Why TED talks will make you a better product person
You may have seen over on Medium my recent post about 10 TED Talks to Make You a Better Product Manager and today I'm going to dive in this a little deeper and look at why I think these are talks worthy of watching.
Who are TED?
For those not familiar with TED, it stands for Technology, Entertainment & Design, and they are a nonprofit organisation devoted to spreading ideas. They run events around the world where leading experts come and talk about their subject area, and which thankfully for us, they then turn these talks into short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less).
If you head to their website (www.ted.com) then you'll find thousands of expert talks on everything from They cover a whole range of topics from animals or the ancient world, to writing and work life balance.
I've spent many an hour listening to these talks (which they also make available via podcast and radio shows!)
Do they do product talks then?
They do have one category called 'product design', but they do not specifically cover product, but that doesn't matter to us. We're product people and that means we're in a role that covers a wide remit within our organisation and that we are in need of a vast arsenal of skills in order to be both structured and detail orientated whilst being creative and visionary. We must be a leader whilst being empathetic to all our user's needs and follow their guidance.
As such, I think there are a whole host of talks in their archive that product people can gain something from in order to become better in our roles.
What's special about these 10 talks?
The talks that I included in my list cover a range of topics, from speaking and listening to sleeping and disagreeing, and they have all provided me with ways in which to make marginal gains, and thus make larger improvements in the way I go about my work.
Arianna Huffington's talk on being more happy and productive revolves around the need to get more sleep. I know this doesn't sound like a productivity tool, but I can tell you from experience that it certainly is. On listening to this talk I went straight out and bought her book, not surprisingly called The Sleep Revolution: Transforming your life, one night at a time, and within a week I was in bed by 1030pm, getting nearly eight hours sleep a night.
What I found was that with a more regimented sleep pattern, not only did I feel more rested, but I had less need to rely on artificial stimulants during the day (caffeine and alcohol), but I was more alert, earlier in the day, which allowed me to use my commute as productive time and not sleepy, dreading the day time. My more positive approach to the day brought itself into the office, which meant I could be more involved with the team and my customers resulting in better quality interactions.
Yes, it's been difficult to keep to such a routine as family and other commitments get in the way, but it's always there, bringing me back to the fact that I'm more productive the better night's sleep get.
Julia Dhar takes on the subject of disagreeing productively, which given the role of product people and the need to gather feedback and opinion from a range of different stakeholders and shape this into a coherent product path, despite the potentially conflicting direction, is particularly relevant.
Her conclusion is that the way to get others to see your point of view is to seek common ground, and although this seems fairly obvious, it all too often gets lost in our desire to force through our views or protect our decisions.
One of the most powerful statements within her discussion (and you'd expect her to have a few, given the fact that she's won the world debate championship three times!) is that 'your only winning strategy is to engage with the best, clearest, least personal version of the idea', and view point that puts aside personal views and focuses on the matter at hand.
As product people, this becomes useful when you need to need to discussing the upcoming sprint priorities with the engineering team, when you need to inform the sales team what's on the product roadmap and why, or when you need to convince the CEO that their idea hasn't made the cut for the latest round of improvements. Powerful stuff.Amy Edmondson, in her talk How to Turn a Group of Strangers into a Team, takes the example of miners trapped half a mile underground and in need of rescuing and how the groups of people who came to bring their skills to the rescue effort were turned into an efficient and productive team that could solve the logistical challenge of the rescue.
As Product Managers, we can’t deliver anything on our own, and we need to be part of a wider team to meet our goals. Often, in our role at the centre of the business we’re also the person who brings together different areas to meet these goals, so understanding how a team can form is a good skill for a PM to have.
And there are lessons like these in each of the seven other talks which can take away and use within our daily product lives. The ideas are free, and you can start using them today.
Where else can we find lessons like these?
TED don't have a monopoly on providing ideas for discussion and there are numerous places you can go to. For me, I've also found the following thought provoking
Freakonmics (podcast)- Created out of the book of the same name, Freakonomics subtitles itself 'The hidden side of everything', and they take a look at huge range of subjects with research, interview, and discussion. Some of my favourite episodes have included How to Change Your Mind, How to make Meetings Less Terrible, and How to Fail Like a Pro.
More or Less (podcast) - An economics / statistics podcast, covering questionable statistics in the news, Tim Harford brings constant reminders on how to question what you hear and how important it is to consider where the data comes from, what it is trying to tell you, and what it isn't.
99u.com (videos) - An alternative to TED that looks at creative idea and challenges, which although creative focused definitely allows you to take away a few lessons that can apply to your product world. One of my favourites is How to Lead When You Don’t Know What You’re Doing, by Tea Uglow.
Conclusion
I read product articles, listen to product podcasts, and watch product videos, but often the lessons that I learn that make the biggest impact on the way I go about my work are ones that aren't directly within the product space. They're lessons from life, which apply to everyone, not just product people. If we only look within the product community for answers, then we'll only have product solutions to our problems, and sometimes, solutions from outside might give us a fresh perspective that allows for a marginal gain over others.
I hope you find time to watch or listen to some of the lessons mentioned above.
Rob
Further reading
The original Medium post on 10 TED Talks to Make You a Better Product Manager