Long-time readers know that I value user-centered design. I advocate for constant contact with your customers. I encourage product managers to immerse themselves in their customer’s world until they feel like they are drowning in data. It’s only then that we can develop meaningful products. For the past two years, product managers have been my […]
Must Reads From My 2015 Reading List
I’ve read 74 books to date in 2015. What follows are my top recommendations from that list. Books with Strong Ties to Product Management The first four relate to product management – empowering autonomous teams, decision making, creativity, and the life of Steve Jobs. 1. Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex […]
How I Use December to Super-Charge My Coming Year
December is one of my favorite times of year. I do my best to reduce my client load so I can spend about 50% of my time looking back on the past year and looking forward to the next year. I assess how the year went asking, what went well, what could have gone better, […]
The Next Product Talk Experiment
It’s Thanksgiving week here in the United States so I’m going to keep this short and sweet. I’m trying a new experiment. I hear often from product managers that they don’t know what coaching is. Coaching isn’t a common model in the product world. Most of the people that I’ve worked with will tell you […]
Happy Birthday, Product Talk – Thank You!
I was sitting in my doctor’s office after a harrowing couple of weeks. I can remember it like it was yesterday. On the prior Sunday, I had passed out in the shower. I thought I had the flu. I could barely crawl from the bathroom to my bed. It wasn’t the flu. Wednesday, that same […]
Stop Wishing and Start Doing
“I wish my leadership team would pick one strategy.” “I wish my engineering team would contribute ideas to our project.” “I wish our user experience team would ask for my input earlier.” “I wish our sales team would stop saying yes to feature requests.” Instead of wishing other people would change, maybe we should start […]
What Your Product Team Says About Your Company Values
Are you committed to creating a great user experience? Do you believe in data-driven product development? Are you motivated to create products that your customers love? I’m guessing most of you answered yes to all three of those questions. Let me ask you a different set of questions. How many engineers does your company have? […]
Take a Team Approach to Product Delivery
Jim, like many product mangers, spends most of his day with his engineering team. He clarifies requirements, triages bugs, and seeks out hidden dependencies. Sally, on the other hand, spends most of her time with customers. She’s understanding their context, uncovering pain points, and identifying opportunities to delight. What’s the difference between Jim and Sally? […]
