Quotes
“Users don’t evangelize to their friends because they like the product, they evangelized their friends because they like their friends.”
-Kathy Sierra
#Quotes
“Creativity is just problem solving”
“Creativity is just problem solving. Once people see it as problem solving, it stops seeming like magic, because it’s not. Brokers are just people who pay more attention to what problems look like and how they’ve been solved before. People who are most creative are the ones who have learned that feeling scared is a good sign. We just have to learn how to trust ourselves enough to let the creativity out.”
-Ed Catmull
#Quotes
“Be careful not to overcomplicate your systems to the point where you can only maintain them when you are at your peak of mental clarity.”
-the David Allen Company
#Quotes
“I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.”
-Coleman Cox
#Quotes
“Computers fail, checklists fail, everything can fail. But people can’t. We have to make decisions, and that includes deciding what deserves our attention. The key is forcing yourself to think. As long as you’re thinking, you’re halfway home.”
-Richard Champion de Crespigny
#Quotes
“By far the dominant reason for not releasing sooner was a reluctance to trade the dream of success for the reality of feedback.”
-Kent Beck
#Quotes
There are no silver bullets
“Every tool you use impacts your abilities while using that tool. It increases some capabilities while decreasing others.
For example, a chimp fishing for ants with a stick can’t use her hand for another purpose while holding that stick.”
-David Kadavy
Tools perform specific functions, ideally useful ones.
Good tools perform their functions efficiently and are often cheaper, faster, simpler, and/or better than alternatives.
Great tools are transformative. Notable examples include sharpened stones, metal lathes, maps, and alphabets.
The proverbial hammer is great for driving steel nails into wood. But even the best hammer can’t help if the blueprints are wrong.
You say you want your product managers to write better user stories? Changing your word processor won’t help much.
Tools don’t magically fix broken processes, dysfunctional leadership, misaligned incentives, or training gaps.
See also:
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life.”
-Mary Oliver
#Quotes
“It is what you read when you dont have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”
-Oscar Wilde
#Quotes
“An enviroment that is not safe to disagree in is not an environment focused on growth - it’s an environment focused on control.”
-Wendi Jade
#Quotes
“Motherhood: all love begins and ends there.”
-Robert Browning
#Quotes
“Do not internalize the industrial model. You are not one of the myriad of interchangeable pieces, but a unique human being, and if you’ve got something to say, say it, and think well of yourself while you’re learning to say it better.”
-David Mamet
#Quotes
There will be special moments in your career as a product manager.
You will meet and collaborate with remarkable people.
Working together, you will somehow manage to make the world just a little bit better than the way you found it.
Cherish these times.
“Praise each other: Find something nice to say, even if it’s a stretch. The worst ideas can have silver linings if you look hard enough.”
-Randy Pausch
#Quotes
Maya Angelou said it best:
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Remember to share your knowledge, mentorship, and support whenever you can.
Authentic, meaningful relationships are the goal.
“Professionals don’t have to justify spending time training or practicing their work. It’s what they do, and practice is how they get good at it… the one constant is the working of those materials, the gradual improvements and proficiency.”
-Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman
#Quotes
“There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.”
-Seneca
#Quotes
“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."
-Douglas Adams
#Quotes
“I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.”
-Poul Anderson
#Quotes
“Storms make us stronger.”
-Bear Grylls
#Quotes