ctgilley.bsky.social
Former lawyer and tech product manager, currently advisor/consultant for product teams with Gartner. Craft cocktail, wine, and beer aficionado, TTRPG and video game enthusiast, horror and comic book fanatic.
69 posts
295 followers
306 following
Getting Started
Active Commenter
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The biggest moat that MS has built is the packaging of the products and how much gets "included" when IT buys into the ecosystem...other players just don't have that kind of flexibility or depth.
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Note, I'm not saying it's "right" but that it's not uncommon.
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That's not uncommon at all in many seat-based B2B licensing setups -- there's not one account per person, it's one account per person, per organization. Certainly not ideal, and not reflective of a more modern world where you have contractors, fractionals, and others working with multiple orgs.
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I remember being at the launch event for the phone, and just looking up in disbelief as they rattled off all the "benefits" of the phone. Old, branched version of Android? Check. 3D search that nobody asked for? Check. Outdated hardware? Check. It was astounding to me that AMZN could miss so hard.
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The modern tech manager needs to be someone who removes obstacles for their teams, not someone who "oversees" the work of those teams.
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FOMO's a big thing, especially when there's so much active hype around how AI is "changing the world"...bandwagoning is a human bias, though, and really hard to fight or reason yourself out of. Ideally, we'd be continuously analyzing our practices and fitting new tech in where it fills a gap.
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It's disheartening to see the default answer to everything being "throw AI at it" when people haven't bothered to look at root causes which will only be worse when you throw AI at it.
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Actions speak louder than words.
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Then start putting forward legislation that would do so.
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I love the phrasing "product squad" so much -- the whole concept of a "trio" or (now) "quad" seems so limiting to me. Sometimes you need more than just tech, product, and design (and marketing) -- you need a solid core, but also to bring in others when their insights are needed.
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Don't worry, there's still 3/4 of the season to go.
Sincerely, a lifetime M's fan.
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It makes complete sense -- it's a horror movie (strike 1) created by a talented Black creator (strike 2) that tells a compelling Black story (strike 3). Of course execs can't admit that's a "good thing".
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There's no magic wand to transform an organization’s mindset. But there are many small changes to shift the conversation and approach. What's the smallest thing you can do today to move toward your preferred future? (5/5)
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You are what you do, not what you say you want to do. In large enterprises, change isn't overnight. Think of it as a spectrum: move from your current to ideal state. Small shifts, like -15 to -10 or +20 to +30, are wins worth celebrating. (4/5)
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To be more customer-led, do more customer-led actions, fewer internal-led ones. Prioritize value over revenue, engage deeply with customers, monitor product usage, hold back unready things, and focus on time to value over time to market. (3/5)
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To be more "agile," do more "agile" things, and fewer "non-agile" ones. Plan on shorter time horizons, engage early with customers, focus on delivering value, iterate rapidly, and integrate findings. Retrospect on what's working and act on it. (2/5)
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"A lot of people think their sliver of context defines the entire practice."
This describes most self-anointed "thought leaders" in most professional spheres...
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A corollary rule is that if there are no names assigned, you're the one who owns the action.
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So the media focuses on one and not the other. Classic sleight of hand.
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I'd posit that *good* product managers know when to do a small, concise thing. Thing is, they're few and far between in most companies.
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I lowkey love this movie as well.
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My experience here is the opposite - the more you leave blank, the less likely the execs are to engage with it. So beware, YMMV with such an approach.
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Having multiple views of the roadmap for different audiences can be a game-changer.
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It doesn't even need to go that far -- criminal contempt is a Federal crime, so the President can simply pardon anyone charged or convicted and *poof* it all disappears.
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Also, I'm quite aware of the economics of LGS -- it's why I didn't open one in the past decade when my friends and I wanted pretty badly to do so.
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Like I said, they'll need to reinvent themselves. Charge for space, add on other buy-ups, create clubs with fees, etc. Does it suck? Sure. But I'd rather have more games published by more companies than fewer games only published by the big names.
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Then I guess I don't understand your concern. The major TCGs aren't going anywhere for the foreseeable future -- tariffs or no. It's board game creators that are looking at moving away from retail and toward D2C sales.
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Remains to be seen whether TCGs can maintain a steady enough income stream for stores to remain open in some form without the complementary business of board gaming.
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Agreed that in-store gaming does drive interest and sales -- but that's where the reinvention has to happen. People will find places to play if the LGS closes, it just won't be as good for the community.
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(3) They ignore this entirely and create a response that's non-responsive.
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Kickstarter, online, and direct sales have been a huge chunk of the game market for a very long time. I don't think there's a large majority of "new gamers" joining the hobby through their LGS (sad as that may be). LGS will have to reinvent themselves in some way to remain relevant.
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Yes, but if you inherit a product build on kitchen sink thinking, you can't just start breaking it apart on day 0.
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I don't think most publishers don't know or realize the side-effect. But if prices go up so high that nobody buys the games, not only do the stores and distributors go out of business, but so do the publishers. What happens to the hobby when nobody's able to make games?
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Makes sense to me -- prevents vote-spamming since creating BGG accounts costs nothing.
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They don't really have much of a choice -- direct sales insulate the buyer from the increased prices, which will minimize the harm caused by tariffs. If you're adding 10-20% at each level, games quickly cost way more than most gamers are willing to spend.
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I think a lot more product teams inherit complexity than love it, and learning to deal with that complexity is what makes or breaks them. Do they work to minimize and diminish the complexity or do they embrace it and continue the bad old ways of the past?
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Similarly, empowerment without ownership is illusory.
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It's also tribalism, which is practically a fundamental component of human interaction, existing independent of capitalism.
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Bias toward action means that when faced with a decision we should act more than we think. But it doesn't say **what** that action should be. Discovery is an action; validation is an action; research is an action. It's not always "just build the thing". Any action that reduces uncertainty is valid.
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Sometimes truth is stranger than friction.
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Yes, I've driven such change at a couple companies over my career. Mixed results, mostly driven by how much leadership actually walked the walk rather than just talked the talk.
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Active listening is a highly underrated skill.
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Documentation not matching calls and returns.
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I don't think there is anyone "respected by both sides" anymore -- I'd happily be corrected, but the polarization of politics over the past decade really has split the country into two parts: those who support Trump and those who don't.
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Brands are meaningless in the new economy.