5P

In the last 4-5 years of building Taghash, 4P pillars have acted as guiding principles. I am thankful to Raja for letting me know about the “Jobs To Be Done methodology” and for giving me a copy of “when When Coffee and Kale Compete” by Alan Klement.

Alan Klement talks about “jobs to be done” in:
“Pain, Desire to progress, and Willingness to pay” methodology.

Marty Cagen talks about building product keeping:
“People, Process and Product” methodology.

In our case, we read, re-read, and built our version of it by adding Marty Cagen’s book: Inspired and Alan Klement’s teachings creating 5P.

Pain: Identifying whose pain it is?
Persona: Crafting ideal persona of user in pain.
Process: Understanding their current workflow and process.
Product: Building a product incorporating above 3.
Paisa (money): Identifying the customer’s pocket and willingness to pay.

Thoughts

Our thoughts and actions define who we are as species on this planet. Both virtues are interdependent.

It is easy to get lost in thoughts and take no action. At other times get intimidated and take uncalled actions.

Cultivating thoughts require solitude and processing externals and actions can be taught.

Aid

Software is an aid for efficient workflow, not replacement in most instances.
This realization makes product development easy.
It eliminates the resistance from the user, and they know your product exists to make their life less painful.

We cannot replace a doctor, engineer, lawyer, or Accountant with software.
But you can sell them your product as an aid that makes their life less painful. They will pay you for it.

We, humans, hate life threats be it a profession or personal.

power

A lot many of us in enterprise setup crave power. I am not sure if it is their ego or lack of confidence.

A successful organization provides returns to its stakeholders and delights its customers while treating the team well. Every member knows their responsibility well. Success and failure are transparent in front of all.

As the organization grows, the culture takes a back seat, resulting in absolute disaster.

The league of intelligent minds gets into a power struggle and ego trap. As a founder, finding the right leaders who can escalate through this and build a team on meritocracy.

soup

Building a product is like making soup and depends on three pillars: what? How? When?

What?
Knowing the customer’s pain or what to build is the first pillar.
We involve customers, do market research and conclude on what to build. Our sales and customer support team’s insight is valuable in upgrading an existing product or developing an adjacent product module.

How?
This part requires multiple teams together with design to development and customer support. The architectural overview and development stage are the key aspects of it. Then comes distribution to a specific customer group and getting feedback.

When?
A clear timeline for delivery falls in when. As a project manager and product lead, this is your responsibility. Most product fails because the team takes ages to ship or overbuilds them.

“What, how, and when ” mismatch screws up a product or organisation.

India at 75

It’s India’s 75th Independence day. It would not have happened without the sacrifice of our brave freedom fighters. We have come a long way, fighting many battles within and outside. We are a young nation, and we have just begun. Our adversity is also causing abundant opportunity. It gives us the purpose to wake up and do something. We, the people of our country, will define and shape the nation in centuries to come.

Politicians will come and go. Dictators will divide, and fundamentalists will keep inciting violence.

The country must survive, thrive and progress. Lucky to have been born here in India.

Energize

One thing which any fresher requires at the start of their career is a coach. The other important part is getting feedback, appreciation, and constructive feedback.

Spend time with the young ones, and nurture them. They need enough love, respect, responsibility, and recognition. A successful leader needs an army of great talent. One has to nurture and energize them.

few

We don’t need a world to build something incredible or leave our legacy. Everything starts small and finds its course in the journey. It is easy to give up or forget about the true north and perish.

Someone has said that success has many friends and failures, none. I would say the path to becoming successful happens with a few well-wishers.

Whoever you become in the future, remember about a bunch of these few people. They will shape your life by bringing luck, motivation, and belief.

preference

Who decides what we eat? Eating chicken is a mainstream and alright thing but not some other animal? Is it more to do with economics or health or our religion? In the end, you are killing another life for your appetite. Why is this duality, and how does society perceive it?

Whose preference is this? Why is it imposed on us? Are we even aware that we are riding on others’ preferences?