Analytics

“Hi Laura! Here is the written summary of our conversation. To be clear upfront: we ran this as a mentoring conversation, not a verification, so there is no skill verdict here. Just my read of your situation and what I would do in your place. You came with a communication problem: how should a project manager work with a CEO so that he does his part. After an hour I think the communication problem is real but secondary. The primary problem is that the product has never been tested against a paying user. Two years, about 25 features, a few users who have since gone quiet, and a value proposition ("everything in one place") that is your CEO's belief, not a verified fact. Every deadline conversation ends with features, testing and bug fixes, and the one thing that would prove the product works, a user who gets to the end and pays, keeps slipping. No amount of better communication fixes that. Evidence might. You already see most of this yourself. You said about 30% of the features have no reason a user would pay for them. You stopped the "build features to stay busy" practice you inherited. You argued for finishing before adding. You ran interviews until they were stopped. That is product judgment, and it is stronger than your job title suggests. What was missing is the method to turn that judgment into evidence your CEO cannot argue with. That is what the main part is about. The most important thing that happened in the hour is something you said at the end: before the call you thought user research was covered because Artur talks to these people, and now you see it as your work. Everything below builds on that.”