Have you ever wondered, how websites know how many people look at a particular product? Ophir Harpaz investigated:
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Why Companies and Government Do āInnovation Theaterā
This article previously appeared in the Harvard Business Review. The type of disruption most companies and government agencies are facing is a once-in-every-few-centuries event. Disruption today isā¦Valid question…
Source: Steve Blank Why Companies and Government Do āInnovation Theaterā Instead of ActualĀ Innovation
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Five Deadly Product Management Sins
Five Deadly Sins in Product Management. - No One Understands What You Do
- Not Being Effective
- Being Tactical and Not Strategic
- No Formal Career Plan
- Not Enjoying Your Job
These are, apart from being strategic, probably all solid advises for any other role. The article is a lot more verbose on why these are relevant for Product Management.
Learn about the five deadly sins that can stop people from rising quickly in Product Management. Avoid these and keep them from killing your career.
Source: Five Deadly Product Management Career Sins | 280 Group
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What you do is who you are.
Ben Horowitz, of Andreessen Horowitz (software is eating the world), wrote a new book. It is titled “What you do is who you are.“, and will, following the announcement, discuss corporate cultural standards and how they changed over the years, of course with a particular focus on the tech industry. It’s a hot candidate for this winters reading list.
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Mozilla unveils YouTube recommendation horror stories
Somehow, a fun read. Still problematic, and somewhat scary, at the scale YouTube relies on recommendations.
YouTube Horror Stories Mozilla gathered 28 user-submitted stories, detailing incidents where YouTubeās recommendation served videos featuring racism, conspiracies, and violence.
Source: Mozilla unveils 28 horror stories about YouTubeās recommendation algorithm
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Facebook Video engagement.
Facebook would pay $40 million to resolve claims how the company falsely reported Video usage numbers. Given the industry faced incredible growth of the video market over the past decade, companies shifted their strategy, agencies invested, campaigns were created for that single purpose alone. In the context of how the business grew, these alleged numbers are neglegible.
“The average viewership metrics were not inflated by only 60%-80%; they were inflated by some 150 to 900%,”
via hollywoodreporter.com.It is, however, not the first time Facebook was caught reporting incorrect numbers.
via link.
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Thoma Bravo to buy Sophos
Sophos Logo Both company announce the plans for the acquisition today. The private equity company Thoma Bravo plans to buy the UK-based cyber-security giant Sophos for $7.40 per share, for a total value of $3.9 billion, at a 37% market premium.
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Safari in iOS sends data to Tencent
Engadget reports, that with iOS 13 Apple started checking website details against fraudulent behavior with Tencent. While Apple already uses “Google Safe Browsing” to improve security, this behavior has been difficult before. With the latest developments in Hong Kong and China, this approach is – at a minimum – questionable and overshadows trustworthiness of Apple hardware. Engadget comments accordingly:
You might not have to worry outside of China, but it’s still a concern.
Source: Safari in iOS sends some Safe Browsing data to Tencent
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Responsibility vs. Accountability
According to Anthony Murphy, it’s the road to failure. And I couldn’t agree more, despite the framing. My personal experience showed things in the end always find a way. However, the separation between Responsibility and Accountability leads to lots of friction, debates and, in case somebody with accountability has to be identified, finger-pointing.
First of all, the article is entirely right, responsibility is not something that is assigned, it is something individual contributors take. Colleagues, that lead the way and take responsibility for their decisions. Those that make sure task are picked up and delivered.
And then there is accountability. Something that that can only be assumed for something that already happened before. All too often, there are much more candidates to volunteer for accountability, because it is misunderstood for leadership (or a management position), alongside with the willingness to spend days and weeks in non-customer value creating, internal debates how RACI Matrices (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) Matrices need to be defined and filled.
Only when responsibilities from the same matrix fail to deliver, accountability is a perfect model to seek problems with other actors in the matrix, preferably those responsible.
To put customer goals in first place, the agile manifesto has a simple answer and puts the team in charge.
via Product Coalition.