Startup founders, who are often very happy to stay hands-on with their team’s software development, will eventually have to step out of those weeds to focus on bigger and better things. When managing the day-to-day development turns into a full time job, it’s time to add a new role: product…

All managers have a responsibility to shield our teams from the distraction and stress of outside influences. Product managers, specifically, work hard to create tightly prioritized sprints for high priority releases that can easily be pulled off course by a seemingly innocent conversation. Protect your team from the uncertainty that…

One of my greatest challenges as a product manager of a startup has always been making time to do the actual product management work. The day-to-day project management that falls on this role, quick feedback needed on delivered work and the never-ending need to address blockers were always more urgent…

Getting more out of the team you have, and making them happier, too — You’d like to start shipping new features more quickly, and you’ve wondered if your team’s productivity could be boosted with some process improvements. You can always hire more people, but there might be a cheaper way to get a more done faster. Here are a few common process efficiency flags…

Leveraging Agile to Showcase Your Value — While not all Product Managers enjoy handling the project management of their team’s software development, I believe this structure has its benefits, especially at smaller organizations. A blended product/project manager can add a lot of value by leveraging Agile, freeing up the founder to do what they should be doing…

As the founder, you’ve been doing fine directing your designers and engineers on your own so far. You’ve all been collaborating really well, and you like being able to give feedback every step of the way. Maybe that will continue to work well for a while. But maybe it’s occurred…

Recently, a Reddit post on Mental health as Product Managers inspired me to write about what I do to feel in control in a busy, fragmented role. After all, the variety is what I love about the job, but that variety can pull you in too many directions, spread you…

Apply Agile to your morning to make time for the most important stuff. — As a software product manager, I’m a big fan of the power that Agile has given me to get important things done in a predictable, scheduled and flexible way. Sometimes I even think about the concept of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product, or the core solution to a problem) as…

Other than the unsurprising realization that I really don’t know much about city planning and traffic management, here are some interesting take-aways from the workshop on Brooklyn’s latest proposed bike lane. 4th Ave used to be 6 lanes. They had to present plans to the CB twice to get the…