Scott Berkun

I'm a PM at a large, well known software company. In fact, I lead a team of PMs and have been in a PM role for several years after running a failed software startup during university and a stint as a sales and marketing guy at a solar start-up.

This article does a great job summing it-up: the PM role is about taking the vision, converting it to execution of a strong product, and facilitating a feedback loop that helps drive the vision forward.

A lot of times the PM is denigrated as an excess or waste, particularly in start-ups. It's true that a lot of PMs are taxes to their teams. But good PMs will bring a lot of clarity and absolute focus. I'm sure strong founders are also very capable of this but it's likely a matter of time and focus for those founders relative to other competing objectives.

Tips on doing PM well:

- Live. Eat. Breathe your product. I've spent years working on a product that I secretly detested but used that frustration with the product as a motivation to learn the product space inside-out and established myself into a position to remake the product what it needs to succeed (rebranding, significant technical overhaul, slash/dash legacy feature weights, etc.). Our customers are going from constant complaining to singing praises—that's hugely rewarding personally.

- Squash out all forms of inefficiency in the team. Every aspect of development that reduces your ability to deliver the best product is a concern. I'm engaged in everything from the…

Yes, I think it's still relevant. It doesn't adapt all of the project management jargon from the certifications, though. I read this 5 or 6 years ago and I learned a lot.

I didn't realize how large the blog has become. https://scottberkun.com/2012/how-to-make-things-happen/ is where to start to see if you want to read the book. Basically it boils down to: make a list, prioritize the list, execute the list.

There is a lot more to project management than that. For example, how do you present the list? How do you negotiate the list? What happens if you're working on a project with a lot of tech debt and other half finished work that needs to be brought back on track. I don't know if this book talks about that, and I don't really know of any books that goes beyond the very basics or deal with projects that aren't trivial.

Project management is vast. What are you interested in learning more about? Are you interested in agile or waterfall? I'd recommend reading the original "waterfall" paper from Royce from the 70s [1]. I think it's still relevant and helps to dispel "waterfall." For scrum, I'd recommend the HBR article from the 80s [2].

Are you looking for articles on Gantt charts, PERT charts, WBS, critical path. You can look at the PMP book.

Are you looking for stories on projects? I haven't read them, but The Phoenix Project is recommended on HN a bit.

For podcasts, I listen to the Digital Project Manager and PM Happy Hour.

[1]…

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this as the founder of an Internet startup, but I didn't even have a smartphone until a few months ago. I had what my wife referred to as a "dinophone." :-)

Eventually, I succumbed to the pressure and curiosity of having a smartphone. Now, as I check my email, tweet, or check HN walking my dog, as I'm eating lunch, etc., I find myself wondering: is this connectedness actually making my life BETTER?

I think for me, the answer is somewhat ambiguous. Yes, I appreciate the flexibility of being able to reply to emails in places and at times I was previously unable. However, I think there is a cost. I'm a lot less "present" during the monotonous moments of life. And, I think it's this monotony --- the "down time" --- that often makes space for unexpected creativity in our lives. Perhaps that's why our best ideas often come during mundane tasks like taking a shower (http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2011/why-you-get-ideas-in-the-shower/).

Anyway, I think the bottom line for me is this: I need to learn a new skill: how to disconnect and, perhaps more importantly, come to value these "boring", unproductive moments so I can withstand the temptation of pulling out my phone. I think that's an even bigger challenge for me.

See: The myth we love new ideas - people resist change, including progress from https://scottberkun.com/2013/ten-myths-of-innnovation/

> We are a conservative species: try something as simple as standing, rather than sitting, in your next group meeting. How accepting were your peers? Conformity is deep in our biology. While talking about creativity is very popular, actually being creative puts your social status at risk. All great ideas were rejected, often for years or decades, yet we bury this in our history (see Myth #1 & #2). The history of breakthroughs is a tale of persistence against rejection. Much of what makes a successful innovator is their ability to persuade and convince conservative people of the merits of their ideas, a very different skill from creativity itself. Your problem is likely not your ideas, but your skills for pitching ideas to others. Ideas are rarely rejected on their merits; they’re rejected because of how they make people feel. The bigger the idea, the harder the persuasion challenge.

Hi,
in addition to checking out if any of the suggested resources work extremely well for you, I'd like to suggest this book.

It answered a lot of the questions about design process I had some ten years ago. (I am now involved in UX and product design)

http://scottberkun.com/making-things-happen/

If you go briefly through it, you'll certainly find some sections useful for clearing things up with information design, capturing design goals, singling out tasks etc. It sparked my own interest in user experience and service design back then.

To my opinion, after much thought and practice, UI design is very much a shell to everything that's preceeding it on the timeline. Try to cover UX as well as UI, capturing requirements, etc.

It is also important to find a book, a blog or a course that is mesmerizing particularly to you, and easy to grasp with your specific background. Good luck!
Alice

I guess the every family is different. The key is to being present, either physically, or virtually via one of the many social networks. Just being able to reach out is important.

I just finish Scott Berkun's frank novel [1] about his relationship with his father. It pains me to see how Scott's attempts to reach out his father goes unanswered. Unfortunately, he was not successful is forming a close bond with his father. One takeaway I got from Scott's book is to create access for you and your family to connect. Without this access, communication is not possible even if you want to. Obvious but easy to forget.

[1] - http://scottberkun.com/the-ghost-of-my-father/