Andrew Skotzko

Leadership

2020 Resources for Product Leaders: a Curated List

Congrats, you got the job! You’re leading a team of product managers. Now what?

“How do I get into product?” is a super common question, with a corresponding number of articles. But there’s far less good information out there about how to level up once you’re already in product.

What skills do you need to develop as you move up into product leadership? Roles like group product manager (GPM), director of product, VP, or CPO need different skills.

The challenge is how to keep learning and getting better in a structured, step-by-step way.

This, my friends, is where most people plateau.

There’s far less guidance available after you grok the core PM role and level up into leadership. My experience has been that there are a bunch of resources to help guide you into product management and learn the core role. But afterwards… you’re kind of on your own.

When you were a line PM, you spent most of your time thinking about the product, users, and how it needed to evolve. Sure, you had to deal with the stresses of roadmapping, stakeholder expectations, and product reviews. But at least the product itself bounded the work.

You were responsible (hopefully) for helping your team ship features that would delight customers and serve the business.

Now, you have a whole new set of challenges to think about: People management. Org structure and team design. Feedback and communication architecture. Connecting strategy and vision with line-level execution. Protecting your PMs—not to mention the engineers and designers they work with—from the whiplash of the latest “just this once” sales special and the CEO’s pet project of the week.

It’s hard.

And, there aren’t that many places you can turn to for help along the way. It’s time consuming to find the best resources and filter out the bad ones. There’s a dearth of quality, actionable resources for PMs that already have the job and want to level up.

Between my own product career and researching the podcast, I’ve invested MANY hours exploring these challenges. It’s been a very aggressive learning curve, and I’ve found quite a few good resources that will save you time.

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Are you with us, or against us?

Think about the games you’re playing. Are you competing with the other players in the game, or are you competing against them?

Two ideas I’ve been captivated by in recent months are (1) the idea of infinite games and (2) mastery.

An infinite game is a game with no finish line. The point of the game is to keep playing, to stay in the game and keep it going.

Mastery is a mindset, a posture that approaches any medium from the long view. Embracing the long arc of never-ending improvement and ever deeper expression.

They seem related, but how do these fit together? And how do they frame the way we approach competition?

First, embracing the infinite game provides context for everything you do. It supports resilience through the emotional roller coaster of a finite game. When you know the game you’re really playing, you’re secure in that context. And it’s easier to adjust your approach without losing your center or sense of direction.

Once you’ve embraced an infinite context, then mastery is the mindset or posture to play from.

The mastery mindset is one which embraces the path of endless, goalless practice. This posture is the hallmark of the true master in any field. The mastery mindset is the most practical posture to both go the distance and enjoy the ride. It would suck to go on a never-ending journey without enjoying the ride itself. The mastery mindset helps make the infinite game inherently rewarding to play.

So, if we’re playing an infinite game with a mastery mindset, how do we think about the idea of competition?

One of the five things that you need to play the infinite game on a finite level is a worthy adversary.

In an infinite game, the only true competitor is yourself. We are always competing to be better than we were yesterday. To better fulfill our vision, to become more of who we’re trying to be. This is true at all levels: individual, team, organization, or society.

How to view external competitors, then?

Everyone else is there to reveal our weaknesses to us, so we can improve. They are there to provide the stimulus that pushes us to get better.

We need them. We need them to push us to see and reach for new levels of our own potential. Nobody does their fastest time alone. They do it in a race, with others.

This is what it means to compete with the players in the game. Here, we’re each competing to be better than ourselves, together.

Or, we can compete against the other players in the game. Here, we’re each competing against the others, by ourselves.

Are we trying to see how good we can be, trying to do something better than it’s ever been done before? Or are we just trying to beat them?

It turns out that “with us or against us?” is a matter of perspective. A choice. And yes, one choice works better.

One burns out. The other burns on.

Running toward uncertainty

The same way soldiers run toward the sounds of shooting, or firefighters run toward the blaze, effective leaders run toward uncertainty.

Uncertainty exists wherever there is tension. Tension is the indicator of change. And change is the work of a leader.

If you’re leading an initiative of any kind, look for the tension of uncertainty and run toward it.

One guiding mantra I picked up along the way as a team lead is “make good things happen.” (Thanks, Scott.) When I don’t know what to do, I start looking around for something good to help happen.

One of the fastest ways to make good things happen in any kind of project is to create clarity. Even though there will be course corrections later, you free people up to charge ahead right now when they have a clear target.

Some good places to start with are where we’re going, why, how we’re getting there, and what comes first.

Just remember: about the time you’re sick of saying it, that’s when they start hearing it.

altMBA recap: 84 hours, 105 kindred spirits, and countless lessons

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I recently completed a month-long, intense online workshop called the altMBA. It was created by Seth Godin, one of the thinkers and leaders I most respect.

Raven: spirit animal of the altMBA

My intention here is to debrief myself on my experience and share some of the lessons learned from the experience. I’m writing this as much for myself and a reminder to future me as anything else.

I hope that this contributes something to your own journey. Let’s get into it.

Why’d you do it?

I’m the kind of person that is always looking to learn and grow. I love my life now, and I’m obsessed with getting to the next version of myself. I love who I am today, and this version of me better be obsolete compared to who I am and what I’m capable of in a year.

I took the altMBA for three reasons:

  1. to level up as a leader and creative
  2. to learn to ship work regularly and overcome my perfectionism / to beat “the resistance“
  3. to push myself (and be pushed) to get clear about the change I seek to make

In this context, “shipping” means putting work out there for others to engage with.

What does it cover? Is it a “real MBA”?

First off, no, it’s not a “real MBA,” not in the way you mean it if you’re asking the question. There are no degrees and few “right answers” in the altMBA. And, you learn a tremendous amount about business, yourself, and being an effective changemaker and leader.

Does it work?

Unequivocally, yes.

I got everything I wanted out of it, and much more. [Read more…] about altMBA recap: 84 hours, 105 kindred spirits, and countless lessons

Why Do It, Then?

I came across as someone who was driven to succeed. Many told me so. I thought that as well until I loved myself. Then, one day, I woke up to a spotlight shining on that belief, except the truth was a slight twist: I was driven to not fail.

Kamal wrote that in a powerful vignette he just published. And it punched me right in the face. In a good way.

I realized that a lot of my motivation, historically, has been not to fail. Everything was wrapped up in my ego. A lot still is.

I wondered, could something take its place? Could something else be as powerful a motivator? After all, fearing failure has given me a lot of mileage. Could there be an equally powerful, sustainable, and bottomless motivation that is more positive?

I thought about that and racked my brain for hours. Held on to hope there was something else I could tap into. Then, as I was drifting off into a delicious nap, it whacked me.

It’s so simple. It’s just like being ten years old on a bike again, exploring the vastness of my neighborhood for the first time and feeling absolute wonderment at the most mundane things, just because they were there.

So if not to not fail, why do it, then? [Read more…] about Why Do It, Then?