Product Culture

I wanted to note down my experience of the product management role as after speaking to a few startup founders I’ve heard a lot of differing opinions, at least here in London. (In this post I’ll use the word customer over the word user as I prefer it. User sounds a bit hollow). The basics Read more »

What does it really mean to be a “Technical” Product Manager?  And how is it different from just a Product Manager?  In this post, I share the difference between these titles plus key Do’s and Don’t’s to help you succeed as a Technical Product Manager. You might have noticed many variations on the Product Manager job title.  Some companies have Strategic Product Managers, Read more »

Thou shall not say “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it.” This was among the lessons we learned from Dave Wascha, Chief Product Officer at Moo.com, at ProductTank March. As Dave said, “This is the most scary, terrifying, insidious thing we face as product managers, and the older you get the more baggage you Read more »

It’s not easy to build a great product culture.  At ProductTank March, we heard the truth from Tim Warren, the Head of Software Experience for Connected Products at Tesco: Their product culture isn’t perfect (whose is!), but they’re working towards it and making great progress.  Tim talked about 12 lessons learned along the way. Some of Read more »

We’ve all been there: the “infections” that product teams are subjected to, slowly wearing away the team’s performance. To counter this you need to build an immune system for your product team so they can fight off the infections, be healthy, and work together to build great products. How? Mairead O’Connor (@maireadoconnor) provides pointers for Read more »

Imagine being just like James Bond. When 007 walks into an exclusive bar, the barman recognises him and pours his vodka martini (shaken not stirred, of course). You don’t see Bond having to pull out his wallet to pay, he is automatically extended credit.  At ProductTank January, Yuval Samet (@yuvalsamet) of Klarna talks about how they Read more »

Charles Adler is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Kickstarter. He is an entrepreneur with over 14 years experience in interaction design. Formerly director of strategy and senior information architect at Agency.com, his work in user experience, design, and information architecture is driven by a commitment to all things clean and simple. Previously, he cofounded Read more »

Having a product culture is about having the product, the very thing that you’re building, at the heart of the business, a core aspect that’s granted the attention it needs. This means that everyone in the company is an advocate for what you’re building and how you’re building it. The most successful product-centric companies include Read more »