Back in 2015, I was introduced to Jonah Goodhart, CEO of MOAT. Jonah is a well-known ad-tech leader with many exits to his name (you can read more about Jonah here) but, at the time, I knew him primarily as
How Price Sensitive is Your Customer
One of the biggest differences between successful and struggling businesses comes down to one question: has price sensitive is your customer? It seems like common sense, but I didn’t fully understand what caused price sensitivity until recently. Here are some
It’s Never Been a More Terrible Idea to Follow the Herd
“Best business practices.” The first time I herd this phrase was Sophomore year of college. I was in business class and we were seated in the round having a discussion about business strategy. I don’t remember the exact case, but
Business Plan Financial Models: A Mathematical Proof
Over the past 10 years I’ve worked on a lot of business plans. First as a student, then as a product manager and as a coach to young entrepreneurs. In every business plan that I’ve worked on or reviewed, there
It’s Really Hard to Change Your Brand
Late last year Playboy made headlines by announcing that they would no longer show nudity in their magazine. Down to a circulation of just ~800,000 (from a peak of 7.16M in 1972) the decision was likely spurred by declining readership
What is a Product Offering?
Attribution: Today’s post is inspired by a lesson I recently learned from Dr. Dwight Porter, President of Applied Decision Resources and all around business genius. I’m very lucky to study under his tutelage. —– Imagine for a second that you (the
Product Management in Marathons and Sprints
Deciding which products to build and when is the most important decision for any high technology company. In a fast paced environment, investing in the wrong features or addressing the wrong use cases will leave you losing ground to competitors.
Process Development: Decisive vs. Organic
Over the past four years, AppNexus has grown like a rocket ship – from 50 people when I joined the company in 2011 to over 1000 today. During this time of monumental growth, process development has been a key tool
How to Deal with Dozens of Evaluation Metrics in High Tech Product Management
One of the primary challenges of product management in a high technology industry is dealing with all of the different variables that customers consider when they make a purchase decision. Generically, there’s price, performance, usability, visual appeal, portability, utility, etc.
Persistence
A couple experiences coalesced for me this week around the topic of career success. First, I happened upon this blog post on LinkedIn about Louis CK. The post talks about how Louis CK turned down a well paying steady job