We Are a Volunteer-Driven Community

Many of our readers may not be aware that Product Coalition operates through the dedication of volunteers. It requires significant time and financial resources each month to maintain our activities.

With this in mind, we constantly assess opportunity costs; writing for Product Coalition means forgoing other pursuits.

We believe it's our responsibility to ensure that our audience derives value from the content we share. Thus, we strive to guarantee that both our readers and contributors experience a worthwhile return on their investment in our educational resources.

The Shift in Our Content Approval Process

You may have observed a transition in our content approval and publishing process. As a learning organization, we've reached a point where we cannot endorse materials that don’t meet specific quality benchmarks.

Despite having a small team of dedicated volunteers who diligently review and publish content with real educational value, Product Coalition has largely functioned as a one-person initiative until my arrival as Executive Editor.

For years, generous contributors have supported both Jay and Product Coalition with valuable insights. Initially, we accepted all submissions to foster community growth, but this approach came at a significant cost.

As you're likely aware, blogs and online platforms face challenges in finding effective ways to create value. Many organizations prioritize publishing content without due diligence, labeling this as a strategy for value generation.

In truth, this often results in more noise rather than valuable information. We consider this a short-term tactic for gaining followers, but having a large audience doesn’t equate to success. Such strategies are ultimately unsustainable.

Product Coalition aims for a different path. We establish standards of value that genuine readers and writers will appreciate.

Our mission is to create a learning community recognized for offering quality education in product management, all while exploring ways to monetize our content responsibly.

While free content is beneficial, it involves opportunity and financial costs, which can present challenges for our organization.

Consequently, we've reached a point where we must evolve and cannot continue to accept every article as is. This realization inspired Jay to draft the Product Coalition Community Publishing Values.

These values do not imply that we will stop accepting submissions from certain writers. As a contributor, you can still share your product management stories. However, we now ask you to consider our values when creating your content.

We have also developed additional resources for you, our writers. We hope this information proves helpful, and we eagerly anticipate your submissions in the future.

Product Coalition Community Publishing Values

At Product Coalition, we believe that a great article effectively clarifies concepts, experiences, and lessons learned in product development. Essentially, it serves as an educational resource that equips readers with the knowledge and tools needed to take action.

Whether a writer addresses fundamental principles of product development or more intricate topics, we welcome articles that illustrate how these concepts can be applied in practical, tangible ways.

Articles need not demonstrate exhaustive knowledge on a subject; they simply need to assist readers in executing tasks and becoming better product professionals.

Before we publish an article…

Here are our criteria for evaluating submissions.

In other words, these content types may lead us to refrain from hitting “publish” or may result in unpublishing an article. [Read more]

Community Learning — Not Brand Marketing

The effectiveness of online learning communities hinges on the quality of knowledge shared among members. When we assert that we learn best in groups, we must also acknowledge that access to quality information is crucial.

Another important aspect is that communities must earn the trust and loyalty of their members to thrive.

For Product Coalition, our members include blog readers, podcast listeners, and contributing writers. They depend on our commitment to providing beneficial experiences. To earn their trust, we publish content that meets at least three criteria:

1. It must fulfill reader expectations—i.e., no clickbait, sensationalism, vague language, or misdirection.
2. It must clearly explain concepts and information.
3. It must offer genuine value—i.e., the content should help readers envision how and why they can act, and then empower them to practice and apply what they’ve learned.

Our contributing writers (sometimes referred to as “community writers” or “contributors”) play a vital role in helping us achieve these objectives. [Read more]

Reporters and Educators — Not Pundits and Commentators

For those unfamiliar, a journalist is someone who tells stories to the public. Their role encompasses various categories, but in this context, we focus on the following:

“Reporters, educators, pundits, commentators.”

When we refer to “reporters and educators,” we draw a parallel with investigative reporters.

Conversely, “pundits and commentators” serve similar functions, as they typically share tailored stories with specific agendas. Distinguishing between a reporter and a commentator can be likened to differentiating between a “news reporter” and a “news presenter.”

While all these roles involve storytelling, the narratives told by pundits and commentators often carry underlying motives. [Read more]

Product Coalition is About Clarity

Numerous examples illustrate this point, yet the underlying message remains unchanged. As a product community, we’ve discovered that even though many product writers globally use the same English vocabulary, the choice of words and their presentation can convey vastly different meanings based on individual context.

For instance, when one product manager states, “A very basic web page,” and another says, “A web page with just HTML and text,” both may intend the same idea, yet to others, these phrases can imply entirely different concepts.

Another illustration: if an analyst states, “This is the basic idea,” and another says, “This is the idea,” both convey the same meaning, but the latter is more succinct. If a third analyst adds, “This is the basic essential idea,” or “Basically, this is the essential idea,” these statements also share the same meaning, yet they are less concise, with the redundancy of “basic” and “essential.”

Such examples often arise in writing from those for whom English is a second language, which is understandable. They may not realize that “basic” and “essential” convey similar meanings, and thus using both terms consecutively is unnecessary.

While terms like “essential” and “basically” can enhance your writing, when misapplied, they may obscure your message.

For clarity, the best phrases to use are, “The idea is…” or “This is the idea.”

These challenges extend beyond grammar, word choice, and sentence structure; they encompass effective communication, comprehension, context, meaning, and clarity on an international scale. [Read more]

Let’s Educate Our Readers: The Medium Boost Program

One day, I opened my Gmail to find a message titled, “Congratulations! Your story has been Boosted on Medium.” Intrigued, I clicked to discover that one of my articles had been selected for a “Boost.”

This was a delightful surprise!

It’s heartening to know there are individuals at Medium.com who appreciate my writing. My heartfelt thanks to those who made this “Boost” possible.

Why share this story?

I’m naturally curious about how they stumbled upon my piece on the Product Coalition blog and what thoughts led them to deem it worthy of a “Boost.”

However, I’ve realized that I don’t necessarily need those answers. I say this because I understand my motivation for writing the piece.

I wrote it to share insights gained from my professional experiences regarding the differences between “Data” and “Insight.” This need arose because I hadn’t found these lessons articulated elsewhere. My goal was to clarify the topic for myself while hopefully enlightening others as well.

I wonder if the people at Medium felt similarly about my article when they read it. While I may never find out, I can review the Medium Quality guidelines to infer what criteria led them to “Boost” my story across their platform.

Let’s delve into what constitutes a “Boosted” article. [Read more]