“Can I tell you something?” I asked my teacher while standing at the side of her big wooden desk positioned near the classroom door. “Yes dear, of course. What is it?” the elderly woman said sweetly. “I want Geraldine Ferraro to win,” I said in almost a whisper. A smile crept across her face. I […]
“Number three is the toughest to hear,” I pause to let the woman in tears on the other side of the Zoom call catch her breath. “Based on what you’ve told me and what I know, no one is coming to rescue you. You have to save yourself.” “Save yourself.” Why has this phrase become […]
150 faces stare at me from their seats in the crowded atrium. 1000 more are staring at me from behind computer screens across Europe and North America. Some are bored. Some are eager. Some are wondering who I am and where I’ve come from. Some just find the seats with their flimsy banker blue cushions […]
Pride sometimes get a bad rap. Being prideful or too proud is generally frowned on in communication but I am full of pride and maybe a bit too proud for my own good for two reasons today. The first and biggest reason is that Tourlane raised $20M in Series C extension from our investors today. […]
Happy World Product Day 2020! “What do you do for a living?” he asks.“I’m a product manager. My teams build <enter current products> for <enter type of customer>,” I reply.“Oh cool. My cousin is a Project Manager.”“Ummm..Product Manager.”“What?” he says confused.“PRODUCT. I’m a Product Manager. Not Project,” sounding slightly testier than I intend.“Oh…okay. Nice,” he […]
Meetings. Meetings. Meetings. This is my life. At this stage in my career I spend more time in meetings at work than probably anything else. Creative time is at a minimum. Writing time is done in fits and starts throughout my day. But meetings…those are constant. Sometimes they are the one-on-ones I wrote about in […]
“Gather data. Gather data. Gather data. And when it feels personal, remember that it’s still data.” This is one of the most used pieces of advice I give to my team members, mentees, people who seek me about big decisions, etc. We absolutely get in our own way when it comes to asking for what […]
Tell me more What’s going on? What’s keeping you up at night? Talk more about that Holding 1-on-1s with my team members is important to me. I try hard to keep a pretty open door and leave time in my calendar for last minute chats. For me this means being open to both regularly scheduled […]
Last Friday, one of the ladies who does housekeeping at work nervously asked if she could have a picture with me. The guys in the kitchen with us watched confused as I said “Of course!” Two things struck me. The first was how excited she was to have our pictures taken. The second was the confused […]
In my 19 months at this current job, the one thing that has remained constant is change. I’ve led 2 different domains and been the product leader for 6 others. I’ve lived in two different countries and I’ve taken on various initiatives and led some pretty big transitions. And all the time…change. But since April […]