Three sporting events, two very recent & one very old, have me thinking about the organizations I'm a part of and my role in them.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/football-chess-software-fennel-aurora/

#Software #ProductManagement #Inclusion #ItsNotAPipelineProblem #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement

This is a beautiful bit of data-enabled communication: https://viewports.fyi/

Despite so many product managers and execs chasing after the fictional Apple model of "we in our infinite genius wisdom thought of something all by ourselves that's so good everyone wants exactly this and only this" that has poisoned so much of the business world, the world does not work like that.

The world has never worked like that.

Have you been outside??

Testing and optimising to a few "main" user cases just doesn't work as an approach, flexibility to the vast variety of how people do things is always needed.

Yes, of course we can continue to pretend there is one "normal" type of user who makes up the majority we made up in our heads, and who by great chance happens to be remarkably like the person in the mirror.

And by pretending this, we can continue to force the real majority of people to deal with minor and major annoyances and harms every single day.

Or we could take the real world into account and build things that assume everyone is as wondrously different as we all are, and let people live as themselves.

I know which approach I will continue prioritizing. 🤷🏻‍♂️🙃

#ProductManagement #Software #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement

Right now a bunch of tech-bro oligarchs are throwing enormous amounts of money into a highly dishonest PR campaign to bury the real present harms these oligarchs (and the surveillance tech giants in general) are using AI to perpetuate on all of us.

They are trying to bury the true already happening harms via hyping up fake sci-fi nonsense risks from "thinking" AIs in some absurdist made up far future.

@nitashatiku has is one of the many real researchers, scholars, and reporters trying to bring some honesty to these discussions - her latest reporting on just one part of this dishonest PR campaign is worth reading:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/05/ai-apocalypse-college-students/

#Software #ProductManagement #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement

I sometimes wonder if I've disclosed too much of how I do certain tasks. If people understood how simple it is, will I be copied, replaced, or otherwise devalued in our cultures where our ability to work is a question of life and death?

However, if it was that easy to copy me, I'd already see copies of me everywhere. I don't.

My actions and methods might be simple but that doesn't mean others have the same goals, the same understandings of when and what to apply, or can easily contort themselves into my shape to apply my ways even if they wanted to.

I suspect this is true for basically everyone and every job.

When it comes down to specifics, nobody is really replaceable, despite what a shitty boss or the tech-bro oligarchs keep telling us.

Out of necessity, people might try to cover the cracks left when a supposedly replaceable person is no longer there. And likely in the attempt they will bring something else unique to them, assuming they don't burn out trying. But nobody and nothing can actually replace any of us.

It turns out explaining and teaching how I do things is part of my method, so I probably shouldn't overthink it, except overthinking is also part of my method. 🙃

This post is an example of itself. 🤷🏻‍♂️

#Software #ProductManagement #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement

Definitely was not expecting this 😱😊

There have been many changes at F-Secure during our first year as an independent consumer-focused company, and the inclusion front changes I've played a small part in are some that I am most proud of.

DEI is never finished, and we have a long way left to go, but the fact the importance of this area is now openly discussed and people are willing to honestly and openly face and admit our shortcomings, and to learn and grow is not nothing.

This is also proof that those of us who by chance and structural inequality happen to have some outsized situational power in large organizations can in fact make changes happen if we are willing to stand up and be counted.

We do not need to be quiet about our embarrassment with the systemic issues in all of our organizations and all of our industries.

We can and must stand up and make spaces around us more welcoming and inclusive for everyone!

Shout out to the many marginalized voices who have been freely teaching me over the years on Twitter, Mastodon, podcasts, Youtube, articles, and books. These people teach & model at the cost of their peace and none of what I try to do would be possible without them. 💜🙏🏻

#Inclusion #Software #Cybersecurity #ProductManagement #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement

Concrete simple advice in 20 minutes, on how to make our workplaces more welcoming and inclusive for the trans and non-binary people we are so often excluding, driving out, or forcing to stay hidden.

From the excellent Race Reflections organization's HR podcast, and unusually for such content, it isn't from a self-appointed outsider "expert", but someone who actually knows what they are talking about.

Should be mandatory listening for any manager or leader who has ever claimed they have a "talent shortage", a "skills gap", or a "pipeline problem".

https://pca.st/i456m926

#Software #ProductManagement #Inclusion #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement #Pride2023

It's always a little funny to me how much resistance some people have to me saying I'm personally embarrassed by things about my products and my organizations.

