Product Awesome - Learnings from product manager to product leader

Every now and then we need to replatform a legacy product.  The product has been a success, it has been evolving for years, and customers love it.  But for a set of technical and business reasons it has limited growth potential. I have done this a few times, and I have also watched while others have had to put their favourite toys away for good while they build new toys.  So I thought I would share my journey, and hope that we don’t repeat the same mistakes Rich Mironov has a great article about replatforming: ... This is an essential part of the software product business, but fraught with poor assumptions and lack of experience/understanding.  And the majority of replatforming and reimplementation efforts I’ve seen have failed. https://www.mironov.com/replatforming Migration is necessary if you want to move forward, we can't stay on legacy tech forever.  Customer's demand new features, even though they love the old features.  They want a simple and shiny UI, but they are exper

Every now and then we have to introduce ourselves as product managers, and most conversations go a bit like this Q: What do you do? Me: I'm a product manager Q: Is that like a project manager? Me: Ah no ...  <deep breath> ... well... This is a fair question; as the role is usually behind the scenes and a lot of people have not met a product manager in the wild. And there are lots of possible answers here, the key things I try to get across in my answer are We care about the whole product, Our goal is overall success for the organisation and the customer, We work with everyone, including project managers, and Our job is not that weird Naturally as part of any discussion you want to tailor the answer to the recipient.  Ask what they know already, what kind of products they might sell themselves, and use this to understand your conversation partner and their business better. This also help prevent patronising them. So my answer goes something like this: Me: Ah no ...  <deep b

Should you keep a journal? TL:DR: Yes. I started keeping a journal a few years ago.  There was a crazy change in my role, and there was going to be a lot of learning ahead.  Someone suggested I write a journal so I can share my knowledge and what I learned along the way.  It is was just a simple Google Docs file, with dates and bullet points of what was happening during the day. Since then I have been keeping it going.  When the file gets too big I just start another one.  I usually fill it in on the way home from work, or when something particularly exciting is happening. Here are some of the benefits I have found It helps me process my day It helps me take notes to remember what I have learnt It helps me think better It helps me improve for the future Journals help me process the day Sometimes really cool stuff happens, and I want to capture the moment.  Or I am on the train home mulling over what happened during the day. Or sometimes I can't sleep because I am thinking about thi

  Before you let you company know you're leaving, there are some steps to smooth the transition and avoid burning bridges.  Hopefully at this time you already have another job offer, or even something better planned. Or maybe this wasn’t your choice, and you want to make sure you leave on a positive note. Leaving might be hard, but a poor exit may actually be damaging to your career. Let's create a plan to make your departure successful Have clear goals of why you are leaving Remove all personal info from your work devices Prepare a high level handover plan Book some one on one time with your manager.  Would you accept a counter offer? Prepare your handover Last days in the job. A lot of the guidance on the internet is tailored to the American market of two weeks notice.  In the countries I have worked, the employment contract has a notice period of a month or so, or more for senior roles.  There is more time to make a graceful exit, and the contracted expectation of a sustaine

I like to think of Product Management as the best job and the worst job.  You get to work with teams to build awesome products that people love, as well as invent the future.  But you have limited info and budget, demanding customers and stakeholders, and so many plates spinning in the air.   Finite resources. Infinite expectations But I have loved building since I was a kid, and I want other people to love it too. So I’m starting this series to share my experiences which are a bit different from the ideal Product Manager that we read about on the internet.  I read through those and think how far they are away from my day job, and I want people to know it is ok.  And I love nudging people towards smarter product decisions because the perfect is not attainable immediately. I want people to learn there is more to Product Management when you’re doing what you can with what you have. Part of this is about giving back to the industry that I love.  I have learnt from many product leaders in

Out of interest I have been looking into Google trends.   Google keeps track of search terms across the world since 2004.  You can use this to look at relative popularity of certain phrases.  Where is it popular, is it trending, and how does it compare to other terms. Naturally I typed in the term Product Management since 2004, you get an interesting data point where Iran is #1 for searching product management - exceeding even the US at #10 Photo by  Sohail Kasaei  on  Unsplash