Morfternight #40: What does it mean to be a Product Lead?

We also talk about all my websites, changing one's mind through data, and how much time we spend with ourselves.

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👋 Good Morfternight!

Particular emphasis on the “night” part, as midnight just passed here in Vienna.

Last week I mentioned I’d start using “Good Morfternight” instead of simply “Morfternight” as the name of this newsletter. The response was loud and clear, with an opening rate dropping from 50% to 45%.

I live by the “strong opinions loosely held” principle, and I don’t mind changing my point of view when I am presented with convincing data.

So we are back to “Morfternight!”

🌍 We spend a lot of time with ourselves

I participated to a fascinating workshop session led by Daniel Vassallo today, part of his Small Bets course, during which he said:

Humans are very complex creatures, but luckily we always carry one.

It was in the context of trying to reflect and analyze our reactions in front of marketing and online content to improve the effectiveness of the content we create.

It reminded me of an interesting article I read earlier in the week: Illusion of Transparency: Your Poker Face is Better Than You Think about how we overestimate other people’s ability to understand what goes on in our minds.

We tend to think that people can easily tell what we’re thinking and feeling. They can’t. Understanding the illusion of transparency bias can improve relationships, job performance, and more.

I find this quite reassuring, as it counters a classic argument in favor of going to work in an office every day, according to which the extra “signal” gathered from being face to face makes conversations more effective than remote ones.

Don’t get me wrong; I am not saying there is no benefit to spending time regularly with other human beings. I love to travel to meet my coworkers.

I just don’t buy the “body language” bit to justify commuting daily.

🪩 New home page

Historically paolobelcastro.com was my website and blog. I moved it to paolo.blog in 2016. I would post everything from photos to essays, short and long, quotes, thoughts, and even this newsletter.

I recently decided that I prefer each type of content to have its home.

This is how I have organized it now:

• paolobelcastro.com is the page from which all my sites are linked.

• paolo.blog is the blog, only essays, and atomic visuals.

• monochrome.blog is where my photos live.

• morfternight.com is the home of this newsletter.

• I am also active on Twitter as @p3ob7o.

I did this for three primary reasons. The first is that I didn’t like to have to use the same look & feel for all contents. For example, I love writing and reading black text on a white background, but I enjoy photos more on a dark background. The second is that this allows my readers only to follow the site they like. The last reason (but not least) is that I love experimenting with websites, which multiplies the opportunities I have to play with different plugins and blocks in WordPress.

🫧 What does it mean to be a Product Lead?

Here’s an interesting question I ask myself more or less daily.

Over time, this is the more concise explanation I have come up with.

• Customers have needs.

• The Business has goals.

• Hardware & Software Infrastructure requires investment.

The Product lives at the core of this Venn diagram.

The Product Lead “expands the middle.”