Craft. Ideas are easy, products hard: What does it take to build a great product?

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What does it take to build a great product? Craft the book, tries to answer that question in ten short easy to read conversational chapters. A product is the sum total of the experiences it represents. How it makes our customers feel when they see it for the first time, when they are introduced to it, when they use it, when it does what it is supposed to and when it doesn’t. In Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, Robert Pirsig puts it down in a simple sentence. “Some things are better made than others." How do you add greatness to products. What Pirsig calls “better made”. How do we sprinkle that magic to work to take it to the next level? What do we do? The key is intent and purpose. a) Why should this product exist and why are we making it? b) What came before our product and what will come after? c) In the lives of our customers, how does the before and after change with what we do? Craft examines these questions. It starts with the simplest, “What do we do as product managers” and ends with the most complex “How do we find magic and product market fit?”. It then adds others to the list, exploring process and mindset. a) How do we build personas and profiles with a bite? b) How do we select, filter and prioritize features for those profiles? c) How do we select the right customer segments? d) How do we craft and tell stories? e) How do we increase probability of product trials and conversions? f) How do we innovate on a shoe string budget? g) How do we hack scale? On the mindset front: a) How do we find magic and product market fit on a consistent and repeatable basis? b) Why do we have to build great products? Why can’t we get away with building so-so products? c) What is the tech product mindset and how is that different from tech services mindset? d) Why do so many tech services firms fail to make the leap to the product world? There are so many great product books out there on multiple reading lists. Do we need another one? Craft was inspired by a single question. "I did what you told me to do and nothing happened. What did I miss?" Someone needs to sit down and walk the unwary through everything that has not been said, but should have been said. In English. For instance take magic. How do you create magic? How do you get to product market fit from magic? How do you do it on a consistent and repeatable basis, without fumbling the ball? How do you get to world class from consistent and repeatable? 208 pages, 10 chapters, 76,000 words, 65 illustrations and figures. Take a look. Feedback is a gift. Good or bad, always welcome. Who am I? Building products for three decades, I worked on four continents covering North America, UK, Europe, APAC and MENA. The products I built spanned enterprise backends, consumer frontends, risk tech and compliance engines, financial services contracts, documentary shorts and education. Craft is my 6th book.

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Craft. Ideas are easy, products hard

What does it take to build a great product?

What does it take to build a great product?

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Engineering & Development

LLMs

Productivity

Marketing & Sales

Design & Creative

Social & Community

Finance

AI Agents

Trending categories

Top reviewed

Trending products

Top forum threads

Have a question about Craft. Ideas are easy, products hard? Ask it here and get a real answer.

Do you use Craft. Ideas are easy, products hard?

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