Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Birkman Says...

Yesterday, I probably nauseated you with my description of the Birkman Method and what it told me about my behaviors and my interests. Today my plan is to make you actually vomit with a detailed description of what jobs I should have. That is, if you keep reading.

The thing to remember is that this analysis is not based solely on my interests. It's also based on how I like to work and what kinds of behaviors I exhibit in the workplace. Generally speaking, I tend to like to work alone and uninterrupted, but as part of a larger team and toward a greater goal. I like a lot of freedom in what I choose to do next though I can adapt to pretty radical change if given enough warning. I'm pretty good with other people, though I'm not at all interested in selling to them. I like to treat others as customers (not clients) and I like to make them happy.

Monday, August 30, 2010

The Birkman is Here! The Birkman is Here!

On Friday I met with a career consultant who walked me through the results of my recent Birkman test. For those of you who are not familiar with the Birkman (and, before taking it, I counted myself a member of that club), it's essentially a personality test that determines how you tend to behave. It was created in the 60's by Roger Birkman, a WWII bomber pilot who observed that, even though pilots all flew the same mission, their reactions to a mission were wildly different. He went on to become an operational psychologist and creator of the Birkman Method to try and explain, characterize, and measure these differences.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

A Distraction

I haven't blogged in a day or two and I feel compelled to write down why and why not.

When I blog, I take it as a serious commitment. "Four to five entries a week," I tell myself, "or it's not worth doing." I believe strongly in honoring one's personal commitments, even if nobody else cares. If you're not true to yourself, you're really not going to be true to others. Or so I have come to believe over the years.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Miscellaneous Updates for Monday

  1. On Saturday, Product Camp Atlanta was held at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. More than 250 Product Managers and Product Marketing Managers from Atlanta and nearby cities congregated to discuss techniques and meet each other. This was my first event and it was really excellent. It's an entirely volunteer event with corporate sponsors picking up the food tab. Volunteers proposed 44 sessions on various PM topics, the top 23 vote-getters of which are delivered. I was lucky enough to have mine selected ("The Four W's or How to Train Your CEO"). Small audience, but it was very well-received, I thought. A number of people asked if I would come in and do training.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Just Like Nietzsche...

Today's phase of self-discovery relates to my traits or personality type. There are lots of these personality tests and quite a bit of literature on the subject.

First of all, I did a quick and dirty little Meyers-Briggs test online (pretty sure this is not the official version). According to this test, I am an INTJ or, what Keirsey.com calls a "Mastermind". (It sounds wicked cool, but they've all got good names like that. Except for maybe the "Supervisor" -- that doesn't sound very cool). Anyway, my I, T, and J are all fairly strong. The N is mild (which makes me a borderline "Inspector").

Now, I will say this -- from what I can tell, INTJs are relatively rare (<<1% of the population) and yet a relatively large number of Product Managers are INTJs (see my previous post about personality disorders). In my previous company, all four of us on the PM team were INTJs. Either this is quite the statistical anomaly or there's something to this personality-driven career path thing.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

A Few of My Favorite Things

OK, enough with the movie references. (But I do have to admit, the first 2/3 of "The Sound of Music" is a guilty pleasure. It's good up until that wretched Baroness leaves, then all the drama's gone faster than Sgt. Schultz can suck the meat out of a sausage casing. And I know Schultz was German while the von Trapps were Austrian, but go with it. I can't think of any overweight Austrian pop culture icons just now.)

Anyway, I promised to start my journey of self-exploration with a frank and honest list of things I like to do, so here goes.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Personality Disorder of Product Management

I had intended to talk about the first item on my list from yesterday, "activities I like" and how this might inform my "what to do in five years" decision. But today's topic has been overtaken by events.Check back tomorrow if you don't want to hear me blather on about product management some more.

This morning, I got to meet another VP of Product Management in the technology industry over coffee and scones and the experience was transformational.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Kissing Your Elbow

How does one start? How do you figure out what you truly want? An old friend of mine once told me that understanding parts of your own heart was as hard as kissing the point on your elbow -- you just can't get far enough away to do it properly. (Try it.)

Still, you gotta start somewhere, so here's how I'm thinking about the problem.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Hello, My Name is Inigo Montoya.

My name is Mark. As of this writing I am 45 years old. I am married and have two children. I live in Atlanta and I have been a Product Manager in the Internet Technology space since, well, since the Internet really mattered. If you don't know what a Product Manager is, don't worry about it. Most people don't. My wife still has only the vaguest idea of what I do every day. Suffice it to say we are an important part of the process that creates all the hardware and software you rely on today and most people don't fully appreciate Product Management until it's no longer there (you know who you are, Engineering.) No, I’m not bitter about it.