Anthony Argenziano

Sell them on the vision! Then get out of the way, other then supporting them and removing blockers. High performers, heck anyone for that matter, don't want to be micro-managed. They want to be challenged, and need to know the "why" behind whatever it is they're working on. Provide the context, the why, and the vision, and they will be more energized and motivated than if you told them what to do and managed every step of the way.

Unless you already have one or more successful exits and a strong network of investors, you're basically starting from zero. In this case, the 2 most important things you can do (in parallel) to attract investors are: 1) Build your product and business! Traction, revenue, and progress are everything for a startup. If your business is growing, your need for investment will go down as the interest from investors goes up. 2) Build your investor network. Tap your network and ask for introductions. Be active on Linkedin. Go to startup events. Always be networking. Investor relationships are built over time. Be patient while you grow your business.

The great thing about staying current with Product Management, is the wealth of great information out there! Silicon Valley Product Group, Product Led Authority, Product Collective and Product School are just a few of the many sites and organizations that regularly publish modern product management content.

This is the most important step, because a flawlessly executed discovery process means nothing with acting (appropriately) on the results. Ideally this data should be feeding your product strategy and advancing early experimentation and/or an in market MVP. And finally, don't fall into the trap of hearing what you want to hear. It's very easy to only focus on the data that confirms your assumptions. Find ways to disprove your beliefs and assumptions. That should always be the goal.

For me this one is simple. Use the Continuous Discovery methodology! Never ask the customer what they want. Ask them what problems they experience. Watch them work. Deeply understand the problem and their "jobs to be done."

The key to Continuous Discovery and customer/market research in general is to start with a premise or assumptions you want to test. You should start with the Problem and Opportunity space, then go to the market to run experiments and do discovery. The goal here is test opportunities and outcomes. You shouldn't go into this with no defined goal or outcome, that will just yield more noise and leave you even more disconnected from the ideal solution for this problem space.