Jock Busuttil's Blog: I Manage Products, page 32

PRODUCTHEAD: Tricksy interviews

PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.

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subterranean homesick product manager



hello

This week I’ve pulled together a few things to help with the job hunt.

Sometimes s**t happens to the best of us. A good friend of mine, and an exemplary product manager to boot, found himself looking for a new job after the incoming CEO loudly declared he didn’t believe in product management as a practice.

This go...

74: The black art of designing content

While distracting myself from doing real work this week, I learnt the phrase ‘black art’ comes from the world of printing presses. So I delved deeper into the world of content design. Eventually I found a product management angle.

Typesetters would set individual metal letters (‘sorts’) into racks. These were then used to print pages of books and newspapers in black printer’s ink (hence ‘black art’). A typesetter would finesse the spacing between individual letters and words to make them ...

PRODUCTHEAD: Living your brand values

PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEAD





true product managers wait



hello

Hot news this week: celebrity outed as being unpleasant IRL! Yes, not exactly a story that would usually even register on my product management radar. Nonetheless it did because it gives us an unintentional object lesson in why your product has to embody your brand values.

For those that have never seen Ellen DeGeneres’s show, ...

PRODUCTHEAD: Finding the positives

PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.

Subscribe to PRODUCTHEAD





anyone can manage products



hello

This week I’ve been looking for the positives of lockdown.

Taking customer geography and physical presence out of the equation has been helping some businesses to grow:

Conference organisers are able to draw on speakers from a wider pool, and to open their event to a wider audience for marginal additional cost;

Product ma...

Saving yourself from product management hell

I gave a talk for Product Anonymous in Melbourne, Australia. Well, kind of, as I was still sat in my office while doing so. It was all about saving yourself from product management hell. You’ll recognise the symptoms such as not being allowed to talk to customers, and my personal favourite, “screw research, let’s build!”

In my talk I guide you through the causes of these painful symptoms and, more usefully, show you how to get yourself out of product management hell. (Hint: it’s all about hav...

73: You wouldn’t drive blindfolded

I heard a story of an octogenarian who drove himself to the hospital for his eye cataracts operation. (Just let that sink in a bit.) On his surprisingly safe return home, his relatives queried the sense of his actions. He replied that what he lacked in sight, he made up for in driving experience.

Imagine yourself jumping into your car, strapping in, and firing up the engine. You have a quick look around then pull on a blindfold before launching yourself into traffic. Likelihood of an acci...

Upcoming live talks – September and October 2020

I’m giving some more live talks in September and October. The first is for ProdPad’s regular webinar series. I’m also giving a series of four talks on Tuesdays in October for my Product Management Digital Masterclass.

Read on for talk details and how to attend.

Tuesday 22nd September: ProdPad Webinar

ProdPad is the brainchild of Janna Bastow and Simon Cast, names you’ll likely have heard in connection with their other little venture, Mind The Product. I’ll be joining Andrea Saez...

5 product leadership lessons learnt from the UK’s Ministry of Justice Digital team

Between 2014 and 2015, I was head of product for the UK’s Ministry of Justice Digital team. Just after I gave a talk on a converted cinema stage with an absolutely massive screen in Zurich, Switzerland.

I talked about the 5 product leadership lessons I’d learnt about digital transformation and working with autonomous, empowered delivery teams. It’s called Digital Justice and you can watch it below after the break. There are also slides and a full transcript under the video.

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Q&A: How do I make my CV stand out?

I’m asked questions about product management from time to time. Here’s one I’ve answered recently:

Hi Jock,

Thanks for your message. I was reading your book, Practioners guide to Product Management and I could really relate to a lot of what you have written from my experience with PM.

I am currently looking for a new PM role but there is so much competition because of the pandemic. I have seen 300-400 applications for each position. I talked to someone at Facebook and they said that my profile ...

How to measure product management – ProductBeats talk

I gave a talk on Tolpagorni’s ProductBeats weekly webinar series about how to measure product management. Slides and sketchnotes after the break!

How to Measure Product Management – ProductBeats July 2020 from Jock Busuttil

Magnus’s write-up of the talk is available behind a login page on ProductBeats’s Haaartland page, but it’s free to sign up.

how to meas...