Twitter Summaries
I am a regular user of Twitter, as I’m sure anyone visiting this blog can tell. I’ve toyed with using Twitter Tools for my blog to get a summary of my tweets posted everyday, but I really didn’t like the idea of having a plug-in do this and futz around with creating an actual blog post on here.
So, I’ve found a solution. Actually, 2. If you really want to see a summary of my online activity you can check out:
The Tumblr is only Twitter and and RSS summary feed of Write That Down. The FriendFeed really includes a bunch of other things within the summary. I also have a FireEagle account that I can’t wait to include in the sidebar - they just need to get some of their widgets (and mobile application!) all finished off and released before that happens.
Presentation This Morning
I had a presentation this over via conference call; from my point of view, it went great. I’m going to get some survey results later in the week that could either prove me to be somewhat right or completely off the mark.
Jeff Lash was kind enough to contact me about taking part in an ongoing session he organizes for the product management teams at Elsevier. We decided that I would discuss working with development; a subject I am quite familiar with from my time in start-ups to this point in my career, and having started out as a developer myself.
One of the interesting things I noted was that even though I’m a start-up guy and Elsevier is a much larger organization than what I’m used to, the concepts all held water. Some language was different or org structures were different, but 99% of what I wanted to say was still true. Very cool stuff.
In the same style as my talk with the Product Management View, I kept my deck very, very minimal. I figure, unless I’m face-to-face, I don’t want to have distracting pictures and other “hilarious” bits in there. Just the facts. 3-4 points or less per slide. When I get going, I’ll only use the slide headers as guidance. Sometimes I’ll reference points on the slide itself, but usually, I just keep it pretty loose.
You can download the deck if you are interested in checking it out.
Anyway, enough about what I like to do during presentations. The group that joined in on the call was amazing - they had some fantastic questions and really seemed to get something out of it. To the best of my knowledge, no one fell asleep, which is a metric I like to use when gauging my success of speaking to a group.
I know there are some PMs reading this out there. I encourage you, a lot, to contact Jeff Lash to discuss taking part in his sessions. It’s a great experience, Jeff is a super smart and nice guy, and plus you get to talk about something you (hopefully) really love - product management.
Thanks again for the great opportunity, Jeff!
New Mahalo Page
I know I haven’t been doing very much posting around here as of late - for that, I do apologize. I’ve been super busy at the new gig building out some key deliverables with the team and working on some getting some big initiatives under way for 2008.
Also, I’m writing up a new answer to a question from the Jeff Lash site Ask a Good Product Manager, as well as a presentation (How to Work With Development) that I’ll be doing for some of Jeff’s co-workers next week. I’m really excited about it, to be sure.
I just wanted to point out that I’ve contributed some links to a new Mahalo page for product management and wanted to encourage all the readers out there to add their own. I really believe in Mahalo and what Jason Calacanis and his team is building; I think it’s great and I’ve had it set as my home page for some time now.
Add whatever links you find valuable to you so we can have another great resources for the PMs out there looking for information and knowledge.
UPDATE: I received an e-mail from a Mahalo guide that the page has been recognized internally and they are buiding it out / adding it to their “official” set of pages. Keep recommending those links, everyone!
TPMA Event Recap
Well, the TPMA thing last night at Metro Hall was kinda dry. Sales processes & workflows. Spicy.
Just as I was about to speak up that PMs really want to deal with Sales people as little as possible - and typically any info that’s coming in from reps in the field is generally riddled with holes to make the rep that provided it look good, Russell Foy from Ryma beat me to the punch.
He had some great comments that were 100% spot on. The bottom line is, consultants usually want to implement deep processes that are “measurable” and “gather data.” A consultant was presenting. While I’m sure he’s very good at his job and has a lot of experience, let’s be honest. The real world works a little bit different; at least, in start-ups it does.
I hope to make it to the next TPMA event to see if the presentation is a little bit more lively - but if the discussion from the audience promises to be similar, I’m there.
Thanks to the folks at the TPMA for putting the event on. I’m a big supporter of building the product management community, and now that I’m back in Toronto if you ever need help, I’m there.
Ask a Good Product Manager
I wanted to draw some more attention to a new blog that Jeff Lash has launched called Ask a Good Product Manager. Jeff is doing some great things for the community (and is a great PM) and made me realize I need to get my blogging butt back in gear here.
Also, as an aside, I will be at the PM seminar in Toronto tonight for the TPMA. If you are available to come / are in the area, look for me — I’ll be there eating a lot of pizza.
