Tag Archives: skills

A Learning Roadmap for Product People

Working in product management can be very rewarding. But it can also be very challenging. One of the reasons is the diverse skills that are needed to succeed as the person in charge of the product. To acquire and deepen them, you will benefit from a focused learning plan. This article discusses such a plan in the form of a learning roadmap. I explain what a learning roadmap is, how you can create one, and how you can effectively put the plan into action and become an even better product professional.

A Learning Roadmap for Product People

Working in product management can be very rewarding. But it can also be very challenging. One of the reasons is the diverse skills that are needed to succeed as the person in charge of the product. To acquire and deepen them, you will benefit from a focused learning plan. In this episode, I discusses such a plan in the form of a learning roadmap. I explain what a learning roadmap is, how you can create one, and how you can effectively put the plan into action and become an even better product professional.

Six Types of “Product” Owners

While the product owner role is not new—it emerged in Scrum in the second half of the 1990ies—there is still confusion about what it means to be a product owner. It’s not uncommon for me to meet someone who refers to themself as a product owner, only to discover that they own a product part but not the entire product. Other times, I meet someone who says they are a product owner. But it turns out that the person manages several products, an entire product portfolio. This article helps you reflect on and improve the way the product owner role is applied at your workplace. It describes six common types of “product” owners. It shows how the roles differ and relate to each other, and it explains how you can effectively apply them.

Growth Mindset in Product Management

Learning is crucial for us product people. As our products change and eventually mature, we must change the way we manage them. As our jobs change, and we have to grow into them and acquire new skills. Additionally, product management is a comparatively young profession that is still evolving; new models and techniques emerge. This article discusses how embracing a growth mindset helps you succeed as a product professional.

Digital Transformation and Product Management

Digital transformations often focus on new technologies, agile practices, and new business models. While these are undoubtedly important, a further success factor is sometimes overlooked: product management. In this article, I share my tips for establishing an effective product management function to achieve a successful digital transformation, offer the right customer experience, and help unlock the organisation’s innovation potential.

Product Leadership in Scrum

Product owners can take on too many responsibilities, become too tactical and inward-focused, and lose sight of their main job: maximising the value a product creates. Instead of managing the team or establishing the right process, product owner should manage the product and exercise product leadership, as I explain in this article.

Do Product Owners Need Technical Skills?

As a product owner, you look after a digital product and work with a development team. Does this mean that you require technical skills? Should you be able to program and write code? Or is it sufficient that you take an interest in software technology and leave the rest to the team? This post shares my answers and recommendations.

The Desirable Characteristics of a Product Owner

I often get asked what characteristics a product owner should exhibit. Even though the answer depends on a number of factors including the type of the product, its importance, complexity and newness as well as the size of the project, successful product owners I have worked with share the attributes discussed in this post.