The Hard Thing About Hard Things

I was a bit disappointed with this book. It is often cited as a must-read for Product Managers- maybe since folks equate PM's with CEO's. However, it did not seem as useful for a product manager as it would for a CEO or an executive. That being said, the author did talk about some very practical problems and got into the details of different solutions to them. Most business books would gloss over the details and not over any actionable advice, but that is where this book differs. Here are some of my key takeaways:

• No BS: More often than not we hear executives painting a rosy picture of the business, even though the reality might be different. However, most employees know the truth and will appreciate being told the reality.

• Competition: If your product is getting killed by the competition, there are multiple options you have. You can look at pivoting and targeting a different market segment, make strategic partnerships, partake in some M&A, etc. Another option is to double down and take on the competition head-on. This would essentially mean identifying major gaps in your product and fixing them. The author seems biased towards the latter. However, though it sounds cool to try and take on your competition this can lead to your downfall, especially when targeting bigger competitors. As with most cases, you need to understand the exact situation you are in to decide what to do.

• Good PM/Bad PM: This is a seminal work on Product management and is by far the most important section in this book for PM’s.
• PM’s should know the market, product and the competition extremely well.
• There will always be things that you don’t like, that are detrimental to your product and that can be improved. You need to find a way to work through all that. Every product person and every company faces these challenges. It is easy to think that X product has a lot of money or people at their disposal and can do what they want. However, this is not true. Each product will have its unique challenges. It is imperative that we don’t get bogged down by things that are out of our control, but we find creative ways to move forward with the larger goal in mind.
• Instead of constantly reacting to sales questions- create collateral, FAQ’s, etc which you can refer folks to.
• It is important to take a written position on important issues- architectural decisions, tough product issues, which markets to attack…
• Good PM’s decompose problems, bad ones combine all problems into one.

• 1 on 1 questions: What don’t you like about the product? What’s the biggest opportunity we are missing out on?

• Value of writing: When faced with a tough decision, it helps to write down your thoughts and your logic behind it.