The fall is going to be so rough for US teachers due to a complete lack understanding of technology by superintendents and how terrible some educational platforms are. /1
My boufriend’s mom is a 2nd grade teacher. Last night she told me her school district decided that everyone is moving to Canvas. Elementary, middle, and high school. /2
Now I use Canvas at HBS. It’s SO not user friendly.
His mom was telling me they had just got everything set up on Google Classroom for their elementary school in the spring and this was completely sprung on them because the school district wanted to “consolidate”. /2
How did they choose to consolidate? They figured out what the high school needed and decided every other school would use it too. No research. No talking to teachers or parents. /3
So the teachers, who btw we’re paying nothing in this country, have to re-learn how to completely do their job.
They sent them to a training for Canvas that started with “well we don’t have time for a full training so we’re just going to move along.” /4
The teachers are mostly older too in this public school in PA, and are not the best with tech. They don’t need to be, second grade isn’t all about tech.
So now they’re panicking about learning a completely new software and spending their whole summer doing that. /5
And all you parents out there of elementary kids, guess what. Now you have to learn too!
What an epic failure all around. /6
The need for good educational software is now more important than ever, but I feel like it won’t even matter if our school districts don’t understand how to buy technology. /7
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There's been a lot of talk about #Airbnb "getting rid" of the #prodmgmt role. From what I can tell, they are morphing this into a more business related role, rather than purely tech. I don't think this is a bad thing. /1
PM has always firmly sat between business, tech, and the user/customer. In SAAS companies, the Product Management role has always been about figuring out how to grow the business by solving customer problems with the right software. /2
In other companies that are not software-native, you saw this being done by GMs of the business, but with the tools available to drive business at the time - sales, marketing, and human operations. /3
I find it funny how many people are asking me what the alternative to SAFe is, like there aren’t thousands of successful companies out there building products without it…
Those who are asking this don’t want to hear the truth, and the truth is context matters for what you implement for each company. So there’s no “one framework to rule them all”. It’s incredibly hard work to set this up in companies BUT there are principles which remain constant.
And that was the point of @cagan’s talk and what I talk about in the Build Trap, etc.
So no, I can’t give you a pretty little diagram where everyone has a box and it defines specifically what to do. I honestly wish I could!
Five things I wish I could go back and tell myself when I was starting in #prodmgmt 🧵/1
You don't have to come up with all the ideas. Ideas can come from anywhere. It's your job to make sure they are the right ideas for the business and the customer /2
Check your ego. While being confident when communicating is important as a Product Manager, you do not want to be perceived as an asshole. #prodmgmt is about influence, not authority. /3
1. Focusing too much on processes and ignoring the roadmap.
While you have to implement the process and structure for the organization, remember you're also the person responsible for vision and direction. You need to balance working on both of these things.
2. Blaming others
"I can't do this because the CXO won't let me." You're now a leader, it's up to you to usher things through. You shouldn't be asking permission of the other leaders, you should be working with them.
No one is coming to save you. You got to take initiative.
Ah airport layovers, time for a thread that keeps coming up.
How do I convince my executives to change/ do things I’d like them to do as good #prodmgmt. Here’s my tips. 🧵 /1
The thing I see people do most often that doesn’t work is not taking the time to understand how other people are being judged for success and what matters to them.
You have to learn to put your proposal in terms that will help the other person. /2
For example, say you have a problem with the Head of Sales. How are they judged for success?
Bookings, new sales, new logos, revenue growth.
Their comp is tied to it. How do you think they feel when you say you need to deprioritize something that they *think* will make $$? /3