I attended a talk several years ago by the CEO of a very successful software company, and afterward a current customer asked about a product enhancement. Most CEO’s would respond with something like, “It’s on our roadmap” or “That’s good feedback, we’ll take it under consideration.” Not this CEO! His response, “Our product is not …
What are you celebrating?
I was rereading Marty Cagan’s book Inspired and I came across this quote: “Good teams celebrate when they achieve a significant impact to the business results. Bad teams celebrate when they finally released something.” Marty Cagan, Inspired It’s a good reminder that as a leader we need to pay attention to what we celebrate. Launching …
Why Now?
Garry Tan argues that all good startups must be able to answer, “Why now?” to their idea. “Why Now?” is the million-dollar question that everyone dreaming of the next big idea needs to answer. There’s nothing new under the sun, so chances are that any idea you have has already been thought of. It has …
Are you giving back?
Photo by J W on Unsplash We’ll all encounter challenges in our careers. Times when we feel overwhelmed and unsure of what to do. With recession concerns and increasing layoffs, many people are entering a season like that. This a perfect time to consider how we are giving back to others around us. In the …
Predictably Irrational
As leaders, it is important to recognize in ourselves and others just how “predictably irrational” we are. How, although we think we make all of our decisions based on sound logic and reason, we regularly make irrational decisions. A good introduction to this is Dan Ariely’s talk on this topic: And if you time, I …
What is it worth?
Often with the best intentions, we listen to our customers (internal and external). We create feedback forms, surveys, and more to ensure we’re listening. Listening is so important to a great product, because as the product team you don’t have all of the answers. Listening alone though isn’t enough. The input must be validated to …
Principles vs Rules
Certifications are an information-dense method of getting up to speed on the work we do as product managers. But they also can mislead us into thinking that this set of rules or process we learn are a recipe for success. We can forget to think about them as principles to guide, and we fail to …
Reflecting On Our Past
Venerating the past can cause us to ignore the painful mistakes and prevent us from reevaluating the wisdom of past decisions. Demonizing the past can cause us to ignore the positive steps made and prevent us from understanding the wisdom of past decisions. As a leader, we must work to celebrate the good from our …
Are you leaving dirty dishes?
The Man Who Didn’t Wash His Dishes by Phyllis Krasilosky is an old children’s story about a man who decides one day, tired after a big meal, to put off doing the dishes. The next day, the same thing happened, and the next, and the next, until there are no dishes left! You can find …
What are you walling out?
I find myself quick to say no, to shut out an idea that I don’t like at first glance. Sometimes it’s a coping mechanism because I feel too busy. Other times it’s because I prejudged without fully understanding. But Robert Frost in his poem, “Mending Wall” puts it this way: “Before I build a wall …