The Product Compass

Helped thousands of professionals boost their product management skills by sharing knowledge and experience in online courses, newsletter, and social media posts.

Author, Founder

iDeals

We help professionals to collaborate over sensitive data and run critical business transactions, such as M&A, smoothly.

Senior Product Manager

Regiondo 

Regiondo is Europe's leading booking software for the leisure industry. More than 7,500 tour and activity providers from 42 countries power their revenue using its booking software (SaaS, B2B2C).

Product Manager

BEC Poland

Launched a product integrating dozens of systems and 30+ banks in Denmark by collaborating with 5 
cross-functional teams, managing 50+ stakeholders and suppliers and reporting directly to the BEC Directors.

Enabled BEC to shut down legacy systems by prioritizing product roadmap and timely shipping a platform that covers virtually all banking areas. In June 2022, the platform was handling over 2.3 million active end-users.

Led the implementation of a complex B2B financial system by discovering and prioritizing ideas, setting and tracking the key product metrics, and planning A/B experiments.

Epic Owner

APN Promise S.A.

Transformed how the company operates in 5 product areas: vision and strategy, customer value, driving business results, marketing, quality, and team building, as confirmed by Tomasz Sochacki (former IT Director) on a LinkedIn profile.

Launched and got early adopters for a new B2B product by conducting market research, analyzing customer pain points, testing ideas, prioritizing the roadmap, and leading a Scrum team.

HURO Sp. z o.o.

Built and scaled a tech product company offering reusable document workflows and a plug-and-play Intranet and reached over 100,000 MAU (B2B, SaaS and on-premise), even though HURO started with virtually no capital.

Won over 15 enterprise contracts by setting a clear vision and strategy, managing sales and marketing, setting the business and product goals, running hundreds of experiments, and leading 2 cross-functional Agile teams.

Executed the exit strategy by selling all shares (50% of the company) in March 2019.

Founder, Chief Product Officer

ITMAGINATION

Built a new software department (Enterprise Collaboration) by taking ownership of sales, marketing, hiring, coaching, leading teams and managers, and financial results.

Program Manager

Launched and coordinated the go-to-market of a new financial platform on the market (B2C) by saving a challenging project, after stepping in as a Team Leader in the middle of the development. As a result, promoted to a higher position.

Team Leader and Architect

SII Polska

Lead .NET Developer

Altkom Akademia S.A.

.NET Developer

ZieluONE

Follow me for actionable insights and resources for PMs.

I write the Product Compass Newsletter. Here you can join 78,000+ PMs and get one actionable tip for PMs every week: https://www.productcompass.pm/

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I can no longer accept connections because LinkedIn limits the number of 1st-level connections to 30K. 

To connect with me, join our premium Slack community: https://www.productcompass.pm/p/product-management-resources, or engage with my content.

12-Month MBA for PMs (better than any $127K course)

👨‍🎓 Month 1:

- Introduction: Inspired by Marty Cagan
- Leadership: Empowered by Marty Cagan and Chris Jones
- Startups: The Right It by Alberto Savoia

👨‍🎓 Month 2:

- Product Discovery: Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres
- Interviews: The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
- Product-Market Fit: The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen

👨‍🎓 Month 3:

- Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur
- Running Lean by Ash Maurya 
- Testing Business Ideas by Alexander Osterwalder and David Bland

👨‍🎓 Month 4:

- Setting goals: Radical Focus by Christina Wodtke 
- Leading with context: No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings
- Teams: Team Topologies by Manuel Pais (Team Topologies) 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 and Matthew Skelton

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- Take the Product-led Certification Course by Pendo.io with a secret 100% discount code: https://lnkd.in/duvQK8-7 (I'm not affiliated)

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- Making decisions: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- Effectiveness: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen M. R. Covey
- Networking: Superconnector by Ryan Paugh and Scott Gerber

👨‍🎓 Month 9:

- Leadership: The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo 
- Financial Intelligence: The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
- Accounting: Accounting for Non-Accountants by Wayne A. Label

👨‍🎓 Month 10:

- Product Analytics: Lean Analytics by Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz 
- A free North Star Framework Compendium (PDF): https://lnkd.in/dGK9wAKs
- Take the Product Analytics Certification course by Pendo.io with a secret 100% discount code: https://lnkd.in/duvQK8-7 (I’m not affiliated)

