Episode 101: Metrics-Driven Leadership w/Ronke Majekodunmi

This was a book reading Tuesday! Better known as ProductBeats’ Tuesday! And boy, was this a great show.

Totally inspired by today’s speaker, who will share her reading list with us, I thought that I’ll bring some of my favorite books with me.

Some of the books that have inspired me, built my character, or at the very least made me think some new thoughts are these:

Let’s start with this really old one, not Art of war old thought, but still from 1978.

This book is jammed packed with wisdom and my mother’s underlining and notes which was also I guess part of my experience when I read it. It taught me that we look at life very differently, there was nothing she had underlined or commented that caught my attention, and what I thought were absolute gems were left untouched by her pen.

One gem is an attempt at defining love:

The will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.

Marvelous. The use of the word “will” transforms love from a desire to action.

And now to a rather new book:

Masterpiece, or maybe a piece of art. Australian musician, the book is very much a description of what a creative process can look like. And the value of gum as a collaboration object, a story holder, perhaps even something that spurs love, provides a foundation for that spiritual growth.

This book, exactly like the gum did, has evolved some of my professional relationships. The book has become an object that we can unit and spin off new discussions around. Almost like being a football supporter. You know, if we support the same team we belong to the same family. If we both love this book you must be my sister.

But let’s bring in the person who spurred all this activity in my brain: the magnificent product person Ronke!

Ronke it was such an honor to have you on the show!

• Episode 33: Nov 10th - Company Culture = Product Innovation w/Lech Guzowski (UK)

• Episode 63: Jun 22nd - Product Manager Reputation w/Shane Hatton (AU)

• Episode 75: Sep 28th - Building the Dream Team w/Lech Guzowski (PL)