My brain has been super rusty and distracted, so I’m being kind to myself right now. I read 3 books in the month of February How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy: I had been told to disregard the name of the book, because the name is indeed misleading. This book would have beenContinue reading “February Reading List”
Author Archives: Nikitha
Five questions to identify a good PM culture
When asked about for advice about product management, I almost always preface my answer with “well, it depends” likely on one or more of the following Company size, type, stage, culture Manager, team Product type, stage Your background, work experience A good product culture is a confluence of these factors, and then some. Ken NortonContinue reading “Five questions to identify a good PM culture”
January Reading List
New year, new books! I love starting the year with a pile of books at home waiting to be read. Here’s what I kicked off January with. As always, my favorite(s) are in bold. Mind Master: Winning Lessons from a Champion’s Life: Growing up in India, Viswanathan Anand was an almost constant fixture in theContinue reading “January Reading List”
Measuring personal growth as a product manager
It recently occurred to me that I’ve been in the tech industry for almost six years now. Practically an infant when compared to most people, but a veteran compared to some. Charting professional growth without benchmarking on pay and title is difficult for me, but I wanted to do this exercise to see how muchContinue reading “Measuring personal growth as a product manager”
2020 Reading List
I read 76 books this year. Last year, I was at 68. In terms of the quality of books though, I think I read better books in 2019 and consumed more junk in 2020. But like comfort food, comfort reading was a huge stress-buster for me so I don’t feel bad about it. December BottleContinue reading “2020 Reading List”
November Reading List
Well, the end of the year has made me a huge slacker so this post is coming pretty late. Better late than never as they say. Eat a Peach: There’s something about chefs that is so interesting to me. I guess it’s partly to do with my awe of the sacrifices they must make inContinue reading “November Reading List”
October Reading List
Not a good reading month whatsoever, with no good excuse. Monogamy: The plot was fine, the characters weren’t as interesting as they could have been. Overall, a well-written book although the title doesn’t reflect what the book is about. No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention: I’ve heard about how intense it canContinue reading “October Reading List”
Internal-tooling vs customer-facing product management (at Twilio and VMware)
I was catching up with my friend and fellow alum from UCLA Anderson, Harshal Patil (product manager at Twilio) about how work was going, and I was bemused by how different our jobs are even though we’re nearly identical on paper i.e. both engineers, MBAs, and now product managers at enterprise tech companies. We thought this wouldContinue reading “Internal-tooling vs customer-facing product management (at Twilio and VMware)”
September Reading List
I could blame work being crazy for my lack of reading this past month, but that would be only partly true. The main culprit is the new 55-inch TV that is sitting pretty in my living room. Anyway, I hope the novelty wears off soon so I can go back to reading as per usual.Continue reading “September Reading List”
Three reasons why I’m not a great product manager
This blog has been rapidly gaining subscribers, for which I am excited and grateful. At the same time, I’m also realizing that my posts are starting to get preachy and while it’s nice to act like I always know what I’m doing, I really don’t. When we write things down, especially for an audience, thingsContinue reading “Three reasons why I’m not a great product manager”