I love asking my colleagues and friends in product management what they read to keep working on their craft, and I get asked this question fairly often too. I’ve regurgitated the same answer on various forums so I figured I would document it for everyone. My general advice on this is that less is more.Continue reading “Keeping up with product (blogs, newsletters)”
Author Archives: Nikitha
The Product Angle: Conversation with a Software & Non-Software PM
In this session, Pippa Gittings, Product Manager at the Natural History Museum in London (UK) and I compared and contrasted the experience of working as software and non-software PMs. Traditionally when we think about product management we tend to think about creating software products where the product is *generally* the business. However, if you’ve everContinue reading “The Product Angle: Conversation with a Software & Non-Software PM”
Influencing without authority
Influence without authority This is how I describe what day-to-day product management is like. I wish the whole “CEO of the product” thing was accurate, but mostly you’re just the “serf of product”. What this effectively means is that out of all the folks in an organization at a given point in time, PMs haveContinue reading “Influencing without authority”
August Reading List
I moved apartments this month, and let me tell you, regardless of how many times I’ve moved in the past five years, it’s still an ordeal every single time. On the plus side, I now live in walking distance to Christopher’s Books, which makes me very happy. I managed to squeeze five books in thisContinue reading “August Reading List”
July Reading List
I’m a bit late this month but this is a [short] list of the four books I read in July. A midpoint check shows I’ve read 54 books this year… The Cactus: A wannabe “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine”. There’s a lot said about the need for female protagonists in books and movies to beContinue reading “July Reading List”
Do you need an MBA to transition into product management?
Do I need an MBA to transition into product management? I get this question a lot and my answer really depends on who’s asking. There’s two parts of the question if you really want to unpack it Do you need an MBA (period) Do you need an MBA for product management I don’t want to conflate theContinue reading “Do you need an MBA to transition into product management?”
My top 5 PM tips
I apologize in advance for the Buzzfeed-style title but I promise this is not clickbait. My last few posts have been long and ramble-y so I figured I’d make this one short and actionable. Five somewhat pragmatic product management (PM) tips Never go into a meeting without a shared page Put everything into JIRA KeepContinue reading “My top 5 PM tips”
B2B versus B2C product management
I’ve made a lot of swerves and tried a bunch of things throughout my career. My first job was a software engineering role at a product development startup, and this was my first role at a B2B company. Then I switched to product management at a travel startup (think Tripadvisor) and this was as B2CContinue reading “B2B versus B2C product management”
June Reading List
June was an appalling month of reading for me. Coming back to San Francisco from India and all the uncertainty around the immigration ban certainly took it out of me. Anyway here’s the very short list of the 3 books I managed to squeeze in (favorite in bold as always). The Jetsetters: I don’t knowContinue reading “June Reading List”
There is no great UX without great CX
[UX: user experience, CX: customer experience, PM: product management] I gave what turned out to be a really fun talk organized by Hello Meets and this blog is a more succinct, written version of that presentation. The topic came to me when I realized how much of my PM role was happening at the peripheriesContinue reading “There is no great UX without great CX”