Unveiling the PDMA Body of Knowledge with Chad McAllister This episode my guest Chad McAllister introduces us to the Product Development and Management Association’s (PDMA) Body of Knowledge (BOK), a valuable yet underappreciated resource in product management. Established in 1976, PDMA has been pivotal in advancing product development and management practices across industries. Chad, a key figure in the third edition of the PDMA BOK, discusses its importance, contents, and the benefits it...

Chris Mason on Product Management Jobs My guest on this episode is Chris Mason, the co-founder and leader of Intelligent People, a recruiting firm in the UK that focuses on product managers and other product people – designers, heads of product, etc. In our interview, he shares his insights on the state of the product manager job market, hints and tips for folks looking a PM job, and even their first PM job, guidance for those hiring product managers, and lots of other great...

Clifton Gilley of Gartner’s Tech Product Management team In this week’s episode my guest is Clifton Gilley, a long time product manager, and now a VP Analyst with Gartner’s Tech Product Manager team. Cliff made the jump from product management practitioner to analyst because they had the data. As he says, “What really made me gravitate toward Gartner is I knew that they did research.” In the interview we delve into what the data says sets successful companies apart. And the answer? Leading...

Embracing Change and Customer Engagement in Product Management In this episode Mike Smart, an old friend and longtime product management leader, instructor, and consultant, says we can’t wait for the world to change (quoting an old John Mayer song). Product management needs to seize the day, and actively engage with customers even if it means breaking some glass and stepping on some toes, bending some rules. Mike shares his history as a product leader, starting from a sales role to...

The Transformative Power of Mindsets in Life and Leadership In this episode, an engaging conversation about mindsets with Ryan Gottfredson, a renowned leadership and management professor, author, and mindset expert. The core discussion revolves around the foundational role mindsets play in shaping our thoughts, behaviors, and overall success in life, work, and leadership. Gottfredson emphasizes the potential for profound personal and professional transformation through the understanding...

Steve Johnson, OG product management thinker Steve Johnson is my guest on this week’s episode. I’m sure you know of him already. And if not, you will after this episode. He’s one of the OG product management thought leaders, especially in the software world. Many people got to know Steve during his long stint as a trainer for Pragmatic Marketing, which followed a career as a product manager, product marketing manager and product leader. He’s now running Product Growth Leaders, a community...

Looking Back, Leaping Forward: 2023 Retrospective In the last episode of 2024, I go through a retrospective of the show for 2023, and share some of my plans for 2024. A few stats, lessons learned, things that went well and went badly, and then a sneak peek into what I’m planning for 2024. 2023 recap I released a total of 34 episodes, including seven reruns. Five of the episodes were interviews. I introduced some interesting new topics like anti-fragility and the PRD as the product bible....

Welcome back Chris Butler! My guest on this episode is Chris Butler, whom we first heard from in episode 107! It’s great to have him back, sharing some of his new projects since we last talked 18 months ago. Chris is a self-described “chaotic good” product manager, as well as a prolific writer and speaker. His work focuses on helping product managers operate more effectively – helping teams make better, less biased decisions, and build new and innovative products. He has been a product...

This episode is a rerun of episode 323: The Secret Product Management Framework. Use that link to visit the show notes page. This episode is a rerun of episode 323: The Secret Product Management Framework. Use that link to visit the show notes page.

Product Manager’s Guide To Cognitive Biases That sounds funny, doesn’t it? I’m not giving you cognitive biases in this episode. I’m giving you information about cognitive biases so you can manage them better. What’s a cognitive bias? According to Wikipedia: “A cognitive bias is a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment.” Cognitive biases lead to bad decision making and other bad, or at least, non-rational outcomes. Knowing about them can help us manage them,...

Deconstructed storytelling can be your secret weapon I talk about “telling a story” and “using stories” all the time on this podcast. But I don’t mean sitting everyone around a campfire with a mug of hot chocolate and someone starting out “Once upon a time…” “Storytelling” often doesn’t mean literally “telling a story” in the context of product management. It means using components of a story in specific ways to achieve certain results. To get there, you need to be able to deconstruct your...

