Part of the Process

The past couple of weeks have given me opportunities to reflect on what I like about my job and previous experience. Partly because we are expanding the team at 15below , partly from doing a bit of coding. I have written a bit about becoming "post-technical"  in the past, but now is the first time I have done much code in years. The thing that I enjoy most is solving problems and helping people. Throughout my career solving business problems to help create positive outcomes has always been fulfilling. Now I get to help do that, then go back and refine the solutions. You don't always get to do that as a developer or in a project focused role. Side project Code wot I wrote The first bit of coding is on my side project . Martyn has created a great architecture and I contributed the project import from LinkedIn ( almost) all by myself. It feels to brilliant to code on a side project - you get a sense of achievement from seeing an idea come to life. It also provides...

Great look here at Product Analytics . Think I use about 5 tools altogether, and even with Google Analytics, I layer other tools on top to help make the data usable  Life Beyond Google Analytics: Pick the Best Tools for the Job Thinking about product culture started with the start of a new series on Medium from FutureLearn -  Using agile principles to develop company culture Part 1: Introduction  and it promises to be a great look at how a successful organisation in delivery can live the values of the agile manifesto. It was then a short step to  Stop Blaming, Start Innovating  a great article that teaches us that Innovation , like charity, begins at home. Thoughtworks have a similar take and say that  "Innovation is the key to unlocking a best practice culture" Thoughtworks, 2017 Next up were two posts that cover more of the nuts and bolts of Product Management work . The first was a round of top tips on  How to become a great Product Man...

I've had this book on preview as each chapter came out and I've finally had a chance to read the full release version. So before it gets officially launch at MTPCon on June 13th here is my round-up... Formats : Paperback, DAISY, ePub, Mobi, PDF Where can I get it?  From  O'Reilly , Amazon or .... any good bookshop, although I think there are currently only 500 physical copies left world wide!     Who is it for?  Anyone involved in a software product development team or a startup founder thinking about which roles to hire next.  What's it about?  Product management, product leadership, not just the overlap but also the differences. How to grow your career as you grow into product leadership and how to hire the role for senior management. What's the book like?  The book is divided into three sections: The Product Leader The Right Leader for the Right Time Working with Customers, Agencies, Partners, and External Stakeholders The ...

I am a big Werner Herzog fan. I love his movies. I love his interviews. He seems like the kind of person you would want at a dinner party. So I was intrigued when he appeared twice in my Twitter timeline this week. The first was a quote from an interview giving advice to young film makers "Technical knowledge inevitably becomes dated; the ability to adapt to change will always be more important." - Werner Herzog — Erik August Johnson (@eaj) September 6, 2016 I think that this is also great advice for developers starting out in their careers. People's problems and the work they do doesn't change as much as the underlying technology. This is a pretty simplistic example but I started running in 2009 and my experience is pretty much the same: I listen to upbeat music of my choosing I get statistics recorded of my performance I can share those statistics on Facebook or Twitter To support that I am on the the fourth device with about 6 different operat...

The past week I have been getting through my backlog of books and reading Jolt by Justin Jackson. So without further ado, here is my first book review! Formats : ePub, Mobi, PDF Where can I get it? Directly from the author via  https://justinjackson.ca/jolt/ Who is it for? As the site says it is "A book for programmers, designers, freelancers, makers, and entrepreneurs." What's it about? How to sell and connect with your market. This isn't a guide, or even a replacement, for traditional marketing. But ways of getting people interested in your new side project or start up. This is much more about authentic community building and engagement, the selling almost seems to be a byproduct. What's the book like? Each chapter follows a similar style starting with an anecdote. Next is a description of the theory the anecdote displayed. Finally, the chapter finishes with some practical ideas. This takes the theory and presents it in ways that you can apply i...

I have written this blog post as a reflection on what has occupied me a lot in the past 3 months. After finishing my Post graduate Certificate in Technol ogy Manage ment with the O pen U niversity I was looking at what to do next in continuing my education - being a life long learner! I was looking at different online plat forms for interesting courses.  I was looking at sites like Coursera and  Future Learn , when I came across a new extension to Harvard Business School and a course they run called HBX CORe. This one paragraph pitch they provide sums it up pretty well: HBX CORe (Credential of Readiness) is a 120-150 hour certificate program on the fundamentals of business from Harvard Business School. CORe is comprised of three courses - Business Analytics, Economics for Managers, and Financial Accounting – developed by leading Harvard Business School faculty and delivered in an active learning environment based on the HBS signature case-based learning mod...