Mark Hull’s Post

📢 Announcing a New Community for Product Leaders When I was a Chief Product Officer (CPO), I often felt isolated, without anyone to share my struggles and insights with. Upon transitioning out of that role, I coached many others facing the same challenges. To address this, four years ago, during the pandemic, I gathered six fellow CPOs, and together we founded the Skip Community. The Skip Community facilitates conversations that you simply can’t have anywhere else. Discussions like: - How do I navigate working with my boss, who is also the founder? - I’m starting my job search… what interesting positions are you seeing in the market? - How should I manage a layoff? - I’m about to hire a second-in-command, has anyone worked with her before? - I had a huge win at work, can we celebrate together? - I’m concerned about the management team’s culture, should I consider leaving? - Is it worth exercising this stock? - How should I evaluate these three job offers? - Should I double-down on my core product or split part of my team to innovate? - Has anyone run an M&A process before? - Ugh… today was a tough day… While there are many valuable product communities, ours is unique due to the trust between our members. We prioritized quality over quantity, slowly growing by adding a few heads of products each quarter for several years. Last spring, we realized that many of the up-and-coming PMs we knew could benefit from a curated, trusted community. Could we expand our close-knit group and retain the quality of conversation, but accelerate the next wave of leaders? Although we are still only 1% complete, I’m thrilled to share that we now have over 75 Skips in our community, adding new members each month. Visit us here at https://skip.community One of the many products that Skip will eventually deliver is a community for every tech professional. None of us should feel alone in our jobs. We all face questions and challenges that others have already solved. Connecting with the right people at the right time can make all the difference. While we are growing the group slowly to maintain trust, we maintain that trust is crucial, even if it we desire to expand to thousands. If you want to join and know an existing Skip member, connect with them for a nomination. We prioritize referrals and manage a waitlist. And if you can’t join Skip yet, I encourage you to create your own support group. Having a network to support you on both good and bad days is a key unlock to your career. Let’s build this together. #ProductLeadership #TechCommunity #SkipCommunity

How important is connection to your team and guests. We can’t really put our finger on it, but right from the beginning, we somehow were at the right place at the right time, with the right attitude. Gosh we made so many mistakes 😂 people wanted us to do well. But what we did have was the right attitude, we genuinely cared for our people and guests. I think people could see how hard we worked. We also had a good product and killer friendly staff. What a lot of people didn’t know was that we opened in 2 weeks with a severe staff shortage. It was Mariano out front and josh in the back. We found a couple of people and also went through a lot. It was about the right fit, as well as ensuring the best possible experience. We constantly focus on experience. We are unrelenting about the experience and drive that all the time. As we grew we added key business builders to our group, as we knew from day one that we wanted to grow. We started to connect with key community leaders through events and social get togethers. We feel blessed because people even today want to help us. This isn’t all rainbows 🌈 and unicorns, as there’s been some heavy duty feedback and interactions. We are all in this life and experience together why not make it interesting. #experience #product ##community

I've never seen the topic of community come up so often with so many different audiences. Despite that, my feed is full of layoffs from fellow community pros. Why? My mild take is that we're going through another pendulum swing. When I "went pro" 10+ years ago, our online community programs existed to realize cost savings via deflected support tickets. These programs then expanded in scope (h/t SPACES model), and we even started talking about Community being its own department. Now... not so much. 😬 When I look around to see where "online community" pops up today, I'm seeing it trend as a revenue source for creators and businesses selling access to premium content and experiences. As for the customer community programs we talked about five years ago? They're still around, but instead of living on under a central Community department, they're getting subsumed by different teams, or being replaced by alternative approaches to achieve the same outcomes. All of this is to say, the *concept* of online community is thriving, but it's also evolving. As community professionals, we can either dig in our heels or we can follow the market and evolve ourselves. #communitymanager #onlinecommunity #communitypro #cmgr

It's always: "I got a new job" "I got a promotion" "I hit 500,000 followers" "My business hit $42M ARR” And it's less often: "My application was turned down" "I was overlooked for the raise" "I can't seem to gain traction "I had to close up shop for good” Regardless of who you are, failure is inevitable. And it’s more common than success. Especially early on. Show your audience how it really is. Show them who you really are. You'll benefit from trust and authority. They’ll benefit from your knowledge and experience. Win-win for everyone.

