I've written before that there are two things that are essential - the sine qua non - of doing product: curiousity and empathy.
I've also written a bit about empathy, but I haven't written about curiosity.
This is that post (kind of).
There's probably something longer and more eloquent about the nature of curiosity, and why I think it's so important for product, but for now here is a list of the people to whom my curiosity has led me.
In reality, there's way more than these folks (233 different RSS feeds at last count), but these are the ones I would recommend to everyoneI'm including links to their personal sites so you can see the full breadth of where to find their stuff.
Some are writers, some teach. Most of them offer something paid and I would recommend paying for all of them. But they also put out free stuff so you can see if it resonates.
I've learned some valuable things from each and every one of them. Perhaps you will too:
I've also written a bit about empathy, but I haven't written about curiosity.
This is that post (kind of).
There's probably something longer and more eloquent about the nature of curiosity, and why I think it's so important for product, but for now here is a list of the people to whom my curiosity has led me.
In reality, there's way more than these folks (233 different RSS feeds at last count), but these are the ones I would recommend to everyoneI'm including links to their personal sites so you can see the full breadth of where to find their stuff.
Some are writers, some teach. Most of them offer something paid and I would recommend paying for all of them. But they also put out free stuff so you can see if it resonates.
I've learned some valuable things from each and every one of them. Perhaps you will too:
- Phyl Terry wrote Never Search Alone which contains more helpful advice about looking for a job that I've ever seen in one place. I heard him say on a podcast (paraphrasing) "if the job search is about nothing else, it's about managing your mood." This is unequivocably true. He also runs a free, volunteer matching service to connect people into job councils so people can help each other in their job search. It sounds too good to be true, but somehow it is
- I found Shreyas Doshi while I was working at Twitter because part of my job was checking Twitter all day. When it comes to product management, he knows what he is talking about. This is the single best summary of "what is product management" I've ever read, and he fit it in a single tweet. I took his course Improving Your Product Sense which was also money well spent. I wrote about that too.
- Basecamp's Shape Up taught me more about the nitty gritty of how to get something from idea to product than any scrum or agile or design thinking course
- Ben Thompsen's Stratechery is the best resource for understanding the interplay of technology and business strategy (it's the word "Strategy" with the word "tech" inside, get it? too late to change it). If you like writing, he's got articles. If you like listening, he's got podcasts.
- Talking to customers is hard. Teresa Torres knows and teaches the best way to do it.
- Visakan Veerasamy is the epitome of curiosity. If you want to feel inspired by someone who is following their curiosity and seeing where it takes him, take a look at what he's doing.
- Steven Johnson is a wonderful writer and thinks deeply about the human mind and how it works. He wrote the best thing I've ever read about creativity and innovation: Where Good Ideas Come From
- Josh Bernoff is a non-fiction book editor who write about clear writing and thinking.
It's not a person, but Readwise is the single most powerful tool for satisfying my curiosity.
Their original app for collecting and resurfacing highlights, as well as their new app Reader for collecting, saving, and reading from those 233 RSS feeds I mentioned above.