Category posts
Product management fundamentals
Oleg Ya

GoPractice opens a series on how to create products that people need – on the basics of product management.
From this article, you will learn how product work differs through the prism of “problems and pains” from work through the prism of “increasing the effectiveness of the solution.”
(more…)Oleg Ya

Some believe that a product manager’s job is to formulate and prioritize hypotheses, and then turn them into knowledge through A/B tests and research.
Others think that a product manager’s role is to be a user advocate, make features, and improve product metrics.
And then there are those who see the product manager as the person who manages the roadmap, motivates the team, improves the unit economics, optimizes key funnel conversions, and is responsible for the product’s revenue.
In reality, depending on the team, product managers do some or all of the above.
But these are only tools that should help achieve the most important goal, a goal that product managers often forget.
(more…)→ Test your product management and data skills with this free Growth Skills Assessment Test.
→ Learn data-driven product management in Simulator by GoPractice.
→ Learn growth and realize the maximum potential of your product in Product Growth Simulator.
→ Join our discussion on LinkedIn. New topics to talk about every week.
Oleg Ya

In the simulator we introduce two types of metrics: growth metrics and product metrics. These categories help students understand which metrics should be used in which situations.
- Product metrics answer questions about the product itself. They help you to understand how the product converts new users into active users, paying users, profit, orders, support requests, etc.
- Growth metrics answer questions about the business built around the product. These metrics include revenue, number of active users, number of orders or calls to support.
Over the past few years, I have noticed another type of metric: efficiency metrics or added value metrics.
In this essay, we will discuss what these metrics are, why they are needed, and why the product team should focus on them.
(more…)→ Test your product management and data skills with this free Growth Skills Assessment Test.
→ Learn data-driven product management in Simulator by GoPractice.
→ Learn growth and realize the maximum potential of your product in Product Growth Simulator.
→ Join our discussion on LinkedIn. New topics to talk about every week.
Oleg Ya

In the previous essay, we discussed why it is important for product managers to work on improving the efficiency of their solution to the target problem, and as a result, focus on the metrics of their product’s added value in comparison to alternative solutions.
In this essay, we will use a specific example to demonstrate why product metrics depend on the added value of the product. In particular, we will study the levers of influence on the Retention metric.
(more…)→ Test your product management and data skills with this free Growth Skills Assessment Test.
→ Learn data-driven product management in Simulator by GoPractice.
→ Learn growth and realize the maximum potential of your product in Product Growth Simulator.
→ Join our discussion on LinkedIn. New topics to talk about every week.
Oleg Ya

This is part of a series of articles by Oleg Ya on the basics of product management and building products that people need.
In this article, you will learn to measure the added value of a product.
We will use simple examples to show how it works for different types of products. In previous articles, we discussed why increasing the added value is the core of product work. We also explained why product metrics do not always clearly characterize the effectiveness of solving a problem, so we introduced the concepts of problem-solving efficiency and added value metrics.
Measuring efficiency and added value is more complicated than it might seem. In this essay, we will explore some of the tried and tested ways to measure them.
(more…)Oleg Ya

This is part of a series of articles on the basics of product management and building products that people need.
In this essay, you’ll learn to determine how much better your product needs to be than the available alternatives to achieve product/market fit.
(more…)Oleg Ya

This is part of a series of essays on the basics of product management and building products that people need.
In this essay, you will learn about the variables that determine the strength of product/market fit. You will also learn why product/market fit can change over time and what this means for your product. We will look at BlackBerry’s history to better understand these dynamics.
For most teams working on a new product, product/market fit is the primary goal. This is a cherished milestone, after which the team expects rapid growth.
This mindset assumes that product/market fit is a binary variable. Your product either achieved product/market fit or it did not.
In reality, product/market fit is a spectrum. It can range between not being present to being weak, mild, or strong. Moreover, its strength can change over time, which affects the performance and growth of the product.
(more…)→ Test your product management and data skills with this free Growth Skills Assessment Test.
→ Learn data-driven product management in Simulator by GoPractice.
→ Learn growth and realize the maximum potential of your product in Product Growth Simulator.
→ Join our discussion on LinkedIn. New topics to talk about every week.
Oleg Ya

This is part of a series of essays on the basics of product management and building products that people need.
In this essay, I will discuss two different types of product work: value creation and value delivery. You will learn how these types of product work differ, in what conditions each of them has maximum impact, and what problems arise when you confound them.
The problem that a product solves for users largely determines the skills a product manager needs to successfully work on it. But this is far from the only variable that affects the nature of product work.
Some product managers focus more on creating value, others on delivering the value to users. Each of these types of work must be applied at the right time, but they are often mixed up.
(more…)→ Test your product management and data skills with this free Growth Skills Assessment Test.
→ Learn data-driven product management in Simulator by GoPractice.
→ Learn growth and realize the maximum potential of your product in Product Growth Simulator.
→ Join our discussion on LinkedIn. New topics to talk about every week.
Oleg Ya

