21 essential TED talks for PMs:
1. How giant websites design for you (and a billion others, too) by @mags

· VP of product design at Meta walks you through their design process.

· Demonstrates how billion-person design requires audacity & humility.

· Shows how to design with data.

ted.com/talks/margaret…
2. Don't Listen To Your Customers - Do This Instead by @bermster

· Explains you can’t always trust what people say about the past.

· People barely know how they feel now.

· People poorly forecast the future as well.

· Behavioral design is the answer.

ted.com/talks/kristen_…
3. How to speak so that people want to listen by @juliantreasure

Explains 7 deadly sins of speaking:

· Gossip
· Judging
· Negativity
· Complaining
· Blaming
· Exaggeration
· Dogmatism

ted.com/talks/julian_t…
4. How to write less but say more by @JimVandeHei

· Explains almost nobody listens to or reads most of what you write.

· People read at most for 26 seconds.

· The antidote? Smart Brevity.

ted.com/talks/jim_vand…
5. What it takes to be a great leader
by Roselinde Torres

· Explains how important it is to preparing not for the comfortable predictability of yesterday.

· Great leaders prepare for all of those unknown possibilities of tomorrow.

ted.com/talks/roselind…
6. What I learned from going blind in space by @Cmdr_Hadfield

· Helps you internalize how danger is entirely different than fear.

· Inspires you: “I guarantee if you walk through 100 spiderwebs you will have changed your fundamental human behavior.”

ted.com/talks/chris_ha…
7. The art of choosing by @Sheena_Iyengar

· Demonstrates how change is a creative process.

· Shows how many false assumptions about choice we make.

ted.com/talks/sheena_i…
8. Your elusive creative genius by @GilbertLiz

· Mega-successful author grapples with writing another creative masterpiece.

· Walks us through catching creativity by its tail.

ted.com/talks/elizabet…
9. The surprising science of happiness by @DanTGilbert

· Harvard professor walks through a series of mind-bending experiments.

· Synthetic happiness is as real as natural happiness.

· We have within us the capacity to manufacture what we’re chasing.

ted.com/talks/dan_gilb…
10. How to build a business that lasts 100 years by @MartinKReeves

· The average US public company now can expect a life span of only 30 years.

· Shows how you can think biologically to avoid this fate.

ted.com/talks/martin_r…
11. The secret to mastering life's biggest transitions by @BruceFeiler

· Goes through key lessons based on his life experiences.

· Linear life is dead.

· Non-linear life involves many more life transitions.

· Life transitions are a skill.

ted.com/talks/bruce_fe…
12. Grit: The power of passion and perseverance by @angeladuckw

· University of Pennsylvania professor, and author of the book Grit, breaks it down.

· Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals.

ted.com/talks/angela_l…
13. The single biggest reason why start-ups succeed by @Bill_Gross

· Legendary investor goes through 5 factors.

· Shows how timing accounted for 42 percent of the difference between success and failure.

ted.com/talks/bill_gro…
14. How a "Hi Level" mindset helps you realize your potential by @cordae

Grammy nominated hip hop artist walks you through his mantra:

· Always remain positive.
· Be intentional with your desires.
· Discipline.

ted.com/talks/cordae_h…
15. Inside the mind of a master procrastinator by @waitbutwhy

· Shows we should be aware of the instant gratification monkey.

· We don’t only want the panic monster motivating us.

· Long term procrastination in life is a tragedy.

ted.com/talks/tim_urba…
16. How to get your ideas to spread by @ThisIsSethsBlog

Shows 3 key rules:

· Design is free when you get to scale.
· The riskiest thing you can do now is be safe.
· Being very good is boring.

ted.com/talks/seth_god…
17. How to spot a liar by @Pamela_Meyer

· On a given day, studies show that you may be lied to anywhere from 10 to 200 times.

· Author of Liespotting goes through key steps to identify the lies.

ted.com/talks/pamela_m…
18. Creative problem-solving in the face of extreme limits by @NaviRadjou

Shows frugal innovation is about making high tech more affordable & accessible to more. 3 principles:

· Keep it simple.
· Do not reinvent the wheel.
· Think & act horizontally.

ted.com/talks/navi_rad…
19. How product design can change the world by @cmaats

· Shows how meaningful products are based on a belief system we can identify with.

