Tag: collaboration
-
“The Art of Active Listening” (Book Review)

Listening. Listening. Listening. I know how important it is, but I also know how hard I sometimes find to truly listen. I guess I’m not unique when I miss half of what the other person is saying because I’m so preoccupied with what I’m going to say in response. This realisation prompted me to read…
-
My Product Management Toolkit (19): Socratic Questioning

One of the first things that I learned when I started out in product management was the importance of asking why, using the ‘5 Whys’ to truly understand a problem or a situation: The ‘5 Whys’ technique, however, only got me to a certain point, especially in situations where I wanted to encourage other people…
-
“Yes To The Mess” (Book Review)

In May last year, I attended a great talk by Ken Norton – partner at Google Ventures – titled Product Managers: Make Yourself Uncomfortable. In his talk, Ken talked about the book Yes To The Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz by Frank J. Barrett, a management consultant and jazz pianist. Ken talked about feeling uncomfortable, his point being that…
-
My Product Management Toolkit (9): Playing Devil’s Advocate

How often do you get agitated when someone starts challenging your product idea? What’s your typical reaction when people ask critical questions about your assumptions or an idea that you’ve come up with? I have to admit that I’ve learned – and will continue to learn – to not take challenges or criticism personally. I…
-
Jeff Gothelf and Lean UX

In case you don’t know, I’m a big advocate of “Lean UX” and the work of Jeff Gothelf on this topic. It was Jeff who originally coined the term ‘Lean UX’ and wrote a great book about it, together with Josh Seiden. In short, Lean UX is all about not doing all your product design…
