The Stress of the Search Booking a holiday should be fun. Yet, navigating modern travel websites often feels like a high-stakes trading floor. I recently tried to book a weekend getaway. Within seconds of landing on a hotel page, the UI started screaming at me. Red text. Flashing icons. Pop-ups showing recent bookings from “Someone in Germany.” I wasn’t being helped to make a decision; I was being pressured into one. ...
The Siren Song of the Enterprise Deal In the early stages of a B2B startup, revenue is oxygen. When a massive enterprise client (a bank, a telco, a government agency) shows interest, it is intoxicating. It validates your existence. But these “Elephants” or “Whales” rarely buy off-the-rack. They demand tailoring. “We need this specific report format.” “We need an on-premise deployment option.” “We need this button to be blue, not green.” ...
The Most Dangerous Advice in Tech Ben Horowitz famously wrote, “A good product manager is the CEO of the product." It is the most quoted line in our industry. It is also the most dangerous. When a Junior PM hears this, they walk into a room of Senior Engineers and think, “I am the boss here. I decide the roadmap." The result? Friction. Resentment. And eventually, a failed product. The reality of modern Product Management is simple: You have all the responsibility, but none of the authority. You are responsible for the success or failure of the product, but you do not report to the people who build it (Engineering) or the people who sell it (Sales). ...
The Supermarket Layout It is a universal truth of retail: The essentials (Milk, Bread, Eggs) are never near the door. They are located in the farthest, deepest corner of the store. This is known as the “Perimeter Strategy.” Retailers know that 90% of customers have “Milk” on their mental checklist. It is a high-intent, low-negotiation item. You aren’t going to leave the store without it. So, they use the Milk as an Anchor. ...
The Horror Story It is the nightmare scenario. You are flying home for Diwali. You have your boarding pass. You arrive at the gate. And then you hear the announcement: “We are looking for volunteers to give up their seats for a voucher.” Why does this happen? Did their database fail? Did they double-book a seat by mistake? No. They bet against you, and they lost. The Economics of “Perishable Inventory” An empty seat is the most expensive thing on a plane. It consumes fuel but generates zero revenue. ...
The Observation We are witnessing an operational meltdown in Indian aviation. Flights are cancelled, pilots are exhausted, and passengers are stranded. The media is blaming the dense fog. But if you look closer, the fog was just the trigger. The gun was loaded by the new DGCA Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms introduced in January 2024. IndiGo, a machine built for precision, suddenly looked like it didn’t know how to run an airline. Why? Because the underlying logic of their resource allocation broke overnight. ...
The Universal Frustration It’s 9 AM. You are late for a meeting. You whip out your phone to book a cab. The map shows plenty of cars around you. The text says, “Pickup in 2 minutes.” Relieved, you hit “Confirm Booking.” Swish. The screen refreshes. Your driver has been assigned. And suddenly, that “2 minutes” has turned into “Arrival in 8 minutes.” You stare at the screen, annoyed. You feel tricked. You wonder if their algorithm is broken. ...
The Observation January is here. You walk into a premium gym. The sales guy pitches you: Monthly Plan: ₹3,500/month (Total ₹42k/year). Annual Plan: ₹12,000/year (Effective ₹1,000/month). It’s a no-brainer. You buy the annual plan. You feel smart. But the gym owner is smarter. By March, you stop going. You have effectively paid ₹12,000 for 2 months of usage (₹6,000/month). The gym wins. The “Breakage” Revenue Model In the payments and gift card industry, “Breakage” refers to the revenue gained from services that are paid for but never used. ...
The User Anger It is 8 PM. It is pouring rain. You are hungry. You open your food delivery app, and there it is: A text banner saying “Service is impacted due to rain” and a surge fee of ₹50 added to your cart. You feel annoyed. You think, “These platforms are ruthless. They see us stuck at home and decide to price gouge.” But let’s flip the table and look at this from the Product Manager’s dashboard. ...
The User Frustration We have all been there. You walk into a PVR or INOX on a Tuesday. You are happy because you snagged a ticket for just ₹200. You walk to the concession stand, order a regular popcorn and a Pepsi, and the bill comes to ₹650. You feel cheated. You wonder, “How can puffed corn cost three times more than a multi-million dollar blockbuster movie?” As a consumer, it feels like price gouging. But as a Product Manager, if you look at the P&L (Profit and Loss) statement, you realize it’s actually a brilliant execution of Platform Economics. ...