Career Building
As a passionate lifelong learner, I continuously seek opportunities to expand my knowledge through webinars, meetups, podcasts, and reading. By keeping career building as one of my top priorities, it allows me to bring fresh ideas and innovation to my work.
Reading List
Program Management & Scrum
Working in smaller agencies, it is not uncommon to have so much work coming through, but not enough time or people to do the work as quickly as the client is requesting it. Although this book uses tech company examples, I have tested a Design Sprint in the creative agency world and happy to report that it worked well.
Product Management
Escaping the Build Trap was added to my list when I was just starting to dig into product management. The author, Melissa Perri does a great job of defining the product manager role, product strategy and process. A build trap is when organizations measure their success by output vs outcome. Perri uses real-world examples in the book and walks the reader through how to be a good product manager, focusing on outcome and how to effectively steer away from the mindset that quantity equals money, which equals success.
Project Management & Scrum
This book was should be on every project manager's and scrum master's reading list. It not only opens your eyes to all the inefficiencies in our day-to-day work, but also everything that surrounds you in your day-to-day life.
I still use the methods learned in this book to improve tasks and processes in my personal and professional life.
DesignOps and Design Team Management
Org Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Design Teams
UX Strategy & Product Development
Teaching the art and the value of User Story Mapping in product development. The methods and examples used provide great techniques for developing an effective user story map that will keep teams focused on the product needs, what is being built and why.
Since this book was published in 2014, the process still applies, but the methods and techniques for user story mapping have come a bit further. With so many teams being hybrid or remote using collaboration tools, such as Mural and/or Miro, the post-it and whiteboards have moved on to digital platforms. In addition, the amount of templates available that have process step prompts has grown within these product communities.
Still though, this book was a great read for anyone working in product development.
UX Strategy & Product Development
Introduction and overview of UX Strategy.