Many small businesses operate with no laid down rules and operational procedures. Onboarding a new client, hiring new staff, customer relations, finding new customers. All these activities carried out without a plan will result in very low success rates. Making decisions on a whim can be very risky for your business. It stifles continuity and sustainability of your brand. Your processes cannot be drafted in the minds of two people. It needs to be clearly spelt out and documented.

Every Business Must Clearly Define Its Activities

Thoroughly detailing the steps to drive results from each activity helps you to provide information at every stage to both the client and the team. At each stage, the documented process details what needs to be done such that anyone trained to understand this document can take it up and still get the desired result in the end. Documented business processes take time to build but if done properly have great benefits to the success of your business.

Detail Every Step To Drive Results 

It makes you better disposed to handle every possible outcome reducing the risk of loss. You cannot completely eliminate risk but having a plan makes you ready at each point to tackle the issue and lower the cost involved.

Reduce Risk

Knowing and predicting what happens at each stage in the process means less time spent on decision making which gives room to increase productivity at each stage as you have an increased capacity to take on more clients.

Increase productivity 

Building businesses that last requires consistency. It is important to have a set of laid down procedures that guide business activities and can be passed down for generations. Consistently following these procedures will expose loopholes in the system that can be resolved to improve the processes.

Promote Continuity 

“Just do it” is great advice and a great slogan too! But we can’t live everyday “just doing it”. We need to spend time defining our business activities if we want it stand the test of time.

For the sake of continuity,every business needs a documented business process that drives activities to a desired end consistently. Here are some tips to get you started

business

Business

Clearly Defining Your Business Activities

It’s time to look at your business with a fresh pair of eyes. It is time to get honest about where you are, where you want to be, and what it will take to get there.

The DNA Of a Good Strategy

<ol><li>They change the game for rivals, </li><li>They open up new opportunities for innovation in the company, </li><li>They protect existing business, and </li><li>They deal with risks and pressures</li></ol>

STRATEGIES do four things

<ul><li>Where you are competing, </li><li>The customers you are targeting, </li><li>What you are going to offer, </li><li>How you intend to win, and </li><li>What your people need to succeed.</li></ul>

Must-Have in Strategy

Your strategy must be communicated in a way that ensures buy-in from stakeholders – especially your employee. Otherwise, execution may fall flat.

Communicate Strategy 

Without it, you’re just heading someplace without knowing when a vehicle has a faulty GPS.The Strategy you need now.<ul><li>What makes you stand out. What’s your competitive advantage?</li><li>How will you create new market segments, disrupt a current market or respond to the disruption in the marketplace?</li></ul>

Strategy brings the map to the journey

<ul><li>Customers,</li><li>Differentiation (better be sustainable),</li><li>Resources,</li><li>Execution and</li><li>People.</li></ul>

There are at least five elements of a company’s strategy:

There are two types of companies in this world, those that use strategy and those that don’t. The companies that win have a reliable strategy they can rely on to succeed. Smart strategies start with a step by step approach. If you’re going to get anywhere in business, you need the right perspective. Having the right perspective is what it’s all about.

Smart Strategy

Which means that it takes strategy to win. Businesses, like games, are better played by strategists. Strategy helps you figure out what is going on and how to use this information to your advantage. Strategy helps you act effectively so that everything you do is an improvement over what your competitors are doing. Your strategy guides which opportunities you pursue and which ones you let pass. You are the chess player and the business game is your board.

Everything in business can be thought of as a game

STRATEGIES do four things: they change the game for rivals, they open up new opportunities for innovation in the company, they protect existing business, and they deal with risks and pressures.'

strategy

Strategy

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Long ago, a great user experience design was enough to give an edge. If something was easy to use or functioned well, it was enough to get people excited.
Now, your brand is far more important. Branding in the traditional sense is not enough. Branding is not a logo, your name, or a tagline. To build a winning brand today, you have to start with your customer and the issue you're solving for them.

