Author Archive
Where do product managers get ideas from?
Product managers have to set a vision for their teams to achieve. But where does that vision come from? It’s full of ideas, but where do PMs get those ideas from? Answer: from the...
Wikipedia on why glue matters (or: how to do tech writing the right way)
Over the years, I’ve become a connoisseur of good technical writing. When you find it, you know it at once, and it’s a joy to read. The other day, I found some great technical...
What is this ad trying to say?
Note: I originally posted this article on LinkedIn on Dec. 19th, 2019. I took the photo above this post just this morning. It’s an ad on the side of a New York City bus....
How to get into product management
About the most popular question there is when it comes to product management, is simply: how do you get your first job as a product manager? There’s no shortage of answers to this question...
Agile heresies – or paths we need?
Don’t get me wrong, I think the agile-scrum-kanban thing used by most software companies is great. I’m no stranger to singing its praises! My take on agile is the same as Churchill’s on democracy:...
Agile basics: estimating the unknown
One of the most powerful concepts that the agile and scrum methodologists brought to software development is relative estimation. In a non-agile world, development teams are asked how long a given piece of work...
The missing factor in attribution
A recent column on LinkedIn by Gary Angel of Ernst & Young has given a great overview of current methods for attributing conversions to digital marketing campaigns. The headline he chose contained the provocative...
Bad UX: the case of the ambiguous magnifying glass
The first thing they teach on Day One of UX/UI Designer School has to be, “Don’t make the same icon in your UI mean two different things.” Surely, no one would ever actually do...
In search of the elusive second-party cookie
We’ve all heard about first-party and third-party cookies. But what about second-party cookies? Do they even exist? Although many discussions of cookies online don’t even mention second-party cookies, the consensus seems to be...
“Pop-filter”: from add-on to feature
If your job title is “Product Manager”, chances are you work in software. But product management principles apply to all products – even something as simple as a piece of metal that blocks air....