137: (Rerun) Managing Your Cognitive Resources More Effectively

As a product manager, one of your most precious resources is your “cognitive storage tank.” It’s like a real fuel tank – when it’s exhausted, your cognitive abilities stop working well. And when that happens, it means you can’t be as innovative, you can’t be as creative, and your decisions get worse. To improve our effectiveness as product managers, one key step is managing the cognitive storage tank.

In this episode I describe some techniques and tools for eliminating wasteful leaks from your storage tank. I hope the ideas will be helpful to improve your effectiveness as a product manager.

Let me know in the comments below if you have additional thoughts or questions.

Note: This is a rerun of episode 314 (using the old weird numbering scheme). These show notes are the same – I just copied them here!

Show Notes

• “Your App Is Making Me Fat,” by a guru of helping people be more effective so they can kick ass, Kathy Sierra (btw, you should also watch this Kathy Sierra video if you want to really help your customers be successful).
• Previous podcast episodes on tools – PM Tool Selection Criteria and Two Rants on PM Tools
• Earlier podcast episode on “Baling Wire and Chewing Gum Product Management System of Record“
• Analytical prioritization – here are a few techniques: Jason Brett’s 60-Second Business Case, how the Aha! tool implements scorecards, and an approach I like to use.