Inspired Work
As my children head off to college, I know they will start to compare themselves to other students. Who is smarter? Who is going to succeed? However, is a person’s intelligence a fixed quantity they’re born with? Or is it something malleable, something that can change throughout the lifespan? Can a person change careers, even
A client of mine works as a product manager. She has two primary product leadership teams. Let’s say team A and team B. Each team is composed of a product manager, architect, and senior developer and herself. The goal of each team is to determine high-level design, user flow, and architecture. A concept called psychological
You sit in a three-day product strategy session. The walls are covered in sticky notes. You’ve listened to hours of presentations. There are hundreds of ideas. There is excitement in the room. The group is onto something big. We are going to build the next big innovation that will make our company stand out from
What makes a good product manager? Is it one who knows the many product management processes? Is it one who has specific industry expertise? As I coach product management teams, I see many teams with different skills. Are there core skills or traits that make someone a great product manager? As a coach, how can
To build an innovative product team, you need to value your employees. This is so simple, yet is difficult to do. When your product managers feel that they are valued, contributing to the organization, and are part of the strategy, great things can happen. Product Managers are Type-A personalities, who are curious, innovative, and very
The product design and discovery process is messy, involves many people, and is linked to social and organizational dynamics of the team. To determine what to build, what problems to solve, how to solve them, whether it makes sense to solve them, you need a team of people with many different skills. For example, the
As an introvert, there is nothing worse than small talk with strangers. In my 20’s, I would consider myself a corner dweller at parties where I did not know anyone. I would find the one person I knew, and we would somehow make our way to the corner where we did not have to interact
As I have navigated many years in the technology space one of my challenges has been that I am an introvert and I did not realize it for many years. What did Lynne, the introvert look like? I spent lots of time reflecting and strategizing, by myself, in my head After a day of presenting
When you think of a the family dinner table what do you think of? For me, it means: Everyone talking at the same time All sorts of interesting topics that can change course mid-conversation Laughter Honesty Debating, lots of debating People interrupting each other And an environment where we all contribute to the conversation. When
My favorite quote is from Teddy Roosevelt: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat
Arena Consulting 