I was on the Mind The Product podcast with Randy Silver recently, and got to talk about a few favourite ideas: how to think about the shape of your product career, and what makes a good product “biography.” Designers have portfolios, engineers have GitHub contributions – what does a PM point to when he or she wantsContinue reading “Telling the story of a product career”
Author Archives: Alex
Riding the Dunwich Dynamo
There are eight of us who meet in Peckham on a Saturday night in July. We wind our way through the hot streets to London Fields for 8pm. There are hundreds of cyclists milling around outside the pub, yelling their location into their phones, checking their tyres or checking out the bikes. Then we cycleContinue reading “Riding the Dunwich Dynamo”
A Year in Books, 2020
One of the many things the pandemic dislocated is the start and the end of the year. What even were January and February 2020? A forgotten prelude, unconnected to the real 2020, which began when we went home from the office in March. When the shops and the schools closed shortly after. When the sunContinue reading “A Year in Books, 2020”
A Year in Books, 2019
A New Decade / The Radio Plays the Sounds we Made I read more books than usual this year, the average quality level was higher and there are two or three that I would press in to your hand right now. It was altogether, the most enjoyable year in reading for a while. What IContinue reading “A Year in Books, 2019”
A Year in Books, 2018
I used to look for patterns in the books I read, as though each book was itself a chapter in another book, one that would tell the story of the year. But honestly, who would make up the story of last year? Not the news, but my own story, where I had my second sonContinue reading “A Year in Books, 2018”
On Noticing
I’ve been working – or at the very least, sitting at various desks, typing – for about 18 years. Before I had a career, I thought what I would do was write literature, or at the very least, serviceable novels. Then I spent a few years as a technology journalist, and another few as anContinue reading “On Noticing”
On Stone Circles and Building Things
1. Itis fairly common in England to see small plaques set into the front of older houses with chiselled numbers saying when they were built. 1906, 1871, 1832. In Cartmel, a little village at the southern tip of the Lake District, home of a couple of very good restaurants, there’s a little whitewashed stone cottage,Continue reading “On Stone Circles and Building Things”
A Year in Books, 2017
I’ve had trouble sorting out what I read last year. The books themselves aren’t sorted. We moved in November – so they’re still all piled up in the corners of the house, like snowdrifts. Paperbacks I’ve not seen for a decade or more are sitting right at eye level, while my copy of one ofContinue reading “A Year in Books, 2017”
Hanging Around
On the occasion of the Rolling Stones’ 30 year anniversary, a journalist asked laconic drummer Charlie Watts, “what had it been like to spend three decades working with the band?” “Five years of hard work,” he replied. “And 25 years of hangin’ around.” Now Charlie Watts put the slink into Sympathy for the Devil andContinue reading “Hanging Around”
A Year in Books, 2016
Early in the summer last year, we went on holiday to the south of France. The lanes around the house smelled of lavender and olives. We ate outside on the veranda, looking out over wooded hills, the day’s dry heat like smoke in the air. There was a swimming pool, a neat Topaz jewel, theContinue reading “A Year in Books, 2016”
The Wired Jester 