How do we learn as Product Managers?
I woke up this December morning and decided that I will write about what and how I am learning in my carrier as a Product Manager. I learned that the best way to deepen what you read is by writing about it and talk about it.
I will start by sharing my experience.
I started working as a Product Manager 4 years ago, learning to do my job by copying what the other Product Managers in the company were doing. To be honest was the hard way to learn, because I had to filter what I was liking/not liking from the others. It’s not the wrong way to learn, but was the hard way to learn for me.
Now, I changed companies and my learning approach changed as well. I started reading books about Product Development, attending events for Product Managers, attending the Community of Practice inside the company and I love it. It’s another level to learn for me.
I learn the theory from the books and I go put it into practice inside the company.
I share my learning with the team, explain what I learn and this strengthens my understanding about the topic. We simply grow our knowledge together.
Let me share the first book that I read about Product Management and I deeply recommend it:
The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen
This book helped me:
- Determine the target customers
- How to identify underserved customer needs
- How to create winning product strategy
- How to define a MVP
- How to design a MVP prototype
- How to test a MVP with customers
- How to iterate rapidly to achieve product market fit
- Know lots of practical examples
Final Notes
I will be sharing further knowledge that I gather from reading books, putting the theory into practice and how it turned out, which things didn’t work out as expected. Hopefully my experience relates with others as well.
