Comments on: Develop Culture Sensing Skills and Take the Blinders Off Of Your Career http://artpetty.com/2009/04/03/develop-culture-sensing-skills-and-take-the-blinders-off-of-your-career/ Art Petty on Leadership, Management and Professional Development Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:08:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Art Petty http://artpetty.com/2009/04/03/develop-culture-sensing-skills-and-take-the-blinders-off-of-your-career/comment-page-1/#comment-1780 Art Petty Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:46:50 +0000 http://artpetty.com/?p=1423#comment-1780 Thanks all for adding your comments here. David, me too. This could have saved me an 18 month painful learning experience. Rich, some very cogent guidance. Thanks! Trevor, I think you are truly on to something with the "Anthropology of Product Management." Truth be told, I barely scratched the surface here of the thoughts that you and others have are developing in real time on Twitter. I look forward to both learning more from you and participating in the discussion on Twitter and on LinkedIn. -Art Thanks all for adding your comments here.

David, me too. This could have saved me an 18 month painful learning experience.

Rich, some very cogent guidance. Thanks!

Trevor, I think you are truly on to something with the “Anthropology of Product Management.” Truth be told, I barely scratched the surface here of the thoughts that you and others have are developing in real time on Twitter. I look forward to both learning more from you and participating in the discussion on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

-Art

]]> By: Trevor Rotzien http://artpetty.com/2009/04/03/develop-culture-sensing-skills-and-take-the-blinders-off-of-your-career/comment-page-1/#comment-1777 Trevor Rotzien Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:26:08 +0000 http://artpetty.com/?p=1423#comment-1777 Art, Great post. I think many of us in the business world underestimate the importance of culture. Even if we don’t underestimate it, we tend to ignore it, or at best dabble in it, because it is "hard". Job Interviews: I encourage job hunting friends and colleagues to interview the interviewer. I know that’s fairly obvious. What isn't obvious to most is your point about asking the culture questions, the answers to which can have greater bearing on job satisfaction than compensation or perks. Product Management: As you’ve read on Twitter, I’m very interested in not only culture-sensing, but how to systematically use what can be sensed to the advantage of Product Management (and by extension, a PM's job satisfaction). Over the years, I’ve been developing (an admittedly informal) model for cultural intelligence based on principles and application of social anthropology concepts, especially "tribes" and the cultural roles within tribes mapped to real people in real organizations. This is one part of the “Anthropology of Product Management” (AoPM) you mentioned, ("Internal" which deals with AoPM within the company the PM works for). While academically trained Anthropologists may raise an eyebrow or two at our loose, fast and selective adoption of bits of their orthodoxy, I have enthusiasm for the potential benefit to PM’s and other people in culture-dependent professional roles. We’re aiming to better explore AoPM by opening up the discussion in a LinkedIn group (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1877884). Anyone with interest in this topic is welcome to join (even real Anthropologists!). I also hope to see more blog posts covering different aspects of AoPM as word spreads. Once the wisdom of the crowd is captured, we’ll be able to document a basic framework on a Wiki, etc. Regards, Trevor Art,

Great post. I think many of us in the business world underestimate the importance of culture. Even if we don’t underestimate it, we tend to ignore it, or at best dabble in it, because it is “hard”.

Job Interviews:
I encourage job hunting friends and colleagues to interview the interviewer. I know that’s fairly obvious. What isn’t obvious to most is your point about asking the culture questions, the answers to which can have greater bearing on job satisfaction than compensation or perks.

Product Management:
As you’ve read on Twitter, I’m very interested in not only culture-sensing, but how to systematically use what can be sensed to the advantage of Product Management (and by extension, a PM’s job satisfaction).

Over the years, I’ve been developing (an admittedly informal) model for cultural intelligence based on principles and application of social anthropology concepts, especially “tribes” and the cultural roles within tribes mapped to real people in real organizations. This is one part of the “Anthropology of Product Management” (AoPM) you mentioned, (“Internal” which deals with AoPM within the company the PM works for).

While academically trained Anthropologists may raise an eyebrow or two at our loose, fast and selective adoption of bits of their orthodoxy, I have enthusiasm for the potential benefit to PM’s and other people in culture-dependent professional roles.

We’re aiming to better explore AoPM by opening up the discussion in a LinkedIn group (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1877884). Anyone with interest in this topic is welcome to join (even real Anthropologists!). I also hope to see more blog posts covering different aspects of AoPM as word spreads.

Once the wisdom of the crowd is captured, we’ll be able to document a basic framework on a Wiki, etc.

Regards,

Trevor

]]> By: Rich Kittle http://artpetty.com/2009/04/03/develop-culture-sensing-skills-and-take-the-blinders-off-of-your-career/comment-page-1/#comment-1774 Rich Kittle Sat, 04 Apr 2009 14:26:42 +0000 http://artpetty.com/?p=1423#comment-1774 "Play and operate within the culture" is key. One way to bridge the gap between what you know needs to be done to the product and a resistant management is to show how the customer ultimately controls cash flow. No changes to the product? Customers withhold their cash. The right changes? Customers send cash. How to demonstrate what the right changes are? Build up a practice of frequent and significant input from Roadmap sessions with key customers. Extract from it a set of patterns that are customer-centered and company-doable. Best wishes on the journey! richard@strategyprocessassociates.com “Play and operate within the culture” is key. One way to bridge the gap between what you know needs to be done to the product and a resistant management is to show how the customer ultimately controls cash flow. No changes to the product? Customers withhold their cash. The right changes? Customers send cash. How to demonstrate what the right changes are? Build up a practice of frequent and significant input from Roadmap sessions with key customers. Extract from it a set of patterns that are customer-centered and company-doable. Best wishes on the journey!

richard@strategyprocessassociates.com

]]> By: David Locke http://artpetty.com/2009/04/03/develop-culture-sensing-skills-and-take-the-blinders-off-of-your-career/comment-page-1/#comment-1748 David Locke Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:05:04 +0000 http://artpetty.com/?p=1423#comment-1748 Art, I greatly appreciate your post. Wish I had these skills a few disasters ago! Art, I greatly appreciate your post. Wish I had these skills a few disasters ago!

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