This is part of a series of articles on the basics of product management and building products that people need.
In this article, we discuss the “growth product manager” role, how and when it appeared, and how it differs from the roles of marketing managers and core product managers. We will also examine the main tools that growth product managers use.
As the product manager profession matured, it began to specialize into different areas. We previously discussed that one of these areas is the task that the product accomplishes. In this respect, the product manager of a B2B task tracker and that of a casual mobile game have very different skill sets.
Another dimension of specialization is the type of product work that the product manager focuses on: Does the PM work on creating value or delivering it to users? It is across this line that core PM and growth PM separate.
(more…)→ Test your product management and data skills with this free Growth Skills Assessment Test.
→ Learn data-driven product management in Simulator by GoPractice.
→ Learn growth and realize the maximum potential of your product in Product Growth Simulator.
→ Join our discussion on LinkedIn. New topics to talk about every week.
Other content series
that you might find useful
- Addressing user pain points vs solving user problems better
- Product manager skills: evolution of a PM role and its transformation
- Product metrics, growth metrics, and added value metrics
- Customer retention levers: task frequency and added value
- How to measure the added value of a product
- Should a product be 10 times better to achieve product/market fit?
- Product/market fit can be weak or strong and can change over time
- Two types of product work: creating value and delivering value
- What is the difference between growth product manager, marketing manager, and core PM
- When user activation matters and you should focus on it
- User activation is one of the key levers for product growth
- The dos and don’ts of measuring user activation
- How “aha moment” and the path to it change depending on the use case
- How to find “aha moment”: a qualitative plus quantitative approach
- How to determine the conditions necessary for the “aha moment”
- Time to value: an important lever for user activation growth
- How time to value and product complexity shape user activation
- Product-level building blocks for designing activation
- When and why to add people to the user activation process
- Session analysis: an important tool for designing activation
- CJM: from first encounter to the “aha moment”
- Designing activation in reverse: value first, acquisition channels last
- User activation starts long before sign-up
- Value windows: finding when users are ready to benefit from your product
- Why objective vs. perceived product value matters for activation
- Testing user activation fit for diverse use cases
- When to invest in optimizing user onboarding and activation
- Optimize user activation by reducing friction and strengthening motivation
- Reducing friction, strengthening user motivation: onboarding scenarios and solutions
- How to improve user activation by obtaining and leveraging additional user data
- Tax/benefit framework for analyzing user activation
- How well do you articulate value during user activation? Check with the value communication framework
- How product teams get the “aha moment” wrong
- Slack vs Teams vs Workplace: the intriguing dynamics of the work messenger market
- How the “Slack vs Microsoft Teams” race evolves as the world switches to remote work
- How Revolut Trading was built. The importance of industry expertise and the balance of conservative and new approaches
- The values and principles of Wise. Key ideas from the Breakout Growth Podcast by Sean Ellis
- How to calculate customer Lifetime Value. The do’s and don’ts of LTV calculation
- Guide to ARPU: formula, calculation example, LTV vs ARPU
- How to calculate unit economics for your business
- Experiments where you make your product worse – the most underrated product manager tool
- Why your A/B tests take longer than they should
- Peeking problem – the fatal mistake in A/B testing and experimentation
- Mistakes in A/B testing: guide to failing the right way
- Designing product experiments: template and examples
- To reduce your product’s churn rate, first find out why users stay
- What is product/market fit and how to measure PMF
- How engagement metrics can be misleading
- How to forecast key product metrics through cohort analysis
- Cohort analysis. Product metrics vs growth metrics
- Correlation and causation: how to tell the difference and why it matters for products
- How product habits are formed and what dopamine has to do with it
- Hook Model: encouraging a product habit to improve retention
- Not every product is habit-forming, but all products can have loyal users
- How to design and run JTBD research interviews: guide and templates
- How to move from marketing to product management?
- Key data skills for product managers: experienced PMs sharing their thoughts
- Data mistakes to know and avoid as a product manager
- Data cherry-picking to support your hypothesis. What is it? Why is it bad?
- How can PMs encourage more teammates to use data?
- Metrics to focus on before and after product/market fit. How to better understand your product at different stages?
- How to establish effective collaboration between product managers and data analysts
- How to move from engineering to product management?
- Losing sight of real users and their needs behind the metrics. How can product teams avoid this?
- Quantitative vs qualitative data: what is the difference and when should you use one instead of the other
- Pros and cons of a data-driven culture
- Data-driven, data-informed, and data-inspired product decisions. What are the differences and when should you use each one?
- Using data to understand competitive and market dynamics
- Moving from a startup to an enterprise as a product manager
- The downsides of a data-driven culture
- Using data for strategic decisions
- Product sense demystified. The importance behind the buzzword
- Common mistakes made by junior product managers and how to overcome them
- Is product management the right choice for you? This is your checklist
- How to increase the effectiveness of your product analysts
- Why every team member should know the key product metrics
- How to move from marketing to product management?
- Key data skills for product managers: experienced PMs sharing their thoughts
- Product manager skills: evolution of a PM role and its transformation
- What is the difference between growth product manager, marketing manager, and core PM
- How to move from engineering to product management?
- Product growth, reinvented: what growth hacking is (and isn’t)
- Moving from a startup to an enterprise as a product manager
- Product manager interview: real questions plus guide for employers and candidates
- Rolling retention, Day N retention, and the many facets of the retention metric
- Long-term retention—the foundation of sustainable product growth
- Retention: how to understand, calculate, and improve it
- Errors in calculating ROI and unit economics. Impact of attribution models and incrementality on the ROI calculation of marketing channels
- Traffic attribution models. Why attribution models need to change along with growth channels, product, business objective and external environment