365 Days of Being A Newsletter Writer
As 2023 comes to a close, jumping on the yearly trend 😉, I wanted to take a quick pause & share with you a retrospective on how the past year faired for me as a newsletter writer & my 2024 plans.
The Newsletter
Subscribers at Start of 2023: 2470
Subscribers at End of 2023: 5337 (+2867 😳❤️🙏 )
Paid Subscribers: 53 (🥲❤️)
Avg Open rate 2023: ~40%
Good: This year has surpassed my expectations. Despite my inconsistent weekly writing, especially in the second half of 2023, the growth of subscribers remained strong. This demonstrates the power of the community and the interest of individuals and leaders in the impact of Technical Program Management on agile and decentralized organizations. I am truly grateful to all my readers for supporting
.Bad: In the same year, I tried implementing premium subscriptions, but soon realized it was a major mistake. I lacked a unique selling point and the premium content did not attract enough interest to justify charging for it. It became clear that people were not interested in accessing archived content behind a paywall. Additionally, the pressure to produce high-quality, guidance-based posts in contrast to my usual philosophical and exploratory style caused writer's block and made writing a dreaded task. As a result, I decided to temporarily suspend paid subscriptions. Despite the failure, I am grateful to everyone single person who supported me by becoming paid subscribers. You are my true supporters and you have my eternal gratitude. Although I need to reassess my approach, I still see mighty potential in the future.
2024: I will be reintroducing paid subscriptions in 2024 with a more appealing offer. Can I share more details on this? It is clear from the numerous discussions and conversations with my readers, maven cohort students, and outreach on LinkedIn, people interested in the TPM role are looking for three things:
Constantly updated knowledge base.
Access to real-world case studies and on-demand content.
Coaching and guidance for career growth and goals.
The new revised Premium Subscription will hit each of these areas. As Tim Cook says to every question about Apple’s future products - Stay Tuned!
My Cohort Course
Stats:
Completed Cohorts: 3
Total Participants So Far: 41
Course Rating: 4.3 out of 5.
Good: My Maven cohort course aimed to make the role of Technical Program Managers more understandable. I wanted to help people become great TPMs as quickly as possible. The results of this experiment far exceeded my expectations, as shown by the statistics above. In addition, I had the chance to interact with exceptional individuals, including experienced TPMs looking to advance, those transitioning into the role, and newcomers. The course provided engaging discussions, thought-provoking questions, and challenges, which also contributed to my personal growth. Overall, this was my biggest accomplishment in 2023, and I am grateful to Maven's platform and support team for making it possible.
Bad: Despite consistently high enrollment rate for each cohort, the course still lacks certain aspects. Many students anticipated engaging in homework, projects, and other interactive activities. However, I took a different approach by offering a seminar-style class that provided insights from my personal experiences managing real-world programs at Apple, Google, and Nike. While the students appreciated this valuable insider knowledge, they also desired some level of hands-on project work. Unfortunately, I did not meet these expectations, as reflected in the ratings and course surveys.
2024: I have decided to stop enrollment in my future cohorts until I completely revamp my approach for my course.While I strongly believe in live cohort-based learning, my current approach is not benefiting my students as much as I had hoped. Embracing an agile mindset, we will learn from our experience, make improvements, and then try again. I will provide more details on this shortly. Stay tuned!
Speaking and Presenting
Good: In 2023, I spoke at a conference for the first time. It was an extraordinary experience, but the best part was connecting with like-minded TPMs and Leaders who are demystifying the TPM role. Now, I have a tribe of over 1000 strong individuals that I can rely on.
Bad: Nothing. This was just so good.
2024: My goal is going to be actively find new opportunities to speak. Not only was it fun but an excellent way to grow my speaking and presenting skills.
Appreciations
Thank you to Josh, Zhanat, Josie for hosting the TPM Summit. The event was a brilliant start and I have confidence that it will continue to improve and rival larger conferences within the project and product management field.
Thank you to
for being a thought partner and inspiration on how to build a super newsletter + community.Thank you to
and Shamshad for writing collaboration pieces with me. Their thoughtful and insightful posts were some of my most read posts this year.Thank you to Shannon and Aaron for being such good friends to offer their precious time to come speak to my course participants. You were the 5-star part of my course for every student.
Thank you to anyone else who has helped me make 2023 a year for the record books.
My dear readers - I hope your 2023 was better than mine and I pray your 2024 surpasses mine twofold.
Until 2024, dear readers. Happy New year!
-Aadil 👋
Thanks for the shout out, Aadil! 🙏
btw, what do you think about new piece by master Miyazaki?