· Inspires you to design products that fully align with your users’ lives.

20. The happy secret to better work by @shawnachor

· 90 percent of your long-term happiness is predicted not by the external world, but by the way your brain processes the world.

· Explains how to experience the happiness advantage.

ted.com/talks/shawn_ac…
21. How great leaders inspire action
by @simonsinek

· My favorite one: a masterclass in presentation.

· Each time you watch it, it gets better.

· Having the Apple lesson of how to market your products & ideas in your pocket is a secret weapon.

ted.com/talks/simon_si…
If you like product ted talks, you’ll love the product growth newsletter: aakashgupta.substack.com

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More from @aakashg0

Aug 21
Your roadmap is not a product strategy:
Of tasks a PM should do, strategy tends to be the most confused.

Too often, some window dressing on a roadmap is called strategy.

Strategy needs to be a level higher than roadmaps:

1. It connects vision & roadmap
2. It considers competition
3. It helps prioritize
1. It connects vision & roadmap

A simple heuristic to remember is the 5 questions.

· Why → Vision
· What → Strategy
· Who → Segmentation
· When → Roadmap
· How → Specifications
Read 11 tweets
Aug 19
Why managers should pay attention to Blind:
Blind is Glassdoor for 2022.

By enabling anonymous conversations, it is one of the few places for employees to discuss:

· Comp
· Layoffs
· Similar “taboo” topics

Last year, it raised a $37M Series C on the back of 5 million verified users, via slow & steady growth.
Managers of people should carve our some time to check it.

There are 4 key reasons:

1. It’s everyone’s job, not just HR’s
2. Potential employees care
3. The most honest source
4. Reveals blind spots

It’s a low-time commitment, high-ROI activity.
Read 10 tweets
Aug 18
Lessons from Teams beating Slack:

1. The rise of the B2B subscription
2. Enterprise via sales-led growth
3. How second-movers can win
4. The 80% rule Image
1. The rise of the B2B subscription

Companies are stuck with an increasing number of subscriptions:

· Dev wants DataDog & JIRA
· HR Workday & CultureAmp
· Design Figma & Photoshop
· Analytics Redshift & Snowflake

Each team has new requests.

CTOs are pulling their hair out.
Microsoft smartly responded to this new trend.

They already had fat profit margins on O365.

So, they pulled an Amazon Prime & added free features.

Teams, like Amazon Prime Video, was added free.

MS simplified life for CTOs.

And made the O365 profit-machine even stickier.
Read 13 tweets
Aug 17
People stop lying when you ask them for money:
Getting accurate info from your users is almost impossible.

And, yet, essential.

Ever build exactly what user research says…

Then have the feature flop?

Users lied until you asked for money.

It’s the curse of product discovery.

Follow these 11 tips to avoid it:
1. People will protect your feelings

It’s human nature.

Yes, there are the 5% of “mean”participants.

But the other 95% don’t want you to walk away sad and dejected.

So you have to cut out validation seeking questions.

And remove room for opinions.

Hence:
Read 16 tweets
Aug 16
PMs must be creative.

Brainstorms, features, communication, everything.

But, pop culture has been lying to us.

6 myths creativity research has disproven:
1. “You need a creative personality”

The mythology of the ‘creative’ has pervaded pop culture:

· Bob Marley
· Gal Gadot
· Picasso

But studies show ANYONE can be creative.

It just requires intentional work in an area of passion & expertise.
2. “Creativity happens when inspiration strikes”

It doesn’t.

It happens through iteration.

The first implementation will NOT be best.

Great creative works develop via consistent improvements.

As the founder of Pixar says:

“Every one of our films, when we start off, sucks.”
Read 9 tweets
Aug 15
Great product managers create power in a significant market.

There are 7 ways to achieve this power:
1. Process Power

Toyota is fully transparent about the Toyota Production System.

Why haven’t other companies been able to copy it?

Process power: an organization’s ability to build superior products.
It seems magical.

But it just comes from institutional knowledge around processes for:
· discovery
· execution
· & launching

For companies to emulate it takes years.

The takeaway:

PM’s must be constantly leveling up the org’s process power.
Read 12 tweets

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