Daniel Stanton

Highly recommend this course for anyone who wants to wrangle, ahem I mean develop, people brilliantly!

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When you’re a millennial product manager, attempting to share her knowledge of product, with the wider community and one of the most successful artists in the world is currently on a mass tour of the UK, there’s only one question on your mind: What would the dangerous animals of product management be if they were Taylor Swift songs? If you've been asking yourself the same question then have I got a blog post for you! https://lnkd.in/dYxE_QDq #product #productmanagement #tech #UX

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Last week, I had a chat with Simon Tuddenham, who asked me, "What do you think about the state of Product right now?" I wasn't surprised by this question because I get asked this nearly every single week. My answer: Not that great. I talk with a lot of product leaders who report how their companies currently devalue product for short-term financial goals. But what happens if you keep prioritizing short-term business goals over long-term product impact? 👉 Eventually, you will lose customers to more innovative competitors, putting your company's future at risk. What do you think about the current state of product in general and in your organization? #productleadership #productleadershipcoaching #leadershipcoaching

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Me: "I'll give that public speaking thing a try in 2024." Also me: Getting stuck right into the big games apparently... I'll be talking at BigDataLdn this year. It's a solid mix of hype and anxiety, Hanxiety if you will! But mostly hype. #BigDataLDN #data #dataengineering #dataleadership

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Unfortunately, the current redundancies / layoffs at THG are impacting my role, alongside c.40% of my amazing team members across Product, UX and Business Analysis. To say we’re feeling rather ‘unsettled' right now ... would be an understatement! But I'm ever the optimist and certain it’s just the end of this current chapter - and now it's time to turn the page and write the next one! From my perspective, the last 5 years has been a rollercoaster ride. I’ve continued to build and lead digital Product and Experience Design teams across different businesses and industry sectors. It’s been an honour and privilege to mentor and coach colleagues, especially those at the beginning of their careers. And let’s not forget all the ‘leg work’ of developing outcome-led product strategy, roadmaps and the associated discovery and UX that brings it all together! I’ve been at the forefront of delivering unique capabilities and entirely new product propositions in areas such as online gaming, accounting SaaS and end-to-end commerce solutions for omnichannel retailers and famous CPG brands. All underpinned by my previous experience delivering large scale digital transformation and working in Silicon Valley, which has heavily influenced how I operate and focus on ‘getting sh*t done’! So, what’s next? I’m really interested in fractional / interim / consultancy opportunities, where I can bring my proven skills and experience to those looking for support in delivering digital transformation (project or programme) and / or product development and UX design. I’m open to remote and hybrid concepts across Yorkshire, UK (and global travel is welcomed). If you have any suggestions, leads, or connections, I’d greatly appreciate your help. In the meantime, I’m going to set myself a goal to speak on a few digital-focused podcasts, given how many of them I consume every week! Time to pay it back! 😀 Feel free to tag, share, or otherwise boost this post. I also have more details on my areas of expertise here: https://lnkd.in/eEBxvg9G. Thank you! #OpenToWork #DigitalTransformation #Fractional #Interim #Contracting #ProductManagement #UXDesign

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🚀 New blog post 🚀 This week’s discovery: 🦥 Good work can look lazy 🔨 Building on what you already have 👫 Emotional differences in modern dating 🔑 The only metric that matters Read the full post: https://lnkd.in/eT-S5KFx #ModernWork #SelfAcceptance #Relationships #PersonalSuccess #PursuitCommunity

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I frequently hear Exec teams simultaneously claiming “Customer focus”, whilst avoiding talking with their customers. 🤔 Establishing the practice of user research at the top-most level enables a culture of customer focus throughout the organisation. Some of the biggest breakthroughs I've witnessed as part of a leadership team have resulted from the whole C-level spending a couple of hours meeting with real customers. Examples: - Finding our customers have an alternate use case for our product - Realising who our real competitors are - Discovering a new channel where our customers are engaged - Understanding the real connection between our pricing and customer actions - Uncovering features/UX being used in an unexpected way

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🧡 Would you like to help your team fix their product and UX pains? Between now and 15th July I'm looking for 2 tech focused start-ups to help get their product and UX pains fixed. Just FYI, we recently helped one start-up refocus their team around an undervalued existing product, that they didn’t realise clients were actually clamouring to buy. If this sounds like you, drop me a Direct Message. #product #ux #startups

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It's getting a bit old now, but we keep coming back to Google's UX Playbook for Retail. It's a super simple but thorough overview of how ecommerce stores with larger product catalogues should approach UX. There's some really sold tips in there - link in the comments!

