You do Product in real life
Have you ever gotten the sense that most advice for PMs is crafted for Product folks who work in some kind of magical, idealized organization? I’ve never worked at any company, within any org, with any team, or on any product — where the theory taught by the “gurus” I follow and respect was directly applicable. My work has always been messier than that, and I’ve been left to figure out most situations on the fly.
I’m trying to share supplemental lessons I’ve learned over almost two decades in Product — from Startup to Fortune-100 — that are useful for the rest of us. This is all stuff that I’ve gathered over time or learned from my own mistakes, and I try to keep it practical for an actual Product person in a real role, doing the messy work of PM with some mix of other humans.
PM and career advice I wish I got 10 years ago
Technical concepts and skills for PMs
Life advice I hope my kids stumble onto at some point
Memes from the great Tim Robinson’s sketch-comedy show, I Think You Should Leave
Sports metaphors (sorry, bad habit I picked up over 6 years at a major sportswear brand)
My perspective on the emerging field of decentralized IDtech
I’m not trying to tell anyone what to do or how to do it. I am though telling you what I’ve found success with or how I’ll plan to do things in the future — based on my own experiences and lessons learned.
If you read something I’ve written, and you think I’ve gotten it wrong — please let me know what I’ve missed or misunderstood! But be warned: I may respond with naive-seeming questions.
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About
For context, I’ve stumbled my way through product leadership roles at a bootstrapped startup which I co-founded (event ticketing), a Fortune 100 company (e-commerce), and venture-backed startup (fintech).
I’ve worked in B2C, B2B, and B2B2C business models. I’ve worked on mobile apps, web apps, hardware integrations (Damn you, Bluetooth!), APIs and backend services, and data platforms. I’ve worked with in-house Design and Engineering partners, as well as used outside agencies for both — and even been the reluctant but de facto “designer” for my team. I’ve written code on an amateur basis, but you don’t want me deploying anything I’ve written to Production! I’ve been an IC PM from Associate to Principal level, informal “lead” PM, manager of PMs, and solo Head of Product. For a deeper dive into my background and motivations, feel free to connect with me via LinkedIn.
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