Author Archives: Dan Schmidt

I’ve heard my startup friends say they can’t watch HBO’s Silicon Valley because it’s “too true.” I feel the opposite. While it’s disconcerting to realize that startup people (like me) deserve to be mocked for certain behaviors, I love the show, in part, because it helps me understand the environment I’m immersed in. This sequence, inContinue reading “When Tension Snaps in Silicon Valley”

In 2005, I took on my first product management job, developing data management tools for  CNET. Wisely, the company put me through agile training. While the agile philosophy resonated with me, I quickly fell into a waterfall trap in my first large project. The objective was to create a tool that would streamline the workflow between theContinue reading “Lean & Fat Product Thinking”

Sometimes we create as a form of play, for fun, or to satisfy unguided curiosity. Other times we create with a purpose, an intent to move the world in a direction we want it to go. As I explain in my post The Fundamental Tension in Product, there is a paradoxical nature to creating for change.Continue reading “The Risk of a Scientific Creative Process”

With my  latest posts (The Fundamental Tension in Product, A Visual Framework for Product Vision), I’ve been developing a visual framework for situational awareness in product development. To make it easy to apply the framework within the context of your company, I created a slideshow template covering (1) how your environment is changing, (2) whereContinue reading “The State of Your Company (Slideshow Template)”

In product development, situational awareness requires a continuous sense of (1) a product vision and (2) the current state of your product in relation to that vision. Without such understanding, contributors are fundamentally disoriented, either directionless or oblivious to the facts. Maintaining situational awareness is non-trivial due to the fluid interplay between product vision and state.Continue reading “A Visual Framework for Product Vision”

Preface: This post is the first in a new chapter of my thinking about product. While I’m passionate about the diagram presented below, my explanation of it is a bit too brain dumpy for my taste, and I’m not convinced I’m framing it optimally. After many failed attempts to refactor how I walk through it, I’veContinue reading “The Fundamental Tension in Product”

Note: I’ve further explored ideas from this post in a new writing, The Fundamental Tension in Product. The content from this post comprises the “reality-orientation loops” section — I’ve expanded the framework to include “transcendent loops” and “vision loops.” When I received the question on Quora, “What does ‘closing the feedback loop’ mean with regards toContinue reading “Feedback Loops, Orientation, & The Substance of Product”

1/ A startup is an evolving relationship between technology, users, and capital.   2/ Startups must grow in three areas: output, impact, and value. 2A/ Advancement on the “Output” axis indicates the startup’s capacity to turn capital into technology.   2B/ Advancement on the “Impact” axis indicates the scale of user adoption. 2C/ Advancement on the “Value” axis indicates theContinue reading “The Startup Triangle”

I love how Daniel Demetri applies the product management triangle in his post, 3 Types of Product Management: Which One is Right For Your Company? . He uses the tension areas in the triangle to explore the mindsets of different PM types: The User-First Product Manager The Business-First Product Manager The Technology-First Product Manager

There is a fundamental tension in product development between going wide or narrow. Ultimately, reaching a large market is necessary for creating substantial business success. But if you immediately strive to create a product for too many people, you risk creating something for nobody. In his 2012 post How to Get Startup Ideas, Paul GrahamContinue reading “The Conflict in Building a Product for Yourself”