September 2022
Did you ever wonder how many things product managers have to know? It’s a lot. It’s a never-ending story of continuous learning and expanding basic knowledge from various fields. After that, it’s the deep dive that makes it count. To find a way in this ocean of information is challenging. But it’s doable.
It all started a few years ago when I decided to invest more in my career in product management. I first read tons of product management articles and wanted to know everything. Whenever I encountered some new piece, I wanted to save it for later because it was too much. Do you know the feeling when there’s a great article you’re about to start, but you don’t have time for it at the moment? That happened a lot to me.
As a Notion user, I learned about Notion Web Clipper, which helped me with this problem. It was a way better solution than many opened tabs in a browser. You know what I mean. I saved the articles I wanted to read through the clipper and was soon overwhelmed again. It was just another list of articles in Notion instead of a browser, and it was hard to decide what to read next.
The next logical step was to make it organized in a way that was natural to me (and to every product manager). I prioritized the articles in this Notion’s database, assigned status, and added scoring after I read them. It was a good start. However, this wasn’t enough because I knew I had to grow in other related areas besides product management.
As I continued learning, I broadened my understanding in other areas, such as design thinking and engineering principles. I became more curious about how things work holistically in product management. I saved these articles in the library along with others I found about marketing, sales, and other areas essential to my work later on. It was clear this had to be organized.
I started to assign a field type to the articles to categorize where they belong. It soon became a massive library with all kinds of knowledge in one place.
5 reasons why this helps
Never lose the knowledge you gained. 💾 It was sad to realize I read so many articles that are lost in oblivion. I could spend time and search for them again, but it wouldn’t be efficient. An extensive library like this now makes it easier to reuse it at any point in the future.
Organize the way you learn about new topics. 🗄️ Be curious and go out there to explore your gaps. This management system lets you put things in order.
Know where to find some specific information. 🔎 I frequently found myself in a situation where I knew there was information I needed at the moment, and I couldn’t recall it. The only thing I had to do was to go to Notion, search for the headline’s keyword, and it was there. Easy.
Share it as a reference with colleagues or as a discovery finding. 📨 When I found something interesting, I labeled the article worth sharing. It helps to expand the knowledge in your team and can be used as a research link.
Choose what field deserves the most attention at the time. ⏭️ I didn’t know if I progressed in certain areas or not. This problem decreased as I applied custom labels like product, design, or engineering, allowing for easy future article sorting. With this, you can easily see which areas you learned the most about and where your next focus should be.
