At a recent Product Management meetup, we had the chance to hear some product managers from Overstock talk about their experience in conducting research calls. It was great to hear their experience as well as hear from other product managers.
A few things in particular stood out to me. First was the continued debate around the use of personas. While I'm sure we all have heard the debate, and probably have feelings one way or the other, it is always interesting to me to hear both sides. And especially when either side is passionate about their love or hate of personas. I still sit somewhere in between. I find them valuable as long as they're dynamic, but can certainly understand why they are hated in some corners. A persona is easy to do wrong. Or easy to let grow stale. The second point was around recording notes from research calls we do. What is the best way to keep track of what we learn? I've had this question posed to me and didn't have a great answer. I've tended to use whatever is available, whether that is Excel (don't hate) or Google Drive or a handful of other tools. So when someone posed that question to the presenters, I was excited to hear their answer. But it turned out to be the same as mine. Either they just keep it in their head or write it down somewhere. The suggestion for recording the calls was made, but it definitely seemed like there wasn't a great answer. That's certainly something to think about. So what are your thoughts? Love or hate personas? And how do you keep track of research calls? Is there a great tool to use? Or who among us is going to make the perfect tool?
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I was having a tough week. Long hours working through some pressing issues. To the point I was even dreaming about work. So basically no mental rest day or night.
Now that's not to say I wasn't taking breaks. My evening routine almost always consists of spending some time playing with the kids and spending time as a family. And usually some time working out as well after the kids are in bed. But those breaks were never really enough to help me turn the page. The stress of work was ever-present and really wearing me down. I could see it affecting everything, but felt almost helpless since I had to get things done. Finally, toward the end of the week, I just couldn't get a personal project off of my mind. I had hoped to work on it earlier but decided it needed to wait until I had a better handle on the more urgent things. But there it was, nagging at my mind. And on Friday I finally gave in. I took a break for an hour or two to put together some creative ideas I had and work on some graphic design. It took a little convincing. I kept thinking how I should wait until I had more done to work on anything personal. But once I was into it enough there was no looking back. I became fully immersed and lost track of myself for a little while. And that was exactly what I needed. The stress of the entire week was gone. I realized how much I had been spinning my wheels on work without making a lot of progress. I had been too stressed and my mind too clouded to be effective at problem solving or really any creative thinking. And all it took was taking my focus off of work for a while and getting out of my own head. I'm sure this type of scenario happens to almost all of us. Too busy to take focus off of work so we spin and spin until we burn out. I even know the signs in myself and still fall victim to it. I know that I should take some time to work on side projects to help clear my head and sometimes I just don't do it. But those creative side projects can really be the fuel to keep you sane. They're invigorating and inspiring. They aren't just distractions from urgent work, but the key to actually being able to do good work. Being able to "get out of your own head" for a while not only helps clear your head, but also makes solving those work problems much easier. So hopefully I'll keep that in mind the next time I've hit major roadblocks and can't seem to solve problems as effectively. But then, that tends to be the problem to begin with, isn't it? My journey into product management is a bit convoluted. It took some trial-and-error and a few different roles, but I eventually found my home. So my story is pretty much like everyone else's who has gotten into product management. But I'll tell it anyway.
My first taste of product management was in a role I had at the computer labs at BYU. My title was Student Manager of Personnel. So many of my responsibilities were around hiring, scheduling, promotions, etc. But another aspect revolved around managing different products for all of the computer labs and its employees. One such product was a brand new internal employee website. This was really the heart of our organization, where everyone could find their schedules, swap shifts with other employees, manage their training, do reviews and find all other information for their work. And we set out to rebuild it completely. I had the chance to work closely with the developers building it (an extremely talented group) in order to make changes, give input, and guide the overall flow. Having been there for a long time, I knew many of the features that needed to be incorporated and added. I also had the chance to talk with other users to get feedback and ideas. It was my first chance to really do product management at some level (though I didn't know it at the time). Unfortunately my time in that role had to come to an end as I graduated. And I had to start on another path. Goldman Sachs was building out some new teams in Salt Lake City, and (ironically) one of them was a product management team within the fixed income group. Again, I still didn't have a full understanding of product management, but was excited to help build out a group in a new office and the role seemed like it had a lot of great opportunities, so I jumped at the chance. Now, product management at Goldman Sachs has a lot of different flavors. At its heart, it is the same as any traditional product management role. You work cross-functionally across the business. That includes working closely with sales teams, marketing teams, management, traders, operations, etc. On the technology side, it means working closely with a variety of technology groups to build out functionality, both internally and externally. And of course, it includes understanding clients and users. Anticipating their needs and developing products and features to help them. Now at a place like Goldman Sachs, that includes financial products like mutual funds and investment strategies. But it also includes many of the technology focused components as well. External websites, online tools and internal reports and tools. The things you think of when you think of traditional product management. Many people go into product management at Goldman Sachs with the view of moving to one of the teams they work with eventually. That may mean sales or trading or portfolio management. A few will stay within product management as well. My original intention had been to go into portfolio management after working on the product team. So that is the path I started down. I took two levels of the CFA exam (pretty much a designation centered on portfolio management). But I began to realize that I didn't want to do portfolio management, I wanted to be a product manager. With that new realization, I started to shift my focus. Since product managers tend to wear many hats at a place like Goldman, I wanted to start working with a group where I could really be a product manager (as opposed to a junior portfolio manager or something like that). And I was fortunate enough to find just the right group. As I began working on our money market products, my role became more and more product management every day. I've had the chance to work on many different products and features. That includes the launch of multiple new mutual funds (it is Goldman Sachs after all). But I also led a team in redesigning our existing external site. And then helped lead the effort to start to sunset our existing site and create a brand new external site with lots of new functionality. Internally I led a team redesigning some of our regulatory reporting. This involved all the data and software tools we used to create these reports and working with internal and external stakeholders to create a new process and end product. I've also had the chance to work on many other features and products within this group. I'll be detailing more stories in other posts, so be sure to check back. So that is how I got into product management. It has been an exciting journey and continues to be something that I love. I'm really excited about a few changes for 2017.
First, I've just completed a new personal site. I coded it myself and am quite pleased with how it came out. It is still a work in progress, but it is coming along nicely. Second, this blog is going to expand. I expect to be posting here much more regularly, as well as on Medium. I'll be working here first and then adding things to Medium as I'm ready. I'm planning on leaving most of my previous posts up on this blog, though you'll notice the focus shifting a bit from some of the previous topics. More product management and personal stories. Finally, I'll be catching up on a lot of Product Management reading that I've had on my list and haven't had a chance to get to. This goes along with the second point, as I'll be writing more about it as well, both here and on Medium. So I'd love to get your input and thoughts. Just don't judge as I'm catching up on the product management books that you've already read. So those are a few things in the works. Lots more to come in the near future, so I'm excited for 2017. |
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