WoB#3 - Vision, product discovery, tech debt handling, ethics in design, managing your calendar
WoB#3 - Vision, product discovery, tech debt handling, ethics in design, managing your calendar
Welcome to this week's edition of Whisky on the Blocks, highlighting the latest updates to the Blocks Catalog and the best findings for the week.
👋 Hey! My name is Piotr, and welcome to my newsletter on building blocks for successful tech product companies.
💬 In this week's issue:
👉 Best practice spotlight: Inspire your teams by providing a compelling vision of the future you want to unlock
➕ … and three other best practices
👉 A product discovery technique - Opportunity Solution Tree
👉 How can paying technical debt 2x your team’s impact?
👉 6-step guide to take control of your calendar.
👉 Ethics in product design
🔍 Best practice spotlight: Provide inspiring vision
A vision describes an exciting future you want to unlock.
Example of vision: Create the most compelling car company of the 21st century. (Tesla)
Learn more:
Why should you care about setting the vision?
What are examples of great vision?
What are the characteristics of a great vision?
How to create a great vision?
Who should be involved?
What else, besides vision, should be in your strategic context?
How to create a strategy once you have a vision?
Templates & more things to read
The Product Vision Template
Product Vision FAQ
Vision vs. Mission
Vision vs. Strategy
Company Vision Workshop Miro template
Other best practices
A few other best practices to pick your interest:
Other good reads
Three Product Teams
by John Cutler
Comparison of three popular models for product teams
Sprint, Story, and Backlog-Centric
Team and Mission-Centric
Engineer-Centric (with Rockstar PMs)
Opportunity Solution Trees: Visualize Your Thinking
by Teresa Torres
A helpful product discovery technique to visualize and chart the best path to your desired outcome.
Technical debt: Can investing in it unlock 2x team impact?
by Will Larson
A good, outcome-oriented approach to paying technical debt with a simple 4-steps guide on how to start today.
Designing Your Time as a Leader
by Don Neufeld
6-step guide to take control of your calendar.
Are You Solving the Right Problems?
by Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
A longer post on how powerful problem-reframing can be, including 7 practical exercises to do on your own.
6 Questions all experienced designers should be able to answer
by Koos Looijesteijn
Great, thought-provoking post about ethics in product design.
🐦 Tweet of the week
🍞 Food for thought
😄 Weekly smile
Have a great week!
Piotr 👋