Your weekly product management reading. Not too much, not too little, just right.
Last week's post was a review of job seeker mistakes. This week (is Shark Week around the country), is project week at PM Fast Track.
Tonight, we gathered for a brief and interactive intro into agile project management at Pivotal. Related slide deck for web project management event.
And this Thursday, John Cwikla (Marc Andreesen once worked for him), will share an experienced practioner's view point of why projects fail, and what you can do better (see events below).
For those who don't know Marc A., he built Netscape, the first popular web browser, pretty much ushering in the new age of modern web.
Something about software tends to the agile pratice, which is partly the founding principle behind Pivotal Tracker. It is the need for speed and flexibility, and efficient communication within complex environment that lead to the development of a tool like the Pivotal Tracker.
For those unfamiliar with it, take a look at the Agile Manifesto, and in particular the principles.
Note the emphasis on building by iteration (core tenant of subsequent methodologies like lean) and on customers.
Advocating for customers and defining customer success is a key responsibility of a good PM.
Agile isn't for everyone. How much of the agile and software development practices translate to your processes? To your team strengths? To your own customer success?
These are the kinds of questions you should answer as a PM. Then, you should be able to justify why your team should adopt effective working practices so that you can build a world class product.
Silicon Valley and SF
August 20: Let’s wine, dine, and talk Agile!
August 21: Masterclass: Why Your Project Is Failing and How Win with John Cwikla at The Giant Pixel Corporation.
August 23: ProtoHack : The “Code-Free” Hackathon ($50)
August 26: PM Happy Hour at Garaje - this one with job leads.
August 27: Growth hacking for great products ($25). At Yelp, SF.
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