There are no rules that define who will make a great product manager This episode was inspired by a “rant” (actually, a well-reasoned post) from Graham Reed on LinkedIn, and another post by Greg Prickril. Both were about the ridiculousness of the people posting nonsense and disinformation about product management and what it “really” is and who you have to be to be a successful product manager. But the reality is that we know great product managers can come from any background – some were...

Mental Models for Product Managers – fundamental tools for creating impact Mental models are like tools in a toolbox. If you have only a few tools, you can only solve a few kinds of problems. Like the famous saying – If you only have a hammer, then you have to treat every problem as a nail. If you have a full toolbox you have a lot more flexibility and subtlety about how you can go after problems. And tools that aren’t quite up to the job is almost as bad as not having the right tools. You...

86: Data-Driven Product Management (Rerun) This episode is a rerun of episode 86: Data-driven Product Management. Use that link to visit the show notes page. 86: Data-Driven Product Management (Rerun) This episode is a rerun of episode 86: Data-driven Product Management. Use that link to visit the show notes page.

Antifragility is the word of the day! The idea of antifragility kept coming up today and yesterday (more on that in the episode itself), so I thought I’d do a quick episode introducing the idea. Antifragility is the quality of a system that it gets stronger when bad or unexpected things occur. It’s like a super-version of resilience or robustness. The term was invented by Nicholas Nassim Taleb in his book Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder. Links I mentioned several other...

The Product Bible In the previous episode I made a lot of complaints about PRDs, and then I made some claims that they could be better. In this episode, how you might actually make a better PRD. (This might be me tilting at windmills!) The overall argument PRDs are problematic. They go stale. No one reads them. They are mainly (often) focused on the technical solution, and not on the fundamental problem a product is solving nor on how to take the solution to market. But, there might be...

PRDs are problematic Among other things, PRDs have problems like this: * “They go stale fast” * “No one reads them” * “They are about what and not why” * At the beginning of a real product effort, you have very high uncertainty * There’s lots of experimentation * What you know changes constantly * They often don’t talk about the customer, the market problem we’re solving, why that market problem is worth solving, etc. PRD problems and potential solutions In this episode, I start...

What’s the first skill you should teach a new product manager? Carl Vellotti asked this question on LinkedIn a few months ago. (I can’t actually find the post, unfortunately.) My answer was about learning to do inquiry – asking good questions. I’ve covered this on the podcast before, in episode 114: Great Questions for Market Discovery. But of course, there are other skills, aptitudes, and characteristics that product managers need to be good (not even great – these are table stakes) at...

Manan Modi, author of The Startup Product Manager My guest on this episode is Manan Modi, author of The Startup Product Manager, just published and available on Amazon. Manan reached out to me as part of his go to market plan for his book  (good thinking, by the way!). And I was intrigued by his focus on startups, which we cover in the episode. He has some counterintuitive and provocative ideas about product management – and an interesting path in his own career which we get...

How to show up as the amazing unicorn you are in your resume and job interviews This episode was inspired by a LinkedIn post from Jason Knight, in which he gave product managers advice on their resumes. Basically, he’s not seeing what he wants to see in peoples’ resumes. They’re boring. They don’t do a good job of selling the person. And I’ve experienced this as well. I talk to a lot of product managers and review their resumes. You are all amazing. But according to your resume, you are...

This episode is a rerun of episode 66, Miles Davis Vs. The High School Jazz Allstars. Use that link to visit the show notes page. This episode is a rerun of episode 66, Miles Davis Vs. The High School Jazz Allstars. Use that link to visit the show notes page.

This episode is a rerun of episode 82, The Perfect Product Manager Resume. Use that link to visit the show notes page. This episode is a rerun of episode 82, The Perfect Product Manager Resume. Use that link to visit the show notes page.

This episode is a rerun of episode 124, Unconventional Perspectives on Product Roadmaps. Use that link to visit the show notes page. This episode is a rerun of episode 124, Unconventional Perspectives on Product Roadmaps. Use that link to visit the show notes page.

This episode is a rerun of episode 89, 3 Decision-Making Hacks for Product Managers. Use that link to visit the show notes page. This episode is a rerun of episode 89, 3 Decision-Making Hacks for Product Managers. Use that link to visit the show notes page.