Todd Birchard: Engineering, Product, Technology

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Data Engineering, Big Data, and Other Vague Vocabulary

Data Engineering, Big Data, and Other Vague Vocabulary

The cross-section of software engineering and data science is home to an unusual culture of gatekeeping.

Why Did You Want to Become a Product Manager?

Why Did You Want to Become a Product Manager?

If more Product Managers could answer this question, we'd have better Product Managers.

The Great Divide

The Great Divide

Company’s adopting open office spaces and heavy Slack culture reveals the prioritization of management over talent.

Ideas Are Cheap

Ideas Are Cheap

Aspiring entrepreneurs keep their eyes on the prize, but neglect the process to succeed.

Do PMs Need To Be Technical?

Do PMs Need To Be Technical?

As product management enters the public eye, aspiring PMs collectively ask the wrong questions.

The Arrogance Epidemic

The Arrogance Epidemic

We are to some extent victims of circumstance, but if there is time to make an exception, it would be that of arrogance.

Culture Over Rules

Culture Over Rules

Teams which implicitly strive for success are more effective than teams following rules.

Will Product Go The Way Of Marketing?

Will Product Go The Way Of Marketing?

High-impact professions attract seekers of success, but is this always a good thing?

Agile Suicide

Agile's unanimous success is the culprit of its own demise.

Defining Your JIRA Project's Issue Schemes

Defining Your JIRA Project's Issue Schemes

The first step to creating clear team communication in JIRA is utilizing issue types effectively.

Product Management: The Personality Profession

Product Management: The Personality Profession

Being a "good PM" may be more of a popularity contest than a measure of effectiveness.

The Art Of Technical Documentation

The Art Of Technical Documentation

It's not so much our ideas that consume us, but the ability to explain those ideas to entire teams of people.

The Ruin Of Feeling Powerless

The Ruin Of Feeling Powerless

Being powerless in its most crushing state is not an instant switch, but rather a series of memory leaks which happen undetected over time.

How To Interview Product Managers

How To Interview Product Managers

Hiring the right PM is hard. Be sure to put candidates through the paces to avoid undoing the damage of hiring the wrong person.

Everything Is A Bubble

Everything Is A Bubble

In the presence of exponential success, it is important to realize that every high has a low. Any booming industry is simply the upside of a sine curve.

The Community of Product Management

The Community of Product Management

A tendency to dodge tangible conversation may spell trouble for the future of product.

9 Things We Learn In School

9 Things We Learn In School

Things we learn: Life is linear. Concepts over substance. Use big words. Do the minimum. Fake it. Work hard. Do what you love, but don't have fun.

Agile Development Without The Bullshit

Project Management

Agile Development Without The Bullshit

The term "Agile Development" in product management has been bloated with jargon and meaningless terminology. Let's look at agile and get back to the basics.

Tools for Project Management

Tools for Project Management

My Product Management tools include JIRA, Asana, Figma, Trello, InVision, drawio, Zeplin, Smartsheet, Slack, Keynote, Google Docs, Dropbox.

Should You Buy Bitcoin?

Should You Buy Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is breaking the mainstream with a reason bystanders can't resist: price.

What Is A Product Manager?

What Is A Product Manager?

Despite the significance of the digital product management, the term has escaped mainstream terminology.

Getting Started With JIRA

Getting Started With JIRA

A guide for JIRA beginners to learn the basics of navigating through Atlassian's JIRA project management software.

Welcome to Toddzilla

Welcome to Toddzilla

Sources confirmed that Todd Birchard, the unmistakably anonymous Product Manager from New York, has started a blog. Tech community reels in shock.