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A Product Manager’s Authority is Earned, Not Granted
This post originally appeared as a guest post on On Product Management blog. When was the last time you had to soothe your wounded ego with thoughts like these: I raised it to senior management, but...
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My past is digital (1981-2011)
Every once in a while I reminisce about the olden days. I know it must sound comical coming from someone who is turning 30 next month, but I’ve noticed the older I get the more frequent and urgent are...
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Whoring for Participation Points
Funny story. I met my future wife when we were both students at UC Berkeley. At some point we decided to take a class together, which was as much an academic decision as it was a decision to spend more...
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The Press Mating Dance
A few weeks ago I had the dubious honor of being a real spokesperson for a real launching product. Of course, all product managers are spokespeople in some capacity — we speak at conferences, we speak...
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What Build-Measure-Learn Is Not
Any framework or structured way of thinking is an opportunity for some structured abuse. Business frameworks like Build-Measure-Learn, which is at core of the Lean Startup Movement, are no exception....
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How to guilt trip yourself into blogging more
So I’ve let my blog go without a new post for almost a month now, which is a shame. In case you’ve missed it, and you would have since you cannot read my mind, my personal commitment, call it a …...
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Waiting for winds to change or setting on a different course
As I complete my tour of duty with the current (now former) employer there is plenty of time for quiet reflection… perhaps too much time for an unhealthy amounts of reflection. Did I do the right...
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Motivation is no less precious than execution
Changing jobs is one of those times when one cannot escape the task of going over the contents of My Documents folder and making sure that one’s contribution is not lost for humanity. I had the honor...
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Technical debt is a rabbit hole that goes deep, really deep…
I don’t care how brilliant a developer you are, every piece of code you will ever write will add to technical debt. Yes it will, and it will irritate you to no end. Technical debt is one topic that...
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Does proficiency mean you stop learning when you get good?
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about proficiency and skill. Where does proficiency come from? How can we quantify and measure it? How is it different from skills that non-practitioners have?...
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What’s wrong with a 10% chance to win $10?
So I finally managed to get a ticket to New York Tech Meetup. The day after I got the ticket I found out that I would be travelling on business on Tuesday and would not be able to attend. Bummer. …...
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Polling Hacker News: What should I build next?
Having implemented and launched a large swath of new Turn-O-Phrase functionality over the last 2 months (namely, the puzzle designer and the custom puzzle user flow), I find myself at the proverbial...
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2011 Recap: 80,000 miles, 3 moves, 2 new jobs, and more
To say it was a tumultuous year would not do it justice. To think it was only a year would be to underestimate it by at least a lifetime. It all started innocently enough in the middle of a snowy …...
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Defining the vision for Raffl
I am taking “How To Launch your Startup Idea for Less than $5,000″ class with Michael Karnjanaprakorn of SkillShare fame. For the first time this class is taught as a mix of interactive sessions,...
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The one interview question I always ask
I’ve just gotten past a peak interviewing period where I would interview 3-5 engineering and product management candidates every week. I’ve used this question for as long as I’ve interviewed people,...
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Does your project have magic code?
I love magic code. It’s both a sign of a rapidly evolving software where priorities are fluid and sometimes moving on is the only option, and a rapidly evolving organization where code ownership tends...
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Careers in Product Management: A Generalist’s Lament
When I interviewed for a technical product manager’s position with my current employer I was asked if my background managing a low-power wireless networking stack for embedded devices with 128K of...
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The precipitous slide into obscurity
Staying on top of social media and engaging with online communities — be it Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest — is turning us all into creatures driven by compulsion. Like sharks which must keep...
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Mission Statement – Keep and refine project ideas
When I am mulling over a new idea, I find that writing the idea down is a useful exercise for it forces you to structure your thoughts, to tease out the essentials, and to do away with obtrusive chaff...
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