25 years in. And the books that have shaped how I think, lead, and build aren't the ones you'd find on a "top PM reads" list. Here are a few of mine: - The Remains of the Day — Kazuo Ishiguro. A novel about a man who optimised for the wrong things his whole life. I think about it constantly when it comes to career decisions. Quietly devastating and completely essential. - The Four Agreements — Don Miguel Ruiz. Simple. Radical. The one about not taking things personally alone is worth the whole book when you're managing competing stakeholders and bruised egos. - The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control — Katherine Morgan Schafler. If you've ever been told you're "too much" or held yourself to standards nobody else set for you — this one hits different. - Daring Greatly — Brené Brown. About vulnerability as a leadership strength. Product leadership asks you to be wrong in public, often. This helps. Now your turn. What's the book that made you better at this job without being about this job at all? Want to adjust any of the descriptions before you post?

Thanks @Rob Taylor for a great kickoff chat this morning!! Enjoyed hearing about your product journey and looking forward to talking more.

Hi All, I ran across this on LinkedIn this weekend and it got my attention. As a former Technical PM and not a Product Leader...who has been a strategy PM and a growth PM and and and...this made me feel like we are again "pigeon holing" the role. But I'd love to hear your thoughts!?

Can we talk about Sundays for a second? Because if you're in a demanding product role, you know the feeling. That creeping anxiety that starts somewhere around 4pm. The itch to just check Slack. To scan your email. To get ahead of whatever Monday is going to throw at you. I did it for years. I even made a deal with a CEO once that I'd always check my emails on Sunday night so we could "hit the ground running" on Mondays. I'm going to need a minute to apologize to that version of me. 🤣 But what if the creative brain does not run on empty. It runs on rest. On input that has nothing to do with work. On walks and books and bad TV and long lunches and whatever it is that makes you feel like a person again. Sunday is not prep time. Sunday is not a warm-up act. Sunday is yours. No email. No Slack. No quick check on progress. No "just five minutes." None of it. Let yourself actually stop. The job will be there Monday. You'll do it better if you showed up having actually rested. What do you do on Sundays to protect your brain?

I built this space because I kept having the same conversation. A product manager — smart, experienced, good at their job — telling me they felt stuck. Or isolated. Or like everyone else had it figured out and they were the only one still working it out. They weren't. And neither are you. This is a community for mid-career product people and those stepping into leadership. We'll meet live twice a month. I'll share what's worth your time each week. And this is a place to bring the real question — not the polished one. I've spent 25 years in product and several more as a coach. I know this work from the inside. And I know how much it helps to be in a room with people who get it. So. Tell me. Where are you in your product journey right now — and what's the question you can't quite get out of your head? Start there. I'm listening. Leah.