Continuous Learning - It’s hard but worth it.
My experience of self-learning and what works for me.
For context
I’m a Senior Product Manager at a medium sized SaaS company in health-tech. As far as my role goes, I would say my remit is a lot larger than that at the large corps I have worked for in the past.
At large corps you tend to have a well defined niche that you work in with (likely) pre-defined processes you are expected to follow. That’s not what life is like in a smaller company, it’s much more diverse.
Because of the above you are always trying something new or experimenting. Its possible to just make things up and do it off the cuff but I prefer to look to the experience of others and invest time into self learning. Hopefully this helps you.
Im a terrible learner
If there was a scale on being good or bad at learning I am definitely at the bottom. It does not come naturally to me and without goals or a process I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t learn anything new… unless my new favourite sitcom starts spouting facts!
This hasn’t changed I’ve always been this way and scraped through school probably out of sheer luck. I did the minimum to get mediocre results and I was ok with that.
What has changed is I no longer want mediocre results, I have drive to be better, I want something more BUT that doesn’t mean anything is easier. In fact I switched to an all or nothing approach. This led to learning ‘burn-out’ where I would obsess over things for months and then suddenly I wouldn’t want to even talk about it. This is why I now have a bit of a plan for learning and multiple channels of learning.
How I focus my learning
I don’t think anything here will be eye opening or new to anyone but it could help focus your journey, thats why I am sharing mine.
To me there are two main types of learning; Passive and Focussed.
Passive learning is where you are keeping up to date with your LinkedIn feed, reading that latest post on ‘how to’ or keeping up to date with your favourite blogs that interest you. I follow a lot of product leaders and so this is done daily.
Focussed learning (and this is what I want to talk about) is where you have something new you want to achieve or do and you gather selected materials to aim towards one goal. Let’s dive into this…
…Speaking of goals…
Set a goal
Before you even start to learn something new make sure you set a goal of what you want to do with that information. If you can’t set a goal then maybe its not the right time to focus on it. Most of my focussed learning comes out of necessity e.g. you’ve been asked to produce a product strategy (something you have never done), the goal might be “Deliver a draft product strategy to the CPO within 1 month”.
Ways to learn
There are many different ways to learn but here are some I use:
- Books — I’ll be honest I like a physical copy of a book but you could get an audiobook. I find that books are a great resource in general and provide a lot of detail but be careful; you have to invest a lot of time into a book and generally money. Be cut-throat with them, if you don’t like it and find it’s not for you part way through then drop it.
- Blogs — A lot of information condensed. I find blogs are a great starting point to a journey. They give you the cut-down view, which is perfect as you dip your toe in. My caveat to these (especially now) is that a lot are written by AI and can be very generic. Find someone you respect and dive through their blog library.
- Videos — By far the nicest way to learn. You generally get played out examples of what you are trying to learn, its also (for me) an easier way to learn. Take notes while you watch, this helps to focus and retain information.
- Example documents — Using the previous example of a product strategy, I would typically search for example documents where this has been implemented. You can learn a lot from other individuals examples.
- Mentor / Colleague — Another great way is to check in with your wider team. Has anyone got experience in the subject. Can they show you how they have done it in the past, can they input and review into what you have produced. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
- Put it into practice — Don’t just read something and that be the end. Make sure, whatever you are learning you put it into practice. If you aren’t going to use it immediately at work then try to apply it to your personal life. I did this when learning about OKR setting for the first time. I came out of it with my own personal OKRs.
- Write it down for later — Same as using it straight away. If you come out the other side and have a tailored method for producing something like a product strategy, write that process down. I store all of mine in notion as ‘templates’ that I can call on at later dates.
Everyones learning journey is likely different, hopefully the above helps you get out of a rut or helps to focus you. Good luck learning something new!
