Great entrepreneurs don’t use rule books, but they do use rules of thumb:
Rule books are fixed. Rules of thumb are flexible.
Rule books put you in a box. Rules of thumb point you on a path.
Rule books instruct you. Rules of thumb inspire you.
All the ingredients of fast-growing companies – Creativity, culture, talent, team and trust – grow with the guidance of the right rules of thumb.
Here’s Steve Jobs’ Top 10:
Rule 1 – “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”
Rule 2 – “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
Rule 3 – “One of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex.”
Rule 4 – “My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.”
Rule 5 – “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”
Rule 6 – “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.”
Rule 7 – “For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
Rule 8 – “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
Rule 9 – “Overthinking leads to negative thoughts”
Rule 10 – “Stay hungry, stay foolish.”
When you throw away the rule book, and write down your rules of thumb, you’re writing down your guiding principles. They give you a simple compass to follow instead of a complex map to remember. What are yours?
The IT industry is constantly evolving, with new technologies and tools emerging all the time. It can be challenging to stay up to date with the latest tools and technologies, but it is essential to do so to remain competitive. In this article, we will be discussing the top 10 tools in the IT industry that are currently being used by professionals worldwide.
AWS (Amazon Web Services) Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud computing platform that provides a wide range of services, including compute, storage, databases, analytics, machine learning, and more. It is one of the most widely used cloud platforms, providing reliable and scalable infrastructure that is easy to use and cost-effective.
Kubernetes Kubernetes is an open-source platform designed to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It provides a container orchestration system that helps to simplify the management of container-based infrastructure.
Jenkins Jenkins is an open-source automation server that helps to automate software development processes, including building, testing, and deploying applications. It provides a wide range of plugins and integrations that can be used to automate different stages of the software development lifecycle.
Git Git is a version control system that allows developers to track changes to source code over time. It provides a distributed system that enables multiple developers to work on the same project simultaneously.
Ansible Ansible is an open-source automation tool that helps to automate IT tasks, including configuration management, application deployment, and orchestration. It provides a simple and easy-to-use interface that enables users to automate tasks without the need for specialized programming skills.
Docker Docker is an open-source platform that allows developers to build, ship, and run applications in containers. It provides a lightweight and portable environment that helps to simplify the deployment of applications.
Splunk Splunk is a data analytics platform that helps to analyze and visualize data from various sources, including logs, metrics, and other data sources. It provides a powerful search engine that enables users to search and analyze data in real-time.
Elasticsearch Elasticsearch is a distributed search and analytics engine that helps to index and search large volumes of data in real-time. It provides a scalable and flexible platform that can be used to analyze data from various sources.
Nagios Nagios is an open-source monitoring tool that helps to monitor the performance and availability of IT infrastructure. It provides a wide range of plugins that can be used to monitor various services, including network, servers, applications, and more.
Wireshark Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer that helps to capture and analyze network traffic. It provides a powerful toolset that enables users to troubleshoot network issues and analyze network traffic in real-time.
In conclusion, these are the top 10 tools in the IT industry that are currently being used by professionals worldwide. These tools help to automate IT processes, monitor and analyze IT infrastructure, and provide reliable and scalable cloud infrastructure. It is essential for IT professionals to stay up to date with these tools to remain competitive and advance their careers.
Starting a business can be a great way for women to gain financial independence and control over their careers. However, finding the right business idea can be challenging. Here are some top business ideas for women to consider in 2023:
Online tutoring or coaching: With more and more students turning to online education, there is a growing demand for online tutors and coaches. This can be a great option for women with teaching or coaching experience, or for those with expertise in a particular subject or skill.
Personal styling and fashion consulting: Many women have a passion for fashion and can help others build a wardrobe that makes them feel confident and stylish. This can be done through personal styling services, or through fashion consulting for businesses.
Home cleaning and organization: As busy working women, many people are looking for help keeping their homes clean and organized. Starting a home cleaning and organization business can be a great way to help people while also running a profitable business.
Health and wellness coaching: With more people looking to live healthier lives, there is a growing demand for health and wellness coaches. Women with expertise in nutrition, fitness, or mental health can help others achieve their health and wellness goals.
