product person looking to get a roadmap in place, you need alignment and collaboration. You don’t need consensus. Really.

For those of you outside the USA, today is our national holiday. In working with companies around the world, I’ve observed that many of them look up to American product people. They feel we’ve got it all figured out and they are hungry to learn from our success. Sure, product communities in many cities around the world are smaller and younger. But I find that people are just as smart, focused, and hard-working wherever I go.

I’ve seen a lot of roadmaps where the reason for many items was given as “competitive necessity.” In other words, “me too” features.

Don't you hate inane, lengthy Product surveys? They exist because someone hasn't thought enough about when to use qualitative or quantitative methods. Qualitative methods get the why and how answered before you can formulate the right quantitative questions.

When preparing the next version of your roadmap, it's smart to engage in stakeholder shuttle diplomacy. Entice them with a draft of your roadmap and ask for their input. Then sit down with each stakeholder, one-on-one.

I had to let a product manager go once because he just did not have the influencing skills necessary to do his job. He was intelligent, thoughtful, articulate, hard-working and motivated, but he never quite understood that he was supposed to provide direction, rather than receive it.

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are a simple system for aligning teams around common objectives. OKRs are hot right now, but there are caveats. They can quickly drive a firm into a narrow fixation on business results, unethical behavior, and short-term outcomes that can eventually undermine the business itself.

Engineers are rightfully afraid of providing estimates for things they don’t know enough about. If they’ve been around the block, they’ve probably been burned by a wild-ass guess that turned into a commitment to a date when someone in management got hold of it.

Is it ever OK to compromise on quality? Surprisingly, yes.

If you know your product will be used by millions with minimal changes and refinements, it makes sense to invest up front. But what if your product is a new and untried idea? What if you might have to iterate several times to arrive at the optimal fit between the product and what the market needs? 

You have a mountain of tasks to get done as a Product person (or in life). Where to begin? Here's my formula:

(Value ÷ Effort) x Confidence = Priority

What is your Kryptonite? In your org, what stands between you and victory? What saps your strength and renders your roadmap impotent? Let us know.