Test-n-Tell.com - making product decisions

Lately, going through fellow PMs profiles, I noticed that we almost exclusively talk about stuff we've built and practically never about things that we avoided building.

- We're discontinuing the product effectively on...
- Noooo, I love this product. Please! Why?!
That's my usual reaction when one of my favourite products is killed. Google Reader, Pebble, iGoogle, iPad mini, Google Inbox... yeah, Google has been a real "serial killer" when it comes to discontinuing products and services.

Here's the email I've just received:
Hey {first name},
Circling back here, to keep this short, I see {product I am seeling} helping you and the {my company} team... It's the third email I received from that person whom I don't know, never met and whose product I don't need.

Biases. Biases are everywhere. I have many biases. So as you and your customers. How could you limit cognitive biases' influence on your user research?

The need to lead without authority is one of the biggest challenges in product management. Not many aspiring PMs know about that unfortunate state of affairs. Partly due to the harmful ideas such as the CEO of the product. Partly because decision-making is the core PM responsibility. But how can one make a decision without authority?