How modern marketing works

Leading brands are capable of forming deep emotional connections because they stand for something people care about. Founders should consider the brand before day one. It is not an afterthought but forms the core of your culture from the start. This way, your brand will always portray its fundamental purpose and guide any difficult decisions. When determining your brand:<ul><li>Identify who the brand is for.</li><li>Identify the key problem</li><li>Identify the answer to the key problem via the brand.</li></ul>

Consider the brand's purpose before you launch

When you launch a new product, think about what the brand does and how it makes people feel. People love brands that stand for a clear emotional idea that is bigger than the product's benefits. Connect the product to a meaningful story to create a strong bond. The emotional idea should be backed up with a practical function. Start with the problem you're solving:<ul><li>Define the idea a brand stands for.</li><li>Define how it should make people feel.</li><li>Then think about tonality, design, and language.</li></ul>

Promote the emotional

A brand serves as connective tissue. A successful brand realises that to create meaningful and lasting relationships, they need to tap into people's sense of self. Branding is about creating a shared identity with your customers. Customers want brands that align with their values and uphold their identity.

Tap into people's sense of self

A community doesn't need to be formed on digital platforms or physical spaces. Community is built from creating unity around shared values. The brand should be infused throughout the experience. Find ways to create community and a feeling of inclusion. Target people who share a set of needs or preferences or are at the same stage in their lives.

Effective branding is about creating connections

Brand differentiation needs to be purposeful.When your goal is to transform a category or create a new one, you need to consider what you can stand for that no one else is but that people care about. <ul><li>Brand thinking: What are you selling? (a mattress or sleep?)</li><li>Brand equity: The love people have for the brand because it is shown to delight them.</li><li>To drive obsession, it is critical to differentiate in product and brand.</li></ul>

Redefine expectations

The cofounder and chief branding officer of Red Antler, the branding and marketing company for startups and new ventures, explains how hot new brands like Casper, Allbirds, Sweetgreen, and Everlane build devoted fan followings right out of the gate. We're in the midst of a startup revolution, with new brands popping up every day, taking over our Instagram feeds and vying for our affection. Every category is up for grabs, and traditional brands are seeing their businesses erode as hundreds of small companies encroach on their territory, each hoping to become the next runaway success. But it's not enough to have a great idea, or a cool logo. Emily Heyward founded Red Antler, the Brooklyn based brand and marketing company, to help entrepreneurs embed brand as a driver of business success from the beginning. In Obsessed, Heyward outlines the new principles of what it takes to build and launch a brand that has people queuing up to buy it on opening day. She takes you behind the scenes of the creation of some of today's hottest new brands, showing you: - How Casper was able to upend the mattress industry by building a beloved brand where none had existed before - How the dating app Hinge won a fanatical user base and great word-of-mouth with the promise that the app was "designed to be deleted" - Why luggage startup Away, now valued at $1.4 billion, could build their brand around love of travel by launching with just one product--a hard-shell carry-on suitcase--rather than a whole range of luggage offerings. Whether you're starting a new business, launching a new product line, or looking to refresh a brand for a new generation of customers, Obsessed shows you why the old rules of brand-building no longer apply, and what really works for today's customers.

Discover the world of business and economics.

economics

Economics

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

books

Books

The 2020 Porchlight Marketing & Sales Book of the Year The cofounder and chief branding officer of Red Antler, the branding and marketing company for startups and new ventures, explains how hot new brands like Casper, Allbirds, Sweetgreen, and Everlane build devoted fan followings right out of the gate. We're in the midst of a startup revolution, with new brands popping up every day, taking over our Instagram feeds and vying for our affection. Every category is up for grabs, and traditional brands are seeing their businesses erode as hundreds of small companies encroach on their territory, each hoping to become the next runaway success. But it's not enough to have a great idea, or a cool logo. Emily Heyward founded Red Antler, the Brooklyn based brand and marketing company, to help entrepreneurs embed brand as a driver of business success from the beginning. In Obsessed, Heyward outlines the new principles of what it takes to build and launch a brand that has people queuing up to buy it on opening day. She takes you behind the scenes of the creation of some of today's hottest new brands, showing you:   •  How Casper was able to upend the mattress industry by building a beloved brand where none had existed before   •  How the dating app Hinge won a fanatical user base and great word-of-mouth with the promise that the app was "designed to be deleted"   •  Why luggage startup Away, now valued at $1.4 billion, could build their brand around love of travel by launching with just one product--a hard-shell carry-on suitcase--rather than a whole range of luggage offerings. Whether you're starting a new business, launching a new product line, or looking to refresh a brand for a new generation of customers, Obsessed shows you why the old rules of brand-building no longer apply, and what really works for today's customers.

