The Ockham Bugle - 6 May
Why product managers need to Eat. Sleep. Reduce Ambiguity. Repeat. The $285m virtual property sale. The silliest TV plot of the week and the glory of Gil Scott Heron.
Product management goodness
Career guidance A mix of links this week, some stuff written by me…I liked this as I was about to go and speak at my sons’ school about why everyone should want to become a product manager..
Loved this..from Reddit PM, Peter Yang (see below about his newsletter)
What do product managers do? I’ve ended up sweating a bit over this question as part of the long essay/ eBook I’m working on. My answer, in two words: Reduce Ambiguity. I think my point is a good one, but it needs a much better phrase for people to really buy into it. Suggestions welcome.
The Nest founder’s guide to product story telling Using the hook of Steve Jobs, Tony Fadell talks about the importance of a story for your product - from his upcoming book: Build: An unorthodox guide to making things worth making which looks worth a read/ listen.
Looking for good PM news letters? I know what you’re thinking, the Bugle is great, but surely there’s got to be something better out there? This list from Shyvee Shi, one of the PMs at LinkedIn is a great start.
What %age of time do PMs spend fighting fires? And other useful statistics can be found here.
If you’re looking for PM-related books, podcasts, articles on medium? Someone with way too much time on their hands has compiled this handy list.
The importance of listening, really really listening. This is old (2017) - and I’m not sure exactly where it popped up in front of me this week: but it ties in with something I’ve been writing about the importance of listening as a PM - to your peers; to your team; to your manager; to your customers. Not just the words they say, but what’s going on behind them. The buzzword is active listening.
Missing link from last week there was an incorrect link to Matt LeMay’s One Page One Hour site. Here is the correct one.
The worst thing a PM can be is intelligent and other uncommon opinions, including “There’s no ‘way to do product’ ”, all here.
My eBook provisionally sub-titled ‘20 Lessons from the coal face of product management’ is on track for self-publishing/ beta release end of May/ first week in June.
Web3 bits this week.
Worth $285m of anyone's money..
The $285m virtual property sell off happened over the weekend with the launch of Bored Ape’s Otherside. It’s almost mindblowing when you think what that could buy in the real world. This is also a good opportunity to learn about gas fees - which meant buyers spent another $180m on top of their ‘property’ purchase. Yes $18om.
If you want to dive right into Web 3 I have to recommend the Hustle and Flowchart podcast. I think I actually understand about one word in three, but the energy is infectious …and it gets right into the heart of NFTs and gaming; the creator economy and a whole load of other goodness.
NFTs as a substitute for subscriptions OK, I don’t see Netflix doing this - but something I guess I hadn’t really clicked was the whole idea of buying into a game by purchasing NFTs - something you actually own and can then trade, or sit on as an asset vs buying a skin or some other virtual good ts shat gets thrown away. Peter Yang looks at this in his in his Creator Economy newsletter. But if you want to go deeper - read this interview with Animoca Brands Yat Siu.
Starbucks: bye bye third place. Hello NFTs. They’ve talked about this before, but more detail came out this week. According to Starbuck’s CMO: “Many people see NFTs as a new form of ownership of digital art, often traded in a highly speculative way. While that’s been true on some level in the early days in the space, we are fascinated by how NFTs allow people to own a programmable, brandable digital asset, that also doubles as an access pass”
TV worth watching
Parminder Nagra as DI Ray.
New cop of the week Was DI Ray, on ITV, which was worth braving the unskippable ads of the ITV hub to binge the whole season in a couple of sittings. As the headline says in the Guardian, Like Line of Duty with racism at every turn (LoD’s Jed Mercurio was producer). Now, I liked it, probably because it milked a successful formula and added a bit of a twist.
Silliest plot of the week. Was Grace also on ITV on Sunday. That was shout at the TV bonkers. File under ‘batshit crazy’ (spoiler alert)
I really, really must watch The Staircase on Sky Atlantic. Next week…next week.
Worth listening to
Great Lives: Gil Scott-Heron Randomly - two things have sent me back to listen to everything by Gil Scott Heron this week. First this interview with Brian Jackson. And then this episode of Great Lives on Radio 4 - where, of all people, the garden designer Joe Swift talked about the role Gil had played in his life. The thing that saved it was Malik Al Nasir who Gil met one night in Liverpool and then effectively adopted, mentored and took on the road. The more I go back and listen, the deeper and better it gets.
Audiobook corner
Finished Emily St John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility - just brilliant. Can’t recommend this one highly enough
Now lining up Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House
Also
Tropicana has created a cereal suited for orange juice rather than milk
Apparently this is the phone of choice in prison
Quartz’s many attempts to work as a business
There’s a pub near me that has a £9,750 bottle of wine on its menu.
Facebook is reducing its hiring.
Amazon has ended up with too much property.
Plans for the Ockham Bugle
I’ve carried out an extensive strategy review this week - and have decided I’ll be giving the Bugle another 12 weeks…going to tighten things up; and work out whether to stick with Revue - or go all in with LinkedIn…more news soon. As always - feedback, very welcome.
A weekly round up of Product Management goodies - all very grounded in the real world. Plus: updates what I've been watching and listening to. Every Friday, from deepest Surrey.
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