As a product manager some of the most important time you spend is talking to users or poring over feedback to uncover their most pressing challenges. Then you prioritize solutions to address those issues.
That’s how you make sure you’re delivering real value.
It’s about being prepared and staying agile in a fluid environment. Think about the future. Anticipate challenges. Identify potential risks before they become problems.
“Point of view is worth 80 IQ points.”
-Alan Kay
#Quotes
“Indeed, no one can thwart the purposes of your mind - for they can’t be touched by fire, steel, tyranny, slander, or anything.”
-Marcus Aurelius
#Quotes
“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”
-G.K. Chesterton
#Quotes
Sometimes simply writing things down and then methodically reviewing your lists can be a superpower.
“It is easier to judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
-Pierre-Marc-Gaston de Lévis
#Quotes
Remember to always ask “how will this simplify things?”
For example: before you buy that retro mechanical keyboard that looks exactly like your childhood Commodore 64.
“Listening is the engine of ingenuity. It’s difficult to understand desires and detect problems, much less develop elegant solutions, without listening.”
-Kate Murphy (no relation 😁)
#Quotes
“It’s hard to do a really good job on anything you don’t think about in the shower.”
-Paul Graham
#Quotes
“The most effective communicators pause before they speak and ask themselves: Why am I opening my mouth?”
-Charles Duhigg
#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
A good strategy (according to Rumelt) has 3 parts:
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The diagnosis - framing the challenge
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The guiding policy - the approach to dealing with the issues in the diagnosis
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Coherent Actions - the actions, resource commitments, and policies needed to carry out the guiding policy
Strategy is a cohesive response to an important challenge (Richard Rumelt).
This is a phenomenal distillation of the concept.
“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
Remember: If you compliment someone else’s dog, it really is ok if they’re not gracious about it.
It shouldn’t change a thing for you - or the dog.
“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
In what sort of future do you want to live?
Having that small sweet with your morning coffee makes it marginally less likely you’ll eat the healthy bowl of oatmeal later.
Think about how small decisions make actions easier or harder for your future self.
Remember:
Empathize with your clients.
Understand their needs as thoroughly as possible before proposing any solutions.
Always back your recommendations with evidence.