What I’ve Learned by Analyzing 41,584 Product Management Posts

Last Updated on September 18, 2020 by Editorial Team

Author(s): Ivan Oung

Product Management

I shouldn’t have to be an SEO specialist to write content that clicks

Are you building your voice through Medium, but Medium isn’t helping?

Looking for the best resource on Medium, but the lack of helpful navigation makes it seems impossible?

Or are you finding the right person to engage with your ideas and thoughts?

I’m all of the above.

I struggle to grow as a Product Manager without sharing my thoughts with the community in the form of writings or find helpful resources without crossing content-repackaging Substacks or ghoster-filled slack channels.

Let’s face it, growing is painful. And luck isn’t always there.

Not everyone gets to work in a well-funded startup, MNC, or a growth-driven company where decisions are data/customer feedback-driven. Nor having seniors that take pride in grooming your career.

Medium was my attempt to chew through the thorny path by getting attention and learning from the best.

It’s no piece of cake to come up with ideas that are unique enough to entertain the readers, yet not too much of a cliche that feels like beating the dead horse. (Yes, agile, scrum, OKR, I’m talking about all of you) And now, I have to become an SEO specialist and data scientist to create good content and find helpful content?

Don’t get me wrong. I love Medium. In fact, I’ve been subscribed to Medium since the day they started to put their content behind the paywall. I use Medium’s bookmarking feature like a truck to a hoarder; I hoard helpful articles and posts for future reference almost every day.

But hey, we are product geeks, aren’t we? There must be a better way.

In fact, yes, there is.

In 3 weeks time, I analyzed 41,584 product management posts, covering across 17,903 authors and 4,035 publications, and here’s what I’ve learned.

tl;dr

1. 4 ~ 8 words header works best

Optimize for mobile and email previews. Also, short headers force you to be concise with what you want to share.

2. Use “How” or “How-to” to start your header

“How we’ve destroyed user stories by Sherif Mansour” and “How I prepared for a manager interview by Andreea Nastase” are some of the best examples, to name a few.

3. You don’t need the word “product” in your header

Product management isn’t always just about the product, but it’s more about solving a problem with multiple lenses. According to Justin Welsh, in its LinkedIn playbook, we can appeal our contents and professionalism to 4 different niches with different approaches.

4. Start with a number

Ambiguity breeds mediocrity

The average human attention span is getting shorter than ever. The sooner the audience knows how they can benefit from committing to your offerings, the lower the odds that they lost interests while guessing.

I’m sure Johnny makes ⚡, Xiaoyin Qu, and Jon Moore had the same thought when they were writing “5 things I learned as a designer at LEGO”, “4 product management interview tips that ‘strong hires’ should know”, and “50 things you [probably] forgot to design” respectively.

5. 530 ~ 1325 words work best

Readers are opting for bite-size content, not only because they are easier to consume, but they are relatively easier to resonate with their readers.

Also, for that same reason, those bite-size contents are repurposed on social platforms like LinkedIn as part of anyone’s branding effort.

6. Try other languages

Traditional Chinese, Norwegian, French, and Portuguese are some great alternatives when it comes to diversifying and magnifying the reach of your content.

7. Avoid certain languages

Myanmar, Dutch, and Simplified Chinese yield some of the lowest engagement rates. You can still write to them, but just don’t write about the traffic.

8. Personal followers are overrated

Medium isn’t what Twitter used to be when it started, good’ol follow-unfollow strategy isn’t going to help you grow your traffic.

9. Stand on the giant’s shoulder

Since personal followers isn’t a huge factor in reaching to a larger pool of audiences, posting on well-established publications like UX Collective, The Startup, Product Coalition, and Towards Data Science.

Conclusion

I hope these insights are useful to you. I know you will because that’s how others feel about the insights.

To explore the insights with the full extent of the 41,584 posts, or you are a product geek who writes, I’m looking for the best way to support you. Get in touch and help me shape the future of writing on Medium.

I am a SaaS/marketplace pro who focuses on building helpful products by bridging communication between business, user experience, and development. I’m particularly interested in meeting interesting people and exchange intriguing thoughts and ideas with like-minded people.

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If you want to chat about leadership, product management, growing startups, or new productive tools, I would love to get in touch!

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What I’ve Learned by Analyzing 41,584 Product Management Posts was originally published in Towards AI — Multidisciplinary Science Journal on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Published via Towards AI