post

Footer About

Footer Contribute

Footer Get Involved

Footer Links

Mind the Product

Product Management

Get better at making better products: Vidya Dinamani, Founder and Partner at Product Rebels

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Meta bets big on AI while Lovable reaches $2 billion valuation: AI news roundup

B2B product management

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML)

Building Product Teams

Business Strategy

Data Driven Product Management

Digital Transformation

Diversity and Inclusion

Minimum Viable Product

OKRs

Prioritisation

Product Design

Product Research

Product Development Process

Product Ethics

Product Discovery

Product Leadership

Product Management Career

Product Strategy

Stakeholder Management

🌎 <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/world-product-day/" style="color:#FFFFFF;text-decoration:underline;">Happy World Product Day!</a> Be sure to celebrate product, yourself, and your peers today! 🎉

The most common skill gap in aspiring product managers — and how to fix it

A framework to help you pick the right product tool

How to deal with information overload in product management

Canva encourages internal AI use while Chipotle speeds up hiring: this week’s AI news roundup

June’s top product management reads

I've been in the digital industry for over 10 years and have worked across small and large charities, as well as my own freelance projects. I am now Director of Digital at the sector leading creative agency William Joseph. 

Having been at Cancer Research UK for the last four years, I have been able to work on high volume, high profile campaigns such as Race for Life, Dryathlon and the much-quoted #nomakeupselfie. 

In that time I helped drive forward the charity’s digital product and marketing capabilities to be some of the most respected and successful in the sector. 

I'm always excited to work with other organisations, share expertise and swap cat gifs. Give me a shout!

Director of Digital

James Gadsby Peet

Martin Eriksson has 25+ years experience building world-class online products in both corporate and start-up environments for global brands such as Monster, Financial Times, Huddle, and Covestor. He is the Founder of ProductTank, the Co-Founder and Curator of Mind the Product, and a Product Partner at leading venture capital fund EQT Ventures. He is also the author of the best-seller Product Leadership, How Top Product Leaders Launch Great Products and Build Successful Teams (O'Reilly, 2017).

Martin Eriksson

Martin Eriksson opened #mtpcon London 2018 &#8211; the world’s largest conference for passionate product people &#8211; by telling us that despite all he’s achieved, he feels like a fraud. This Imposter Syndrome is a deep fear of being exposed as someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, despite their position in the world.
Imposter Syndrome isn&#8217;t unique to product people, but we suffer from it more than most because we are generalists in a world full of specialists. We work with developers, user researchers, data scientists, and a host of other experts every single day. It’s only natural that we should feel like the dumbest people in the room.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-14178" src="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Martin-Eriksson-mtpcon-London-2018-Wide-1024x684.jpg" alt="Martin Eriksson #mtpcon London 2018" width="1024" height="684" srcset="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Martin-Eriksson-mtpcon-London-2018-Wide-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Martin-Eriksson-mtpcon-London-2018-Wide-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Martin-Eriksson-mtpcon-London-2018-Wide-768x513.jpg 768w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Martin-Eriksson-mtpcon-London-2018-Wide.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
But for Martin, being the odd one out is also a product manager&#8217;s greatest strength, and one we need to embrace. He shared how previous #mtpcon speakers have touched on the same subject. In 2015 Ken Norton spoke about how product managers can learn a lot from how jazz musicians approach their craft &#8211; like Jazz musicians <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/product-managers-please-make-uncomfortable/">we have to get uncomfortable</a>. Last year Janice Fraser talked about how in order to innovate, <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/innovation-broken-janice-fraser/">we have to end our addiction to being right</a> &#8211; because being the awkward one in the room asking all the questions is actually more valuable than having all the answers. And a few years ago Tim Harford argued that <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/unplayable-piano-frustration-makes-us-creative/">this frustration actually makes us more creative</a> &#8211; because &#8220;the sheer awkwardness of dealing with the gooseberry in the room&#8221; leads to better discussions and better outcomes. It turns out that diversity of thought and fresh perspectives lead to better decisions.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-14175" src="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/martin-eriksson-mtpcon-2018-greatest-strength-1024x576.jpg" alt="Martin Eriksson #mtpcon 2018 Greatest Strength" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/martin-eriksson-mtpcon-2018-greatest-strength-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/martin-eriksson-mtpcon-2018-greatest-strength-300x169.jpg 300w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/martin-eriksson-mtpcon-2018-greatest-strength-768x432.jpg 768w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/martin-eriksson-mtpcon-2018-greatest-strength-285x160.jpg 285w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/martin-eriksson-mtpcon-2018-greatest-strength-570x320.jpg 570w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/martin-eriksson-mtpcon-2018-greatest-strength.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
This openness to new ideas and new ways of thinking is important because product management, designing software, even building hardware, are all so new, and we&#8217;re all working it out as we go. And because any meaningful innovation crosses so many disciplines, it&#8217;s important that we&#8217;re able to come together in a safe space like #mtpcon to share ideas and experiences. Being an imposter is more important than ever, says Martin, because as imposters we know we don&#8217;t know everything, we know we&#8217;re here to disrupt the status quo, to figure out new ways to do things, and to ask why.
So embrace the awkward. Embrace your imposter syndrome, and use it to bridge the disciplines and build products people love.

core/freeform

Product Management Conference

Why emotional connection drives successful products: Nesrine Changuel at #mtpcon London (Google, Spotify, Microsoft)

Product teams in flux – Pendomonium+#mtpcon roadshow: Berlin

AI in practice at Berlin’s leading companies – Pendomonium+#mtpcon roadshow: Berlin

AI in practice at Amsterdam’s leading companies – Pendomonium+#mtpcon roadshow: Amsterdam

Product teams in flux – Pendomonium+#mtpcon roadshow: London

AI in practice at London’s leading companies – Pendomonium+#mtpcon roadshow: London

What’s next for product management in 2024? Nichole Mace (SVP Product and User Experience, Pendo)

“You’re not as competent as you think” 5 lessons from Ken Chin on navigating a product career (CPO, Spark Networks)

Embrace Your Imposter Syndrome

James Gadsby Peet

Martin Eriksson