Lead on Purpose

November 30, 2020
by Michael Ray Hopkin 2 Comments

Leading product strategy and execution

Building software platforms and applications that customers love, and will recommend to their peers, takes extreme focus and hard work. There are many moving parts to product success, including understanding your market and the problems customers in the market face, and building solutions that solve those problems.

Successful product leaders understand the value of both strategy and execution: Strategynecessary for building products that perform well into the future. Execution requires the focus and discipline to do things now for near-term product releases.

How do you succeed in both of these two seemingly dissimilar aspects of product management?

Continue reading →

November 28, 2020
by Michael Ray Hopkin Leave a comment

Leadership strategies to improve workplace culture

Guest post by Gabe Nelson

Great leaders inspire. Great leaders don’t dominate a room, they motivate it. Whether you are an executive manager of a large corporation or the IT guy who has no subordinates, you need to step into leadership roles with conviction and consideration.

When you believe in the work you do unwaveringly, it will inspire people. When you come from a place of understanding and care, it will motivate people. Simply being present and demanding top performance from your workforce isn’t the way things are done anymore. It’s important to know and be considerate of your employees’ feedback.

Here we’ll go over a few useful leadership strategies and practices anyone can implement that will help improve the workplace culture.

Continue reading →

July 27, 2020
by Michael Ray Hopkin 1 Comment

Using the right data methods in product research

Delivering a solid product that customers love requires an up-front knowledge of the market in which customers and potential customers operate. Understanding the problems they face, and solving those problems with a software solution, is the end goal.

I’ve been asked many times what the best way is to discover a market and understand the needs of customers in that market. My answer is usually some form of “it depends.” Some have potentially millions of customers (e.g. B2C) and other markets have far fewer—generally high-paying—potential customers (e.g. B2B). Attaining access to data differs depending on the makeup of the market.

At a high level, there are two methods you use to acquire market data, regardless of the industry: they are qualitative and quantitative research. Let’s explore how you can use both to get the data you need to deeply understand your market.

Continue reading →

May 28, 2020
by Michael Ray Hopkin 3 Comments

An Effective Leader Leads by Influence, not Authority

Guest Post by Ken Sandy

The earliest mistakes you make in your career are often the most memorable and where you learn the most. In one of my first product management roles, I was delighted when a C-level executive tasked me to lead an important and urgent project and assemble a team for it.

I called a meeting together with people from the marketing, engineering, and design teams. I gave what I thought was a rousing speech, in which I asked that they drop whatever they were doing and commit themselves to this new project — it was of great importance to the c-suite, so it should be our top priority.

Continue reading →

May 11, 2020
by Michael Ray Hopkin 4 Comments

Patience – A Leadership Principle

During the last few weeks and months so much has changed for all of us. With the recent pandemic we’ve seen many things change that we heretofore took for granted, things we’d become so accustomed to were transformed within days. It’s left us wondering how long it will take to get back to normal or ask whether ‘normal’ will ever be the same. It’s been a trial of endurance to say the least.

My intention is not to cover recent global events, but instead to focus on how we react to what’s happening in our lives; to take a deeper look at ways we can survive hardships and come out stronger as a result.

Patience Continue reading →

December 30, 2019
by Michael Ray Hopkin 4 Comments

The power of pause in leadership

The most effective leaders know there’s only one thing they have complete control over: “the way in which I respond and react to another human.” They know their success depends on the unity and determination of their team members. They also know the best work comes from individuals who are motivated and excited about the work they’re doing.

How do leaders improve the performance of their teams and create a culture of productivity?

Power of Pause Continue reading →

September 30, 2019
by Michael Ray Hopkin 1 Comment

Why it’s important to think bigger, and play bigger

Creating great products and building successful companies takes a tremendous amount of work, insatiable initiative and a penchant for perseverance. It requires thinking differently than others think, and even differently than you have thought in the past.

To make big changes requires a whole new way of thinking, yet few college programs or study courses sow the seeds of innovation and creative thinking. You need to see the world differently, to think differently. To create winning products and companies you need to play bigger.

Play Bigger Continue reading →

September 29, 2019
by Michael Ray Hopkin 3 Comments

Rules for amazing team formation

Guest post by Daniela McVicker

People make companies successful. Without effective team formation, a business can’t succeed. Carefully choosing and assigning roles and tasks is a crucial element in business management.

Building a strong team with a healthy work relationship is a demanding task. That is why carefully selected and strictly established rules can be life savers. These critical rules for team formation can help you create an amazing team.

Amazing-Team-Formation Continue reading →

August 15, 2019
by Michael Ray Hopkin 1 Comment

Practical techniques for increasing team success

Practical techniques for increasing team success

Teamwork is a key factor when it comes to creating workplace success. No doubt individuals with incredible talent can accomplish great things on their own. However, for your company to create great products and successfully complete projects, you need teams that collaborate.

Problems arise when teams aren’t committed to communicating and working together. What’s more, 86% of employees attribute major workplace failures to poor collaboration. Teams not committed to working together will never achieve the success they’re striving for. How do you get your teams collaborating?

Increasing-Team-Success Continue reading →