Martin Eriksson opened the day with a story from his time as a PM at a London startup and a release that was particularly pivotal for the product, and for the company. At that time, he questioned his contribution to the release — he hadn’t prioritised any of the stories, discussed any of the designs … Continue reading MTPcon 17 — theme 1: the contribution of leadership

A while ago at Product Tank London, we discussed ‘when your customer is not your user’. The speakers described their experiences of where their customer was not their user, what the challenges were and how they were (or weren’t) overcome. When your customer is not your user… One example of where customer != user is … Continue reading When your customer is not your user

I decided to write a PM manifesto to hang over my desk so that I remind myself as to what is important to me in my role as product manager but also generally as a human interacting with my colleagues. Here it goes: 1. Practice equanimity2. ‘Yes’ is a commitment, use it wisely3. Read twice … Continue reading My PM Manifesto

I want to share a framework that I created to review the customer experience of my product, as I started in a new role. I hope that it offers you an opportunity to review the customer experience for your product, whether you’re starting out or if you’ve been on a product for a while. I … Continue reading A product-perspective on Customer Experience

In user experience, how long is a button press is the new ‘how long is a piece of string’. You need to know what you need the string (button) for before determining how long it needs to be. The time I am particularly interested in looking at is: the time between the user clicking/ tapping … Continue reading On speed, trust and expectations

Here's some of the questions I get asked by people interested in product management. What is a Product Manager? In a nutshell, a Product Manager oversees a team of engineers, designers and testers to develop a product, bring it to market and grow it. A Product Manager sits at the interface between design, engineering and … Continue reading Getting into Product Management

I read Marty Cagan’s article on why women make the best Product Managers with utmost interest. I agree that to some extent the qualities society rewards in women are beneficial to the role of Product Manager — such as emotional intelligence and humility. On the other hand, qualities associated with masculinity may be not be as beneficial. … Continue reading On the female PM debate

The day after MTPcon I wrote down a list of things I want to do or do differently after hearing all these inspirational presentations. However, it’s been three weeks and I have done exactly none of them. Here is my list: 1 Regroup with the members of my team individually to understand whether the way we … Continue reading What I meant to do differently after MTPcon

Step 1: Show that you understand and know everything tech-related Repeat the techie words your developers use with an air of superiority to show that you know what they mean, especially if you have no clue. Maybe start a conversation about the advantages and drawbacks of different programming languages. Explain how you’re currently dabbling in … Continue reading How to pretend to be a great Product Manager