Welcome to The Lens, a newsletter focused on Product Management and related topics. I'll be sharing content useful for those entering the field or looking to go deeper.
What is Product Management?
Product Management is one of the most varied roles in tech. The responsibilities shift significantly based on company culture, size, and industry — which makes clear definitions elusive. Frameworks like Agile and SAFe provide structure, but PMs across organizations experience the role very differently.
One useful lens: PMs operate across three phases — problem (understanding what to solve), solution (deciding how to solve it), and execution (getting it built and shipped). The emphasis on each phase varies by organization and product stage.
InVideo: Support as Product Intelligence
InVideo's approach to product decisions is worth highlighting: they use support articles as a direct guide to feature prioritization. The company built a detailed tagging and reporting system on top of their support interactions, so the most-reported problems surface as product priorities automatically.
"Using the support articles as a guide to influence product features is a brilliant execution."Most organizations have this data — the number that systematically mine it is much smaller. Support is a real-time signal of where the product is failing users.
Running Lean by Ash Maurya
Highly recommended for anyone working in product or building something new. The book provides a practical guide to finding product-market fit, running effective customer interviews, and iterating toward a revenue-generating product.
A core concept: vanity metrics versus actionable ones. Downloads, user counts, and satisfaction ratings can look impressive while telling you nothing useful. Pair them with actionable data — funnel analysis, cohort retention, activation rates — to understand what's actually happening with your product.
The Lens will continue exploring ideas like these. If this is useful, forward it to someone who might benefit.