Emily Heyward is the Co-founder and Chief Brand Officer at Red Antler, the leading brand company for startups and new ventures. Emily works closely with founders to develop purposeful, strategic visions for their startups and has led branding efforts for top companies such as Casper, Allbirds, Brandless, and Prose. After beginning her career inadvertising, she started Red Antler along with her co-founders to directly apply consumer insights and brand positioning to launching and growing new and beloved businesses. In 2018, Red Antler made Fast Company’s list of Most Innovative Companies in Marketing and Advertising and was dubbed the “cult brand whisperer”.

Emily was named among the Most Important Entrepreneurs of the Decade by Inc. Magazine, and has also been recognized as a Top Female Founder by Inc. and one of Entrepreneur's Most Powerful Women of 2019. As a brand strategy expert, Emily is frequently interviewed by the press, with commentary appearing in Forbes, Bloomberg, Inc., Fast Company and Adweek. She’s also been a featured speaker at TechCrunch Disrupt, 99U, and the Fast Company Innovation Festival. Her first book, Obsessed, will be published by Portfolio, a division of Penguin Randomhouse, on June 9, 2020.

Emily graduated Magna Cum laude from Harvard University, where she studied postmodern theory and consumer culture. Born and raised in New York, she currently lives in Carroll Gardens with her wife, son, and Brussels Griffon Sprout.

Emily Heyward

Obsessed

Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love from Day One

Did you know there’s a new “pandemic” in town? Yes, apart from COVID and any other disease you might be thinking of. Hold on, don’t panic. It’s actually not fatal, but it’s taking a toll on quite a number of people who keep failing to understand the dynamics behind this whole new infection. I’m talking about the “Entrepreneurialism” pandemic.

New “Pandemic” Alert🚨 

The truth is, a lot of people are confusing the term&nbsp;“entrepreneur”&nbsp;with&nbsp;“business owner”. The two are similar in so many aspects, but they are definitely not the same. Surprised? Well, let me break it down for you.

What’s Really Going On…

A business owner is the owner of a company that provides a product or service to its clients.From the moment they start their business, most business owners have a deep understanding of their market and know who they should sell their products to. They frequently profit from the success of their company, which is either a sole source of income or a side hustle.An entrepreneur, on the other hand, goes way beyond just owning a business.

The Not So Obvious Differences

Entrepreneurs want to disrupt the market by sweeping out the traditional dynamics of how things are thought to work.Entrepreneurs are always all in. They are passionate about their work and obsess over it. It’s a tendency; a predetermined route. It’s a personality trait, a labor of love, an unteachable zeal, a disease that can’t be cured, and an illness that can’t be caught. It’s either you have it or you don’t.Money isn’t what motivates an entrepreneur. That is what pushes businesses and business owners. But for an entrepreneur, money is merely a yardstick.&nbsp;

The Traits To Look For

The status quo is never enough for an entrepreneur. They do not become fat and content. They’re always thinking about the next thing, the next endeavor, The “Big One.” They prefer being in the thick of things. They thrive in a state of turmoil and have their fingers in various jars. That’s why it’s common to hear about them failing at a half-dozen businesses before finally succeeding.That is not the personality of business owners. They usually like focusing on one thing at a time. They are mostly not jugglers and try as much as possible to stay away from failure.

There’s More 

Determining whether or not you have “Entrepreneurialism” is just a matter of self-analysis and careful observation. Here are a few symptoms to help you out with that.

So, How Do I Know?

Entrepreneurs always want to know the answers. They are like sponges, constantly trying to learn more, improve their skillsets and find things out for themselves. They are never afraid to ask questions and won’t stop till they get the answer.

Always Asking Questions 

Entrepreneurs tend to see opportunities all around them, even in simple conversations. They try to make the most out of every situation and connect with people that they believe will be instrumental in the growth and success of their venture.

Sees Opportunity Everywhere And In Everything 

Entrepreneurs have a “don’t stop until the task is done” mindset. They try to hit their marks every time, going the extra mile to make sure they achieve their goals before they can rest.Do any of these sound like you? You’ve definitely caught the bug!

Time Is Never Enough

If you do not relate to any of these, don’t beat yourself down. Not everyone can be an entrepreneur,&nbsp;and it is perfectly okay. You don’t need to force your way into becoming one. Instead, figure out what you do best and do it better than anybody else.

Be Yourself And Achieve Greatness Your Own Way

Entrepreneurship seems to be the new craze in town…but is everyone cut out for it. This article will help you find out!

A lot of people are confusing the term "entrepreneur" with "business owner". The two are similar in so many aspects, but not the same!

