Resources for product teams from industry experts
Above all else, my wishes for you are that:
— Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
A well-conceived vision consists of two major components — core ideology and an envisioned future. Notice the direct parallel to the fundamental “preserve the core/stimulate progress” dynamic.
A good vision builds on the interplay between these two complementary yin-and-yang forces: it defines “what we stand for and why we exist” that does not change (the core ideology) and sets forth “what we aspire to become, to achieve, to create” that will require significant change and progress to attain (the envisioned future).
To pursue the vision means to create organizational and strategic alignment to preserve the core ideology and stimulate progress toward the envisioned future. Alignment brings the vision to life, translating it from good intentions to concrete reality.
— Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras
Surround your disruptive core product, the thing that got you to the dance, with a whole product that solves the target customer’s problem end to end. That will keep you on the dance floor for a long time to come. The way you design a whole product is to work backward from the target customer’s use case, filling in the blanks as you go along, either with new R&D, an acquisition, a partnership, or an alliance.
— Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey A. Moore
If you’re not actively taking what employees learn from their networks and bringing that knowledge back into the company to help solve challenges, it’s as if you’re flying millions of miles a year without bothering to attach your frequent flyer number to the reservations. The asset is there, but you have to claim it.
— The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age by Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, et al.
Building a visionary company is a design problem, and great designers apply general principles, not mechanical lock-step dogma. Any specific how-to will almost certainly become obsolete. But the general concepts — adapted, of course, to changing conditions — can last as guiding principles well into the next century.
— Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras
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