10 Talks Taught Me Most About Product Management

1- Where Does Growth Come From? By Prof.Clayton Christensen

What I’ve learned: how to identify your customers’ real needs for which they hire your product? how to understand who is your real competitor and how to organize your product offerings around a customer job that needs to be done.

2- Steve Jobs The Lost Interview

What I’ve learned: this 1-hour interview with Steve jobs is a true masterclass on product management; you shouldn’t miss this talk if you would like to learn what it would take to turn an idea into a great product, the dangers of getting fanatic about any process, and more.

Below is a short preview of this interview ( full version here on Amazon Prime)

3- Product Strategy: The Missing Link” by Marty Cagan

What I’ve learned: what is & isn’t product strategy, and why is it so hard for companies? what are the main building blocks of a good product strategy? 

4- Introduction to Modern Product Discovery – Teresa Torres

What I’ve learned: what is Product discovery, and how is it different from product delivery? How can modern product discovery help shift your focus from output to outcome?

5-Product Management learnings from Stripe, Yahoo, Google & Twitter by Shreyas Doshi

What I’ve learned: how to be suitable for the PM job, become great at the PM job, and pick the right places to do the job. ( A must-watch for whoever is thinking to break into a PM career and those who want to grow in the craft)

6- Output vs. Outcome & Impact by Jeff Patton

What I’ve learned: how to move the focus from fast outputs to outcomes and impacts in the product development process.

7- Enhanced Product Discovery by Christian Idiodi

What I’ve learned: what are some product discovery techniques you can use to validate your assumptions/risks ( my favorite technique: customer development program) and common pitfalls of product discovery.

8- The First Mile of Product by Scott Belsky

What I’ve learned:  what to optimize for in the first mile of your product, what are some of the natural human tendencies, and how you can accommodate them in your product experience. 

Note: if you like this video, you should read Scott Belsky’s book: The Messy middle

9- PM Mythbusting—The 7 Myths That Stymie PM Impact by Shreyas Doshi

What I’ve learned: what being a great PM is about? how is it different from the conventional wisdom about a good PM? 

Note: If this talk resonates with you, you should not miss this Twitter thread from Shreyas on Good PM vs. Great PM

10- Making Airbnb’s Bookings Instant by Lenny Rachitsky

What I’ve learned: this short clip by Lenny is a great example of creative product execution. A world-class example to learn about the importance of navigating from optimizing & improving a feature toward taking a step back, thinking about vision (ideal state), and working backward from that while tackling a problem.

What other great product talks did I miss? Let me know in the comments.

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