Staying Sharp in a Fast-Paced World

Continuous learning for product managers

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Product Management IRL Guest posts:

How to Prevent Being Buried by Work - Collaboration with

Maarten Dalmijn

Case Study: Customer Journey Map with Operating Principles - Collaboration with

Paweł Huryn

These newsletters provide product management insights every week!

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With so many ways to learn product, strategy, technology concepts, and more, how can you stay sharp in so many areas?  You might conclude that you need to spend more time on continuous learning.  And yet you still need to deliver great products. 

Of course, you can go to your favorite AI tool to get a summary and insights on a new topic.  In product management, you often need to assimilate this information into your unique point of view.  Parroting the AI-generated material isn't enough.

What is a new way to learn in a fast-paced world of information?  The answer is:

• Focused learning

• Serendipity learning

Let's dive into these two modes of learning.

Focused Learning for Deep Expertise

When you need to learn a new concept, market, or skill, focused learning is essential.  Use focused learning in time-boxed increments to keep yourself from going too deep before understanding the new topic.  Think about layers of learning to get the right information to meet your learning goal. 

Time-boxing your focused learning is crucial to assimilating what you learn into your product initiatives.  Otherwise, you get so inspired by the new topic that you go deep into material irrelevant to your goal.  Additionally, it takes thinking time to absorb your new learning!

Here are the spiral steps to focused learning:

1. Set Clear Goals: Have a specific concept or idea to explore with a clear outcome

2. Breakdown to Small Parts: Start at the top and build the list of sub-topics as you go

3. Time-box with Notes: Take notes on what you learn with "breadcrumbs" to lead you back to the sources of your learning

4. Write your Questions: Write your questions outside your learning goal.  Write open questions when your time box is finished.

5. Reflect and Adjust: Take a break and wait for the insights.  Apply your new insights to prioritize the next spiral in your focused learning.

6. Apply your Learning: Bring your learning to a conclusion.  Likely outcomes are: save for later, go deeper, and get help.

Focus and master a few topics before adding new topics.  You need to balance learning with doing.  Just the right amount of learning to support your product initiatives.

Focused Learning Example

Let's imagine you are a product manager in B2B with a large installed base of customers.  You have new customers as well as customers ordering expansions.  You hear a lot about data-driven decision-making.  You want to learn more about this and see if you can apply it to insights about your customers' ordering patterns.

You have been struggling for some time to see any ordering patterns from your B2B customers.  You've almost decided that your orders are too lumpy for any insights from the order data.  You decide to try focused learning on data-driven decision-making.

Here are the steps you take:

In this real-world example of learning an aspect of data-driven decision-making, you decided to save your learning for later use.  You have enough depth on this topic to meet the needs of your product and organization.

• A detailed example is available for paid subscribers on the Resources page.

Focused learning helps you master a new topic area for today.  It compliments serendipity learning which is a funnel to your focused learning.

Serendipity Learning for Broader Awareness

Serendipity learning comes from exploring product management topics and your technical domain.  A mix of different content can bring valuable industry insights.  Following thought leaders on newsletters, podcasts, and social media is a good way to get started.

Here are the steps to leverage serendipity learning:

1. Curate your feed: Focus on product management topics and your domain area to get new ideas and developments that relate to your organization and product management focus.  Also a mix of technical depth, industry news, and leadership techniques.

2. Schedule time for exploration: A daily routine of surveying your curated feed leads to more chances for ideas and insights for your product management learning.

3. Time box with notes: Make note of patterns in your feed that relate to your domain and that relate to product management.

4. Engage and Share: Engaging on your feed helps improve it.  Sharing what you learn helps your product team learn and improve.

You can use serendipity learning to prioritize focused learning or use it right away in your product management role.

Serendipity Learning Example

Suppose you are a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product manager for a disaster recovery product.  There has been a recent spike in new customer orders.  You've been busy driving the roadmap based on the new customer feedback.  There is a problem though.  Your finance team is raising issues about a drop in profitability.  You need to figure out why margins aren't what was forecasted!

How does your serendipity learning help you?  Happily, you have been following these steps for a while.  This is what you've been doing:

This example continues as you execute your daily serendipity learning.

How do you make use of your learning on SaaS metrics for your finance team?   Like many organizations, your SaaS product is part of a traditional portfolio with your product representing a small part of the financial picture.  It won't make sense for the finance team to change to more SaaS-like financial measurements.

In your case, you got an answer to your product's profitability problem from your serendipity learning.  You don't need to share your newfound learning of SaaS metrics.  Instead, you translate your learning into the language of your organization.  Your response to finance: the profitability problem is short-term and recovers after the new customers complete the setup of the product (your CAC payback period).

• A detailed example is available for paid subscribers on the Resources page.

Conclusion - Continuous Learning Pays Off!

Continuous learning is a game-changer for product managers. As the demands on your role expand—across both business and technology—it’s more challenging than ever to stay sharp in all areas. By adopting these two complementary learning strategies, you can ensure you're always ahead of the curve:

• Focused learning for mastering deep expertise

• Serendipity learning for staying attuned to emerging trends

Integrate these habits into your routine, and you’ll not only dive deep when needed but also stay in the loop on the latest ideas. Stay sharp, stay current, and most importantly—stay ahead.

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Last week’s backstory for paid subscribers was about disconnecting from product work. Can a product manager have a stress-free vacation?

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