Each week I scour articles, wading through the dogs, and bringing you the best insights to help product managers and innovators be heroes.

10 experts share how to be a great product manager. (1) Be a leader. (2) Know when to say no. (3) Protect your team. (4) Drive decisions with a clear product vision. (5) Choose the right tools for your work. Read about these and the other five at https://www.irise.com/blog/pm/how-to-become-a-product-manager

Using jobs-to-be-done for more than physical products. You likely know I’m a fan of the JTBD framework. It helps product managers focus on the customer problem and how you can provide value in your solution – your product. This is a presentation with detailed notes by Emma Meehan on the use of JTBD… https://blog.intercom.com/finding-jobs-your-product-is-used-for/

Don’t get buried in metrics – you only need one. Metrics are not new to product managers, but the idea of focusing on a single metric may be. The idea, brought by Hiten Shah, founder of Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics, and other companies, is to identify the metric that is your North Star – your guiding light that predicts success or danger. Read the details, along with examples from companies you know, at https://amplitude.com/blog/2016/09/01/one-metric-product-team-needs/

5 reasons to outsource product management? For innovation, a company’s core competencies must include deep insights into their customers’ problems. This is the realm of product management, so I’m not comfortable with the idea of outsourcing. However, I’m intrigued by some of the five points in this article: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/09/how-to-successfully-outsource-product-management.html

5 reasons to shut down your innovation lab. The number of innovation labs rapidly increased in the last two years, but that doesn’t mean they are all having the anticipated impact. Here are reasons to change course and shut down the lab: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tendayiviki/2016/09/04/five-reasons-your-boss-was-right-to-close-your-innovation-lab/