👨‍🎓 Month 11:

- JTBD: Jobs-to-be-Done by Tony Ulwick 
- What to build: Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perry
- Building products: Build by Tony Fadell

👨‍🎓 Month 12:

- Strategy: Playing to Win by Roger Martin
- Business portfolio: The Invincible Company by Frederic Etiemble, Alan Smith, Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur

-

Bonus (recommended):

- Career: The Ultimate Guide to Getting a PM Job by Aakash Gupta
- Learning from the best: Working Backwards by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
- The MBA Pathology according to Marty Cagan: https://lnkd.in/dw6kpwTv
- 600+ free PM learning resources: https://lnkd.in/evvCX2wn

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All it takes is to read or listen to audiobooks for 45-60 min/day.

P.S. You can network for free on LinkedIn.

Paweł Huryn

The Product Compass Newsletter | Actionable Insights and Resources for PMs | Join 80K+ PMs

A picture is worth a thousand words: OKRs vs. KPIs vs. Metrics.

When comparing OKRs and KPIs, many forget a critical aspect: the relationship between them.

In short, Key Results in an OKR always refer to quantitative metrics, some of which might be KPIs.

Here is everything you need to know:

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1. What are OKRs?

OKR stands for “Objectives and Key Results.” The 2 components:

- Objective (Why, What, When): A qualitative, inspirational, time-bound goal for a team to focus on. Typically set quarterly.

- Key Results (How much): Quantitative metrics (typically three) that monitor progress towards the Objective.

OKRs are about:

- Setting a single, inspiring goal.
- Empowering a team to determine the optimal way to achieve it.
- Continuously monitoring the progress, learning from failures, and improving.

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2. What are metrics?

Metrics are all the things you can measure. In particular:

- Qualitative metrics are unstructured and anecdotal.
- Quantitative metrics are the numbers.

In the context of OKRs and Key Results, we always use quantitative metrics.

For more information about different types of metrics, see a free post: https://lnkd.in/d9Mw3Bp8  

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3. What are KPIs?

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are a few key quantitative metrics that a company focuses on and typically tracks over a longer period of time.

You can use them in your Key Results, as health metrics (a balancing practice for OKRs), or set Key Results for one of a KPI’s input metrics.

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4. North Star Metric vs. KPIs

North Star Metric is a single KPI. It is customer-centric, represents the value customers get from the product, and is a leading indicator of a business’s success.

For more information, download The North Star Framework 101 (13 pages, PDF): https://lnkd.in/dGK9wAKs

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Hope that helps.

What are your thoughts?

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P.S. I'm Paweł. Follow me and join 171K+ to learn and grow as a PM.

You can also download 30 high-res infographics and get 600+ free PM learning resources (welcome email) by subscribing here: https://lnkd.in/d5bHGj5j

I found a fantastic, free collection of 500+ product teardowns for PMs.

Learn. And get inspired.

Lifehack: use it before an interview :)

What I particularly love is the ability to filter the teardowns by:

- Market: B2B, B2C
- Dozens of companies
- Objective: Growth, Engagement, Conversion, Monetization, and more

Huge thanks to Saurao Dalvi and The Stare for curating it in that form ❤️ 

An instant bookmark for a PM: https://lnkd.in/dadvp3kA


Hope that helps.

What are the other free PM resources worth sharing?

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[Edited]
Also, check the original source of many of those teardowns, NextLeap: https://lnkd.in/eSzJVeBe

Haitham Shalaby

The Product Trio is a fundamental concept for product teams.

But contrary to what many believe, it is not:

- A framework to follow
- A strictly defined set of roles
- An exclusive group that performs product discovery alone

Three pieces of advice:

1. Reject working in silos

Product Discovery is teamwork. There is no place for silos here.

Sure, everyone has their core competencies. But, as Jeff Gothelf and Joshua Seiden argue in Lean UX, allowing people to contribute in any area creates more engaged and effective teams.

"Silos are the death of collaborative teams." - Lean UX

2. Include the entire product team

The more I work in product, the more I appreciate Inspired by Marty Cagan, in which there is no clear distinction between “people doing discovery” and “the rest of the product team.”

Some may be more engaged than others, but I encourage you to invite everyone to contribute according to their interests and skills.

