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Mind the Product

Product Management

The executive product leader persona

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Eira is an editor for Mind the Product. She's been a business journalist, editor, and copywriter for longer than she cares to think about.

Eira Hayward

<p>We’re another month into 2022, a month that saw Mind the Product run a successful <a href="https://mtpdevwpe.wpengine.com/category/product-roadmap/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">focus week on roadmapping</a>, and a leadership panel on navigating difficult relationships. Here’s a recap of our most-read articles from February.</p>
<h2>How to get the most value out of your product roadmap</h2>
<p>This article, written by Paul van den Broek, Product Manager at Dutch software company Coosto, runs through what a roadmap is and &#8211; just as importantly &#8211; what it isn’t. It’s not a list of features or a deadline management tool, rather an instrument to align, prioritise, track progress, and communicate your product development and strategy over time, aligned with your business goals.</p>
<p>Paul then looks at different ways roadmaps may be set up depending on the company and phase of the product and at how you can use your roadmap to support making product decisions based on value. He emphasises that the roadmap is a living artefact and a valuable asset. It should be considered to be a shared source of truth about the direction of product development and therefore the way you communicate about it is fundamental.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://mtpdevwpe.wpengine.com/how-to-get-the-most-value-out-of-your-product-roadmap/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How to get the most value out of your product roadmap</a></em></p>
<h2>Roadmaps: break the rules without breaking the principles</h2>
<p>Mind the Product’s Managing Director Emily Tate digs into the dates/no dates roadmap debate in this article. She offers some advice on how to both keep your roadmap date-free by stealth and when to cave in to inevitable pressure and give a roadmap item a date. As Emily says: “It is easy to break the common rules of roadmapping, especially when it makes your executives happy. It is very difficult to do it well, and to not let it take you down the path to becoming a feature factory. But if you really understand the problems you’re trying to solve in a flexible roadmap, you can find ways to achieve your goals without adhering to the ‘perfect’ format.”</p>
<p><em><a href="https://mtpdevwpe.wpengine.com/roadmaps-break-the-rules-without-breaking-the-principles/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Roadmaps: break the rules without breaking the principles</a></em></p>
<h2>Product manager zero: How to be number one</h2>
<p>In this post, we talk to a number of product managers to find out what it’s like to be the first product hire in a business and what skills and qualities you need to possess.</p>
<p>Being PM Zero can be overwhelming &#8211; like drinking from the fire hose &#8211; say our contributors, so a calm and structured approach needs to be combined with a willingness to help out whenever and wherever you’re needed. They offer some useful advice on dos and don’ts to help make the role a success.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://mtpdevwpe.wpengine.com/product-manager-zero-how-to-be-number-one/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Product manager zero: How to be number one</a></em></p>
<h2>3 ways product managers’ roles have evolved &#8211; and where they’re headed next</h2>
<p>Over the last few years, advances in technology, changing supply chains and evolving customer expectations have all wrought big changes to the way product managers do their jobs. This article from Maziar Adl, Co-founder and CTO of Gocious, looks at these past changes and looks forward to how the role will almost certainly change in the future.</p>
<p><a href="https://mtpdevwpe.wpengine.com/3-ways-product-managers-roles-have-evolved-and-where-theyre-headed-next/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>3 ways product managers’ roles have evolved &#8211; and where they’re headed next</em></a></p>
<h2>Effective communication with software engineers</h2>
<p>Simon Munoz says that learning to communicate effectively with your engineering team is undoubtedly one of the skills that you will get the most out of in your career as a product manager. He offers no less than 11 strategic pieces of advice to help you improve your working relationship with software engineers, much of which could also be successfully applied to other functions in the business.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://mtpdevwpe.wpengine.com/effective-communication-with-software-engineers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Effective communication with software engineers</a></em></p>
<h2>Coming up in March</h2>
<p>There are plenty more exciting pieces of content to unpack in March. To ensure you won’t miss out on a thing, keep your eyes peeled on our <a href="https://mtpdevwpe.wpengine.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">homepage</a> as well as visiting the <a href="https://mtpdevwpe.wpengine.com/membership/leader/dashboard/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">membership dashboard</a>.</p>
<div class="g g-21"><div class="g-single a-93"><a class="gofollow" data-track="OTMsMjEsMSw2MA==" href="https://mtpdevwpe.wpengine.com/product-management-training/public-workshops/communication-alignment-workshop/"><img decoding="async" src="https://mtpdevwpe.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Training-CA-layer-of-strategy-FOOTER-scaled.jpg" /></a></div></div>

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Product Management Skills

Don’t convince. Inspire! – Lessons on storytelling by Petra Wille

Strengthening collaboration between business and product

Taming the roadmap circus by Maarten Dalmijn

Design for cognitive Bias by David Dylan Thomas

The role of the first product manager by Andrew Moll

It’s all about the outcome by Georgie Smallwood

Transition from a Feature Factory to Business Impact team by Sandra Hinz

Sharpening your product craft as an internal product manager by Alison Hickson

From burnout to bounceback by Sara Wachter-Boettcher

The importance of EQ for product development teams by Nikkia Reveillac

February’s top product management content

ProductTank Tallinn

ProductTank Norwich

ProductTank Portland

ProductTank Abu Dhabi

ProductTank Manchester

ProductTank Newcastle Upon Tyne

ProductTank Milton Keynes

ProductTank London

ProductTank Jacksonville

ProductTank Phoenix

ProductTank Ljubljana

ProductTank Belgrade

ProductTank Bologna

ProductTank Edinburgh

ProductTank München

ProductTank Birmingham

ProductTank Porto

ProductTank Pune

ProductTank Chennai

ProductTank Genève

ProductTank Heidelberg

ProductTank Málaga

ProductTank Paris

ProductTank Hamburg

ProductTank Kraków

ProductTank Riga

ProductTank Reading

ProductTank San Francisco

ProductTank Goiania

ProductTank Des Moines

ProductTank Bangkok

ProductTank Canberra

ProductTank Dubai

ProductTank Valencia

ProductTank Madrid

ProductTank Düsseldorf

ProductTank Bucharest

ProductTank Raleigh

ProductTank Warsaw

ProductTank Bielefeld

ProductTank Bern

ProductTank Tokyo

ProductTank Pittsburgh

ProductTank Cardiff

ProductTank Krakow

ProductTank NYC

Product Leadership Course

ProductTank Recife

ProductTank Dublin

Member AMA: Unpacking User Research with Laura Klein

ProductTank Copenhagen

Trainer-Led Workshops

ProductTank Tauranga

World Product Day

Member AMA with Ken Norton

#mtpcon London+EMEA 2022 Workshops

#mtpcon London+EMEA 2022 Conference

February’s top product management content

Eira Hayward

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