PM Brainfood #96

Written by Published in News and truths
PM Brainfood

Biweekly we select for you the best articles in product management.

Enjoy and have a PRODUCTive week!

Interesting Reads

 

1. The Hungry Man Parable

Lots of executives think that building serious software is as easy as building a fence. One destructive side effect of this misunderstanding can be repeatedly changing the #1 top priority part-way through development, before there’s much to show the world but after spending significant discovery/design/architecture/development time on the previous #1 top priority. This is a difficult framing issue, which can reinforce deep-seated beliefs that engineering organizations don’t work hard, are flagrantly inefficient, or need more oversight. (Mironov)

2. Technical Debt Is Overhyped. Let’s Talk about Product Debt

As product owner, you would like to go ahead with that shiny new feature that makes everybody excited, however your technical lead comes to you with bad news that it will take time or it doesn’t work like that (technical debt). But there’s also product debt which needs to be considered since it’s very expensive. András Juhász, Product Manager at Emarsys, shares what product debt is and why it is so expensive. (The Startup)

3. How To Develop Your Product Career

Most of us have a hard enough time living in the here and now and doing our day jobs, let alone thinking about the future. Chris Miles, former Product Lead at Digital Directories, shares a post about determining what kind of product manager you are and what kind you want to be and created a development plan based on it. (Product Coalition)

4. The Discomfort Of A Great Product Team

“One of the most counterintuitive aspects about great product teams is that being a part of them isn’t always comfortable. It’s not all smooth sailing: there are frictions and disagreements between team members, differences in working styles, and clashes of perspectives.” Jens-Fabian Goetzmann, Head of Product at 8fit, shares why great product teams continuously grow by operating just outside their “comfort zone.” (Jens-Fabian Goetzmann)

PM Brainfood readers: get 20% off a PMF Europe 2020 ticket using code, Discount-Brainfood, when you buy your conference ticket.

Need to recharge/re-define your product management career? A new PMF workshop is available: “Hacking Your Product Career During COVID” with Gibson Biddle on November 13th. In this workshop, Gibson Biddle will guide product leaders in career development exploration. Participants will engage in a step-by-step, hypothesis-driven approach to career development to form a (new/updated) career action plan. Get a workshop ticket. (Use code Discount-Brainfood to get 20% off.)

5. “Customer Focus” Going Wrong

“In the new millennia, all businesses are trying to be customer-centric to win the hearts of their target audience and thus win the competition.” On paper it all sounds clear; in practice though, many companies struggle with customer focus. Sergey Rudenko, Senior Tech Product Manager at Riot Games, shares what typically goes wrong and what “tools” we can use to help us actually stay in touch with our customer’s world. (Medium)

6. How To Win At Remote Product Management — COVID-19 Edition

In this new era of remote work, can product managers continue to add value and lead teams successfully? The answer is yes, with the right tools, attitudes, and processes, remote teams can be even more productive than co-located ones. Merissa Silk, Product Lead at fundingport, shares which tools help your product team be productive. (The Startup)

7. Storytelling Can Make or Break Your Leadership

Telling a compelling story is how you build credibility for yourself and your ideas. It’s how you inspire an audience and lead an organization. Whether you need to win over a colleague, a team, an executive, a recruiter, or an entire conference audience, effective storytelling is key. Jeff Gothelf, founder of Gothelf.co, shares five characteristics for telling effective stories. PMs take heed. (HBR)

We wish you a great week!

The Product Management Festival Team


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