Jeff Gladchun

Here's one fun and easy hack that designers and product managers can use to GREATLY level up their technical chops: Learn how to use Airtable. Why? It's a hands-on way to learn the fundamentals of relational databases, data types, and database querying. Knowing these concepts intuitively will benefit your working relationship with devs and make you MUCH more effective at your job. Here are some easy database project ideas to get you started: 1. Your Library -- Books, authors, genres, etc. 2. Trips You've Taken -- Locations visited, travel companions, experiences, etc. 3. Recipes -- Types of food, ingredients, kitchen tools needed, etc. Have fun! https://www.airtable.com DM me if you want to learn Airtable and need tips on getting started. Happy to help. #Airtable #Data #ProductManagement #UX #CareerGrowth

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One of the best product design decisions we made in v0 of Brellium was focusing on flexibility. Enabling centers to “bring their own” QA process was hard to build—engineering spent dozens of late nights creating one-off workflows for folks to make moving manual QA processes to Brellium easy. Internally, we spent dozens of hours debating if we should direct everyone to a “Brellium-approved” set of requirements. We settled on “recommended” templates with the ability to customize as needed. We didn’t know it at the time, but this was one of our most impactful decisions, period. Struck a median between startup centers who needed a chart review process built from scratch, and established centers who had an awesome process & team already built and just needed things to move faster. Neat to look back at the small moments once in a while!

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For years, I've led and mentored diverse teams of software engineers, and one gripe consistently surfaces, irrespective of team makeup or project nuances: "Why do I have to resolve conflicts when cherry-picking commits from the master branch?" 🤔 This complaint hits home. Engineers crave independence to innovate and deliver swiftly, yet software development thrives on collaboration, demanding robust code management and teamwork. 🚀💻 Cherry-picking commits can be an efficient way to incorporate specific changes or bug fixes into a hotfix branch or release candidate, but it often triggers conflicts as changes collide with ongoing developments. This conflict resolution process can be time-consuming, error-prone, and frustrating for engineers, detracting from their productivity and morale. 😫⚔️ The absence of a structured cherry-picking process exacerbates the problem. Here's a simple fix to avoid conflicts: 1️⃣ Track the last merged PR number into the base branch when cutting release/hotfix branches. 2️⃣ When receiving a cherry-pick PR, confirm its base branch PR number. 3️⃣ Ensure all PRs between the last merged and new ones are cherry-picked before merging, preventing conflicts. 4️⃣ Once merged, update the base PR number of the last merged cherry-pick for the next cherry-pick PR review can be verified. Yes, adopting this process entails a bit of change, but the dividends in smoother workflows and happier engineers are well worth it. Let's make life easier for our fellow coders! 💪🛠️ #SoftwareEngineering #CodeReview #Collaboration #ConflictResolution #Teamwork #DeveloperLife #CherryPicking #CodeManagement #ProductivityTips #EngineeringCulture #TechTips #Mentorship #WorkflowOptimization #CodingCommunity

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Want to know more about How Figma's Databases Team Lived to Tell the Scale? Still skeptical of why we built horizontal sharding on RDS instead of <insert-cooler-database-technology>? Wondering if you should copy what we did? Check out out my new podcast with Software Engineering Daily as we dive deep on spicy stories that didn't make the blog post from surviving my first Figma Config conference to debating which database technology comes out on top. https://lnkd.in/gFfh7C-A

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My biggest fear as a product manager are Friday afternoon code deployments. 😄 Kidding (but really, please don’t). My actual biggest fear is that I’m not driving the value my teams and customers need from me. 🔗 As product managers, our job is to drive value for our product’s teams and customers. We aren’t necessarily the people who deliver the tangible results that our peers and customers see – a lot of what we do is traditionally “behind the scenes” work. It makes sense, product management is often seen as the bridge between business and technology, customers and solutions, etc. 💡 That’s where a lot of my fear comes from. I’ve felt it the first day I served as a product manager, I still feel it over a decade later even with a list of achievements saying otherwise. But fortunately, I’ve had the opportunity to work with coaches and mentors in the product space, each of which assure me that the feeling is normal. I recently had a conversation with a product manager from the MAANG space; several more years of experience than I and an even longer list of achievements. He, too, still holds a fear that he may not be driving value. But, he counters that fear with a few affirmations like these: “I am the reason my developers know what to build and why it matters.” “I am the reason my marketing and sales teams know who the product is for and how to engage them.” “I am the reason my product is solving a problem that people in my space want to solve in the first place.” 💭 Today, I still use affirmations to overcome my fears. They remind me that fear is “False Evidence Appearing Real.” What are you most afraid of as a product manager? How do you face your fear and overcome it? #productmanagement #productmanagers #impostersyndrome #fear #affirmations

