Human beings are social beings. Connecting and networking are central to our DNA. Our ability to cooperate on a massive scale has enabled creation of civilization - commerce, culture, art, architecture, language, science, empires, nations. None of these would have been possible without humans cooperating beyond tribes, geographies and generations. This cooperation has been facilitated by creation of systems & technologies which have transcended our mental and biological capacities (we can only cooperate closely with 150 beings). These ‘technologies’ range from money (which helped us scale trade) to wheel (scaling travel) to empires/nations (scaling tribes). In recent times, one such technology has been the internet. 

Product Management is usually a dynamic role with massive ambiguities. It’s not very easy to define a Product Management role that holds true across all contexts. While some roles might be more indexed towards revenue/business, some might require PMs to be indexed more towards system design (usually called a Technical Product Management). Further, certain products are transactional in nature (eg: e-commerce) whereas some products primarily focus on users spending more time on the platform (eg: social media), both of which require very different design ethos, hence different natures of PM. Even within the same organisation, different departments require PMs with very different skill-sets (PM at Google Brain would typically be very different from an ads-product PM). One description I’ve heard a lot is - Product Manager is the CEO of a product. Personally. I refrain from using this definition simply because a CEO has real authority, whereas a PM needs to be able to influence without authority. Also, if a product doesn’t work, it’s typically the CEO who gets the brickbats (most don’t care who the actual PM is) since the CEO is the final authority.

All of us tend to apply heuristics (mental shortcuts) in our daily lives to either think about certain ideas or get things done. The term used to describe these heuristics are called ‘mental models’, a term popularised by the author Shane Parrish. He defines mental models as “how we understand the world. Not only do they shape what we think and how we understand but they shape the connections and opportunities that we see. Mental models are how we simplify complexity, why we consider some things more relevant than others, and how we reason.” Having the right mental models help us think better, learn faster and make effective decisions. 

Over the past one year, we at Times Internet have been building a premium content subscription product - TOI+. Paying subscribers get access to exclusive stories, helping them build a nuanced and deeper understanding across a range of topics. Additionally, users get a cleaner reading experience devoid of ads. Readers can either pay for a single article or buy a 1 year subscription. We have spent the past year introducing TOI+ across multiple platforms and geographies, ensuring a clean user funnel. This has truly been a 0-1 experience, where I have personally learned a lot. In this post, I’ll talk about some of my major learning from building a B2C content subscription product.

Like many of us, I was a crypto sceptic when Bitcoin was first introduced. At worst, it felt like a ponzi scheme. At best, it felt like a way for people to store value in an alternate currency free from the centralised manipulations of fiat. That skepticism further grew with reports of Bitcoin establishing itself as a common currency for facilitating cybercrime and terrorism.