The Four Minds of a Product General Manager
Two years ago HubSpot made the decision to create General Manager roles that would be accountable for each of our three product lines (Marketing, ...
I recently (as in yesterday) learned that HubSpot is mentioned and discussed in a new book by Phil Simon, "The Age of the Platform."
The book explains and elaborates on many of the principles we often cover here, on this blog, like how open platforms that empower 3rd parties to innovate offer far larger long-term benefits to customers.
There are simply so many smart people out there in our flat world that if you're not empowering them to build stuff, you are missing out on huge potential wins. With standards for APIs, high-speed networks, and other technology infrastructure pieces becoming available to more of the world, the talent pool is bigger than it's ever been.
The book talks about how different companies, like Google, Apple, Twitter, and Facebook, take advantage of the above to improve their products, delight their customers, and grow their businesses.
It's a good read, recommended even without the HubSpot part, which is short.
By the way, as long as I'm issuing out recommendations, I also want to give a shout-out to Sam Ramji's excellent presentation on Slideshare: "Amundsen's Dogs, Information Halos, and APIs." Very worth clicking through, although it's a bit long.
