Product Leadership
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Product Design Politics by Michelle Chu
Michelle Chu began her career in publishing as a sales assistant at Backpacker, before working in advertising, layouts, and packaging design. She then moved to digital products and eventually to her current role as Senior Product Manager and Head of Design at Alpha. Start-up Alpha is a user insights platform for use as a tool […]
Customer Obsession
I have been the CPO/VP of Product for four startups as they scaled to thousands of employees. Because of these experiences – and the many challenges of growth – I’ve become obsessed with different tools and tactics that creative leaders can use to keep fast-growing companies pointed in the right direction. Having a clear, well-defined […]
Is it Time for a Licence to Practise Product Management?
I recently came across a piece by Mike Monteiro, co-founder and design director of Mule Design, titled Design’s Lost Generation, in which he makes the case that designers should require a licence to do their job. Mike got me thinking; should product managers also require a licence do their job? After all, we’re a sizeable […]
The #1 Answer in Product: It Depends
The internet lends itself to binary positions: you’re either for something or against it, advocating it or decrying it. It’s not just Twitter’s 280 characters that limit us to this black and white thinking, most blog posts and conference talks seem to follow the same trend. And I’m not even talking about politics. Waterfall vs […]
Reboot Your Team by Christina Wodtke
Opening #mtpcon in San Francisco, Christina Wodtke turned our focus to our teams. Among the many jobs product managers perform, team coordinator is often added to the list. This isn’t a job that product managers should have to do, but like many other tasks, “if it ain’t happening, you’ve gotta fix it.” Christina told us […]
How to tap Into the Collective Wisdom of a Team
I’ve always been keen on learning from other people. And one way of doing this is by interviewing professionals and experts and asking them about their experiences. This year, I travelled from Berlin to Silicon Valley and interviewed 15 product management experts from Google, LinkedIn, Salesforce, eBay, and other companies, to learn about how they […]
How to Help Others Without Losing Yourself by Roisi Proven
Roisi Proven, product leader for startups in the media industry, brings us a personal case study about her journey towards leading with empathy without harming her own wellbeing. Please note, this talk deals with issues such as death, mental illness, and descriptions of mental breakdowns. Empathy as a Superpower Empathy is a powerful tool to […]
Product Management Job Titles and Hierarchy
Since it’s still a relatively new role, there’s a lot of confusion around product management job titles, seniority, and hierarchy. This makes it hard to compare jobs, plan your career, and attract the right talent to your team. While there is still no one-size-fits-all solution, a standard is emerging from most successful product teams and […]
How to Invest at the Margins by Andy Ayim
Technology companies are developing products which shape the world we live in and the way that we experience our lives, but this is largely closed off to people from low-income groups. Barriers, both explicit and implied, exist to stop those with less from accessing these opportunities. How can we spot the potential to be exceptional […]
Strong Engineering Culture, Strong Product Culture by Andrew Martinez-Fonts
What does culture have to do with building great products? In my opinion, everything. I’m a group product manager at Yelp, and in this presentation from MTP Engage, I look at why it’s so important to create a supportive culture where product people and engineers collaborate and trust each other. I manage a team of […]