Latest Posts
The Missing Step Every PM Should Do When Starting a New Job
September 20, 2023Cutting through to the essence of strategy
October 22, 2021A New Chapter: Back to Startupland
October 4, 2021Andrew Chen’s Traction Treadmill and Why His Good Advice Is So Hard to Follow
September 2, 202110 Lessons on Making Software
August 19, 2021How narrow should an initial customer segment be?
June 25, 2021Giff Constable
I’ve spent 30 years building new companies and products as a founder, CEO, CPO, advisor and investment banker.
These days, I'm doing a lot of teaching on Maven with a group of classes aimed at product leaders, and I've also been sharing thoughts on YouTube and LinkedIn.
I was the Chief Product Officer of Meetup until its spinout from WeWork and the CEO of Neo Innovation until its acquisition by Pivotal. My award-winning books Talking to Humans and Testing with Humans are used by entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, product managers, universities and accelerators around the world as a guide to de-risking new ideas.
If you are interested in my science fiction writing, which I publish under G.W. Constable, you can find that here.
Maven Classes
Financial Fluency for Product Leaders
As a product leader, you're not expected to be an accountant. However, finance is the common language at the C-suite and board. To succeed, you need fluency in relevant aspects of corporate finance. Without it, you won't be taken seriously. This class will expose you to the essential areas in a rigorous manner. LINK
Modeling Business Impact
"Spreadsheets? Booorrrrinnnng." Not so! Financial and "impact" modeling is a critical tool for any actual or aspiring business executive, and it is both strategic and creative. Whether you are in product or business development or marketing, etc, having this skill will allow you to: 1. make better priorities and decisions; 2. think through upside and risks more clearly; 3. better align with stakeholders and peers. LINK
Product Leadership in Practice
What if you could practice the trickiest parts of being a product executive ahead of time? This class takes a realistic scenario and over 6 weeks forces you make those hard decisions and have those tough conversations. You play the CPO at a growth-stage software company. I play everyone else, from the CEO to a board member to C-suite peers to a PM reporting to you. There is ZERO lecture in this class. It is all role-play and discussion. LINK
A note on Maven policies: all my classes abide by Maven’s Satisfaction Guarantee. You can receive a full refund within 14 days after the course ends, provided you meet the completion criteria in the refund policy. I also am very flexible if someone realizes their work schedule won't allow for them to effectively participate, I will either refund or move the student to a later cohort. For questions about my Maven classes, you can reach me at giff.constable@gmail.com.
Books
“Talking to Humans is the perfect complement to the existing body of work on customer development. If you are teaching entrepreneurship or running a startup accelerator, you need to make it required reading for your students and teams. I have.” — Steve Blank
“Testing with Humans is the ideal follow-up to Talking to Humans. All the steps for designing, building, and launching experiments are here, along with a host of examples and great advice born of real experience.” — Eric Ries
Celebrating our award from the National Science Foundation for Talking to Humans