This Week in Product – Nov. 30, 2018

Getting Back in the Habit

Everybody is busy and everybody has their own experiences. Sometimes we can feel completely overwhelmed at work, and to top it off we all also have personal lives too. When we have all these things going on, it can be hard to come up for air and recognize how good we truly have it.

It’s been a while since we rounded up all the goodness of the product Internet, but we’re getting back in the habit. What better way to get back in the game than with this great quote from Jim Semick, founder of ProductPlan (who is a friend of the ‘Craft and has been a guest on our podcast). Jim writes about how to build a habit of gratitude in the workplace, something that I think is particularly pertinent to PMs, whose job can sometimes feel thankless.

Going Head to Head

We’ve featured a few debates that pitted product and marketing against each other, and so it was interesting to see this piece from Brian de Haaff, the prolific CEO of Aha! It’s a great primer for leaders from product and marketing on how to work together collaborative, lead by example, and align their goals so that their departments can flourish together. A great read for sitting VPs and those aspiring to become leaders in their respective fields.

Product Penetration ✓

My daughter just called me “Alexa” by mistake

— Sarah Perez (@sarahintampa) November 30, 2018

I’m a big fan of tech journalist Sarah Perez, and this tweet gave me a good chuckle this morning. Kudos to the Alexa product team for building such a delightfully maternal product.

Product Design Dream Job

Last night I got to have dinner with a couple of Cloud 100 product leaders, and one of them was telling me about the awesome design team that he’s building over at iCims. What’s a design lab? A place for UX researchers, information architects, and UX designers to work together to build exceptional product experiences. If you’re in the NJ area, check it out!