BECOMING A LEADER

When you’ve grown into an amazing product manager and risen in seniority, you will have experience succeeding at shipping great products to customers. For many, this is a satisfying individual contributor career. For some, the next career transition is people management and leadership.

Leadership and management require an expanded range of skills and a fearless constitution to step out in front. They are not just about managing costs, performance reviews, and executives. Leadership is the holistic ability to drive vision, corral and motivate groups, and attract the best out of all your team members in service of great product and business outcomes.


TO LEAD YOUR IDEAS MUST BE HEARD

While leading people and product, one thing separates people who do the job from people who lead. That is sharing your voice on product topics including your vision, your strategy, and your confidence. Sharing comes with criticism, and that only makes you better.


CONVERTING ATTRITION INTO STRONGER PRODUCT TEAMS

Attrition during COVID has been on the rise, causing managers to need to backfill more frequently. Though disruptive, attrition creates an opportunity for PM managers to build stronger, more diverse teams with some focus and creative search strategies.


12 PRODUCT MANAGEMENT TRAPS TO AVOID

Based on a long career in product management, these are 12 PM career traps to avoid. It's natural to learn and improve at PM over time, but it's better to sidestep the avoidable traps. This post covers role and product selection, working with coworkers and customers, and knowing what you do and don't own.


CRAFTING STRONG PRODUCT MANAGEMENT TEAMS

Moving into a PM managerial role means adding a new kind of product to your responsibilities. Your team is a product that you must build, grow, and maintain. Think about team profile and how each person is uniquely shaped to contribute to the whole as they grow.


THE DAYS OF FREE ARE OVER

Building first and hoping to make money later requires effort, time, and investment. As pursestrings tighten in a down economy, this business model may be on its way out.


COMPANY CULTURE STARTS AT DAY ZERO

If you like archeology you know that foundations and walls once built can last generations. Company culture is similar. The patterns laid down early can be long lived. Trust your gut when meeting new companies and potential managers.


THE WEDDING MVP

When you're a PM, everything can look like a product, and a wedding is no exception. Defining your true stakeholders and customers is the key to building a product that will succeed. Fun as it is, not every problem can be reduced to a script. Also, one seldom misses what you don't tell them didn't show up.