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Some takeaways for a Jeff Hinton interview with timeless insights. My POV as an app builder is that models are now being improved for better UX (faster response/multi-modal) and reasoning capability and cost continues to improve. The technology headroom remains strong, and the integration of LLM into all software experience will continue and expansion of the reach (invasion) of software + intelligence will also continue. - Next word prediction is not merely parroting of training data. To do next word prediction well, LLM needs and already exhibits strong reasoning behavior. This would continue to scale / improve with more data / training. - LLM is a compression of human knowledge. The compression mechanism is identifying similar concepts across domains and reduces duplications among them. This can also be a source of "creativity" as LLM "sees" correlations of seemingly unrelated ideas through this compression. LLM can be more creative as it sees similiarity / correlations across all domains beyond (human) convetional wisdom. - LLM can exceed the quality of its training data. Jeff gave an example of an experiment where a model trained on 50% intentionally incorrectly labeled data, can still perform at 90+% accuracy after training. - Multi-modal models can improve the overall world understanding and lead to better overall reasoning. It does not even need to generate multi-modal output. - Not ML specific, but an interesting life insights. Bad intuition comes from believing (or wanting to believe) everything you are told. It diminishes the ability to make a clear choice that would lead to differentiated success (or failure).

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Playing a role - A Daily Practice. In our work and personal lives, we all play various roles: product manager, engineering manager, VP, parent, etc. This little practice is about not over-identifying ourselves or others with those roles, but seeing through them to the people behind them.

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Some thoughts on Impulsivity in software development and how to counter it. https://lnkd.in/g_GrmF2s #PMI #SoftwareEngineering #productmanagement

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Harness the power of AI to streamline your workflow, boost productivity, and drive better results. Get started with GenAI today and take your product management game to the next level! 💡 #Chisel #GenAI #ProductManagement #SaaS #Innovation

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Say it loud for the people in the back of the room: AGILE DOESN'T LEAD TO SUCCESSFUL TEAMS! Instead, successful teams are able to be agile. If you want to increase your team's success: - focus on understanding your requirements upfront - provide psychological safety for teams to raise and address problems as they arise. - base your requirements on real world needs https://lnkd.in/e8-W9ptu

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How can product leaders move the needle and take the lead in this shift? Moving Off the Solution – guide your team to step back from the tech stack and view the challenge from the POV of a new user. Measuring Customer Perceived Value -- require PMs to sit with a cohort of users -- typical users. Conduct a discovery exercise. A small sample size is sufficient. Embrace the Change – this should require a complete change in mindset but a different orientation. Focusing the team on adoption, cross sell and upsell has clear near-term and long-term ROI for the company. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gjJk_K5V #leadership #prodmgmt #ROI

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Do you think you need to hire developers as w2 employees to build a highly-skilled, devoted and culturally aligned team? Let Blueprint show you otherwise. Here's how we're changing the game: 1️⃣ Unmatched Quality: Quality is our creed. Our vetting process includes interviewing with former CTOs and senior software engineers, ensuring only top-tier talent makes it to your team. 2️⃣ Long-Term Commitment: Forget the turnover and churn worries! Our developers stay longer than industry norms for W2 developers (average tenure of 2.2 years), providing stability and continued expertise to your projects. 3️⃣ Cultural Integration: Culture isn't just an add-on for us. We dive deep to understand your core values and ensure every developer we match with your team enhances and embraces your company culture. 4️⃣ Equity is Optional: Save your cap table for your growing startup! We ensure that our developers are passionate believers in your product right from the start - without incentivizing them with equity. We rigorously test for craftsmanship, ensuring they value not just a quality end result but also the journey of creation. 🌟 Shoot us a DM to connect and see how we can improve your staffing strategy. #StaffAugmentation #InnovationInStaffing #TechTalent #CultureFit #LongTermGrowth

