Mark Steffen

A surprising amount of “tech leadership” is just being the adult in the room when everyone wants to work on shit that doesn’t matter.

This past weekend, I completed @shreyas's course on Improving your Product Sense. I can't start to describe how much I recommend this course for any product leader or product-adjacent leader. maven.com/shreyas-doshi/…

@carlvellotti My favorite is when someone says they have read something, clearly have not, and I get to send them a screengrab of a Google Doc Activity screen that shows they have never opened it.

Thinking about that time I pulled an all nighter writing a post-mortem of a big product outage because leadership requested it urgently. Months later, I realized I'd forgotten to open sharing permissions. No one ever opened it.

@nurijanian @ravi_mehta Do you have a version of this where you HAVENT filled in the opacity? I want to give it to people and ask them to circle where they think each role should be focused the most.

Product Competency 1-Pager Balancing multiple competencies is the key to excelling in product management. (h/t @ravi_mehta)

@forssto In that case, I’m always here. In your waking nightmares.

@marksteffen I know that, but since we're talking about Twin Peaks, I wasn't asking where your body was physically / geographically.

I learned the other day that a colleague had named their family's Elf on the Shelf "Bobby". Pretty dead giveaway that they had not seen Twin Peaks. I would not spend a minute in the same house with that elf.

@forssto Guatemala!

@marksteffen where were you when I needed you?

@Assurant Will you be returning my call today? It's day 12 since you said you would. I have politely called every other day since, with no reply.

@carlvellotti Don't forget sales!

Product management is actually pretty easy. You just need to know design, finance, elements of engineering, psychology, negotiation, project management, speaking, writing, marketing, storytelling, analytics, never stop being curious, and want to learn more every single day.

I urge anyone endorsing violence of any kind to consider the outright bombing of a hospital that knowingly housed hundreds of injured. Sit with the dissonance you feel. Change your mind. It is possible. apnews.com/article/israel…

15 years on this hellscape #MyXAnniversary

If you think that either side is in the right, you are wrong.

@PatThePM But a big, long German word would be much more fun.

@marksteffen Hmmm maybe humility?

If you were to write a list of core values for product managers, what would be #1?

@dylancasey @andruyeung @RMB Highly recommend Fairdales to a bunch of my friends. Good builds for the price, understated, what you need for the city. P.s. head to King Kog in Williamsburg and they will take good care of you for whatever you want.

@andruyeung @RMB ok..and you need to be able to lock it up outside w/out getting stolen right? Basically, you need a beater that works well to get around and no one wants. Your best bet is a garage sale find. You want to buy Grandpa's old schwinn

My bike was stolen this week. Not upset, but honored. Feels like a rite of passage in NYC. Can someone recommend an affordable single speed to buy?

@JoeFernandez @benthompson has been talking about them on the podcasts recently, I believe.

Has anyone ever rented a starlink for a weekend? Seen a couple services that offer this and wondering if anyone has recommendations?

Things are devolving. I have moved on to The Postal Service. I am blaming @yasisalek for this. Pray for me.

Turning on Bloc Party's absolutely monster perfect album no notes 2005 smash "Silent Alarm" just to feel something.

@forssto I’ve stopped even trying to read anything there.

I'm old enough to remember when it was actually enjoyable and distraction-free to read content on Medium.

@graceclarke Welcome. 👋

Changed my mind / new perspective: I used to hate when my boss changed priorities or rushed a new feature. As if they just…had a change of heart. The last month, I’ve managed retention for a consumer software product. Sometimes, you literally HAVE to pivot.

The Fall Out Boy version of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” is playing in the grocery store and I am going to burn the whole place down.