Looking Back On The First Year of Product Talk

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I started Product Talk in November 2011. It’s been a great first year of blogging. I’ve learned a lot.

Some posts that I thought would be hits didn’t gain traction and others that I thought would be sleepers really took off.

More importantly, I learned how much writing helps my own thought process. More often than not I was surprised by my own conclusions after writing a post.

And of course, I love the discussion that has started here on many posts. Nothing is more rewarding than having other people (many with product blogs that I’ve long respected) jump in and join the conversation.

I’m ending the year with a bunch of new subscribers and I want to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to read and encourage you to also join the conversation.

Here’s a review of my post popular posts from the first year of Product Talk.

User Stories Are Better Than PRDs

This has far and away been my post popular post of the year. When I wrote it, I thought I was writing the obvious. I was surprised at how many companies out there are still using a waterfall process and are still passing around long PRDs. It was a good reminder that the startup world is still very different from most places.

4 Questions I Always Ask When Interviewing Product Managers

I wrote this post when I was in the middle of phone screening a lot of product managers.  It really highlighted for me how disjointed and broad the field of product management is.

This post was so popular it inspired me to write a whole series on finding your first product management job, which is summarized in So You Want To Be A Product Manager, a popular post in its own right.

How To Talk To Your Customers

This was one of my earliest posts and still receives steady traffic. I think it really resonated with people. I regularly reread it myself as its a good reminder of how to get the most out of our meetings with customers and end-users.

How To Frame Your Product Vision

Another early post that really resonated, I wrote this post shortly after talking with an entrepreneur. He was frustrated and was making a very common mistake.

He was wedded to his product solution instead of the problem he was trying to solve. When he got feedback that his solution wasn’t working, it was devastating to him. This post is a great reminder that we need to focus on the problem that we are solving and remember that our potential solution is one of many.

Why Ignoring Bugs Will Make Your Product Better

This post surprised me. I had no idea it would be so controversial. Even though it’s a recent post, it is quickly climbing up my list of popular posts.

I really hit a nerve on this one. We all strive to build quality products and I certainly wasn’t arguing that we should ignore all bugs. I simply wanted to call in to question the laborious bug-tracking process many of us use to track many bugs that will never get resolved. I loved the response it got. This was a fun one.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading Product Talk half as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Here’s to even more in 2013.