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Steal my senior leadership growth hack. At the start of the year, with more front than Brighton, I told my manager I'm capable of more. But I've got some gaps. And I'm not sure how to fill them. We put our thinking caps on and struck upon an idea that's turning out to be genius. I'm very strong operationally. I'm reasonably strong technically. I'm OK on product. I'm weakest on business. To shine at the senior leadership level in tech at Google you need to be strong in tech, product and business. All three. My operational strength is a bonus and sets me apart. It's my USP. The idea we came up with is designed to build my strength in business and product, anchored of course in tech. Here's how it works: 1️⃣ Every month this year, my manager sets me a challenge 2️⃣ I rise to the challenge and report back within the month 3️⃣ My manager reviews my findings, we have a great discussion, then she: - pushes me to go deeper if I missed a bit - sets me a new monthly challenge I think she's rather enjoying coming up with the challenges, and she seems really keen to read and discuss my write up each time. She's a great manager ☺️ I really enjoy the research, chats with various colleagues, the learning & reflection. I look forward to sharing back my findings with her too. The *most* fun bit is the deeply insightful discussion that follows and the wicked giggle we both have when she's setting me my next challenge! ➡️ January's challenge was to go and learn the infrastructure, serving and business model of ads ➡️ February's challenge was to go and learn YouTube's business verticals & how they make money ➡️ March's challenge was to go and learn about digital Trust & Safety ➡️ April's challenge will be revealed to me next week after I submit March's findings...! And on and on we'll go, every month this year. By January 2025 I'll: ➡️ Be adding way more leadership value ➡️ Have increased my credibility and sphere of influence ➡️ Be more confident contributing to discussions I didnt previously feel equipped to share a strong opinion in ➡️ Be able to spot opportunities to make a bigger, more sophisticated impact And, dare I say it, I will have manoeuvred into a much stronger position to be considered for promotion. In the most challenging and constrained time in Google's history to be promoted. Especially to senior leadership level. These days accomplishing Director-level promo is down to more factors than impact alone. So it may never happen for me. But, if that's the case, I'm damn sure it won't be because I'm not capable. And if I'm satisfied that's the case, I'll be happy either way. So, if you've ever wondered how to next level yourself from middle management to senior leadership, pinch my hack. It's way more enjoyable than I've probably made it sound here. And I can already feel the shift in myself. It's making a real difference and opening my eyes in useful and relevant ways. You're welcome! (And thanks boss 😊)

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If you are interested in levelling up in Product, why not check out Reforge. Reforge provides content from people working at LinkedIn, Lyft, Dropbox, Uber, Netflix, Meta, SurveyMonkey, Google ..... Their free content is superb but I've also heard very good things from students of their paid courses. On the 25th June they are also running a half day event on ✨ AI ✨. You can register here https://lnkd.in/efrdK5R2 #product #productmanagement #productdesign #ux #learn

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The secrets of how experienced engineering leaders accelerating growth of new Tech Leads... 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘦𝘵 + 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 + 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 + 𝘍𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 = 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁 Individual focus → 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 I love Andy Grove's definition 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘥𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦. Although I prefer to use the term 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀. It's possible for a team to product a lot of output but not much value! 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱? A team scoped Tech Lead can have many flavours. Is team leadership included? What about line management? What about delivery? Clarity is key 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 Engineer → Tech Lead is a tricky transition. Holding more frequent 1:1's initially Seek feedback from team Stay close 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 We all make mistakes when taking on new responsibilities  Provide both reenforcing and corrective feedback Observations + Impact = Actionable feedback Learn from mistakes Celebrate the wins P.S How do you support new Tech Leads?

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This is a fabulous, hands-on, practical review of Helen Bird's first year in Product Operations. One thing I dislike these days is this constant needs for ultra-high level, ultra-generic articles and descriptions of jobs. What I really like here is the detail, the in-the-weeds problems solved. Because we are all professional and practical enough to take what she have done and apply it to our own situations. This is a great read for all aspiring or early-stage Product Ops professionals. Well done Helen.

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Anyone working in a design system team will know there’s lots to do and lots to learn. To celebrate twelve months in my role as Senior Product Manager on the BBC’s WebCore Design System I wanted to share nine lessons I’ve learnt from working in this interesting and complex space. They include.. 📚Design systems are an essential part of modern development and design 📚There’s huge potential for accessibility wins 📚Research is key 📚People are your product too 📚Community matters 📚People love design systems. People hate design systems 📚Demonstrate value and celebrate wins 📚Governance, yes please 📚Metrics ftw As I mention in the article, the design system community is supportive and mega helpful and people have given me a lot of their time and expertise. Shout outs to Steve Messer Ellis Capon Marianne Ashton-Booth Amy Hupe Dan Donald Scott Strubberg Robin Cannon Grace H. and good folks that run zeroheight's Converge Festival for being super knowledgeable and all round good eggs 🥚. If you work in design systems, which of these lessons resonate with you? Or, more importantly, have you got your own lessons to add to this list?

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Klarna has made a flurry of announcements about their new tools this year, but interestingly, they haven't provided any specific details on how they did it. If you replace 'AI' with 'awesome', 'crappy', or even 'God' in their announcements, the intent becomes visible. It seems like they're generating buzz to prepare for their IPO. If they've developed a cutting-edge CRM tool or innovative workforce solution, why not monetize it or offer it as open-source or freeware? That would create more excitement and marketing traction than these vague announcements. Are we to expect similar announcements about upcoming payroll software, bookkeeping software, and marketing automation software :-)

I think as product leaders we can really feel the pressure sometimes 🤯 ...but, some of that pressure can be avoided with a shift to a coaching style of leadership... I discussed it further on my episode of the Product Thinking podcast with Melissa Perri Perri. (If you missed it, you can catch up here: https://lnkd.in/eMa_nJ7N) 💬 👀 But in the episode, we explored how coaching as a skill can be so beneficial to leaders, but also not to get it mixed up with mentoring. We discussed the value of coaching skills for product leaders and how to incorporate coaching into the workplace. I'd give it a listen if you've found yourself hitting a bit of a brick wall or feeling the pressures lately... this shift could be just what you're looking for.

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At No Moss we've been hard at work developing our Guide to Product Discovery: How to Validate Your Product's Business Case. Some great thought starters so read the full piece here > https://buff.ly/4bpjo29 #ProductDiscovery #StartupTips #ProductStrategy #Innovation #MarketResearch

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