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

Are You Really an Entrepreneur?: What Separates Entrepreneurs From Business Owners

We do not have any time left to stop climate change. The greenhouse gases we've released into the atmosphere will continue to warm our climate for decades. It means glaciers and permafrost will continue to melt, and oceans will warm, acidify, and lose oxygen. This sobering fact doesn't mean that our future is entirely out of our control. Our actions today could mean the difference between bad or disastrous outcomes. Businesses and policymakers can put our world on a more sustainable path.

Taking responsible action

Most of our greenhouse gases come from electricity generation, transportation, and industrial and agricultural use. <ol><li>Electricity. Some renewable energies like wind and centralised solar are cheaper to install than to run existing fossil-fuel generation. We need to invest in less expensive and more efficient long-term battery storage.</li><li>Transportation. Developing new technologies like "green hydrogen" will help.</li><li>Industry and agriculture produce the most greenhouse gases. The lack of incentives prevents companies from doing the right thing.</li></ol>

Decreasing global emissions

Moving past the technological, political and economic challenges requires a drastic move away from the status quo. <ul><li>Individuals have a small role to play (recycling and public transportation). Companies have a huge role to play as they make the bulk of decisions about carbon emissions.</li><li>Sustainability goals need to be integrated throughout organisations, not just in a department or team.</li><li>Investors can pressure companies to improve their carbon footprint, and large companies can pressure suppliers.</li></ul>

A mix of carrots and sticks

We need to dramatically reduce carbon emissions. This will require a new system of incentives.

startup

Startups

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

What Businesses Must Do to Curtail Climate Change

Your employer brand is your company’s reputation as an employer and reflects the values that make up your culture. Employer brand also describes the added value your company brings to employees, such as great benefits, career development, and work-life balance.It is what current and prospective employees think about your company as a place to work. It encompasses how you market your company to job seekers and how you frame your messaging and culture to internal employees.

Employer branding

They will:
<ul>
<li>Project a positive image of the company.</li>
<li>Promote core values: your business’ fundamental beliefs and guiding principles. </li>
<li>Create a sense of identity. Your employer brand helps you create a company culture and identity that unifies your diverse workforce.</li>
<li>Boost employee morale. Employer branding is about making your company a great place to work. </li>
<li>Outline a clear employee value proposition (EVP). Your EVP is the rewards and benefits employees receive when working at your company. </li>
<li>Align the employer brand with the public company brand.</li>
</ul>

The best employer brands

Employer branding is good for employees and good for business. Employer branding affects multiple aspects of your business including<ul><li>Recruitment</li><li>Engagement</li><li>Retention</li></ul>The stronger your employer brand, the better you can attract, retain, and engage your people, and the more competitive and profitable your business will be.

Why employer branding is important

Turnover, attrition, and retention are good indicators of a company’s overall health and how the company is doing on its employer brand.Once you understand how your employer brand is performing, build out your employee value proposition and align your employer branding efforts with your company branding strategy.

How to improve your employer brand

Assess your policies and offerings and compare how they stack up against competitors’ offerings. Survey your employees to uncover benefits or cultural values they would like to see. These insights can help you identify gaps between what your employees want and need, and what your company currently offers.Things to consider for your EVP include:<ul><li>Compensation</li><li>Employee benefits like health care and parental leave</li><li>Perks</li><li>Career development and opportunities.</li></ul>

Improve your EVP (employee value proposition)

Recruiting top talent involves showing how they might fit within your company. Learn how to improve your employer branding to improve your talent strategy.

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

humanresources

Human Resources

What is Employer Branding and Why Does It Matter

If&nbsp;you are looking for business tips or for a way to expand your brand. Then, you are in a right place! Because today we are delivering something that is very valuable and if done correctly you are brand will explode.

3 Business lessons that you can learn from Alux.com  

Alux.com is a luxury website. Which is being around since 2013.Although, they introduced themselves to be the number 1 luxury website. Huge junk, of their content, is related to self-help/personal development.

Who is Alux.com?  (A quick reminder )

We have seen many companies or brands positioning themselves in the wrong way. If you are copy-pasting other styles of presentation or following the crowd. Then you are not positioning yourself in the right way.Think of an Apple, for example-&nbsp;there are many smartphones. Why? Is Apple top all of them don't they have money like that of Apple (other smartphone company) up course they have money. It's all about positioning your brand.

