Community Learning — Not Brand Marketing.
If you value authentic learning communities, read about what we do, and we invite you to write about your lessons learned.
By Tremis Skeete, for Product Coalition
Online learning communities are only as good as the quality of the knowledge shared among it’s members, so when one says that we learn best when we’re part of a group — they must accept that we also learn best when we have access to quality information.
Another truth about these communities is that to thrive, each community needs to earn the confidence and loyalty of its members.
For Product Coalition, our members are our blog readers, podcast listeners, and contributing writers. They rely on our commitment to a beneficial experience for all, so to win their confidence — we publish materials with at least three conditions in mind:
- It must satisfy reader expectations i.e. no clickbait, sensationalism, vague communication or misdirection
- It must be definitive in how concepts and information are explained
- It must provide real value i.e. the material must help readers imagine how and why they can take action, and then, use that mindset to practice and apply what they‘ve read
This is where our contributing writers (aka “community writers” or “contributors”) are key to achieving our goals.
Do You Share Our Values and Goals?
Many marketing and branding specialists teach writers that building a personal brand starts with answering three questions:
- What you do?
- Why you do it?
- Who you do it for?
Coincidentally, these questions also guide what we do as a community.
Here’s how Product Coalition Founder, Chief Editor, and Global Community Leader, Jay Stansell responds to the questions:
“At Product Coalition, we [1] strive for the highest standards of editorial content, and we are committed to [2] creating a vibrant and inclusive learning community for [3] anyone interested in product management, product design and product delivery.”
Do You Want to Be a Contributing Writer?
Please understand that at its core, our coalition is a not-for-profit community organization with a publication designed to broadcast education articles, and we encourage learning by doing, skills building, and knowledge sharing among our readers and writers.
And now that you know who we are — do you still want to be a contributor?
Consider your responses to the branding questions listed above. Based on your answers, do you believe you’re compatible with how we work to support our members?
If your answers are associated with writing as a way to make money as quickly as possible, then we say with no disrespect intended — our community is not compatible with your brand.
It’s not because we don’t value your choice to build a business, because we do. We say it’s incompatible because, if you’re building a for-profit writing business, or building a consulting firm, or if you’re working on a book — then you should collaborate with organizations with compatible business models, like daily newspapers or publishing companies.
If you’re a writer that also runs a business or consultancy, or something else that’s comparable — we suggest you seek out companies that are in the business of buying, selling, and marketing written material.
Now if your answers are driven by a passion for learning and you recognize writing articles as a way to engage in learning about product development and delivery around the globe — then welcome to Product Coalition.
So let’s get clear in regard to the kinds of content we accept and publish to our blog. Let’s go through the following categories and explain why articles are required to be of genuine educational value — and why the others do more harm than good.
Learning and Education — Yes, Definitely!
Yes, of course we want articles that empower readers with knowledge and information on how to do good product development, because we believe our readers are capable of success.
It’s like what one of our contributors Emma Gordon highlights in her article entitled “The Imp on My Shoulder”. In her article, Emma shares advice from life coach and author Tiwalola Ogunlesi. Tiwalola explains:
“Knowledge and capability are not the same thing. Just because you don’t know how to do something right now doesn’t mean you can’t quickly learn, practice and start improving. So if your imposter syndrome is triggered when you feel out of your depth, take some time to grow and develop your skills. The more you improve your skills the more confident you’ll be.”
As a learning community we want to support that growth and skills development process Tiwaola talks about. We want to ensure members can always access knowledge via our blog, and create opportunities to practice in their work. We want them to grow their skills based on the results, and as they continue to practice, hopefully — they become inspired to write and discuss what they’ve experienced with our community.
To support this process, we ask our writers to contribute the following:
- Stories based on job experiences with lessons learned, and where it’s applicable, step-by-step instructions on how to apply the lessons
- How to guides also based on experiences
- Development case studies
- Work templates with step-by-step instructions
- Resource packs
- Any other relevant research, training and practice materials, if any
Whether the above mentioned presents the fundamentals or complex subjects — articles must empower readers with abilities to apply concepts in tangible ways; And by “tangible” we mean, writers should mention:
- Clear scenarios and descriptions of the situation
- The people, items, places, and prior decisions involved
- Challenges uncovered during the situation
- The strategies, decisions and tactics carried out
- What happened as a result, and
- The insights and lessons learned
Any article that does not meet these requirements is viewed as propaganda — which is not what we want.
