Resources for the (Future) Product Professional
In the never ending life quest to pay-it-forward, I have great conversations with younger, aspiring Product Managment and UX professionals and try to help them get to where they wan to go. I try to share my experinces and the readings I have come across that made an impcat on me and fundamentally changed the way I think. These ideas have been processed and synthesized into my crowded mind of a thousands things that constitute “product” and business. Some articles are exicting; some are just plain boring, but contain a ton of relavant information or context. I have read everything here multiple times in order to extract, from people smarter than myself, their insights and wisdom.
I share here for anyone interested. You may or may not take away the same value; but now we have a common starting point to change the way we think and make an impact across the things we can change.
1.00. Lenny’s Newsletter
This podcast and newsletter are the bomb if you want to learn about high-tech business and development. Sign up to get email summaries for free. I pick and choose which podcasts I listen to. Start with these 2.
The Essence of Product Management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG)
The UX Research reckoning is here | Judd Antin (Airbnb, Meta)
2.00 Learn about Agile and how SW product development process
Now, this is boring as shit, BUT, if you want to exist in the world of digital products and swoftware devlopment you need to underastand the basic processes of Agile (SCRUM, Kanban), how ideas turn into actual work (Research, roadmaps, backlogs), and the different people and jobs that make up the teams you will co-exist with (Product Managers, UX, Architects, Developers, FE Devs, etc…). Start at the top and try to read one section a day or every other day. It’ll be worth it in your next job where you can start asking questions using the correct ideas and language and learning how to work across teams.
3.00 Resume & LinkedIN
There are lots of resume sites that suggest what you need to do. Here are a few that I have used recently. Note that our good friend and long time recruiter says “Objectives are dead. Dont’ include that on your resume.”. But it’s still a good exercise to write that statement beacuse someone is going to ask you, “Why are you interested in this position - role - company”.
Resumes…Stop Making 3 Mistakes
How to Rewrite Your LinkedIn Profile Into a Job-Winning Resume
4.00. Thinking More UX:
If you need to up your skills and thinkning about UX, thera are a TON of resources out there. Here are a few recent links from sites I use that you can start with.
How to Think Strategically As a Designer for Product Vision
The Research Mentality and How To adopt it
3 Essential Research Tips For Product Designers
5.00 Product Managment
Hustle Badger is s great site about many things Product Managment. Worth signing up for the email newsletter.
6.00. Product-Led Growth
PLG is core business strategy that is used to drive Superlinear growth (think x100 to x1000 scale) and extremely important to any B2C SaaS business for getting customers. With a little brain lifting you can apply it to comvention slaes-led funnel generation strategies too.
This site is free and pretty much changed my outlook on all digital SaaS platform development and company valuation equations.
The Product-Led Growth Handbook
7.00. Customer Onboarding
Another fantastic free resource that will teach you all about getting customers engaged and creating transactional value in your products. It’s written from a CONTENT perspective, like a newspapper trying to get you to subscribe, but covers a lot of of the omni-channel startegies you need to succeed.
8.00 Case Studies & Portfolio Development
One key thing you need to do when findinf a product job is catpure your previsous work in the form of case studies. Start by reading these references.
Documenting Your UX Work (Everyday!)
9.00. Big Business Concepts
If you’re not overwhelmed already, check out these articles. Big concepts that drive investment and digital business globally.