Social media management: With more and more businesses using social media to reach customers, there is a growing demand for social media managers. Women with experience in marketing or communications can help businesses create and implement effective social media strategies.
Event planning: Many women have a knack for planning and organizing events. Whether it’s planning a small party or a large corporate event, starting an event planning business can be a great way to put those skills to use.
Online store: Many women are turning to online selling as a way to start their own business. With the advances in e-commerce technology, it is easier than ever to set up an online store and sell products to customers around the world.
Graphic design and website development: With the increasing popularity of online businesses, there is a growing demand for graphic designers and website developers. Women with experience in these areas can help businesses create effective websites and marketing materials.
Pet-sitting and dog-walking: Many women love animals and starting a pet-sitting or dog-walking business can be a great way to combine that passion with a profitable business.
Home-based bakery or Catering: Many women have a passion for cooking and baking, starting a home-based bakery or catering business can be a great way to turn that passion into a profitable business.
These are just a few of the many business ideas available to women. Whether you’re looking for a business that allows you to work from home, or one that allows you to interact with clients in person, there are countless opportunities available. The key is to find a business idea that aligns with your interests, skills, and experience.
In conclusion, starting a business can be a great way for women to gain financial independence and control over their careers. With the right business idea, women can turn their passions and skills into profitable businesses. However, it’s important to remember that starting a business takes a lot of work, dedication, and patience. It’s crucial to do your research, make a business plan, and seek advice from experts. But with the right mindset, a solid plan, and a bit of persistence, you can turn your business idea into a successful venture.
A product manager has a lot of responsibility. According to Medium, product management roles in the US have grown exponentially over the last three years, with 32% more job placements available now than in 2017, making it a very viable career choice. As a product manager, you are in charge of the product manager departments, you overlook the active product development, and you act as a team leader.
The obligations can be overwhelming. However, there is a way that can make product management easier. All you need is to employ analytics tools. Using product manager tools will help you make better decisions and organize work so that you gain more revenue. Empower your team’s productivity with data-driven decisions and you’ll be able to reduce costs.
In order to achieve better clarity and utility from each tool on our list, we will break the list down into two categories. While the first will focus on full-stack tools dedicated to product management analytics, the second will represent complementary, support tools worth integrating into your stack as a means of assistance. If you are ready to enlist analytics tools in your everyday routine, here are a few that you should consider:
Full-Stack Tools
Google Analytics – One of the most popular tools out there. It can be integrated with other tools like Google AdWords, Google Search Console, and Google Data Console. This makes Google Analytics a great tool for identifying hotspots within your website or online service, tracking visitor behavior, as well as search engine optimization which will allow for better worldwide visibility.
Coupled with writing platforms such as Evernote and Grab My Essay, this full-stack suite can become an effective tool in your product management arsenal going forward. According to W3 Techs, Google Analytics is used by 55% of all websites on the WWW to some capacity, making its use in digital product management and analytics essential.
Cyfe – When it comes to product manager tools, it’s often a good practice to rely on services that allow for cross-platform integration. This product management tool allows you to analyze data by extracting them from multiple tools like Google Analytics, Salesforce, MailChimp, and a variety of social media networks. You can also turn data into visuals to make them more presentable.
The service portfolio featured on Cyfe includes a fully customizable UI, extensive dashboard sharing options, KPI tracking as well as real-time monitoring of numerous channels related to your product management needs. It is an intuitive, full-stack suite that will allow both established professionals and newcomers to product management complete freedom to develop their projects.
Insight – Powered by AI, Insight can manage huge amounts of data and deliver predictive analytics. The key benefits of using Insight lie in its feature list which consists of workload alignment functionality, customer experience ideation as well as transformative, cloud-based computing services. Based on the analytics generated by Insight’s AI algorithms, you’ll know how to direct product management more efficiently.
Diana Adjadj, Head of Product Development at Trust My Paper, had this to say on the topic of product management: “Settling for a full-stack platform which corresponds with your team’s work habits and development needs is always a winning scenario. Finding that special platform, however, takes trial and error, so make sure to give each one a fair shot in the early days of your pre-production.”
ProfitWell – A large part of product management lies in profit predictions and financial monitoring. ProfitWell is a platform dedicated to minimizing production costs and maximizing your ROI via thorough auditing and reduction of churn during development. It is one of the more competent product manager tools for SaaS development which is why managers should keep an eye out for it.