Marketing and Promotion — No, Thank You.
Speaking of propaganda, marketers use the tactic as a way to promote things and influence people — so what does that have to do with learning communities and writing education content?
We’ve all encountered many articles with taglines such as:
- Top five podcasts of the year
- The five best product management newsletters of the year
- Top app development companies of the year
- The ultimate guide on how to become a product manager
- How to 10x your career
- Top twenty free product management templates
What do these taglines have in common? They’re all designed to market and promote someone or something. It’s a great marketing tactic, but based on your personal experience, ask yourself:
“Whenever I’ve tried to learn how to get something done on the job, and I read articles with these taglines — do they really contain definitive knowledge and instructions on how to apply the information in tangible ways?”
No. That’s because, they are designed to market and promote people, businesses, products or services.
It’s clickbait used to gain online views and followers. The content is not designed to foster constructive community learning exchanges.
Yes, in the right contexts, there’s value in marketing content. There are blogs, social media pages, message boards, and sites that will gladly accept content because it leads to page views, clicks and other activity, which is great for the worlds of e-commerce and marketing.
In the world of learning communities however—it’s a different story.
Readers join the coalition to build their knowledge, enhance skills, network with others, solve problems, and be successful. In response, Jay, myself and our network of writers and editors strive to ensure what gets published is designed to meet our readers’ real needs.
For authentic learning communities, it’s how we build trust, brand loyalty, and the reputation of a quality service.
Opinions and Essays — Yes, and Be Constructive.
To writers we recommend not to produce articles that read like marketing material designed to endorse products or services. We also recommend that you don’t write content that reads like you’re promoting services as an advisor or consultant.
It’s because we feel that it compromises your personal brand, and our community reputation. Remember — our readers come to our publication to learn how to be successful product people. They don’t want sales pitches.
Instead, we’d love to read and share your stories and constructive opinions based on your research, job experiences and lessons learned — all in regard to how you deliver successful product work.
Sometimes when someone needs to overcome a challenge, learning about other experiences can lead to breakthroughs. That’s why we regard essays or opinion-based articles based on real experiences — as great opportunities for our members to engage and exchange perspectives.
Venting and Negativity — No, Please Don’t.
On occasion, contributors submit articles that read like they struggle to practice real product work on the job, or they feel like they’ve failed to foster a product-centric culture at their company.
When this occurs, they choose to channel negative feelings driven by disappointment, frustration, and anger, into their writing.
While we do understand why product people resort to doing this, we vehemently oppose publishing such articles — because it always leads to releasing content they will sooner or later regret.
To writers — if you choose to write an article to vent your thoughts and feelings about your job, do this instead:
- Write your article, include everything you want to say, and then
- Read your article, out loud, many times to process what you’ve said
- Read it some more, and if it starts to make you smile or laugh at yourself a little… it means you’re getting past your feelings of frustration
- While getting past the feelings, store the article in a private location
And no matter what happens, never publish it.
When it comes to one’s career and writing, they are best judged by its professional and educational value. So in the moments when you’re dissatisfied at work, and finding another job is not an option — channel that dissatisfaction into something constructive and imagine what you could learn from these challenging job experiences.
The people you work with over the course of your career are not perfect, and neither are you — so focus on what you can do differently, and write about that. Doing this will lead to an improvement in how you manage negative feelings and your career development overall.
Remember, the writing you do to share insights with others should always be constructive steps towards becoming the product leader you want to be.
Community Publishing Values.
When Jay and I talk about what it takes to bring together people to make product development knowledge accessible to the world — we’re reminded repeatedly that it depends greatly on others demonstrating that they want to achieve the same goal.
That’s where you, our next member, come in.
If you’re an aspiring or successful product or business person, or a technology developer or user experience (UX) specialist, or a business analyst, designer or engineer, or just someone who believes in learning by doing and collaboration — then come and join our coalition.
Find out more about why we publish and don’t publish content and read our founder’s community publishing values.
And if you still want to learn about product development and exchange lessons learned with others — join us, engage with our content, and who knows — become a contributor.
Together, let’s learn how to be better product people — globally.