There's no such thing as engineers who think "too much" about user and business needs.

3. Adapt the "trio" to your needs

The Product Trio is not a framework or a procedure to follow. It’s a default recommendation that highlights the need for cross-functional collaboration.

As Teresa Torres emphasizes (link in the comments), it can contract or expand. 

Consider your specific context and do what makes sense for your team.

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Hope that helps.

What do you think?

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P.S. Enjoy this? 

You might like my post, "Product Trio: Beyond the Obvious:" https://lnkd.in/dVKey36n In it, I dive deeper into best practices and common pitfalls like PMs dictating UX.

P.P.S. And make sure you read the #1 book on Continuous Product Discovery - Continuous Discovery Habits: https://lnkd.in/dXyB_3jN

Product Trio

Many PMs struggle to explain the difference between Vision, Strategy, Objectives, and Roadmap. 

But those are extremely simple concepts.

Let's tackle them one by one:

1. Product Vision (Why)

Product Vision is the long-term aspiration of your product. It motivates your team to wake up every morning and go to work.

For example, “Send humans to the Moon” or “Help tour operators focus on doing what they love.”

An effective vision needs to be inspiring and emotional. It becomes much more memorable when it speaks to people's hearts.

My favorite example is the JFK Moon speech: https://lnkd.in/dSEUENZk 

2. Product Strategy (Where & How)

Strategy is not a plan, a goal, or a set of actions.

It's a cohesive set of choices that you believe will allow you to win (achieve your Vision) at the playing field of your choice:

- market and its constraints (e.g., geography)
- value proposition
- relative costs
- tradeoffs
- growth

The strategy should pass the “can’t / won’t test” so that competitors can't copy it without sacrificing their existing businesses.

The Product Strategy Canvas: https://lnkd.in/dnUpVuge

3. Objectives (What)

In the product model (read TRANSFORMED), empowered teams get meaningful problems to solve and clear desired outcomes.

As we "lead with context, not control," objectives must be embedded in the strategic context.

One way to express them is OKRs.

(Best book: Read 'Radical Focus' by Christina Wodtke)

4. Product Roadmap (So What & When)

Product Roadmap is a communication tool that allows you to align everyone in the organization. It creates focus on what’s important right now. It should also explain the reasoning behind it.

Remember to:

- Focus on outcomes, not features
- Do not commit too soon
- Shorten the planning horizon

My favorite format is the Now-Next-Later. 

A free template adapted from Janna Bastow, who invented that format: https://lnkd.in/d2nHy-dF

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Enjoy this?

For a limited time, my premium subscribers can enroll in the From Strategy to Objectives Masterclass course for free: https://lnkd.in/dZsWhYWj

Vision vs. Strategy vs. Objectives vs. Roadmap

Bad product teams merely handle feature requests.

Good product teams regularly talk to their customers.

Great product teams leverage insights from multiple sources.

Here are a few ideas you can start exploring on Monday:

1. Customer interviews

Ask about specific situations and operate on facts to understand Why customers behave that way. Leverage the storytelling technique, in which you follow the narrative step-by-step.

All you need to know: https://lnkd.in/dsZfPGNy

2. Observation

Observe people performing a specific job outside your product and map a series of steps they take. This is a perfect way to understand and cover the entire job to be done.

[Free] Later, boost the experience with User Journey Mapping: https://lnkd.in/dfbKuy34

3. Surveys

Gather numerical data or use open-ended questions to let respondents express themselves freely. 

The ultimate guide: https://lnkd.in/dCtQpyP8

4. Secondary research

Leverage SEO and SEM reporting, industry blogs, public data, and research organizations (Gartner, Forrester, Statista).

Advanced techniques: https://lnkd.in/dYuU5wi5

5. Data analytics

Analyze customers’ data and behavior to understand what they do - experiments on production, session recordings (Clarity, Hubspot), event logs (Heap, Pendo), and Business Intelligence.

[Free] Product Metrics 101: https://lnkd.in/dy_CcY5h

6. Stakeholders

Talk to success, sales, and founders. Many of them spend hundreds of hours with customers monthly.

Ignoring what they know is waste.

7. Benchmarking

Reverse-engineer and validate problems others solve. There is no need to reinvent the wheel from scratch every time.

