„Product decision making when being on fire: what works and what doesn’t work in startups.” When working on a dynamically changing product in a startup, there are always some urgent decisions to be made and nearly always no time to think about them properly. So we organized a few tips for Product Managers – how to differentiate between signal and noise in no time, what areas you need never let down, and what you can let burn to ashes, and what is more important than your product.

1. Piotr Durlej & Michał Krajewski, ProductCamp 2022
Product decision making when
being on 🔥
What works and what doesn’t work in startups

2. Agenda
1. About us
2. People
3. You
4. Focus
5. Space
6. Frameworks

3. About us
Michał Krajewski
~10 years of building products
Head of Product @ foap.com
Piotr Durlej
~11 years of building products
Head of Product @ unveel.io
Working together on our podcast takbybylodobrze.pl

4. All fast-growing startups are similar
• People unsure what to do
• Crushing organizational debt
• Product strategy in making
• Real (cash
fl
ow) time pressure
• New critical challenges daily
Does it look familiar?
You

5. How can you make the best
possible decisions?

6. People
Focus on your team first

7. Marty Cagan, ProductCamp 2020
„We need teams of missionaries,
not teams of mercenaries”

8. Managing your homefront
What worked for us
• Your team feeling heard and motivated is the biggest leverage you can
get in this job
• Team is a living being, so step carefully and don’t challenge everything at
once
• Be present - start from regular 1on1s or check-ins, even if you have other
things to take care of
• As a leader with every step you are building your team culture. Thread
carefully

9. With team buy-in you can do this
• Re-engage your whole team in decision process, if appropriate
• Your voice is the loudest, so ask for opinion
fi
rst and answer
last
• Try to agree and commit, but if no consensus was reached -
disagree and still commit
• Agree how you will revisit a decision I or what will need to happen
to change it
What worked for us

10. You
What is your mental state

11. Aristole
„Knowing yourself is the
beginning of all wisdom”

12. You will be overwhelmed with past,
present and future organizational debt

13. And postponing a decision is
also a decision

14. So how do you feel?

16. Fighting back your cognitive overload
• Truly irreversible or black swan scenarios under your control should be
your main focus
• Aim to be fast & precise, not only one of them. It’s a balancing act
• Think in probabilities & possible scenarios, become your product
superforcaster
• This is a marathon, not a sprint. You will discover just more and more things
which will require your attention
What worked for us

18. Not doing anything is often the best decision, or
saying no is the best decision
It just has to be deliberate
Don’t feel ashamed

19. Focus
Gaining the edge to make the best decisions

20. Steve Jobs
„Focusing is about saying no”

21. And focus is the most important
manager resource in a startup

22. What focus means
How to maintain it
• You own* the Product Vision
• Being focused is about saying „no” to hundred good ideas
• Give yourself deadlines or critical KPIs for your assumption
• Fight back ego driven management - be aware of HIPPO (highest paid
person's opinion) and stakeholder in
fl
uence
*should

23. What will kill you if you ignore it
Based on our experiences
• User retention
• Team rotation
• Cash
fl
ow

24. Space
Be ready when it will count

25. Louis Pasteur, from Sequoia „Adapting to Endure” presentation May 2022
"Chance only favors the prepared
mind"

26. There will be urgent high-impact
decisions you will need to make on the
fly
You will need to be on the top of your
game then

27. How to prepare?
Besides your health and wellbeing obviously!
• Don’t allow yourself to have more than 50% calendar booked
• Master asynchronous communications,
fi
nd what works for you
• Book meetings with yourself, to not be disturbed
• If you are not sure, come back to a decision after a good nights sleep
• Fight back multitasking. Be 100% present in what you are doing
• Don’t save on your work related tools. They are your leverage

28. Decision making frameworks
How to make decisions under 3 minutes

29. Identify the enemy, if possible
Cyne
fi
n framework light® through Beaufort scale
• ☀ Beaufort 0-3 - domain is clear. Delegate and go for best (most popular)
practice.
• 🌬 Beaufort 4-6 - domain is complicated. Delegate to an expert in given
domain, ask for options, choose one which makes the most sense.
• 💨 Beaufort 7-9 - domain is complex. Reframe expectations of stakeholders,
delegate or take charge, then act, measure, learn, and repeat.
• 🌊 Beaufort 10-12 - domain is chaotic. Take charge personally, act based on
your instincts, and try to reframe decision.

30. When in the mess, go with WSJF’s
Weighted Shortest Job First

31. The only one you care

32. Summary
Deciding on a decision in 3 points
1. Assess the the class („domain”) of the problem
2. Assess the impact on product
3. Assess the category of the decision

33. Thanks!
mail@takbybylodobrze.pl