PB 26/04: The Bugle is back!

A year later, and maybe a bit wiser

The tiny matter of a full-on day job has kept me away from writing a weekly newsletter for the last 16 months. A tough prioritisation call, I know: but that’s all part of the PM skill set.

And yes, I’m sure your inbox has felt it’s just been missing a certain something on a Friday morning as a result. Sorry about that.

Well, for reasons I won’t go into, that stressful day job isn’t there any more. So, for the time being at least, I have a bit of time to bring the Bugle back to life.

As well as my general weekly meanderings on product life (boosted by my experience of the last 12 months!), there’s a few things I want to focus on: all around the theme of helping people with their careers in product - both as ICs and leaders.

1. The 12 personas of product management
   So I’ve been working on a model/ toolkit to a) help PMs assess their own strengths and weaknesses (yes, let’s call them that, not the euphemistic ‘opportunities’); b) help managers give structured and constructive feedback c) be used as a basis for 360 evaluation of a team - both individually and collectively.
   
   It’s still very much a work in progress. But, I’ll start to share from next week (I’m going to be looking for individuals and teams to trial it on!).
   

2. The best product stuff - reboot
   So I put this out there a while ago…but it’s in need of an update. There’s so much good product stuff (and smart people) out there, that I don’t really think it’s practical to keep track, but at the same time - I think it’s useful to be able to have a structured collection of things to refer to. So I’m going to take another look at this - probably linking in with the ‘12 personas’ idea above.
   

3. Get it on video
   Like any normal human of a certain age, I hate seeing myself on video. But I’m going to force myself to get comfortable with it. Watch this space. Literally.
   

Right, keeping it very brief for this first week. Back with full gusto next week (with probably a bit on LinkedIn in between!). But before I go..

• If you and/or your team need any coaching or guidance. Do get in touch! A message on LinkedIn is simplest.
  

• I’m going to be doing a lightning talk at the Hustle Badger IRL event on May 14 in London on a pivotal moment in my career. Looks like being a great product meet up. Do come along, and say hi.