. . . for a while . . .

Ken Norton, VP of Product of JotSpot, left up an presentation he gave at Hass on his blog. The content is great (but I really loved the presentation template and the font ). I also loved the fact that its all text, no consultant mumbo jumbo diagrams, yet it says everything it needs to say in a clear and insightful converstional tone. The hardest thing to do in a powerpoint presentation is to straddle the line between “argument” and “conversation” . . . how to get your point across yet allow room for exploration, conversation, and eventually knowledge creation between the you and the audience. Its kinda easy to see why Ken is good at what he does just by looking at the presentation.

Anyways, back the actual presentation. . . at big companies, many function of the product manager is split across many people in the company. This presentation made me miss being close to the actual development of a product. Knowing that everyday, real progress (in creating something tangible) is being made is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world. But really, in big companies the stakeholders for anything you do, product or otherwise, is so wide that cross functional teams/projects are the norm. As a result, everything in the presentation would apply generally as “how to get thing done without direct authority.” Its great to argue over trends, memes, strategies, and visions. . . but once in a while, I need something to remind me to what actually pays the bills. . . and that is . . . getting things done, product pushed out the door, end users/customer using the product (paying for them hopefully), and finally coming back for more.