(This article is cross-posted at onproductmanagement.net)
This is a simple post about being simple.
I was thrilled and honored to have a visit by my good friend, Jim Holland, for the recent Product Camp in Minnesota. While he was here, he scanned my business book shelf and borrowed a book, my copy of Seth Godin’s “Poke the Box.” Jim enjoyed the short read and wrote a nice blog post based on his learning from it; in exchange, he brought me a small token gift, a simple non-descript cube that has somehow changed my life.
In the next few weeks, there are several opportunities to attend a ProductCamp. Maybe this is your first? If so, there are several primer-type articles out here and here.
Whether this is your first, third or tenth camping trip, you should ask yourself the same question – how do you prepare for a ProductCamp? Should you volunteer? Should you create a presentation? Will any of my colleagues be there?
Back in December, I wrote a blog post about the need to listen to the market – not just existing customers, but more specifically the non-buyers and lost sales. After reviewing some of the comments, I felt it was important to explicitly discuss the next step – - namely, what to do with everything that you’ve heard.
In this week’s #prodmgmttalk (a weekly virtual twitter discussion/gathering of people who identify as professional product managers and product marketing managers, globally, held on Mondays) I contributed through a comment that said “trust can be earned after credibility is established”. I applaud Jim Holland for leading this discussion amongst the community following his blog on the subject. And, I wanted to explain my contribution in a bit more detail.
Hmm. We all deal with egos in our work worlds. Everyone has them to some extent. We talk about certain personalities – and people – negatively who put on great dog & pony shows in front of management and audiences that are perceived as being more important. We recognize the individual, usually behind their back, as adding negative elements to our teams. On a certain level, many would argue that this may be healthy. Really?
