Content-First Product Leadership

Product Managers often fail by becoming "process monkeys"—experts at moving tickets and managing meetings but disconnected from the actual product. Content-First Leadership prioritizes the "Content" (what to do and when) over the "Process" (how to do it).

Core Principles

1. Distinguish Content vs. Process

• Content: The core "what" and "why." It is the roadmap, the user insight, the specific feature requirements, and the strategy.
• Process: The "how." It is Scrum, Agile, Jira, and meeting cadences.
• Rule: Hire for content and teach process. It is nearly impossible to teach a "process person" how to have product intuition (content), but easy to teach a "content person" how to run a sprint.

2. Practice Intentionality (The GPS Metaphor)

Never ask the data to tell you where to go.

• The Vision: Like a GPS, you must input the destination first (your "Intentionality").
• The A/B Test: Use testing only to find the fastest/most efficient route to that pre-defined destination.
• The Trap: Avoid "lazy PMing," where you run A/B tests to see if you should do something rather than how to do it best.