ProfitWell can facilitate higher customer base retention and allow for extensive report generation which will allow further refinement and optimization of both your product and its pricing model.
Keep up with your financial metrics, real-time growth updates, revenue trends, and much more with this full-stack analytics tool.
Adobe Analytics – When it comes to full-stack platforms oriented toward visual product development and cross-platform integration, Adobe Analytics leads the pack. The tool features analytics algorithms focused on web, market research, as well as predictive analysis, facilitating the most suitable direction to take for your product development cycle. Adobe Analytics can work with large data sets and export them as Excel spreadsheets.
According to Forrester Research, this product management tool can help you achieve an impressive 224% ROI. This makes it suitable for projects with limited resource pools as well as those with multiple financial stakeholders aiming to gain a return on their investments. Integrating writing services such as Readable and ClassyEssay in conjunction with Adobe Analytics can lead to better product development planning, as well as more informative report submission to all parties involved in the management process.
Support Tools
Product Plan – In order to get the most out of your product management development cycle, outlining your project from start to finish should be a common practice. Product Plan is a representative of product manager tools designed with road map design and product cycle outlining in mind.
It allows for visual plan communication with its highly intuitive UI capable of generating a tangible road map for your projects in mere minutes. Once your process is standardized, future projects can easily be retrofitted via Product Plan to better fit into a mold of outlining and then developing projects prior to their production and launch. Combined with a full-stack tool from the previous section, it can prove very useful in streamlining your product management.
Typeform – One of the most important elements of successful product management is to know what your customer base wants and needs. As such, Typeform is a competent support tool which can serve as a great addition to your stack and allow for easy-to-manage surveys of your customer base.
Once your forms are created, you can send them out for engagement and gather generated feedback via the platform’s UI. Typeform is very user-friendly both in terms of form creation and customer-side interaction, meaning that your open and submission rates will effectively experience an uptick going forward. By personalizing your approach to customer base research, Typeform can assist your product management and development in a tangible and invaluable way.
Slack – Team communication is an essential part of product management, no matter how small or localized your development group may be. After all, remote work conditions dictate that professional product manager tools should be used to facilitate efficient around-the-clock communication. Slack is a platform designed with appealing UI, user-friendly functionality and is highly customizable, readily available for collaboration.
Angela Baker, Chief HR Officer at Best Essay Education, had this to add on the topic: “Using a tool specifically designed for remote teamwork will drastically lower your margin for error and the possibility of miscommunication. While emails and social media chat interfaces can indeed supplement your team’s communication, they should under no circumstances be used for day-to-day workload management and project development.”
FullStory – When it comes to customer insight, it’s best to enter product management and development prepared. FullStory is a customer research platform with a suite of functions which revolve around visual pattern tracking, heat map generation and user behavior analysis. It is a very unique and intuitive tool on the market given its slick design and user-friendly nature which doesn’t require deep analytical knowledge from the product manager to perform well and generate useful data.
FullStory is also very subtle and privacy-friendly, which means that customers will never be more than data for you to implement in product management, ensuring their online safety above all else. Whether you find yourself in pre-production or post-launch development, FullStory should find its place in your stack for its research capabilities as it can complement full-stack management platforms quite well.
FreshService – Lastly, documentation and risk management during your product management and development should be a topic of discussion prior to launch. FreshService is a platform dedicated to development process documentation and risk assessment, which can be helpful for both SaaS and physical product development.
It is an intuitive and multi-channel enabled platform which can streamline your product management process and complement full-stack analytical tools quite well given its documentation-oriented nature. In addition, it features gamification functionality which can elevate your team’s collaboration and productivity during product management, a feature complemented by a fully-functional mobile app available for remote work conditions.
In Summary
Using product manager tools will increase overall productivity and bring you closer to your ultimate goal. Combined with support tools, your product management capabilities will rise exponentially, allowing for much easier and effective development cycles to take place.
Tech-based solutions are created for easier management and more efficient results. You will finally be able to optimize operations and improve daily workflow. Make sure to give multiple product manager tools a shot and combine them while doing so – settle for a stack that reflects your team’s work habits and requirements and the results of your efforts will speak for themselves.