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B2B Product Management... Last week at the The Product Folks event, I had some sigh of relief. Relief that as a B2B PM, I was not alone. Relief that other B2B PMs broadly have the same set of problems. I was sitting at a round table discussion on "Mastering B2B product strategies" - alongside other senior B2B product leaders from Nutanix, Innovacer, Incref, MediBuddy. Surprisingly the PM side problems had a large overlap 1. How & when to custom build for large enterprise deals 2. Career growth & setting up the PM org structure for scale 3. Collaboration with customer success & implementation teams Looking forward to views from other B2B PMs. #B2Bproductmanagement

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The biggest mindset shift most senior PMs / Designers / Eng Mgrs / TLs who are building customer-facing products in midsized & large companies must make: Your main job is to make your product win. While it may seem like this Job # 1 should be obvious to all, it really isn’t. Here are some other leading contenders for Job # 1: - Main job is to make my manager happy - Main job is to make execs happy - Main job is to keep stakeholders happy - Main job is to keep team members happy - Main job is to build excellent systems - Main job is to get promoted - Main job is to launch as promised - Main job is to create user delight - Main job is to create customer value (some people LOVE saying this one) Now, I understand that we live in the real world and that there are “good reasons” why the above contenders are at least worthy of consideration. But I am saying what I am saying precisely because we live in the real world and because I think you should do your best to improve your odds of *long-term career success*. You see, as a passionate & ambitious product person who builds the mindset of making your product win as your Job # 1, you will do things & learn things that most of your other peers are not doing & learning. And by doing that over the long arc of your career, you will position yourself to reach closer to whatever is your optimal success potential. This is clearly not the only possible path and it may not be the right path for some / many (no single path can be). But it is at least worth considering if it seems to feel right to you. Most people spend years / decades in mid-sized & large companies and yet are never even told that this is an option they should consider for their long-term career success. If that is you, I want you to view this post just as a possibly helpful pointer. If it doesn’t resonate, that’s totally fine. But if it does resonate, you might over the long-term see yourself becoming a more competent, a more effective, and possibly even a more happy product person.

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Dealing with ***very*** surprising changes will be your most important skill in the next 5 years. As product managers, we often encounter unexpected changes that can disrupt our well-laid plans. Whether it's a feature redesign, shifting priorities, or unforeseen challenges, how we respond can make or break our projects. Here are a few key questions to ask yourself when faced with such situations: How flexible is my current plan? What are the top priorities right now? How can I communicate changes effectively to my team? What steps can I take to adapt quickly and efficiently? How do you handle unexpected changes in your projects? Share your experiences. #productmanager #Agile #projectplanning #adaptability #productdevelopment #leadershiplessons #productor

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📣 Product Folks: 😡 Have you and your team hit the wall with trying to focus on value? That *could* look like: ▶ No steady stream of data to inform strategy, prioritization + roadmaps ▶ Stakeholder misalignment ▶ Competing priorities ▶ Duplicative or overlapping work streams 🤓 Are you ready to put Product Operations into practice at your company? Join me for Produx Labs' Product Operations June 5 Masterclass! Snag your seat today. https://lnkd.in/ephFvTwf #productmanagement #productops

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Calm meets Code - Zen Spinner UX Visit my blog for an illuminating side by side demo comparing Copilot's elevated spinner UX to traditional ones. https://lnkd.in/dqer-mk6 Last week, I immersed myself in Copilot and noticed something fascinating—I felt surprisingly refreshed after hours of intense work. This led me to explore further. It turns out, Microsoft's design ethos for Copilot is all about creating a low cognitive load and infusing relaxation into a mesmerizing user experience Delve into the serenity of Copilot's Zen Loading UX, crafted with Microsoft's ethos for minimal cognitive load. Sharing a Zen Page Loading approach that caught my attention and more on Copilots UX design philosophy in my blog. Enjoy!! #copilot #microsft #paypal #fintech #UX #generativeai #aiml

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