TEI 011: Building the product management community one meetup at a time – with Cindy Solomon
Summary: <br> Cindy F Solomon started her career in hardware and her first job in Silicon Valley was with Apple. She has become an important voice in the product management community. She is the founder of the Startup Product Academy to teach people how to be product leaders. She also produces the Product Summit, which brings together passionate product professionals, developers, designers, managers and marketers to grapple with the important issues that enable excellent products.<br> She also is the host of the Global Product Management Talk live podcast, with over 150 episodes speaking to experts about product innovation and excellence.<br> In addition to podcasts, conference events, and meetups, you will find several articles and writings she has contributed to the profession of product management, including the “Guide to the ProdBOK, Product Management & Marketing Body of Knowledge.”<br> Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators<br> Highlights from the discussion include:<br> <br> * Cindy shared her background, love of hardware and software, and path to becoming a product manager.<br> * We both share a fondness of the Radio Shack TRS-80, Commodore, and other early personal computers.<br> * Stereotypes she grew up with and fought against concerning women not being “good” at math, science, and technology.<br> * Came to Silicon Valley to get involved with startups and also worked for Apple.<br> * Earlier cross-functional roles with a technology foundation as well as a marketing foundation paved the way for work in product management.<br> * Joined the Association of International Product Marketers and Managers (AIPMM) and earned the product management and marketing certifications (CPM, CPMM) to provide a foundation and framework of knowledge for product management.<br> * People pursuing product management need to be empathetic, good communicators, operate cross-functionally, and realize they are working within a whole system, not one function or department.<br> <br> Organizations and events Cindy has created:<br> <br> * <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/prodmgmttalk" target="_blank" data-wpel-link="external" rel="follow external noopener noreferrer">Global Product Management Talk</a>: Podcast forwarding the movement for product excellence. Discussions about the art, craft and profession for managing products that contribute value. All aspects of customer development, user experience, product innovation, design, development, marketing and scaling. Now featuring episodes from this podcast too – The Everyday Innovator.<br> * <a href="http://productsummit.org/" target="_blank" data-wpel-link="external" rel="follow external noopener noreferrer">The Product Summit</a>: Conference bringing together the community of passionate product professionals, developers, designers, managers and marketers over 4 interactive days of events.<br> * <a href="http://startupproduct.com/" target="_blank" data-wpel-link="external" rel="follow external noopener noreferrer">Startup Product</a>: Creates and nurtures inclusive local communities for passionate product professionals across disciplines, provides a sandbox for product and skill experimentation, and enables a launch pad forwarding product people, product ideas, product teams, and product success.<br> <br> Innovation Quote<br> “For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate.” – Margaret Heffernan<br> <br> Listen Now to the Interview<br> <br> Thanks for Listening!<br> Thank you for joining me again. I love discussing product development and learning from the successes and failures of product innovators. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager, developer, or innovator by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.<br>
