Have you heard? My new book Continuous Discovery Habits is now available. Get the product trio's guide to a structured and sustainable approach to continuous discovery. 2013 was a great year for Product Talk. I published 52 posts (including this one), I met a number of readers at meet ups, the Startup Product Summit, and at ProductCampSF, and I met so many more of you virtually through office hours and email.
I started this blog to clarify my thoughts about building great products. I wanted to be deliberate about mastering my craft It’s been great to see that others are getting value out of it as well.
I have a number of big things planned for 2014. I’ll be launching a new look, a weekly newsletter, and a lot more structure around how I think about building products.
My goal is to double the number of posts in 2014, with a renewed focus on cognitive science, behavioral economics, human psychology, and learning theory as they relate to building products. But we’ll talk more about that in January.
In the meantime, please enjoy the 10 most popular posts of 2013.
1. So You Want To Be a Product Manager
My most popular articles by far are those geared toward people who want to become product managers. Finding your next job is hard enough, but it can be even more overwhelming when you also want to shift careers. This series outlines how to do just that and includes real-world stories from people who successfully made the shift.
And for those of you who already work in product and are looking for your next gig, be sure to check out my advanced series, which begins with How Not To Find a Product Job.
2. Writing Acceptable Acceptance Criteria
This was one of many articles in my series on how to write better user stories. Acceptance criteria is an often overlooked part of requirements writing, but if you want to build high-quality product it’s important not to overlook it.
3. The 7 Core Traits of a Good Product Manager
I think a lot about what it takes to be a good product manager and this was my first cut at what I think distinguishes the best from the rest. I’ll be working on another iteration on this and much more in 2014.
4. How to Find Common Ground When Engineers Don’t Like Features
It’s easy to blame each other when we disagree and that’s never productive. This article outlines a better way to reconcile differences by understanding Chris Argyris’ ladder of inference.
5. User Stories Are Better Than PRDs
As mentioned above, I wrote an entire series on how to write better user stories and this post kicked it off.
6. How To Talk To Your Customers (Despite What Henry Ford and Steve Jobs Said)
With the growth in popularity of customer development, this article has gained in popularity. It’s easy to be told you need to talk to customers, it’s a whole other ball game to actually do it and do it well. This article includes some great tips and gets specific, down to the exact words to use.
7. 5 Steps for How to Develop Empathy
Empathy is one of the traits identified in the 7 core traits of a good product manager. This article includes many activities you can do to develop your sense of empathy. Who couldn’t benefit from that? Share it with all your friends.
8. How To Frame Your Product Vision
This was one of my earliest posts. I’ll be writing a lot about defining your product vision in 2014, but this should give you a small taste in the meantime.
9. User Stories Aren’t as Simple as They Seem
It’s really easy to half-ass your user stories. But if you want to get value out of them, you have to put the work in. If you start every user story with, “As a user, I …” drop everything and go read this article.
10. Is Your Idea a Viable Business?
This is a recent article that I wrote in response to this question from Startup Edition: How do you turn your idea into a startup? It’s a common question. Everyone has ideas. How do you know which ones are worth pursuing? Read the article to find out.
That’s the top ten. Once again, thanks for reading. I really appreciate all your comments and feedback. It’s been an amazing year.
2014 is going to be even better. Don’t miss out on great content in the new year. Be sure to subscribe to my mailing list.
Here’s to a great 2014. Happy New Year!
