Here are some questions to get you started: What will be just as true about your product area in five years as it is today? Put on your "bet portfolio" hat—what's a reasonable way to think about allocating your time and energy? Which buckets make sense? Complete the sentence: The long-term success of our product depends on our ability to [list key drivers and levers]. What will remain stable regardless of shifting strategies? Features will come and go. Eventually, you'll hit a local maximum and need to innovate. Through all of that, what will you continue working to influence? What strategic factors matter most when considering your product area? How can a stable model help facilitate those discussions? What do your stakeholders need to understand about how your product area works? Complete the sentence: "My product area is largely a game of balancing ____________, or shifting investments between _________ and _________ over time." What do people often overlook when they get caught up in today's features and strategies? Do you find yourself making drastic shifts in approach every quarter? Why? What remains consistent quarter after quarter?

Noticing new skills is a key component of a growth mindset and a prerequisite to learning. You won't unwittingly reinforce unpleasant power dynamics We often dismiss skills that are not societally valued by pretending they are not skills. Or, sure, maybe they're skills, but they're mysterious and ineffable! You reinforce this idea each time you say "soft skills" instead of working to enumerate them. Perhaps you mean "interpersonal skills," "leadership skills," or "communication skills." These are all technical skills, and they all have names.

There are four components to practice nonviolent communication, and in this order: Observation: These are facts (what we are seeing, hearing, or touching) as distinct from our evaluation of meaning and significance. NVC discourages static generalizations. It is said that "When we combine observation with evaluation, others are apt to hear criticism and resist what we are saying." Instead, a focus on observations specific to time and context is recommended.[1]: ch.3  Feelings: These are emotions or sensations, free of thought and story. These are to be distinguished from thoughts (e.g., "I feel I didn't get a fair deal") and from words colloquially used as feelings but which convey what we think we are (e.g., "inadequate"), how we think others are evaluating us (e.g., "unimportant"), or what we think others are doing to us (e.g., "misunderstood", "ignored"). Feelings are said to reflect whether we are experiencing our needs as met or unmet. Identifying feelings is said to allow us to more easily connect with one another, and "Allowing ourselves to be vulnerable by expressing our feelings can help resolve conflicts."[1]: ch.4  Needs: These are universal human needs, as distinct from particular strategies for meeting needs. It is posited that "Everything we do is in service of our needs."[14] Marshall Rosenberg refers to Max-Neef's model where needs may be categorised into 9 classes: sustenance, safety, love, understanding/empathy, creativity, recreation, sense of belonging, autonomy and meaning.[15] For more information, the Center for Nonviolent Communication has developed a needs inventory.[16] Requests: Requests are distinguished from demands in that one is open to hearing a response of "no" without this triggering an attempt to force the matter. If one makes a request and receives a "no" it is not recommended that one gives up, but that one empathizes with what is preventing the other person from saying "yes," before deciding how to continue the conversation. It is recommended that requests use clear, positive, concrete action language.