🌸 Spring has sprung and brought with it a fresh wave of blooms and endless opportunities! Embrace the vibrant energy of the season and let it inspire you to seize new beginnings. 💫 At SOCIALDEALER, we're here to help you make the most of every opportunity that comes your way. 🚀 #SpringTime #NewBeginnings #Opportunities #SocialDealer #SocialMedia #CarDealerships

I just wrapped up a great presentation/talk about how to become a Connection Catalyst with Charesse Spiller and her FinOps Co-op® Community. Appreciate all the engagement and authenticity. Thank you again for the chance to participate! We Talked About | Three Ways To Become A Connection Catalyst: 1. Community: Find Your People 2. Communication: Show Up Authentically 3. Connections: Find Ways To Support Others What I've Learned: 1.Do these 3 things (above) with consistency + intention, and watch what happens. 2. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Folks are waiting to help you, but you've gotta speak up. 3. We all have networking fears, so start slow and get comfortable putting yourself out there first. If you're seeking a community of OPS professionals, check out FIN-OPS CO-OP! (Hint-Hint: Find Your People)

🌟 Building a Thriving Community: Let's Do It Together! 🚀 🏢 Passionate about your product? Let's unite! 🤝 🎯 Create a community that fuels growth and connections 💼 🔍 Share your ideas and experiences below 👇 #ProductCommunity #RichardBonnetCommunityEngagement

Every day, it's the same story: another tech layoff, another headline. It's relentless. For moms juggling the demands of tech careers and family life it's more than just a headline, it's a daily existential battle. Later this quarter, we're rolling out a "So You've Been Laid Off" guide that's not just another how-to manual. It's a collection of real-life wisdom from our powerhouse Moms in Tech (Mints) community. We're talking about women who've been in the trenches, who've faced layoff and re-org challenges head-on and come out stronger. 🔊 🔊 Your Business Can Be Part of This Impactful Campaign We're looking for small businesses and brands that get it – that understand the grit and resilience of tech moms. This guide is your chance to align with us, to show you're not just another brand, but a part of our community's journey. --Opportunity for Small Businesses If you're a small business offering services like resume writing, career coaching, or legal advice, jump into our sponsor deck. This is your moment to shine alongside the best. --Brands, Let's Talk Directly Big brands wanting to make a real impact, we want to hear from you. Slide into our DMs or hit up Hazel or Darci directly. Let's make something amazing happen. Stay tuned for the guide's launch!

5 conversations the most successful co-founders have ASAP. Treat it like a game, and set your founding team up to win. 1// What are our job descriptions? 2// What sacrifices won't you make? 3// What do we expect from each other? 4// What would make you give up? 5// Do we share the same values? In my experience, leaving these key conversations undiscussed leads to problems. Share this approach with fellow founders, so they can get ahead too. *** If you enjoyed this, repost it for others ♻ and follow me Asif Ahmed for more in the future.

100% naming my next Stardew Valley character "JeremyLeeMiner." For everyone not in the know on that somewhat obscure reference, this is not how I live my real life. While I respect the "get up and grind" mindset, it's just not authentically me. And I don't like the idea that you gotta live this sort of lifestyle to be successful. You can be fueled by a purpose without min/maxing your way through the day. Maybe your fuel is to build and maintain a lifestyle where you're not stuck at your computer for 40+ hours a week. Where you stop answering emails by 4. Where maybe you don't work Fridays. Or one where you can go on vacation for two weeks and come back to a business that hasn't lit itself on fire. Maybe that freedom is an important metric of your success. Maybe you really just want more time to play Stardew Valley.