People kindly want me to know that it's not that bad, or that I don't need to be embarrassed, and similiar reassurances. I know it's not that bad 😉 - it's not that bad because people like me are embarrassed enough to make sure things get fixed, salved, and improved.

The funny thing is it seems like many people do not believe me. The idea of being personally and organizationally embarrassed - and being okay with that, embracing it fully - is too alien for a lot of people.

Yes, I really do actually want to know exactly where it's hurting you. I deliberately intentionally seek it out. I'm hugely grateful to the people who trust me enough to give me the raw truth about their experiences with my products and organizations.

And yes, I really do intend to find a way to make it better for you. One way or another. Kicking and screaming if needed. I mean it when I quote Jean Monnet, "I'm not pessimistic. I'm not optimistic. I'm DETERMINED."

So yes, I really am embarrassed, and that's okay. You don't have to feel bad for me. It's a good thing! 🙏🏻

#Software #ProductManagement #Inclusion #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement

Embarrassment-driven product management ™ also applies to myself.

My corporate image is a product. This is another of those unfortunate realities of the absurd capitalist world we live in. And you can bet I am checking every possible painful interaction with the product that is me, internally and externally, before, during, and after, to try to make it responds to the needs of the situation.

I need to be someone who leaders know they must listen to in order to take these risks. And this is exactly why I learnt to be good at making my contributions visible. It's a necessary self-defense skill in our absurd corporate world.

My visibility is my protection - shoutout to the generations of justice activists who taught me the importance of this trick.

Do not mistake my visibility and what I do well for individual achievement. [2/2]

#Software #ProductManagement #Inclusion #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement
If you think I did any of what I do on my own, you don't understand anything about how the world works.

I deliberately weaponize honesty at work.

Saying the thing, deliberately acknowledging or strategically not using the local corporate cult-speak, openly directly pointing to the problems everyone suffers under - these all have power.

I must be very carefully and intentional about when and how I do this. Pointing at the naked emperors is not usually a good career move.

If you prepare the ground, pick your moment, and find the right balance, the deliberately cheeky statement or question to your leaders can work. It can even be turned into an okay career, and more importantly it can help you effect the changes that everyone knows are so needed.

I cannot do this in a vacuum or without a strong paranoid sense of danger and self-awareness. To do this work, I need to be as unimpeachable as possible outside my "hobby", a "hobby" which is actually the most important part of my job whatever any KPI or OKR might say. [1/2]

#Software #ProductManagement #Inclusion #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement

I don't like repeating myself, and already many of the things I boost on here related to people correctly pointing out completely fixable cultural issues relate to this also.

I don't like repeating myself, but this thread is a perfect example of why Mastodon needs a goddamned product manager : https://octodon.social/@CobaltVelvet/110311121580149021

Mastodon needs a product manager who actually gives a damn about the pain of their product's residents.

Mastodon needs a product manager who is embarrassed that this is not all already fixed.

Mastodon needs a product manager who is determined to make it happen.

Mastodon is not unique in this. Every product needs this.

Every product needs a product manager who looks at all the years of genuinely painful and embarrassing interactions their internal and external customers are so generously telling them about, and actually gives enough of a damn to prioritize making it change. One way or another.

If a product manager is telling their customers that their product is great already, they need to find another job.

Every product needs Embarrassment Driven Product Management ™.

Every product manager needs a bit of Jean Monnet in them: "I'm not pessimistic. I'm not optimistic. I'm determined."

#ProductManagement #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement #Software

96.3% of the top 1 million websites by traffic have basic accessibility errors, averaging 50 errors per page.

Most of the companies behind those sites have a diversity and inclusion statement which now can't be accessed by a large part of the population.

This is not a talent shortage.

This is not a pipeline problem.

This is choices on who gets priority which systemically just "happen" to always go in one direction.

https://webaim.org/projects/million/

#Software #ProductManagement #Inclusion #ItsNotAPipelineProblem #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement

None of these can sensibly be measured by any KPI, and none of them can ever be causally linearly provably traced back to me or any one person or team's work. But I'm convinced they are all that actually matters. They, and not any KPI, are actually why I am paid.

Take one example - kindnesses spread. Last year, a review of many related studies into the impacts of kindness was published (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/kindness-can-have-unexpectedly-positive-consequences/). 2 things were clear:

1. People value even our smallest kindnesses far more highly than we can imagine;
2. The impacts of even the smallest kind acts are far larger, effecting far more people, and lasting for far more time, than the person taking the act is ever aware of;

None of this will ever be visible on a KPI, but the effects will be there all throughout the organizations and systems you are working with, if you know how to look.

