Startup

I’ve worked at two different startups, going from beta to 1.0 as the first non-founding member of the product team. Surprisingly, I had a completely different experience at each startup, even though they were both open source databases. If I were forced to prioritize (as all product managers naturally tend to do) and choose the most Read more »

In 2010 Google announced it would prioritize mobile ahead of desktop when developing new products. As we all know, there’s been a massive shift toward mobile-first product design since then. Conventional wisdom now tells us that it’s almost always best to start with mobile, because the success of your business ultimately depends on its ability Read more »

I’ve worked for more than a decade in product management with Fortune 500 companies and startups, and I realize I’m seeing a scary pattern.  Product managers are only hired after the innovation or startup teams get concepts or funding approved.  This means that product managers are thrust into developing a product or service concept they Read more »

I recently had a call with the CEO of a company that I thought would be a great channel partner for my company. I’d been looking forward to the conversation; we’d convinced a few similar firms to partner with us recently and I was hungry for some momentum. When the call kicked off, I fully expected Read more »

#MusicMonday at ProductTank Oslo saw co-founder Inge André Sandvik take center stage to talk about one of his entrepreneurial adventures. Inge has had a long and varied professional background (including Telenor and Opera Software) before spearheading Soundrop as a CEO and co-founder. Inge relates how the idea behind Soundrop came to be, the early building blocks of success, and the Read more »

Over the past couple of years, there has been something of a trend in product management circles for criticizing (or at least challenging) the value of an MBA. As a current MBA candidate, here’s why I think this is misguided. A couple of years ago an article appeared in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere which highlighted the Read more »

ProductTank Lviv was the first ProductTank community in Ukraine. When we had our first meetup around a year ago, there were only 10 of us but we’re now 150 strong. So while the product community in Lviv is still small, we’re hungry for knowledge. Recently we had the opportunity to invite Marvin Liao, a partner at Read more »

In working at Seedcamp and helping over 100 startups understand product thinking, Taylor Wescoatt has learned some valuable lessons he’d like to share, together with some real-world examples to drive the point home! Being the first product manager at a startup typically means being the 10th or 15th employee, and recognizing that – although product Read more »

I had no idea what I was doing, but then no one else did. You just made it up as you went along in 2000. The job title only came into David Norris’ vocabulary in about 2008. Before that he’d been through numerous roles that had been doing that job without realising it – Production Read more »

Forward Partners look to help early stage ventures get to Series A or seed funding by working with them on getting to viable and sustainable business models within 12 months. As such, for their team of startup experts, communication is absolutely key. So how do they make it work? Dharmesh Raittatha walks us through it. Read more »