Halt and catch fire: 7 ways it’ll help you to train your PM skills

I really love tech shows but Why do people still watch Silicon Valley? I don’t get it. I dropped out at the beginning of the second season. Fortunately, we have HCF. It hooks you up quietly, first through the halo of nostalgia and then with the cool characters. Before you realize, the plot smashes you down in each season getting more real, closer to you.

First of all, HCF shows different PM roles and it is interesting to analyze how they are & work, what motivate each of them, what they want:

• Tech PM by (Gordon Clark): Responsible to hit the deadlines, manage road map and to deliver tech innovation. “The Builder”
• Strategy PM (Joe McMillan): Focused on the product vision & customer experience. He wants to shape the market by his vision of the tech. “The visionary”
• Allroad PM (Donna Clark): Really involved to find the right product market fit to create and/or increase the business of her own startup or as a VC partner (trying to find the product that resonates). “The techie that evolves to a business profile”
• Cameron Howe: She is a developer, not a pure PM role but she acts as a PM when a) she envisions Mutiny (season 2), a gaming platform on the server side (before internet), and b) become game designer (season 3). She anticipates how users will interact with machines. “I don’t think you’re a game designer, I think you’re a world builder.”

Now, let’s get deeper on the reasons to watch HCF if you are a PM or you want to become PM:

1. First, you will learn about technology business in different cycles from PC first commercial launch to internet birth. Then, you could put yourself on character’s shoes trying to analyze the outcomes of every decision made by them if you don’t remember the real evolution of the technology.
2. You will understand how your product rely on other tech/business and how this dependency could impact your success possibilities (Mutiny: end of season). At the same time, you can understand how to create competitive advantage and build business walls to defend your market position.
3. Roadmaps decisions are tough, you can learn this in the first two seasons. You should be in love with the problem and not with the solution. And remember, the goal is to reach product market fit. (Mutiny games vs community)
4. The whole plot is not a story of success, it is a story that teach you a key life insight: The journey itself is the key to reach happiness and fulfillness as a person. Every role in the plot is seeking for career success as a vehicle to reach personal happiness, but every character approach it in a different way. In my experience: “Love what you do & work with passion to reach happiness, the outcome is not the key”
5. Small & smart teams can build company foundations reaching product market fit. Increase the number of people is a matter of scaling up the already established business. The other way around doesn’t work at all. 37Signals says: “Only hire when it hurts”
6. Startups are not as crazy, glamorous & fun as we might think. If you don’t have the chance to go around SF or the valley, this is a good way to stay grounded.
7. PM is all about people. You have 5–7 projects to work on your life, so be sure that most of them and people around you worth your time.

Besides all this PM-related reasons, there is a more obvious generic reason to watch HCF… because it’s FUN!!!