[Free] Start with understanding what Product Discovery is: https://lnkd.in/dNUB__n3 

8. Feature requests

You don’t want customers to dictate features, but some are no-brainers. Ensure you understand the problem and consider possible alternatives.

[Free] Beware of the product death cycle trap: https://lnkd.in/dKYu-Ar5

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Hope that helps.

What did I forget?

Product strategy is simple to understand. But it’s not:

- A plan (“we will build x, y, and z”)
- A goal (“we want to grow by 50% by 2024”)
- An ambition (“we want to be the best”)
- An action (“disable that feature”)
- A business model
- A unique value proposition

Many companies do not have a product strategy at all.

A good product strategy:

- Defines a long-term vision
- Is a single, integrated set of choices that work together
- Defines the market (problems) and your constraints
- Focuses on customers whom you can’t control
- Has a theory on how to make them do what you want
- Specifies what not to do (tradeoffs)
- Protects you against competitive threats
- Allows you to formulate hypotheses
- Creates focus and clarity
- Sets the context for empowering teams

I couldn’t find a product strategy canvas I could recommend, so I created a new one. 

I love to see so many people using it. For months, It’s been No. 1 on Google for months, with 20K+ downloads 😊

A free editable version (no paywall): https://lnkd.in/dnUpVuge

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P.S. My subscribers can now enroll in From Strategy to Objectives Masterclass (a video course) for free. More: https://lnkd.in/dmJX65Zg

Product Pricing Cheat Sheet (critical concepts for PMs).

Plus 8 free links to learn more:

1. Value Stick explained (free part of the post): https://lnkd.in/dzp-Z8_Z

2. Porter's Generic Strategies (free link): https://lnkd.in/dDMVruYJ

3. 10 Pricing Strategies (free part of the post): https://lnkd.in/dMyaXyRr

4. Downselling, Upselling, Cross-selling (free link): https://lnkd.in/d8JnPJ6R

5. Bundling (free link): https://lnkd.in/dkEXvt9j

6. Trial, Freemium, Reverse trial 101 (free link): https://lnkd.in/dmJpFACQ

7. Van Westendorp Pricing Model used by Open AI (free link): https://lnkd.in/dui2gP5t

8. How to perform Conjoint Analysis (free link): https://lnkd.in/d_raH55f


Bonus: Monetization vs. pricing vs. packaging strategy (free part of the post): https://lnkd.in/dSBch_Qt

Bookmark this one 🙌 

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P.S. Or everything in one post: https://lnkd.in/d5AKSTcF

Many startups remain stuck with early adopters forever.

But only a few understand what’s wrong.

Look at the diagram. See the "chasm"? Unlike early adopters who love innovations, pragmatists want things that are proven and work.

Five key rules every startup has to follow:

1. Focus on a Specific Niche

Choose a well-defined niche ("beachhead segment") where you can achieve significant market share. Understand jobs and needs of those customers in depth. As Geoffrey Moore and Roger Martin advise, you must narrow your focus before expanding.

2. Aim to Win, Not Just Participate

Become a leader in a smaller market rather than a minor player in a large one. Winning in a niche builds credibility, attracts customers, partners, and talent, and sets the stage for expansion. But losing can result in a downward spiral. So, avoid diluting your strategic focus.

3. Deliver the Whole Product

To appeal to pragmatists, address not just the "Core Product" but also additional features that meet performance needs and delight customers (as per the Kano Model), along with the support and integrations they expect. Proactively tackle their fears, uncertainties, and doubts.

4. Communicate Clear Benefits

While early adopters are excited by new technology and willing to accept imperfections, pragmatists expect proven results, reliability, and tangible results. Emphasize these clear benefits to appeal to them (in B2B, ideally ROI) rather than relying on "technology hype."

5. Provide Evidence and Leverage Success Stories

When working with early adopters, you can share stories of innovation and early successes demonstrating your product's potential. Yet, pragmatists expect testimonials, referrals, and case studies from satisfied customers. They want to see you as a leader they can depend on.


Hope that helps!

Based on "Crossing the Chasm" by Geoffrey Moore.

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P.S. Enjoy this? 

In my new post, we discuss five case studies and:
1. Crossing the Chasm - what every PM needs to know 
2. The Chasm in B2B vs. B2C (my analysis)
3. Understanding the Connections to:
- Jobs-to-be-Done
- Product Strategy
- Product-Market Fit
- Ideal Customer Profile
- Startups Using Known Technologies

The full post: https://lnkd.in/dcus4xbH

More features always mean more value, right?

