Jock Busuttil's Blog: I Manage Products, page 34

Speaking at DevTalks Romania 2019

My next speaking engagement is at DevTalks Romania in Cluj on 16 May 2019. I’ll be talking about product management ethics, almost certainly with some kind of classical mythology thrown in for good measure.

As a special bonus, there are also five free tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis – when they’re gone, they’re gone. Use code E2E962 when registering for any type of ticket at DevTalks Romania for the Cluj event. See you there!

Q&A: Can I pick your brain about roadmaps?

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

Hey Jock,

I would love to pick your brain about roadmaps.

To give more clarity to my team (which is working on two mandates/sub-projects), I would like to empower them with a roadmap/timeline of the project. We already have one, on Confluence that I’ve printed next to our whiteboard. But it’s not “ours”.

Any recommendation in terms of shape/content? Should it be extremely detailed or high level? Mor...

65: The secrets of meaningful product roadmaps (redux)

Product managers often struggle to keep on top of their product roadmap. I recently gave this talk at Landing Festival Berlin to explain where people often get lost and show you how to make your product roadmaps more meaningful, user-centric and measurable.

I’ve spoken and written about this before, but this talk goes into more detail.

Transcript of the talk to follow, but if you’re impatient, there’s a summary of the key points.

Speaking at Landing Festival Berlin 2019

I’ll be giving a talk at Landing Festival Berlin spilling the secrets behind meaningful product roadmaps on April 4th. See you there!

Q&A: Should I take a different role before applying to become a product manager?

People sometimes ask me for career advice. Here’s a recent question:

Hi Jock,

I’m an entrepreneur, product/program manager and hardcore gamer. I’m facing a dilemma in my career’s direction. I’m split between my love for the game industry (dreaming of launching a game with a team), and my passion for product management (I would love to be a PM for a tech company).

I’ve applied to both the game industry for producer positions (no PM there), and to tech companies for PM roles. Got a few interviews...

How do you establish an effective product management team?

I returned to Bristol recently to guest host the Threads meetup. Clearly I didn’t put them off the first time. Threads is a monthly roundtable discussion for entrepreneurs and founders of technology scale-up businesses based in the South West of England.

This month’s topic was on the practicalities of building successful product teams.

If you’re also interested in learning about building successful product teams, I can come to your company and speak about it in more detail.

Contact me if you’d l...

Threads II – The Sequel

If you’re in or around Bristol and are a tech founder or leader, I’ll be hosting the February Threads meetup again. Like you, I have no idea why they invited me back.

We’ll be talking about when and how to build a product team on Wednesday 6th February from 18:00 at Ashfords LLC, Tower Wharf, Cheese Lane, Bristol, BS2 0JJ.

Sign up to attend on Meetup.

Speaking at ProductCamp L’viv

I’ll have the pleasure of visiting L’viv in Ukraine again this Saturday to give a talk on ethics in product management. Hope to see you there :-)

Product management has evolved. Has your company?

I popped over to Bristol recently to guest host the Threads meetup. Threads is a monthly roundtable discussion for entrepreneurs and founders of technology scale-up businesses based in the South West of England.

This month’s topic was on product management in general. For most around the table, it was a completely or relatively new concept, so our lively discussion started with the fundamentals.

If you’re also interested in learning about the fundamentals of product management, handily I have a...

Q&A: What skills do I need to be a freelance product manager?

People ask me from time to time about how they can get into freelance product management. Here’s a recent question:

Hi Jock,

I’ve been working as a product manager for 5 years now. I worked in different industries (financial, loyalty, media, fintech) and now I am starting to manage a team of product managers and setting up a product team as a senior product manager, as well as managing my own product.

I was thinking about starting consulting in 2-3 years of time. What are the skill sets I need t...