Test-n-Tell - tiny apps, Big ideas

  I have been using Codex more and more recently. Not in a “look, AI wrote me a todo app” kind of way. More like: I need to ship my actual product, fix real bugs, improve real tests, and not spend my evenings arguing with a robot about why it deleted half of my codebase.

  A common misconception when people say Product-led org is to assume product managers are running things. That shouldn't be the case. Product-led is about the mindset of everyone.

  In 2025, AI tools will become part of our working toolkit if they haven’t already. PMs that will use AI tools smartly will be more productive and potentially more successful than their AI-less peers. What tools should you add to your toolkit first? 

  Anyone who has tried using B2B or corporate software can probably attest - on average it's worse than B2C, consumer apps. Let's look into some reasons why it is so.

  All of the things contribute to product success. And every thing, however small, could be the reason the product failed.

  We already reviewed some of the most common reasons products fail - there is either no problem worth solving or, often and, when an organisation is not focused enough to solve the problem the right way.

  Every aspiring product team wants to do discovery, but still, shamefully few do. Why? Often people don't know where to start. Here's a quick guide to starting product discovery practice in your org.

  Previously in this series , we learned how to use ChatGPT to learn the basics of product management. However, the best learning is doing and generative AI can help us here as well.

  In the past post, we talked about product discovery. That's something you should do before writing a single line of code. It will provide you with vital information about your customers, their needs and the qualities your future product should possess to be successful.

  Over the last few months, I got to try and review many product management tools . Some of those tools I used extensively before or actively using now. The right tool can supercharge your PM team performance and make the whole process of creating products so much easier. In this post, I'd like to offer my help in selecting the most-suited tool for your team. 

  Aha.io is the latest tool I had a chance to review and one of the most sophisticated product discovery and management software available on the market today.

  I've chosen ProdPad as the third product management tool to review. It continues my ongoing series of PM and operations software reviews available on test-n-tell.com

  JPD is a new player in the market of product management software. Jira (and the whole Atlassian suite) has been one of the most popular tool stacks for teams to deliver software products. Now they're adding a missing piece - product discovery.

  The second product management tool I've decided to review is Productboard . It is widely regarded as one of the most popular tools for product teams and the main competitor of Craft.io that I reviewed in the previous post .

  I decided to start with Craft.io as this is the latest tool I've been working with both as a product manager and product operations. Below you'll find my impartial product review together with a description of some of the best qualities of Craft.io

  There is a proven way to create successful tech products. Have a deep understanding of your customers and their problems. Find innovative solutions that you can quickly validate. Continue to iterate on the solution until you find the best product-market fit. Grow your business and delight your customers. However, that's not the only way to be successful, you can try something different. You can learn from Evolution.

  Most modern businesses already realised how important data is for their success. Data science is one of the hottest roles in today's job market. Product managers work with data teams daily, however, should a data team itself have a product manager?

  Recently, I did dozens of searches for product operations manager jobs and the results both surprised and disappointed me. The situation reminded me of the early days of product manager openings here in Europe when most people had no clue whom they were looking for and why.

  So it's time to scale your startup? Or you just started a new transformation effort? You need to up your product management game, but you're not sure how? Sure, you can make many mistakes, waste a bunch of money and eventually get it right. Or, you can reach out to people who have done it before.

  The product ops process is a high-level framework that could help you identify how your product teams work, introduce changes in a controlled way, improve things and optimise your organisation for higher productivity and job satisfaction.  In the last post , I suggested what the first stage of the process might be - surveying . It's when you aim to understand how your product teams work, how your entire organisation works, discover problems, turn them into products and make those products successful on the market. In this post, I'll cover the central phase of the product ops process - experimentation.