Wrong.

Too many features can wreck the UX, harm performance, slow down your teams, and kill your ROI.

That's why the best product companies cut and simplify features ruthlessly.

But where do we start?

✅ Step 1: Start with Strategy

You can't be everything to everyone. Start with revisiting your strategy.

What are the key customer segments, their jobs, and needs?

Free templates:
- Product Strategy Canvas: https://bit.ly/3NhVdrG
- Value Proposition (XLSX): https://bit.ly/3ZT7Wsk
- Value Curve (XLSX): https://bit.ly/3zWuHkz

💡 Make sure the entire organization understands and agrees on the strategy.

✅ Step 2: Diagnose With Data

Many PMs I talk to do not have the right tools. But here are two alternatives you can use (I’m not affiliated):
- Microsoft Clarity: Free session recording and heatmaps, no limits
- PostHog: Free or "Ridiculously cheap" pricing tier

I recommend starting with the Feature Adoption Rate, Customer Effort Score (CES), and Time to Task Completion.

💡 The best results come from combining quantitative data with qualitative insights. Dig into the root cause.

✅ Step 3: Decide on Action: Simplify or Cut

Option A: Simplify Without Cutting

Sometimes, features are necessary, especially when they align with your core value proposition but need simplification.

Actionable advice:
- Categorize features as Obvious, Easy, and Possible. Free post: https://lnkd.in/d3zDrAMd
- Apply the Laws of UX. Free link: https://lawsofux.com/
- Consider reducing features without killing them

💡 Even though some customers might be disappointed, simplicity builds trust, reduces the cognitive load, and serves most users.

Option B: Cut Unnecessary Features

Key factors: 
- Low Feature Adoption Rate: Features not used by your key customer segments or those driving the most ROI
- Negative impact on user experience (CSAT, CES)
- Misalignment with strategy

✅ Step 4: Get Stakeholders’ Buy-In

Some stakeholders are more important than others. Map stakeholders with this free template (PPTX): https://bit.ly/47Z6OW7

Present clear data and connect the current problems with strategy and business goals: ROI, adoption, retention, time-to-market, and maintenance costs.

💡 And proactively explain how you control the risks. 

How?

✅ Step 5: Implement Changes Responsibly

Key tools:
- Feature flags allow you to disable a feature for a subset of customers.
- A/B testing allows you to assess the impact most accurately without biases. 

💡 Disabling features first minimizes risks and makes your decisions easy to revert. 

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Simplicity offers significant rewards:
- Happier customers
- Reduced support needs
- Faster development cycles
- Increased Profitability (ROI)

💡 Simplifying your product helps you stand out. Not because it's easy but precisely because it's hard. 

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Enjoy this? The full post with case studies and examples: https://lnkd.in/dkb9wG7Q

🎁 I removed the paywall, as many requested.

I just published a new open PM Skills Assessment about practical situations.

Based on 700+ responses, great scores:
- APM \ PO: 14/20
- Product Manager: 15/20
- Senior Product Manager: 16/20
- Head of Product \ CPO: 17/20

The assessment consists of 20 single-choice questions.

Once you submit, you’ll instantly see:
- The correct answers and points
- Detailed feedback and explanations
- Learning resources to help you improve

You can take the free test here: https://lnkd.in/dyhsmr_j

What's your score?

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P.S. As always, I'll publish aggregated, anonymized results in my newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dXkMa4PG

Crazy. LinkedIn is now scraping our content and profiles to train their AI models.

We've been opted in by default.

To opt out: Settings > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI improvement.

This seems to affect the US and Australia mostly.

More information (Sep 18):  https://lnkd.in/dQK2mtnW

And paywalled Forbes (Sep 18): https://lnkd.in/dtpE2xJv

Screenshot: @david_obrien on X

Many students cannot afford my newsletter and courses.

That sucks. So, I'm offering a 70% discount for all academic email accounts.

You will get:

- Unlimited access to 90+ in-depth posts with actionable insights
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- From Strategy to Objectives Masterclass + certification (worth $149)
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And also:

- PM Competencies Map
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This is an experiment. The discount code is valid till 10/14/2024.

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