The same goes for find ways to reduce people's pain and embarrassment from dealing with our products and organizations. I can't measure it, but I know that's my real job. [3/3]

#Software #ProductManagement #Inclusion #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement

KPIs give the illusion of rationality, focus, and perspective while actually reducing all three. One number does not give you a high-level overview perspective on a topic, it gives you one tiny number and makes you forget everything that is missing.

One number doesn't focus everyone on the same approach, it let's everyone create their own interpretations to fill in the copious missing information and context needed to give a number any meaning.

One number does not make us rational, it makes us religious fanatics worshipping a line on a graph, or hypocrites pretending to be good team players worshipping along with everyone else.

So what do I measure myself by? I try to measure myself on things like embarrassments reduced, pains soothed, kindnesses spread, communications smoothed, blockages loosened, cultures shifted, systems made more responsive. [2/3]

#Software #ProductManagement #Inclusion #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement

I don't measure myself by KPIs, in fact I ignore all KPIs as much as I can.

Whether it is a stock price, a sales target, a ticket velocity, an NPS number, or any of a hundred other metrics that supposedly control my corporate life, the only time I care about these numbers is in control meetings with management or when trying to make sure I get paid enough for my work.

It's not what I measure myself by - I have to live inside this short-term capitalist nonsense, but I don't have to respect it or give it any more of my thoughts than is absolutely necessary to navigate our Alice in Wonderland world.

KPIs only measure what is easy to measure, not what is important. Most of what is important is not measurable. Important things are not quantative, they are qualitative.

KPIs are gamed the second they are used. In other words, ever KPI is a lie built on top of the necessary lies of everyone who is forced to dance around our absurd systems. [1/3] #Software #ProductManagement #Inclusion #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement

Dr. Rae Duncan on what the UK (and basically the whole world) are right now doing to our children (and everyone else) and how easy and known the effects and solutions are.

Watch it, it's only 9 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0mojFpAU00 [cc]

As someone who works in an industry that claims to be part of protecting children from harms, watching how we are actually behaving and talking about one of the biggest threats children (and adults) are facing right now is painful, embarrassing.

#Software #CyberSecurity #ProductManagement #CovidIsNotOver #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement

The principles of Embarrassment-Driven Product Management ™ are very simple:

- Listen when people tell you they have a problem, in fact actively seek out people in pain.
- Believe them when they say they have a problem.
- Care enough that them having a problem is a problem for you also.
- Find a way to remove or relieve their pain.
- Hopefully feel a bit less embarrassed about your product, at least for a while.

#ProductManagement #Software #Inclusion #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement

Would you rather be a positive person than a negative person?

The social and professional pressure to speak "positively" and that stigmatises "negative" speech is often overwhelming.

It's not surprising that most people try to avoid talking about their complaints, problems, and pains.

Those complaints, problems, and pains don't magically disappear because people are heavily discouraged from talking about them.

The inverse is true - the more the pain is hidden, the longer it will remain, festering and increasing.

So who are the truly positive people?

Those who do everything to avoid and stop discussion of problems?

Or those who bring embarrassment into the light so maybe a change can be made?

"Is medicine pessimistic because it focuses on diseases and traumas?" - Delgardo & Stefancic

#ProductManagement #SoftwareEngineering #Inclusion #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement

Have you ever noticed how a mixture of wishful thinking and a desire to maintain privileges while avoiding any changes leads us to talk about the present in the past tense?

"Post-colonial Europe"
"Post-racial America"
"The pre-MeToo world"
"During the pandemic it was"

We are very good at putting things we don't like about ourselves and things we don't want to acknowledge, face, or do something about into a fictional past, while the reality remains very much in the present.

Wonder why I talk about both #CovidIsNotOver, #ItsNotAPipelineProblem, and #EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement so much?

This is why. #Language matters.

"If you don't like it, you don't understand and you don't deserve how clever I am" is the response of a cult member, not a product manager who deserves that title.

#EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement

Your customers, users, residents are telling they have problems, are begging for minor changes.

And your reaction is "they are wrong", "it's good how it is", "are you sure?", and "I know better" ?

Perhaps product management isn't for you? 🙃🤷🏻‍♂️

#EmbarrassmentDrivenProductManagement