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

More evidence that product management is growing as profession – Carnegie Mellon’s Master Degree. I knew it was only a matter of time. A few universities have offered certification programs in product management, but now Carnegie Mellon has a graduate degree. After the start of product management in the 1930’s, it is now rapidly becoming a critical function in organizations. Find out about the program at https://www.cs.cmu.edu/news/carnegie-mellon-offers-new-masters-degree-product-management

Template to help product managers communicate better with developers. “Requirements” are the key topic when communicating with developers and engineering. I have never liked the traditional mechanisms. My opinion – get developers involved with customers so they can understand their problems and needs first-hand. Still, we do need a way to clearly communicate requirements. This article offers the VALUABLE template… http://pmhardcore.com/2017/05/12/better-template-better-requirements/

4 guiding principles for product management. This is a podcast episode with product coach Matt LeMay, based on his four CORE skills of product management – communication, organization, research, and execution. Read the notes and listen to the discussion at https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/matt-lemay-on-the-four-principles-of-product-management

Advice to product managers who want to change your work. While this article is written for anyone who might want to make a change in employment or help themselves not be someone “disrupted” by company changes, the advice applies to product managers well. Read more at https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertbtucker/2017/05/12/how-to-build-your-personal-innovation-strategy/#192408ac746a

The corporate innovation ecosystem needs help – useful infographic. Alex Osterwalder shares an infographic from XPLANE that shows the elements of an organization’s innovation ecosystem. Use it to compare what is working and what is not in your organization. An insightful position was shared by Steve Blank, which is many organizations are practicing “innovation theater” not actual innovation. How about you? Check it out at http://blog.strategyzer.com/posts/2017/5/15/the-corporate-innovation-ecosystem

How a learning culture fosters an innovation culture – community, experimenting, failure. Amazon’s business model is described as a dual operating system – an organization that is successful at execution and innovation. It is the new charge for the modern organization. Execution alone is not sufficient and does not build a sustainable organization. Organizations that know how to enable learning have the edge. Read more at http://www.clomedia.com/2017/05/11/learnings-role-innovation/

Why you should avoid experts – love this quote from Henry Ford. This article provides a couple good examples of how thinking differently than the “experts” led to breakthroughs. There are many more examples throughout innovation history. The Henry Ford quote at the end of the article is worth reading if you read nothing else this week… https://singularityhub.com/2017/05/17/why-disruptive-innovation-requires-looking-beyond-the-experts/