Wondering what to do next?

....The Bugle is back - and I'm cooking up something to help you with your career.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

TL;DR

• The Bugle is back. Now as a mid-week treat

• I'm launching Vital 9 - a programme to help product people with their careers. Coming later this Summer.

• You can sign up here to join the Early Bird list and get 40% off at launch.

• It's the first of a number of products I have planned in this area

• Also in the pipeline: Skills Assessment and 'Habits of Highly Effective Product Teams'

  
  

I've learned two things about writing a newsletter:

1. I find it impossible to do when I'm actually doing a job/working full time.

2. Sometimes you need to step back and think before you just dive in and write

So, while I spent 6 months as Interim CPO at QA (a brilliant time - thank you 🙂), I had to shut-up shop here. Then when I left QA, rather than just start blurting out whatever was top of mind, I stepped back a bit and thought about where I wanted to focus.

There are two things I’m passionate about: helping people with their careers, and helping organisations be successful through good product practice.

Careers first! I've done a fair bit of coaching over the last year and loved it. But I've always wanted to provide something a bit more structured that people can do in their own time; and that costs a lot less than getting a coach.

So I've been working on a number of products - the first of which is The Vital 9. A self-paced programme that will mix text, audio, video and some interactive tools/assessments to help people own their product career. Or as the title of this suggests - to help you work out what to do next.

A few obvious FAQs…

So what are the Vital 9?

The Vital 9 are 9 ingredients that I believe every product person needs to have in their career, but almost certainly can't have at the same time.

They come in three groups:

⚡ Catalysts: The things that give you energy and help you do great work.

🛠️ Achievements: The engine room of your career - the impact you have, the things that will demonstrate you’re ready for your next move.

💰 Rewards: What you get back in return - not just your salary, but your overall financial progress and your value in the market

I’ll be covering each of these three groups here (and on LinkedIn) over the next few weeks.

And what does this programme actually do?

1. Helps you assess how you're doing against each of the ingredients - both in your career to date, and in your current role

2. Helps you work out what you need to prioritise over the next 1-2 years

3. Helps you build a plan to achieve that

4. Helps you take ownership of your career as you deliver against that plan

Or, as I've summed it up in the strap line:

Decide What Matters. Build a Plan. Own your Product Career.

Right now, you can sign up for the Early Bird List and you'll get 40% off when it launches.

I'll also write up each of the three groups here in the coming weeks (obviously teasing you with some good bits, while holding some stuff back for paying customers!).

What problem does this solve?

This is to help you answer that deceptively simple question: ‘what should I do next?’. If you have a really clear answer for that, based on sound rationale - great. If not - this should help.

It’s deceptively simple because 90% of career decisions involve some kind of compromise and prioritisation. And even if you are be cool, calm and structured when making decisions at work, it can be a lot harder when you’re making them about work and about your future.

Are you going to say that my career is like a product - so I need to manage it in that way?

Well - there’s a bit of that. And yes, I use techniques like a Strategy Canvas, OKRs and Outcome-based-roadmaps to help you build your plan.

Also as with any product strategy/ plan - there’s a need to define your priorities based on what you’re trying to achieve in the long term.

But, I won’t stretch the analogy. The truth is those are just good planning techniques, we all know them, and you can apply them as effectively to your career as you can to any product (or business) problem.

Are you still coaching?

Yes, although I don’t have much free capacity at the moment. Still - if you’d like to work with me 1:1 - just book a time to discuss here.

Who's it for?

I've tailored it very deliberately to the broad group of 'product people' - so yes, Product Managers and Designers, but really anyone who works in a product team will find it useful. I suspect it’s not entirely useful for those right at the start of their careers - but once you’re past that, I think this can be valuable, whatever level you’re operating at.

I actually think it has broader potential, as a lot of the ingredients are quite generic. But I have to start somewhere.

How much will it cost?

The honest answer is: 'I don't know yet'.

This is partly because I'm still building and writing. But also because I need to make sure that I don't make a pricing decision (say subscription or lifetime access) that leads me to making a bad tech decision.

What I can say is that the initial price will be about the same as a single coaching session. I want this to be affordable.

Anyway, if you sign up to the Early Bird list, there's no obligation to buy and you'll get 40% off whatever the price ends up being.

What's coming next?

Beyond the Vital 9, I'm working on:

• A skills assessment tool for product managers - for individuals, teams and to use in a corporate setting for 360 assessment.

• 'Habits of Highly Effective Product Teams' - a workshop aimed at teams and businesses who want to learn about how great product organisations work, and think about how they can apply it.
  

  If you want to know more about either of these, just get in touch.

Are all your newsletters going to be this sales-y from now on?

Probably not. Well maybe. Anyway - best wait till next Wednesday to find out. There may well be video!