Tech for Non-Techies

Learning notes from this episode:   Always work with designers before hiring developers.  Come to UX designers with a problem you want to solve, rather than a feature list When you're thinking of target users for your product, think about their behaviour, not just demographics.    If you want to get more practical advice on how to hire designers and developers to make your idea come to life, get o...

Learnings notes from this episode:   Good product managers Know the market, the product and the competition Take full responsibility for the success of the product Marketing counterparts to the engineering manager Feel good when they figure out WHAT, i.e. what problem they are solving for the user   Bad product managers Have lots of excuses Feel good when they figure out HOW, i.e. how to build the...

Learning notes from this episode:   To get into product management, you need to build a product. I doesn't have to be a full mobile app. You can start with something very simple, like a blog or a newsletter. Growth hacking is a system of experimentation and incremental improvements to grow a specific metric, e.g. revenue per user or time in app. Good product managers and growth hackers both have a...

Learning notes from this episode:   Asaf Navot does not have a technical co-founder at Home Made . His first technical hire was a Product Manager, not a CTO. When you are considering investing your time, money or energy into a new project, Asaf recommends approaching like an investor.  Ask yourself: are the market fundamentals good? Is my solution better than the competition? Would a bigger compan...

Learning notes from this episode:   There is a difference between technology enabled businesses and deep tech businesses. Technology enabled businesses use tech to deliver a product or service cheaper or at scale, but their business is not selling the technology itself. Those businesses do not require a technical co-founder from the start. Having a technical advisor to help you in the early stages...

Lessons from this episode:   These lessons are based on Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs . "The reason Apple can create products like the iPad is that we've always tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts " - said Steve Jobs Knowing how to commercialise innovation is as important as inventing something new. At Apple, design came first. This is contrary to most tech c...

Learning notes from this episode:   There is a difference between deep tech investing , such as bio tech, and investing in commercial and UX innovation . For deep tech, you absolutely must have deep tech domain expertise, but this is not the case for commercial or UX innovations, such as Uber. Venture funds often work with technical partners, who help them do due diligence on investments they are...

Learning notes from this episode:   Non-technical founders are the interface between the product team and the users. They f ocus on making the right product , not getting the product right. Setting the big vision and working out the steps to get there is another responsibility for non-technical founders. Once you've found a real problem to solve and set the vision, you have to hire and lead the te...

Learning notes from this episode:   The Silicon Valley unicorn model of growth at all costs is not applicable to all tech startups. "Camel companies" can survive a drought , i.e. they were created in constrained environments so could not just pump millions into marketing and R&D before they had a proven business model. Camel companies focus on unit economics from the start. Unit economics  is defi...

Learning notes from this episode:   The time to transition into tech is now, as lockdowns have moved our lives online. You can do this with a job change, or by investing or starting your own tech venture.  Learn concepts, not skills. Understand how tech products are made, but don't retrain to be a coder or a data scientist. Get involved with digital initiatives to put your new knowledge to the tes...

Learning notes from this episode:   The design process begins with questioning whether a product needs to exist in the first place. Start with research and customer interviews before you build a prototype. A good design must be usable, solve a real problem, and buildable within the company's budget. This is why collaboration with developers, product managers and founders is essential for good desi...

Learning notes from this episode:   As a non-technical founder, you don't need a technical co-founder, but you do need a web of tech experts to advise you. Learning to admit that you don't have all the answers is a far more useful skill for non-technical founders than learning to code. "Put those engineering books aside and make sure you've got the strength to be vulnerable. That's the most import...

Learning notes from this episode:   Outsourcing can be done in 3 ways: with an agency (focus on design), a development shop (focus on engineering) or a product studio (holistic approach to the entire product). Make sure whoever you hire uses agile methodology and adapts the product specifications as you learn. An MVP should take no more than 6 - 8 weeks to develop. Knowing this can help you plan y...

Learning notes from this episode:   Prepare to pitch to a technical co-founder as you would to an investor: have a plan, understand your market and know your target customer Choices developers make early on about the tech architecture can have a serious impact later on. Non-technical founders should learn some basic tech concepts to ask the right questions from the start. Before you look for a tec...

Learning notes from this episode:   Networking is key to making a career transition. Meet people who are doing the job you are interested in and learn from them. To transition into a PM role, start by working on digital initiatives first. This will be your stepping stone to get to PM. Take courses to understand what developers are working with. Amber recommends AWS certification.   Say hi to Amber...

Learning notes from this episode:   If you want to transition into Big Tech from a non-technical career, start by working on digital initiatives  Use storytelling and public speaking to stand out in front of Big Tech recruiters When Bruce led Twitter for EMEA, his job was divided into 3 sections: brand management, user growth and revenue growth. Can you bring one of these specialities to a tech co...

Check out Parth's book Swipe to Unlock: The Insider's Guide to Tech and Business Strategy .   Learning points from this episode:   Product strategy sets the vision of the future trends for your business Product management implements that vision with a specific product The three factors that firms use to decide whether to build, borrow or buy new innovation are: team, product and users   If you are...

Learning notes from this episode:   Product managers define "the what, the when and the why of the product," - what the product is, what the priorities are within the product and why it needs to exist. Product managers do not need to code, but taking some basic coding courses can help product managers work better with developers. Constant learning is a feature of a good product manager's job: lear...

Key learning points from this episode:   The tech sector is growing exponentially, so the time to invest in tech is now. A decade ago only 1 company out of the top 10 companies in the world by market capitalisation was a tech company. Today, 7 out of the top 10 are tech companies. The Techquisition process Paul describes consists of 12 steps. The first step to making the right acquisition is clari...

Key learning points:   AI is already changing industries and the economy by making simple operations run faster A business model is how a company aims to create and capture value An operating model is how the company delivers that value to the customer. Prof Iansiti calls this "the hard part" AI is already being used by companies like Ant Financial to take humans and cost out of their operating mo...

Key Learning Points:   The International Standardisation Organisation defines user experience as "a person's perceptions and responses that result from the use and anticipated use of a product, system or service."   UX is so important that you shouldn't put it on the shoulders of just the designer The main thing about UX design is that it's USER experience, NOT YOUR experience A good UX designer c...

The key learning points from this episode are: Algorithms are just sets of rules for computers to follow Algorithms need data to be useful Data is by definition historic because it is information on what has already happened A combination of AI and algorithms can create better user experiences, which can result in more usage, which then results in even more data and happy customers Algorithms ampl...

In this episode Sophia Matveeva talks to Rags Vadali about what product management is, what PMs do and what you need to get a job in PM. Rags Vadali has managed product at Google, Facebook and various start-ups, and like Sophia, has an MBA from Chicago Booth. This interview is an excerpt from a PM masterclass Rags taught on Tech for Non-Techies.   Summary points A product manager is like the condu...

In this episode Sophia Matveeva covers the top five mistakes non-technical founders make, most of which she made herself.  The main five mistakes to avoid are: Don't make developers your first hires. Your first hire should be a User Experience designer Don't confuse product metrics with business metrics Set your team tangible product aims with metrics and time frames Co-create with your users, rat...

David Segura is a perfect example of how non-techies can thrive in technology. His first venture, Giant Media, was a native video advertising exchange which David sold for millions to an ad tech company backed by TPG & JMI in 2014. Since then David has invested in almost 50 startups, many of which have technology at their core.  I met David in the early Naughties, when we studied together at the U...