Austin VOP 2020 Wrap up: Top 3 Interviews | My 2021 Goals
Austin Voice of Product - Building a stronger Product community
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Austin Voice of Product - Highlights and Top 3
It has been three and a half years since I launched Austin Voice of Product and it continues to help our Austin product community connect and grow. Here are some highlights and the top 3 Austin VOP interviews in 2020.
I interviewed 15 current and future Austin product leaders.
My newsletter subscribers grew by 33%.
The average open rate for the newsletter remains high at 48%.
I switched my newsletter platform from TinyLetter to Substack. Super happy so far!
The Top 3 interviews feature two up and coming women in product - Julie and Melissa, and our resident Austin product thought leader Rajesh. It is great to see two women’s stories resonate with our community. I have no doubt that Julie and Melissa are on their way to being future product leaders. It was also great to share Rajesh’s insights a couple of months before he published his book - Build What Matters.
Julie Varghese of H-E-B: Product Managers Learn From Failure
Rajesh Nerlikar of Prodify Group: Vision-led Product Management
Melissa von Holstein of The Zebra: Product Managers Don’t Have To Have All The Answers
My 2021 Goals
I did an end of year group coaching led by my friend Erin Randall. It was a great way to reflect on 2020 and set goals for 2021.
I feel so fortunate that I started a new role at SolarWinds just as the pandemic began. It has been a year of learning to collaborate remotely and building a machine learning product. I made some progress on my 2020 goals to improve my product discovery skills. More of it in 2021.
My 2021 goals are:
Continue to improve my product discovery chops and develop my product analytics skills (Opportunity Solution trees, the Written narrative, Amplitude).
Continue my new side project I started in October to provide 1:1 product coaching for women and under-represented communities in tech. This is an extension of Austin Voice of Product: my goal is to help develop a more diverse next generation of product leaders in Austin.
I often advise others to find a mentor and I want to take my own advice and seek mentorship for myself.
What I am reading
John Cuttlefish’s post last month about Rank Your 2020 Initiatives (by Impact) is a good way to reflect on what you worked on in 2020 and what ended up being valuable. I know there are a couple of things I worked on this year that ended being low value and I am reflecting on what my blind spot was that led me to decide to advocate working on it.
I am also halfway through Marty Cagan’s new book with Chris Jones - Empowered. Have your product leader read it and encourage them to coach you and not just manage you.
Austin Product Events
January 20 — Products That Count
Brave VP of Services & Operations on the Rewards of Online Advertising
In The Community
Monica Cravotta was featured in The DigitalMarketer podcast talking about a documentary film that WP Engine is releasing about how the ad agency industry has changed with digital. Read Monica’s apt Austin VOP interview: Product Marketers Know The Art Of Storytelling.
Austin Product Positions
I share product positions posted by product leaders I know. Feel free to reach out to me for an intro or share with others.Â
Verb, an employee learning and development platform, is hiring a Product Manager to join their team.
ClearData is looking for a Product Manager with AWS/Azure/GCP experience to join his team and make an impact in the healthcare industry.
I wish you all the best for 2021!
Cheers
Reza
Hi Reza, I'm just wrapping up (and enjoying) Inspired. I'd be interested to know if you think Empowered has enough unique content to add significant value. Thanks!