Understated Hyperbole
I remember the very first time I played Super Mario Brothers on an NES console. It was 1989 and I was down with chicken pox. To stop me from scratching myself and keep me distracted, my dad rented a console and I played Mario (and Contra) non-stop over the next few days (with my mom…
I used to quiz fairly regularly both in school and college and also loved setting and hosting quizzes (the high point was co-hosting the inaugural IIT Madras Open Quiz in 2004). But then I lost touch with it for over two decades. A chance meeting at a kid’s birthday party with a parent who I…
Or Why Metaphors are Dangerous Language is imprecise. Language is especially imprecise and imperfect when it comes to describing scientific concepts. And the irony of using the tools of language to write about its own shortcomings is not lost on me. Think about the oft repeated phrase – “survival of the fittest” and how it…
I love good teachers and classrooms. Something about the act of learning – sitting in a room, completely distraction-free and being a complete sponge – listening intently to a teacher at the peak of their craft, sparring with your fellow students and building new neural connections – lights me up like the Rockefeller Center Christmas…
Cover image generated on Dall-E with the prompt: “A robot similar to Optimus Prime standing on a barren landscape looking at his human hand, cartoon style” All new technology in its early phase is highly disruptive to the status quo. I call this the “dynamite” phase – you can use it to blow things to…
The single biggest mistake every first-time manager makes in tech companies (especially product, design and engg) is in believing that they no longer have to contribute as ICs (individual contributors). It doesn’t matter where you are on the spectrum of company size – a handful of people fighting for survival and trying to launch a…
Kapi Pe Charcha #005 – Venture Highway “What do users care about? What do they need?” In our previous posts, we talked about speaking to users and validating our ideas (https://lnkd.in/dHdft3x7 and https://lnkd.in/dc2vVnBk). The Hierarchy of User Needs by Aarron Walter is a model that explains the needs users have when using products or services. This hierarchy…
Kapi Pe Charcha #003 – Venture Highway “Would I need to speak to people/ users/ customers?” In our last two posts, we have discussed ways of coming up with new ideas and then creating a shortlist out of them: 1. https://lnkd.in/gXHstMvM2. https://lnkd.in/gngtAunA A skill that will help you throughout your entrepreneurial journey is user research. It’s a…
Kapi Pe Charcha #002 – Venture Highway “OK – so I have a set of ideas now. How do I check if they are any good?” In our last post, we came up with a set of methods to help us constantly come up with new ideas. We weren’t worried about originality, quality, feasibility or the…
Kapi Pe Charcha #001 – Venture Highway I am often asked: “How do I constantly come up with new ideas?” While coming up with ideas, do not worry about their originality, quality, feasibility or the opportunity size that they represent. Forget all that. Focus on idea generation. Keep reminding yourself – there are no bad…
A playbook has three attributes: (1) it gives you plays that can be reliably repeated, (2) these plays can be taught to others, and (3) one can look back and check whether the plays were used properly. In the context of product building, there are multiple playbooks: how to hire, how to build an organization,…
To say that I have followed an unconventional path to becoming a product manager is a little bit of an understatement. Engineering → Writing → Game Design → General Management → Product Management So one of the most frequent questions I get asked is: “how do I transition to a product management role?”. And while…