Welcome back to The Lens, my newsletter on Product Management and related topics.

For the Users

Product Managers are sometimes called Problem Managers — and while that framing undersells the full scope of the role, it helpfully recenters attention on what matters most. Equally important is the question of which users you're solving for.

A lesson from marketing applies directly: if your product is for everyone, it is for no one. Early-stage products naturally have a specific user in mind. For established products, that clarity often erodes. Reclaiming it requires deliberate research.

How to find your core user: - Talk to early PMs, founders, and the marketing team - Interview customer-facing teams: sales, support, success - Analyze usage metrics and the existing user base - Look at competitor offerings and public reviews How to use what you find: - Identify the most profitable users and prioritize their needs - Write copy that speaks directly to them - If you're serving two genuinely different users, give them different paths - Use findings to build accurate personas for design and development

A tip for public speaking that translates to product thinking: when overwhelmed by a large audience, imagine speaking to one person. Make eye contact, speak to them, then move to the next. Products work the same way — focus on one user, understand them completely, build for them. This is sometimes called the Starbucks Strategy.

Types of Product Managers

If you're entering product management, your strengths and interests matter more than most job descriptions acknowledge. Different product types reward different skills.

The spider graph model helps visualize where you fit across dimensions: technical depth, user empathy, business acumen, data fluency, communication, and domain expertise.

One example archetype from the "6 types of PMs" framework:

Mobile PM - Superpower: Expert in mobile UX, platform conventions, and app store dynamics - Kryptonite: Assuming mobile expertise alone is sufficient — it will become table stakes - Example role: Leads iOS and Android native app teams

Understanding these archetypes also matters when building a PM team. Complementary strengths produce better outcomes than uniform backgrounds.

Bonus

- Joel Goldberg's lessons from 45 years in the software industry — especially: "beware the curse of knowledge." - Remote leadership lessons from a Senior Trust and Safety manager at Facebook: trust, meaning, and cultivating collaboration at a distance.