As the year comes to an end, we can’t help but thinking how to improve in the year to come. While having New Year resolutions have sort of become a cliché, a kind of thing you say but never follow through, I find it more important to make a resolution regarding your professional life, and your “work personality.”
Who you are at work, and how you operate at work, can change far more easily than who you are outside of work, and let’s face the facts – since we spend more time at work than at home- changing our work dynamics can have a more profound impact on our lives. Not to imply that what you’re doing now is wrong, or to say your work New-Year resolution doesn’t have to be fundamental, and doesn’t have to be a 180 degrees turnover – all I encourage you to do here is to learn something new and improve yourself, just a little bit.
One of the ways of becoming better at our jobs, is to enhance and retain our knowledge. Here are 5 articles I found this week to help us do just that:
10 Sentences A Product Manager Should Never Say
As a product manager you’re a leader. There is no way around it. One of the key qualities of a product manager is leading by example. Therefore, it’s important that you know that the words that come out of your mouth don’t lower morale on your team. To you it may seem like just words, but to your team it’s the reason they follow you.
6 Questions to Ask Before Planning Your 2016 Product Roadmap
You need to understand yourself before you can move forward and improve yourself. Steve Johnson hits the nail on the head in this post. It is important to always constructively criticize yourself. There is no one that is perfect. It is however important to strive for perfection.
Always Looking Ahead
Just like Steve Johnson in the previous blog post writes to look back, it is also crucial to look ahead. A product managers position isn’t easy, and I wouldn’t be here if it was. You need to be able to work in the past, present and future at all times. Andrew Fuqua’s post about looking ahead hits the nail on the head with his checklist. You need to understand what your team is capable of in order for your product not to fizzle out.
Lessons From 30 Days In Product Management
Medha Ghatikesh writes a fascinating blog post about the world of product management. It is refreshing to see the fresh faces entering the world of product management. Not only is her blog post insightful, it is fresh and fun to read. My favorite part was when she tells everyone to be a Jugaad. You’re going to have to read her post to know what it means!
10 Data-Backed Product Tips to Skyrocket User Satisfaction
Product management has a lot of theories involved. This is due to the fact that leadership isn’t a very scientific field, you either have it or you don’t. Sometimes though it’s fun to have data backed proof that what you’re doing works. I’m not the biggest math guy, but I do love numbers that help my product succeed. Use these 10 tips in order to grow your user satisfaction. And if your user isn’t satisfied, then what’s your product’s worth?