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A batch of the best highlights from what Felicity's read, .
Create two-way conversations. Digital technology has given us the new ability to have two-way conversations with our markets and our customers. What does the market want? And by market here, we mean people... Understanding the unexpressed and unmet needs of the people who are using our products, services, and technology is the key to unlocking value.
Sense and Respond
Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden
I emphasize to product people all the time that there is no single product discovery process just as there is no single product development/delivery process. There are many different discovery processes, all for different situations. For example, a [discovery sprint](https://svpg.com/discovery-sprints/) looks very different from customer discovery, but you should be skilled at both.
Moreover, it’s important to realize that it’s not about process. It’s much more about putting in place the necessary culture, and training your team on the critical techniques.
Process vs. Model
Marty Cagan
Four key Strategy takeaways
1. It’s a set of choices
2. You work backwards from a client-centric problem
3. It’s fundamentally creative
4. You seek to influence, but recognize you don’t control the Outcome
Planning
Planning, by contrast, is a fundamentally analytical and internal-centric approach to laying out a series of activities.
Planning involves sequencing how you will bring certain internal organizational resources (people, time, software, knowledge, money) to bear in ways you hope will accomplish a seemingly-sensible set of “initiatives.”
Outputs
The result of these planning activities are known as “Outputs” — lines of software code written, interfaces designed, software upgrades implemented, platforms “lifted and shifted.”
The important contrast with Strategy is to recognize *Planning is always within your control*. Perhaps this is what makes it preferred by many in business — there’s a great sense of comfort in focusing on only that which you can control.
If you have a Product Manager title, yet spend all your time in meetings with stakeholders, planning activities, and creating Roadmaps and budgets, you’re really a Project Manager.
Four key Planning takeaways:
1. It’s a sequence of activities
2. It’s Internal-centric
3. It’s fundamentally analytical
4. You are in full control the Outputs you create
Boost Your Product Management Skills Through Strategy, Planning, and OKRs
Michael Goitein
...catch up on these, and many more highlights
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