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Continuous learning as a Product Manager

If ChatGPT and its AI clones teaches us anything, it’s that the environment in which your product exists is ever changing. If you want to be an effective product manager, you need to stay current on the trends in your industry (and others) and new techniques for managing products. A good way to stay up to speed is to make continuous learning a habit. Here are some suggestions on how you can make that happen. 

How to choose the best product management training for you. As a product manager, you’re responsible for the whole product lifecycle, from ideas generation to market research and post-launch analysis. You also have to balance the needs of your customers against those of your organization. To deal with all this responsibility, there are essential skills you need to master, and that’s where product management training comes in. Will Hillier explores everything you need to know about the different product management training options so you can hone your skills and take your career to the next level.

(via @careerfoundry)

12 Important product manager skills you need to succeed. Deep knowledge about their product isn't the only thing Product Managers have in their repertoire. The most successful also continuously work on their people skills to innovate more efficient processes and more capable team members. To succeed, product managers strive for improvement in an ever-changing and often complex industry. Joey Muething looks at the hard and soft product management skills you need to take your skill set to the next level.

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What do you get with Product Collective Pro?

• Access to small-group, expert-led sessions (2x/month) – with early sessions led by April Underwood, Ash Maurya, Bob Moesta, April Dunford, and others!
• Quarterly, live, intensive half-day virtual workshops
• Curated educational resources
• 100+ hours of on-demand videos on Product Strategy, Discovery, and more.
• Access to two full-day Virtual Conferences each year. 
• A collaborative community platform designed for members to learn from and support each other – with interactive virtual meetups held each month.

The problem with live demos

One of the biggest tech products unveiled over the past several months has been Open AI’s ChatGPT product. It’s taken the world by storm, and – could you believe that this post is actually being written by ChatGPT?! (Just kidding… it’s not.  Or is it? 🤔)

Anyway, now that we’ve seen the “strategy” of Venture Capitalists pivot from Web3 to AI – there’s been money flowing to lots of potential competitors. Of course, one such competitor to step up to OpenAI isn’t a fledgling startup company, but rather one of the big tech behemoths in Alphabet / Google as they officially announced Bard.

In fact, Bard is getting a lot of attention for a very public demo that was shown off. The problem is, the attention isn’t exactly so positive… as Bard made an error in its very first public demo. 

That’s sort of the problem with demos, isn’t it? They can be very useful to help show the public what the future may be like. But when they go awry… they can certainly do more harm than good.

To be fair, Bard isn’t the first product to fall victim to Demo Doom. You probably remember when Tesla’s shatterproof Cybertruck windows… shattered. And even the great Steve Jobs has had to endure a live demo fail when his iPhone wouldn’t connect to the internet properly. 

Of course, this isn’t all to say that we should stay away from live demos. When they go right, they can certainly be powerful. But… they better go right!

How an education program helped this product manager land her dream role at Spotify. Like many young professionals, Christina Gilligan felt like she was at a standstill in her career. In 2021, after years building a resume in tech and product management, she was feeling restless in her position at an advertising agency. In her search for her next move, Gilligan signed up for a 6-month certificate on product management, a personal investment that felt well worth the potential ROI. Gilligan recently spoke with Employee Benefit News about the importance of education platforms as an alternative for employees looking to upskill, and how her experience and expanded education landed her a dream job at Spotify. 

(via @EBNbenefitnews)

Learning to learn: 5 tips to master any product management domain. Software products exist in virtually every sector, from healthcare and fitness to food and finance. As a result, the average product manager’s career path may span several industries. Switching industries is beneficial to individuals seeking to broaden their experience. As a product manager, you need to gain an understanding of the key aspects of a new field quickly in order to serve your company. While learning on the job is inevitable, you will probably need basic domain knowledge during the application or interview stage to land the role. Milos Belcevic provides 5 recommendations on how to quickly gain industry expertise so that you can be a more effective product manager.

(via @toptal)

5 Ways to Acquire New Skills Without Going Back to School. Whether you want to change jobs or prepare for the next-level role, the most important thing to know about upskilling is that every employee needs to do it all the time. Jobs are changing as business demands change, and organizations continue to expect more from their product managers. There are plenty of ways to educate yourself and upskill without going back for a traditional undergraduate or graduate degree. Marlo Lyons presents five ways to upskill without going back to school.

(via @HarvardBiz)

Product Collective's Talent initiative already introduced 36 candidates to companies hiring! As a refresher, if you're looking for a new job, you can apply here and companies will be reaching out to you about their open roles.

There are 10+ companies hiring from Talent now. Check out a few highlights from this week:

• Mos (Series B, backed by Tiger Global)
• Rippling (Series D, backed by Sequoia)
• Stelo Labs (Seed Stage, Backed by Andreessen Horowitz)

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