Product Practice #355 You’re Not Writing OKRs.You’re Reformatting KPIs READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Mar 21, 2025 READING TIME 5 min & 32 sec Dear Reader, Every product organization has seen it - "OKR Theater" - Teams meticulously craft perfect objective statements, debate whether something is "outcome enough," and create elaborate tracking systems that generate more busy work than value. Behind this theater lurk predictable patterns: We adopt "best practices" without a clear why. Instead of...
14 days ago • 3 min read
Product Practice #354 Stop Looking at Flat Dashboards READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Mar 29, 2025 READING TIME 4 min & 06 sec Dear Reader, Jeff Patton explained why flat backlogs don’t work for prioritizing user stories more than 16 years ago: Arranging user stories in the order you’ll build them doesn’t help me explain to others what the system does. Try handing your user story backlog to your stakeholders or users when they ask you the question “what does the system you’re building do?” I...
21 days ago • 3 min read
Product Practice #353 How Duolingo Approaches Strategy, OKRs, and Discovery READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Mar 7, 2025 READING TIME 4 min & 24 sec Dear Reader, Many Product Managers were in awe of the ways of working shared in The Duolingo Handbook a few weeks ago. While it’s an inspiring read, I used this as a reason to revisit some of my all-time favorite reads about how this company operates (or at least used to operate) and extract my takeaways with you. Duolingo focuses on “Movable” Metrics...
28 days ago • 3 min read
Product Practice #352 My Digitale Leute Summit 2024 Keynote Recording and Slides READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Feb 28, 2025 READING TIME 1 min & 40 sec Dear Reader, I'm excited to share the full recording of my talk on How Product Teams Can Connect the Dots of Strategy, OKRs, and Discovery from last year's Digitale Leute Summit. You can think of it as the naturally progressing chapter (hint hint) that would follow my talk from Product at Heart 2024. As always, I won't require you, as an...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Product Practice #351 The Post-it trap: Why Strategy needs more than Workshops READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Feb 21, 2025 READING TIME 5 min & 19 sec Dear Reader, 'Product Strategy by Post-it' occurs when teams prioritize filling out frameworks over making real strategic choices. It's a common symptom of treating strategy as a checkbox exercise rather than a tool for decision-making. John Cutler even suggests that most frameworks should feature a warning label like this: "This framework is...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Product Practice #350 3 Universal Truths to CutThrough Product Discovery Noise READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Feb 14, 2025 READING TIME 4 min & 05 sec Dear Reader, "We need more user research!" "Let's run a design sprint!" "Have you tried jobs-to-be-done?" Product Discovery can feel like drowning in an ocean of frameworks and methods. But after coaching dozens of product teams, I've found that successful Discovery isn't about following perfect processes—it's about understanding three fundamental...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Product Practice #349 Why Your 'Correct' Discovery Method Might Be Wrong READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Feb 7, 2025 READING TIME 3 min & 34 sec Dear Reader, "Which experiment should we run next?" This question comes up in almost every Discovery coaching session I facilitate. Teams often focus on finding the methodologically perfect way to test their assumptions. But here's the thing: the most technically correct experiment isn't always the right one to run. When choosing methods for Product...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Product Practice #348 In 2025, stop tryingto get better at OKRs READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Jan 31, 2025 READING TIME 4 min & 04 sec Dear Reader, I hope you had the start of 2025 that you had wished and planned for. I'm excited to get back into the rhythm of weekly publishing, having completed my annual in-person workshop series and gearing up for continued (and new) client engagements. If you're up for it, reply to this newsletter and let me know what one thing you would like to see more (or...
2 months ago • 3 min read
This is the last newsletter before my annual writing break for the holidays. After this issue, I will return to your inboxes on January 31, 2025. Product Practice #347 My 2024 Annual Review READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Dec 20, 2024 READING TIME 5 min & 28 sec Dear Reader, What I focused on in the second half of 2024 After wrapping up the first half of 2024, the rest of the year was full of highlights. Stepping on stage at Product at Heart. Besides the book, this talk was probably the most...
3 months ago • 4 min read