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Synthesia becomes the UK’s largest AI product: Lessons for product teams

Eira is an editor for Mind the Product. She's been a business journalist, editor, and copywriter for longer than she cares to think about.

Eira Hayward

In this week’s Learnings from London, we look back at the high spots from #mtpcon London in years past we bring you <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/davewascha/?originalSubdomain=uk">Dave Wascha</a>’s talk from 2014, Inside the mind of a product manager.
In this talk, Dave, then Chief Product Officer at Moo.com and now Chief Product and Technology Officer at Zoopla, covers how profoundly the structure of the human brain dictates how we see and approach the world.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-29892 size-full" src="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Learnings-from-London-scaled.jpg" alt="Learnings from London: Dave Wascha - Inside the mind of a product manager" width="2560" height="1707" srcset="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Learnings-from-London-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Learnings-from-London-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Learnings-from-London-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Learnings-from-London-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Learnings-from-London-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Learnings-from-London-2048x1366.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />
Most strikingly, he looks at how our brains have evolved to seek out patterns. &#8220;The brain has evolved to be highly efficient,&#8221; he says, &#8220;and it doesn&#8217;t like to consider new information. In fact it tries to prevent it at all costs&#8230; we are pattern-seeking creatures.&#8221;
This pattern-seeking affects all of us, and in fact creates several product management anti-patterns – patterns that produce suboptimal products and outcomes. Dave argues that these anti-patterns are the main obstacles that stop product developers from being innovative and creating engaging products.
He goes through what he sees as the four main obstacles to innovation:
<ul>
<li>Inertia, and accepting the status quo</li>
<li>Propinquity, or assuming that your customer is just like you</li>
<li>Groupthink, group pressures reduce our ability to make decisions</li>
<li>Being a journalist, and choosing just to report what is happening</li>
</ul>
He says that ultimately product managers need to be able to look at the world with fresh eyes. Product managers therefore have to be aware of these anti-patterns and work constantly against their pattern-seeking instincts to do so.
<hr />
#mtpcon London is back this October (13th &amp; 14th) and celebrating its 10th anniversary! Join us for our tried and tested hybrid conference format, for two full days of product inspiration (plus a day of optional pre-conference workshops!). <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/mtpcon/london/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Find out more here.</a>

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Product Management Skills

How to keep your head about generative AI (when everyone is losing theirs) by Claire Woodcock

How to F.A.I.L. better in product by Marc Abraham

10 years Wiser: Lessons learned from scaling Wise by Nilan Peiris

Fighting product-market drift by Dave Wascha

Experiment like a boss by Merissa Silk

How to find out what your customers want by Janet Bumpas

All product management should be focused on growth by Partho Ghosh

Product, dance, and pockets of brilliance by Pippa Topp

A quick look at decision supervision by Lucy Spence

Identify and manage imposter syndrome by Phyllis Njoroge

Learnings from London: Dave Wascha – Inside the mind of a product manager

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