Positioning your brand

Apple has positioned itself in a different way in the minds of people. What comes to your mind ? when you think of Apple:-&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1. Luxury&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2. Offers high-quality service&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3. Great productAnd the list will go on:-When do you decide? I will do everything differently, I will do what my competitor is not willing to do your brand will stand out from there own.

Alux.com has positioned itself differently in the luxury world(We mean website) they do what, other brand doesn't want to do- putting out valuable content for free. Giving financial advice, giving business growth, advice, and so on. Do, what you are competitors are not willing to do.

Every day, you will find an Alux.com video in your YouTube notification. They have said proudly they have been doing it for the last 5 years. Why? Consistency matters the most, you see in order to be great at anything you have to do it every day - not once in a week.

Consistency is the key

The&nbsp;Compound effect&nbsp;is an awesome book ( Where the author's emphasis on how a small step taken every day, no matter how small builds up to a great result ) Alux.com's&nbsp;first video was not that good at all.But, they keep on working hard and improving their content. Where they are now is because of hard work and staying consistent for long.&nbsp;(Consistency over time, bleeds great result)

I have seen many digital media, especially from our region. Whenever I enter their website, I feel like I am entering a crowded market. As soon as I enter their website, I encounter countless ads popping up from everywhere.This kind of act, done by these companies kills the customer's friendly experience. Now - a - days, people are concerned about privacy, security - no- one wants their phone to get hacked by clicking on ads. This shows their after money, not after value.

Never go after money- always focus on value:-

If you looked at Alux.com on the other side. You will see, Alux.com is not filled with too many ads- It is also interesting to say that they only promote two affiliate links (Audible and NorVPN) they have an army of followers of over 4 million. They can easily promote any service they want. But, they decide to put value first, and money later.Here is a thing, if you focus on money only you are a customer or followers will be upset and will leave. Because you are whole focus will on&nbsp;How can I extract money from them&nbsp;-&nbsp;not on improving the service or value.

Just giving way value also does not solve the problem. You will have to give way actual value that people are looking for or want it.

Here you will learn 3 important business important lesson from Alux.com

3 Business lessons that you can learn from Alux.com

"Efficiency is about getting more things done. Effectiveness is about getting the right things done"

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

One of the most trusted approaches is to use the Pareto Principle, which is more commonly known as the 80/20 Rule.

How do you decide what the “right things” are? 

The 80/20 Rule states that, in any particular domain, a small number of things account for the majority of the results.

The 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 Rule is like a form of judo for life and work. By finding precisely the right area to apply pressure, you can get more results with less effort.

The Upside of the 80/20 Rule

A new path will never look like the most effective option in the beginning.

The Downside of the 80/20 Rule

<ul><li>The 80/20 Rule will help you find the useful things in your past and get more of them in the future. But if you don’t want your future to be more of your past, then you need a different approach.</li><li>The downside of being effective is that you often optimize for your past rather than for your future.</li></ul>

Optimizing for Your Past or Your Future

<ul><li>Given enough practice and enough time, the thing that previously seemed ineffective can become very effective. You get good at what you practice.</li><li>The process of learning a new skill or starting a new company or taking on a new adventure of any sort will often appear to be an ineffective use of time at first.</li><li>Compared to the other things you already know how to do, the new thing will seem like a waste of time. It will never win the 80/20 analysis. </li></ul>But that doesn't mean it's the wrong decision.

Where to Go From Here

You get one, precious life. How do you decide the best way to spend your time?

history

History

movies

Movies & Shows

When the 80/20 Rule Fails: The Downside of Being Effective

Winning products come from the deep understanding of the user’s needs combined with an equally deep understanding of what’s just now possible.

Nine out of every ten products launched fail because they did not achieve their sales goals and in many cases, this happens because of the lack of a proper product management process and a professional to manage it. The product manager has a mission to solve the problems of consumers and therefore, they need to know who the target audience of the product is, what their problems and challenges are, and be smart enough to propose real solutions. To hire a good product manager, a good place to start the hunt can be within the company itself. Your future product manager can be in any department.

Technology and Business Intersection

The PM has 2 primary responsibilities: Assess opportunities for product development and define the products that will be built to fit these occasions. The PM needs a productive team around to achieve this:<ul><li>Designers and Users Experience Professionals should focus on creating the product interface for the ultimate consumer.</li><li>Software engineers must develop the product that the manager has defined.</li><li>The Product Marketer, this person, and the product manager must support each other to formulate marketing messages about the product together.</li></ul>

Product Teams Need The Right Resources

The PM must work intensively with a design team:The interaction designer works to understand the requirements and way of thinking of the target audience, and creates a prototype, also called a wireframe, based on this understanding. The visual designer contributes the visual interface, applied to the skeleton. Essentially, these two roles create the entire user experience, making them key components of the product team. Finally, it is necessary to test the product with users through usability tests and generate ideas for more iterations of the design process.

