Day: April 14, 2008

Fun with Berlioz

We had an unusual rehearsal the other night. Instead of being in the chorus room in the bowels of Symphony Hall, we were on stage, and we had cameras on us. It was for the BSO’s podcast series, and the episode is now out: an interview with our fearless leader John Oliver, with shots of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus rehearsing the Berlioz Les Troyens and some footage from the recent Met staging of the opera. I think it gives good insight into both the piece and the chorus (as well as some amusing photos of John in the 1970s).

What’s that? You didn’t know the BSO had a podcast series? Well, that might be because the podcast link is ill-placed on the front page, is not autodiscoverable, and isn’t in the iTunes directory. Not to mention, the podcast URL has a session ID in it. Hey BSO webmaster—fix it, won’t you?

The danger of outsourcing…

…your bookmarks. Del.icio.us is offline and my whole morning routine is off. Okay, so instead of tagging these two links I’ll post them to my blog instead.

First, for those new product managers out there, as well as those that have been the copy machine once too often, check out the free ebook from Pragmatic Marketing, The Strategic Role of Product Management. There’s nothing new here; in fact, it’s all stuff you’ve seen before, on Steve’s blog or in other Pragmatic publications. But it distills a bunch of lessons on why product management matters to a single document that makes a compelling story.

Okay, but once you get management buyin of the strategic importance of product management, how do you avoid getting bogged down in minutiae? How can you stay strategic? One answer comes courtesy of the Good Product Manager: Delegate tactical responsibilities. The methods to do so are simple even if you don’t have direct reports: transfer knowledge, teach to fish, and examine priorities constantly to ensure that the “urgent task” really needs doing.