This week’s Wednesday post is coming out a day late because things got away from me yesterday. We are in the midst of some great product discovery and discussion at work and that is taking a lot of my time. Still, I want to note a few things briefly.

First, if you work in product development – especially on the product management and marketing side – I encourage you to check out Intercom’s brief audio book entitled Intercom on Product Management. This nine chapter book addresses many key topics on building and marketing a strong SaaS product, including some great insights on when to enhance your product and when to kill certain features. I’ll be revisiting these thoughts in the months to come as we continue to build out the software solution I work with.

Second, I’ve been frequently reminded this week of the wisdom of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and especially of his exhortation (borrowed from Saint Francis) to seek first to understand, then to be understood. I’ve been working diligently on listening better – to internal stakeholders with interest in our product strategy as well as to the folks in our target market we’ve been talking with recently. Often I am quick to propose solutions or defend my previous decisions but I know I can learn more by listening than I can by talking.

Third, and related to the second point, I’ve been actively seeking out more diverse voices to listen to lately (in both my personal and professional life) and realizing again how much I have to learn from people who don’t see the world the same ways I do. I am grateful for the many patient teachers who have broadened my perspectives and I look forward to continuing to seek out more insight and to share what I am learning.

Lots more I could say about all three of these points but wanted to at least mention them briefly. I am eager to keep listening and learning because as much as I think I already understand things I know that in truth it’s not that simple.