User Experience Must Come First

To understand how best to exploit these opportunities, you need to use a list of questions proposed by Cagan. The key issues are:<ul><li>What problem will this opportunity solve?</li><li>Who is affected by the problem and how big is this market?</li><li>What alternatives do competitors offer?</li><li>Why can we succeed in this?</li><li>What factors are critical to success?</li><li>What metrics will we use to measure our success?</li><li>Why is this the right time to enter the market?</li><li>What is our entry strategy?</li></ul>Only after finding a product opportunity to pursue is that a PM should initiate product discovery.

PM Must Incessantly Look For New Opportunities

To create a good product, engineers need to build it, consumers must use it, and the product must be valuable for consumers to buy. To prove this, the PM must use a navigable prototype that offers a minimally realistic user experience so that users can test it. Involving engineers is also essential to decide which elements to have, also to know if the product is technically executable. Once you have delivered the specifications to the dev team, your mindset should go out of the discovery process to get into execution.

Discovering A Product

Goal is to create a prototype with which anyone can interact to understand the product without necessarily having to look at its specifications. To prepare this, you will need volunteers. Bring them together from every source you can: friends, family, classifieds ads. Define which tasks you want users to complete.When you run the test, the less you talk, the better, so you do not get in the way of users’ experiences with your own opinions. Your goal is to observe and understand whether your model might be inconsistent with how the user thinks. Fix problems that you find

High Fidelity Prototypes Are A Fantastic Tool

Be present in every client interview and usability test. Keep your focus on identifying customer needs and find out for yourself how to meet those needs. An excellent way to gain customer insight is through the user relationship program focused on solving a particular problem. You then work with these clients as collaborators to develop and test a product to address this issue.You need to develop a product that works for your entire target market, do not fall into the trap of making a specialized product for only one or two of your users.

Create A Client Relationship Program And Collect Testimonials For Launch

To help with making hard decisions, you need to create a set of product principles. Principles should be specific enough to help guide decisions about functionality, target audience, etc.Another great tool to use in product management is the use of personas: fictional user profiles of typical clients. The product manager creates personas based on what he or she knows about customer prospects.Such simple archetypes help align the entire product team according to what the customer wants and what is important to them.

Use Personas And Principles To Make Decisions

Adapting features indiscriminately to please specific customers, ends up making the product less attractive to the market and hampering its long-term success. Product improvement should begin with an understanding of what your goals are. You should understand the most important product business metrics and guide all improvements to these metrics. The most valuable time to make changes to a product comes after its release. During this time, go into “quick response” mode, approaching ideas and customer requests quickly. Consider running old and new versions of your product in parallel.

Manage And Change Gradually

We’ve collected a list of our favourites on a range of topics from entry-level to expert.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

communication

Communication

Top 7 books for Product Managers

How do today’s most successful tech companies—Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla—design, develop, and deploy the products that have earned the love of literally billions of people around the world? Perhaps surprisingly, they do it very differently than the vast majority of tech companies. In INSPIRED, technology product management thought leader Marty Cagan provides readers with a master class in how to structure and staff a vibrant and successful product organization, and how to discover and deliver technology products that your customers will love—and that will work for your business. With sections on assembling the right people and skillsets, discovering the right product, embracing an effective yet lightweight process, and creating a strong product culture, readers can take the information they learn and immediately leverage it within their own organizations—dramatically improving their own product efforts. Whether you’re an early stage startup working to get to product/market fit, or a growth-stage company working to scale your product organization, or a large, long-established company trying to regain your ability to consistently deliver new value for your customers, INSPIRED will take you and your product organization to a new level of customer engagement, consistent innovation, and business success. Filled with the author’s own personal stories—and profiles of some of today’s most-successful product managers and technology-powered product companies, including Adobe, Apple, BBC, Google, Microsoft, and Netflix—INSPIRED will show you how to turn up the dial of your own product efforts, creating technology products your customers love. The first edition of INSPIRED, published ten years ago, established itself as the primary reference for technology product managers, and can be found on the shelves of nearly every successful technology product company worldwide. This thoroughly updated second edition shares the same objective of being the most valuable resource for technology product managers, yet it is completely new—sharing the latest practices and techniques of today’s most-successful tech product companies, and the men and women behind every great product.

