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Tip: Read “The Rise of the Creative Class” by Richard Florida
This book shows how creative and innovative people will eventually rule the world. It explains what the creative class is, how it is motivated, and how to ensure you get the most out of your creative...
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Tip: If you ever feel like the world is against you, watch this video
This guy’s story is ridiculous. Foundation 07 // Chris Sacca from Kevin Rose on Vimeo.
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Tip: Collect and study the different definitions of product management
As you know, every company does product management differently. But I always enjoys hearing about, asking about, and reading about these different approaches. I highly recommend gathering a big pile of...
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Tip: Learn how to protect and cultivate maverick thinking
Here’s a great quote, “Take the mavericks in your service,” he tells new officers, “the ones that wear rumpled uniforms and look like a bag of mud but whose ideas are so offsetting that they actually...
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Tip: Read Will and Vision
I recommend this book at least once a month to someone: Will and Vision, by Gerard Tellis and Peter Golder. It’s classic. Some of the lessons I often think about include: There is no such thing as...
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Tip: Remember that product management is NOT entreprenuership
Like most people in my field, I too like to dabble in both sides of product management and entrepreneurship. I think its important to keep myself abreast of what is happening in the innovative startup...
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Tip: Read Four Steps to the Epiphany
Here’s a great book about the Customer Development Process, a term offered to us by Steve Blank. It’s a bit of an oldie at this point, but these days I hear everyone in entrepreneurship classes are...
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Tip: Read Hard Facts, Dangerous Halft Truths, and Total Nonsense
This book about evidence-based management is an instant classic. I loved it because it totally destroyed so many common practice management techniques with evidence that they not only don’t work, but...
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Tip: Learn to be good at both product management and product marketing
In my career, I’ve worked on both sides of the fence between product management and product marketing. I enjoy both of them, but I recognize that they are very different functions. And while it is...
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Tip: Check out Agile Product Management with Scrum
This book was recommended to me by someone at my last company. I skimmed it at the time, but I’m finally getting around to reading it and spending some quality time thinking about it. It’s easy to...
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Tip: Keep your programming skills sharp
I’ve been taking some time to improve my technical skills. A lot’s changed since I was in school building very simple applications with ancient technologies. So while I have had some spare time lately,...
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Tip: Keep up on the publishing industry
If you’ve been under a rock lately, here’s a news flash: the publishing world is going through another revolution. Digital media is transforming the world again. Self-publishing is not a joke anymore....
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Tip: Study leadership (good and bad)
Some people try to lead with the 48 Laws of Power, others with The Prince, and others with How to Win Friends and Influence People. There are probably good lessons in all those books. But I prefer to...
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Tip: Read “The Rise of the Creative Class” by Richard Florida
This book shows how creative and innovative people will eventually rule the world. It explains what the creative class is, how it is motivated, and how to ensure you get the most out of your creative...
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Tip: Use screencasts whenever possible
Like most product managers in today’s online world, I’m a big fan of screencasts. I’ve used Camtasia Studio for quite a while to create demo videos of web apps. I think it has saved me a TON of web...
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Tip: Watch this video about how Entrepreneurs are Artists
Just sharing this video from Steve Blank. It’s good stuff. In product management we have to live in the space between the art and execution parts of the equation. Our job is to translate that artistic...
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Tip: Learn to Love Visiting Customers
What is a customer visit? One of the most important things a product manager does is visit customers. I’m sure there are many types of customer visits out there, and every product manager probably has...
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Tip: Check out this video about Rajeev Singh, co-founder of Concur
Great video interview of Rajeev Singh, a co-founder of Concur. Sitting through the endless and annoying advertisements is painful, but the interview is great. Concur has been around forever, but their...
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Tip: Make sure your meetings add value
Here’s a reminder: Don’t waste peoples’ time. Your meetings should add value for the people who attend them. Make sure you’re giving everyone who you invite something important that they need for...
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Tip: Plan with Scenarios
You should consider planning with scenarios. Here’s some reasons why: - scenario planning is awesome, used in many fields - plan to respond to different internal and external factors - inspires...
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