As a Product Manager, if you want to innovate, stay away from the Eye of Sauron. In my experience, some of the best work I’ve done in software businesses didn’t start out as the CEO’s top priorities. In fact, the
Stay Away from the Eye of Sauron
Imitation and Defiance
When a product manager shows up to work their first week, one of the first things they encounter is a sense of the culture and processes that drive their organization. Where do product ideas come from? How are ideas captured
Agile Product Releases Give You Quality and Speed, With One Catch
Once you’ve delivered products in a couple of different organizations, you’ll notice that Release Management becomes a major headache and sticking point that will be debated ad nauseam. I’m here to tell you that it’s going to be painful no
Platform Investments Allow You to Innovate
Product Management roles are sometimes broken down into 4 specializations: Core, Platform, Growth, and Innovation (this great post from Reforge dives deeper into each area). For most of my career, I’ve served as an innovation PM / zero-to-one PM, helping
How to Break the Rules of Product Management
Product Management can be an amazing, fulfilling career. It’s multi-disciplinary, intellectually challenging, and often a great fit for people who bring a mix of analytical, creative, and social skills. I love it. But I’ve noticed lately that it’s become increasingly
The Game Has Changed
I noticed an issue a few years ago that has become impossible to ignore in 2022. It challenges the most basic assumptions of my work. It can be very humbling to realize that the techniques and instincts you’ve built throughout
Infrastructure Yields Innovation
When American President Joe Biden recently released his ambitious $2 trillion infrastructure and jobs plan, it sparked a debate online about what truly counts as infrastructure. We all generally understand that roads, bridges, power, and water systems count as “real
The Lily Pad Problem
A notification appears on your phone. It’s an email from the new VP announcing a series of org changes. You’re not surprised, but it’s a tough pill to swallow. You finally felt like you were in a groove with your
Beyond MVPs: The Livable House
Around 10 years ago, the startup world was obsessed with the concept of an MVP, or Minimum Viable Product. An MVP is an early version of a product that has just enough capability to be usable by early adopters who
The Product Manager’s Personal Scorecard
Over the past 8 years, I’ve had 14 direct reports from a variety of backgrounds (product, engineering, sales, design, ops, hr). In many cases, I hired someone who was a specialist because they were better at their job than I