Discovery Digest - Volume IV
A list Interesting Posts, Articles, & Tools the P2P Team Discovered This Week
Part of the job of a Product Manager is to keep their ears to the ground. You must be aware of innovations, changes, and new tools in the technological landscape to avoid falling.
Every week I find myself bookmarking tweets, saving articles, and exploring new methods to do my job.
Discovery Digest has become the new P2P series to spread wealth. In it, we'll share the best or most interesting news, developments, and tools that have captivated our attention.
The Jeff Bezos Masterclass in Product Management
I listened this past week to the Lex Freidman interview with Jeff Bezos.
They talk about space travel, Elon, starting a company, and many other wide-ranging topics.
My favorite parts though are Jeff getting deep into the weeds of Amazon's work culture, creativity, and innovation. Here are my 2 favorites:
Example 1: Pristeen Memo - Messy Meetings: It says that for a good discussion to happen, everyone must read the same meticulously, well-written document before discussing.
This ensures every participant in the meeting is on the same page, with the same context. Jeff will even make everyone at the start of the meeting read the memo in silence as a group. There is no ambiguity around the question to be discussed.
It’s a process that empowers the Product Manager. Every PM is in the business of creating documentation. Doing so effectively empowers you to gain power over people above you in the hierarchy in the form of controlling the conversations.
I like to outline all my research, the problem at hand, and the objective, plus any open questions I could think of for any important meeting I call.
When it’s time to have the meeting, however, it is OK if it goes totally off the rails from the documentation.
This is Jeff’s characterization of a Messy Meeting - one that goes off the rails of anything that was planned initially. The idea here is that, as long as everyone comes into the conversation attempting to address the same problem with the same context, the battle for the best idea can be had.
Great solutions are pressure-tested with scrutiny. A+ execution also takes winding roads down falsely promised paths. The Messy Meeting alludes to the act of creativity itself. You cannot prescribe an exact process ingenuity. It manifests after looking at the same problem from 5 different angles and letting it bounce around in the subconscious.
This is a messy act. To enable a group of people to bounce these messy ideas against one another requires consensus and order as input.
Hence Pristeen Documentation, Messy Meeting
Example 2: Disagree and Commit
Disagree and commit let’s one solution go on record, forcing everyone involved to take action in that direction. The simple act of making people state this allowed is a call to stop any action the non-committed to a decision.
It’s a tradeoff of consensus for speed, where the person at the top calls debate in one direction, and everyone forward. The speed gains are clear.
What’s left under the surface though is how this is a technique for effective leadership.
As a people manager, if I decide without letting others speak up with their dissent, they will feel silenced and doubt my choice.
If that decision turns out to be wrong, I open up to those below me to believe they know better than I do. This opens up a manager to be undermined.
By forcing the nay-sayers to come above ground - they aren’t as cynical, because everyone knows they were right if the decision committed to was a failure. The ego has been scratched.
Moreover, from the employee perspective - it allows you to build credibility. Consistently show you are on the right side of the decision matrix over time, and you’ll begin to gain clout in the organization.
Your bosses will trust your judgment and opinion. You will get promoted.
The EU vs. American Tech Sector
A growing trend I do not expect is go anywhere anytime soon is the antigonistic stance the EU has taken towards several US-based tech companies.
Adobe’s acquisition of Figma is OFF!
Due to regulatory scrutiny from the EU, Adobe officially called off its $20 billion acquisition of Figma - today’s go-to software design platform.
The reason cited was the acquisition would give Adobe a monopoly on design software.
I’m a semi-active Figma user in my day job, as I convinced our head of design to give me access to create wireframes for new ideas. Perhaps not so Ironically, I used Adobe Photoshop to do this same task in my very first product role.
I personally use an endless number of other design software, such as GIMP (An open source design tool), Photopea (A free ad supports photoshop clone), Miro (Free form visual design tool), and Canva (Another massive tech unicorn popular with creatives).
Considering my company’s head of design still uses a hodge podge of tools as well, I feel the monopolistic threats are a little overblown.
What worries me most, however, is the threat of limited exit liquidity to tech company founders - as that’s a piece of the pie I try to carve out for myself.
The employees and investors no longer get that $20 billion paycheck.
What is fun, however, is Figma gets a $1 billion breakup fee paid by Adobe.
Does that get paid out to those on the cap table?
AI Legislation in the EU
You can read the details of what the act says here.
But what I found fascinating was that the officials in the EU are literally bragging about the fact that they passed the first AI Regulation
Why do I find this interesting? The industry has only recently blossomed, and the winners are far from set. This is pro-active legislation, and the regulators are proud to Get ahead of it.
Do I think they have any idea of how AI actually functions technically? Not in the slightest.
My view is this will result in whoever wins the AI wars in the US will then be giving the European market. Regulations always favor the incumbents, as they act as a moat of bars to hop for a newcomer to get to market.
It’s easier for an already profitable company in the US market to pass these bars. It's almost impossible for an entity that hasn’t yet grounded itself in product market fit.
Here’s what I think Thierry Breton should have tweeted
The EU Targets Elon and X
Elon found his next regulatory battle
This one is interesting because:
Elon is a crazy MFer
He also does not care about the money
He LOVES a fight
The EU, it is clear, expects capitulation from tech platforms for their governing ideals.
They got their way with Adobe
They got their way with AI regulation
Will they get their way for a social media platform owned by an ever more right-leaning, anti-authority combative individual who also happens to be the richest man in the world?
I don’t know, but I’ve got the popcorn ready. It’s going to be a show.
Great read, It's hard for me to believe that EU would do more than slap a fine more than the break-up fee if the deal continued.
I also don't see Elon bending to EU the same way adobe did. He will probably give another "Go F*** Yourself" comment at some interview soon.