Now what?

What'd you create today?

Part of my training to get into the world of product management is to start making more things….not specs or plans or wireframes - actual finished products (ie: today I made a t-shirt on Zazzle).

I can’t fully articulate my beliefs on the benefits of creating, but thought this Vonnegut quote summed it up nicely:

I always say to people, practice an art, no matter how well or badly [you do it], because then you have the experience of becoming, and it makes your soul grow.

It'll be a dark day when we hire somebody with the title "Product Manager"

I love following the startup scene - especially the wave of Web 2.0 companies coming out places like Y combinator. But the thing that really gets me is to go and hear these 20-something founders speak and have them use the term “Product Manager” like it’s a dirty word.

I don’t know where it started, but to hear it from them it sounds like you can’t have/execute a good idea for a webapp if you aren’t first and foremost a programmer. And I’m sick of it…I think programmers/engineers are notorious for solving unnecessary problems and not delivering a product that people actually want. I’d like to prove that having vision and empathy for users can more than make up for any lack of programming chops.

Here we go!