Throughout my career as a Product Manager, I’ve had several existential crises, thinking that the job I was doing did not reflect what I imagined a Product Manager should be doing. Several years into being a PM, I came to realise that no-one really does this ‘typical PM role’ I imagined, because it doesn’t exist…More
From blog to platform: Reni Eddo-Lodge’s ‘Why I’m…’
Yesterday I went to a discussion with Reni Eddo-Lodge about her book ‘Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race’. I read the book not so long ago and have since been a big fan of hers. She shared with the audience what the year, since her book was released, had been like.…More
MTPcon 17 — theme 4: designing for the future
Two of the talks at MTPcon were concerned with designing for our future. On the one hand Amber Case was advocating for calm technology, while Josh Clark was talking about considerations for designing machine learning and big data products. Amber Case, who is a scholar at MIT, started talking about a few worries of hers:…More
MTPcon 17 — theme 3: rejecting or embracing the past
Some of the speakers touched on how we deal with the ideas and ways of the past. Jake Knapp’s design sprint methodology is framed as a rupture from the past, from the ‘default’. Don’t just do design the way you’ve always done it, break from it. Using the ‘design sprint’, a one-week exercise for a…More
MTPcon 17 — theme 2: creating space and opportunity for teams to perform
A number of the speakers touched on ideas and methods to create space and opportunity for cross-functional product teams to perform. Sarah Nelson talked about the importance of space and the working environment. As culture shapes space, shape also creates a culture. And shape limits or enables the kind of interaction that will enable a…More
MTPcon 17 — theme 1: the contribution of leadership
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…More
When your customer is not your user
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…More
My PM Manifesto
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 equanimity 2. ‘Yes’ is a commitment, use it wisely 3.…More
A product-perspective on Customer Experience
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…More
On speed, trust and expectations
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…More
Digital Good 