Yesterday we summarized the Xena adventure “One Against An Army” In 10 Screencaps Or Less™. Now, let’s use that episode to see why Xena is arguably the greatest product manager ever.

Some helpful advice on how to succeed in the coming year:

“If I could offer one suggestion… be able to answer why for everything you do. Why am I going to this meeting? Why is this feature on my roadmap? Why is the sales team struggling to sell my product? If you can answer why to everything and directly link it to a strategy, either corporate or product you will achieve in 2009.”

- Stewart Rogers | Follow Stewart on Twitter

Don’t forget our New Year’s Resolutions For Product Managers for 2009!

When S.H.I.E.L.D. needs rapid insight into a case, they use psychics. When these psychics are attacked, S.H.I.E.L.D. turns to Captain America for help. When product managers need rapid insight and social networking… they turn to Twitter.

Welcome to the Twitter Handbook For Product Managers

Yesterday we summarized “Amélie” In 10 Screencaps Or Less™. Now, let’s see what this shy, quirky waitress can teach us about product management.

As 2008 draws to a close, we’re looking at a new year set against a backdrop of global economic uncertainty and a very challenging, competitive business landscape.

Here are three new year’s resolutions, inspired by Amélie, that every product manager can utilize to help prepare for the challenge…

Yesterday we summarized “Uncanny X-Men #230” In 10 Panels Or Less™. Now, let’s extract a product management lesson from this heady tale of psychometry and gift-giving.

The X-Men are heroes who protect a world that fears and hates them because it’s the right thing to do. That’s their core mission.

In this story, the X-Man Longshot discovers a wealth of stolen loot that is psychically crying out to be returned to its rightful owners. Wolverine thinks Longshot is being ridiculous and wants to stay focused on hunting down bad guys. Colossus undoes Wolverine’s narrow-minded argument thusly:

Despite Wolverine’s protests, Longshot’s idea falls…

Yesterday we summarized “Matango: Attack Of The Mushroom People” In 10 Screencaps Or Less™. Now, let’s extract a product management lesson from this bleak, “Gilligan’s Island” gone horribly, horribly wrong.

In Matango, disaster strikes when sound advice from the captain is dismissed by the nouveau riche. Soon the shipwrecked survivors are eating irradiated mushrooms and literally devolving back to the primordial ooze.

Many of us have been to office holiday parties that followed that same trajectory.

With an economic crisis churning all around us, corporate holiday parties are downsizing this year.

In an odd way, this may come as a relief to some people.…

FYI - Cindy Alvarez has a great list of product managers on Twitter. Check out the list at: http://www.cindyalvarez.com/learning/product-managers-on-twitter

Jack Vinson is a product manager at Aspen Technology, an engineering software company, who keeps an excellent blog on product management, knowledge management, personal effectiveness, and more. Jack attended my webinar and wrote up a great review. Check out his site.

Yesterday we summarized G.I. Joe #27 In 10 Panels Or Less™. Now, let’s extract a product management lesson from the first comic book I ever read.

The G.I. Joe code-named Snake-Eyes is the definition of the strong, silent type: His mask covers his hideously scarred face, and his damaged vocal chords prevent him from speaking. His actions, though, speak volumes.

While you probably don’t have masked ninjas with pet wolves skulking around your office, you probably do interact with many different personality types during the day.

As a product manager, it’s your job to be fluent in the “languages” spoken by the people around…

Yesterday we summarized BBC’s “Jekyll” In 10 Screencaps Or Less™. Now let’s extract a product management lesson from this creepy “sequel” to the classic novella written by Robert Louis Stevenson.

When the protagonist of the story learns that his entire life is a lie, his faux friend Peter tries to justify a lifetime of manipulations by stating it was for the greater good if the end result leads to cures for disease. That, my friends, is a logical fallacy.

I haven’t conducted a formal survey to determine how many of you are involved with shadowy corporations breeding armies of clones of fictional…