Cannabis. Solar Energy. Online Therapy. What do industries have in common? For starters, they all saw massive growth in 2020. Second, they all are projected to continue outpacing other industry sectors in the coming years. One more thing, they all exist in regulation-heavy environments. The regulatory environment as a whole will become a more important part of many industries in 2021 and beyond.

There are so many pieces written about the skills a product manager must acquire in order to be successful. These skills could be anything from learning about user psychology, understanding business models, or even programming. What is…

Many Americans are focused on national politics where they act as spectators at the cost of involvement in their city and county. This is despite the fact that city and county involvement is where one can have a much larger impact on shaping policy. As the country sprints towards constitutional, climate, economic, and racial crises, we all hope to avoid disaster but many feel helpless to make the big changes necessary to divert them.

Only by re-engineering our political systems and getting involved locally, can we gain the necessary agility provided by diversity of thought and experience. Expanding voter registration…

We should do it anyways.

The United States has one of the lowest voter participation among established democracies. Why is that? We’re the oldest democracy? We’re a wealthy country and most people do agree in the importance of democracy here within our country.

Over the years, there have been several proposals to increase voter turnout; including the Democracy Day Act of 2018 sponsored by none other than Senator Bernard Sanders. This proposal would designate election day as a national holiday with the hopes of increasing voter turnout and strengthening our participatory democracy. …

S o you’re a new Product Manager at a company. You’re excited about the opportunity but you’ve just received the third customer request this month for changes to form functionality that was released six months ago.

The form was kept purposefully simple so that it could be released as an MVP and it has covered most use cases. Now it’s time to iterate and improve.

As the new Product Manager, how do you go about making an informed decision about the direction when you’re still getting your bearings at the company?

Recognize Your Unknowns

For me, the first step is always going to…

At every company I’ve joined as a Product Manager, the role inherits a giant backlog. In one company, the backlog literally consisted of over 2900 items — some of which were logged over a decade ago. This doesn’t scare me. I think that a big backlog is a sign of a healthy company. It means that you have stakeholders at all levels interested in the product. It means that as a company, you have ideas coming in and directions worth exploring. …

It isn’t uncommon to have a lot of ideas on a product backlog. Ideas flow in from executives, customers, sales, support, and just about everyone. It is common to hear that a good Product Manager is one who knows how to say “no”. I would take it a step further and say that a good Product Manager knows how to build a framework that can help them to say “no” ideas that don’t move the company forward and “yes” to those that do. …

I’m not a religious person. That fact wouldn’t surprise anyone who knows me. What may surprise all but those closest to me, however, is that I hold religion in pretty high regard.

I have tattoos and make blasphemous jokes. I proudly carry my Satanic Temple mug into the office (pre pandemic of course) and delight at the discomfort of others at the presence of the Baphomet in a project status meeting. I can’t remember the last time I was in a church building; so understand my internal contradiction when I say that Religion may be the biggest driver of human…

We need collective action across the board. Progressive “blue” states can’t solve problems without working with “red” states.

The Problem:

We face unprecedented issues. Climate models show that we have already passed major tipping points and the math isn’t on our side to solve the problem without major changes to policy. The pandemic has had the dual effects of both increasing wealth inequality while pushing millions into poverty, not to mention that the actual infection rates are continuing to rise.

To solve these issues. We need collective action but our political parties are wholly unable to achieve the change necessary. While Democrats…