product

Product & Design

How do today’s most successful tech companies—Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla—design, develop, and deploy the products that have earned the love of literally billions of people around the world? Perhaps surprisingly, they do it very differently than the vast majority of tech companies. In INSPIRED, technology product management thought leader Marty Cagan provides readers with a master class in how to structure and staff a vibrant and successful product organization, and how to discover and deliver technology products that your customers will love—and that will work for your business.With sections on assembling the right people and skillsets, discovering the right product, embracing an effective yet lightweight process, and creating a strong product culture, readers can take the information they learn and immediately leverage it within their own organizations—dramatically improving their own product efforts. Whether you’re an early stage startup working to get to product/market fit, or a growth-stage company working to scale your product organization, or a large, long-established company trying to regain your ability to consistently deliver new value for your customers, INSPIRED will take you and your product organization to a new level of customer engagement, consistent innovation, and business success. Filled with the author’s own personal stories—and profiles of some of today’s most-successful product managers and technology-powered product companies, including Adobe, Apple, BBC, Google, Microsoft, and Netflix—INSPIRED will show you how to turn up the dial of your own product efforts, creating technology products your customers love. The first edition of INSPIRED, published ten years ago, established itself as the primary reference for technology product managers, and can be found on the shelves of nearly every successful technology product company worldwide. This thoroughly updated second edition shares the same objective of being the most valuable resource for technology product managers, yet it is completely new—sharing the latest practices and techniques of today’s most-successful tech product companies, and the men and women behind every great product.

Marty Cagan is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Marty Cagan has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Marty Cagan's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Marty Cagan

INSPIRED

INSPIRED - How to Create Tech Products Customers Love

Why do some people accomplish so much more than others?Georgetown professor Cal Newport studied the lives of great thinkers in history and found a common theme.Many of these men and women went to great lengths to isolate themselves from distractions while they worked.

Productivity Hacks 

The average knowledge worker spends 30 percent of their time on email......and another 30 percent on team communication and internet activities.

Distractions Never Stop 

Emails and chats aren't deep work, which requires a complex task and uninterrupted focus.Email and similar tasks are what Newport calls shallow work.Shallow work is work that's done in small pieces and doesn't require your full attention.

What Can You Consider As Work ?

Even though it can make you feel busier than ever it won't lead to great achievement.But if you can manage shallow work efficiently and avoid distractions you can prioritize long periods of complex thinking

When You Seem Busy But ..

When you leave room for long period of complex thinking with no distractions you are on to something. Deep work is the practice of focusing on a complex task over an uninterrupted period. <ul><li>Eliminating distractions and practicing deep work is a key to great achievement.</li><li>To focus on deep work, you need to effectively manage shallow work. Shallow work isn't complex and doesn't create value. </li></ul>

Achieve More In Less Time 

I recommend reading the book Deep Work by Cal Newport. It will increase your work productivity tremendously if you are able to practice lessons gained from the book.

One of the most valuable skills in our economy is becoming increasingly rare. If you master this skill, you'll achieve extraordinary results. Deep Work is an indispensable guide to anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world. 'Cal Newport is exceptional in the realm of self-help authors' New York Times 'Deep work' is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. Coined by author and professor Cal Newport on his popular blog Study Hacks, deep work will make you better at what you do, let you achieve more in less time and provide the sense of true fulfilment that comes from the mastery of a skill. In short, deep work is like a superpower in our increasingly competitive economy. And yet most people, whether knowledge workers in noisy open-plan offices or creatives struggling to sharpen their vision, have lost the ability to go deep - spending their days instead in a frantic blur of email and social media, not even realising there's a better way. A mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, DEEP WORK takes the reader on a journey through memorable stories -- from Carl Jung building a stone tower in the woods to focus his mind, to a social media pioneer buying a round-trip business class ticket to Tokyo to write a book free from distraction in the air -- and surprising suggestions, such as the claim that most serious professionals should quit social media and that you should practice being bored. Put simply: developing and cultivating a deep work practice is one of the best decisions you can make in an increasingly distracted world and this book will point the way.

productivity

Productivity

career

Career

Deep Work

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INSPIRED - How to Create Tech Products Customers Love

Deep Work

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It's time to
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