Product Culture

Having spoken at conferences twice this year on the subject of design and emotion, I was spurred into writing this post by the number of people who gave me positive feedback. Why is Designing for Emotion so Important? When we recall past experiences, we are not wired to remember the whole experience with total accuracy. Read more »

Observations of a B2C startup product manager working in enterprise. I once heard an anecdote about a very young child being told a story about a very old man. The child was asked to imagine what this octogenarian would look like. And the child said that as he was very, very old he must be very, very tall… To this Read more »

The day before Mind the Product London 2017 we ran a forum for invited product leaders on a series of topics with some of the leading product managers from around the world. Here’s what we learned about product leadership. All conversations were under the Chatham House rule, so no one is quoted – but suffice Read more »

US-based technology companies are working at a fever pitch to recruit the best talent available. I live in Seattle where many Silicon Valley-based firms, including Google and Facebook, have opened offices to tap into the wealth of local talent that companies like Microsoft and Amazon enjoy here.  Another growing trend is to hire offshore talent Read more »

Last month I participated in a Design Sprint, a structured and facilitated Lean development workshop designed and championed by Google Ventures. This is a regimented five-day process of unpicking a core business challenge and working up a speedy solution that then gets tested with real humans. On the face of it, the primary goal of Read more »

It is well accepted that outcomes  – such as product adoption, customer satisfaction, user experience, and product performance  – rather than outputs and tactical tasks should be used in evaluating product managers. However, in practice, these outcomes are at least influenced by – and often determined by – external factors. What are these external factors Read more »

First coined in the mid 20th century, the term “speculate to accumulate” refers to the need invest (at some degree of risk) in order to make meaningful gains. In other words; roll the dice, take a punt, have a gamble. This is a risky strategy for product managers, and if your gambling skills are anything like Read more »

Should product managers should have some tech skills. Should they know how to code, and how it would help them in their daily work? Read on to find out… Read more »

This is the introductory piece to a series of interviews with product managers. I am on a quest to find out what different product managers do, how their role compares to product management theory, what their daily struggles are, and how I can become a great product manager myself. Why am I doing this? I want to become Read more »

Stakeholder management is one of the biggest factors in your success in product management. At the same time product managers frequently tell me that it’s one of their biggest challenges. The most powerful foundation for managing stakeholders is building strong, positive relationships with them. To help think about what this means in practice, I’ve developed Read more »