A product manager’s guide to web3

Product managers aren’t yet very common in web3.  Most projects have become successful without PMs.

1. Learn: Read, use, build

3. You have to focus on perfecting the details rather than expanding features.The UX tends to be either a commodity, like a simple token swap two-field design that Uniswap pioneered, or out of your control if gas fees are high and transactions are slow. So the few details you control really matter. Instead you must rely on qualitative information l... See more

2. You have to do user research, business development, and marketing directly, yourself.Web3 requires one person to do all of this right now, because the tasks above are uniquely technical and interdependent such that they can’t be easily unbundled.

1. You have to prioritize execution over vision/strategy.Web3 instead requires PMs to be more focused on execution: quickly hammering out a spec over Telegram with devs, QA’ing carefully and setting up a smart contract audit given the risk of vulnerabilities, building hype on Twitter, launching—and repeating.

Web3 0-1 is more about technical infrastructure, cryptoeconomics, and/or online community to find product-market fit. At this time, PMs in web3 are usually better for 1-10, not web3 0-1 when you are going from an idea to initial product-market fit.

1. Engineers have become inefficient: The engineering team has grown too large to prioritize and self-coordinate projects; a PM adds efficiency (e.g. multiple Layer 1 protocols and EVM solutions). 2. The product experience is complex or critical to traction: The product suite is large and the UX is complex/consumer-facing, as in gaming (e.g. t... See more

Truths of web3 product management:

9. You must prioritize user security, because with every transaction there are funds at stake. Security is paramount in the space because all transactions stem from the same place: the web3 wallet.