Building Product Management skills

[Forodstar]

So I was talking to a friend of mine (in IT product management) and I asked him.. man why are you in still in the company, you could at least work as a contractor and earn way more.

And he said to me: I am learning how to build products and that is primary not earning money in the short term. And he does have his side product he is building at the same time, experimenting with his project knowledge.

Now I am an IT contractor but really focused on facilitation of projects. But it got me thinking, the ability to build products appropriate for the market, how to test the market and verify that the market wants it ect is... the skill to have.

So my question to you fastlaners, is how do you learn to build products? Do you like my friend do an apprenticeship in a company, build products yourself or are there other ways?

 

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[WJK]

So I was talking to a friend of mine (in IT product management) and I asked him.. man why are you in still in the company, you could at least work as a contractor and earn way more.

And he said to me: I am learning how to build products and that is primary not earning money in the short term. And he does have his side product he is building at the same time, experimenting with his project knowledge.

Now I am an IT contractor but really focused on facilitation of projects. But it got me I''thinking, the ability to build products appropriate for the market, how to test the market and verify that the market wants it ect is... the skill to have.

So my question to you fastlaners, is how do you learn to build products? Do you like my friend do an apprenticeship in a company, build products yourself or are there other ways?

I understand why your friend is still there in his company. I'm NOT an IT person. And I've been self-employed for the last 45 years. BUT, I have learned all kinds of skills over the years by shadowing people and volunteering my time. I try to find someone who is doing what I want to learn. Then I ask if I can help them for a specific period of time. Some think that I'm crazy. I explain that I'm just want to learn. How can I help make their day easier?

I offer to buy them lunch or dinner. I just want to ask them all of my questions while we eat. (When I take a class, I always make the same offer to the teacher.)

The reason that I do this is because every business and trade has a whole bunch of short-cut secrets. There is a natural order within the process that a professional will use. They group things together and they do things differently from the novice. It's something that you cannot learn in a book. I love to watch a professional work. It's like poetry in motion.

 

[Andy Black]

So I was talking to a friend of mine (in IT product management) and I asked him.. man why are you in still in the company, you could at least work as a contractor and earn way more.

And he said to me: I am learning how to build products and that is primary not earning money in the short term. And he does have his side product he is building at the same time, experimenting with his project knowledge.

Now I am an IT contractor but really focused on facilitation of projects. But it got me thinking, the ability to build products appropriate for the market, how to test the market and verify that the market wants it ect is... the skill to have.

So my question to you fastlaners, is how do you learn to build products? Do you like my friend do an apprenticeship in a company, build products yourself or are there other ways?

Nice to meet you. I was an IT contractor for 10 years.

What type of product are you talking about? Personally I like digital products that are simple and fast to make: courses, landing pages, etc.

For those type of products we try to get interest as soon as we can, then figure it out as we go along.

Our “product development” philosophy is to engage the market in hand-to-hand combat and find out what they like, don’t like, where they’re stuck, why they’re stuck, etc.

I jump on paid and unpaid calls all the time and help people out the best I can. I get learnings to improve our products.

Don't overcomplicate it. It’s not an academic exercise, and your IT brain will likely make you move slower than you could if you just engaged the market with a desire to help them instead of “creating a product”.

Does that help?