Riette Pretorius @RPrets

Ever see an elephant make fun of a rhino

Exiting added benefits of our @GMESAfrica @AfricaGmes MarCOSIO Project, stakeholder engagement is new found collaboration between regional countries @OfficialKCGS and Madagascar authorities with massive impact. @CSIR @EU_Comission #GMESServices #EarthObservation

Kenya Coast Guard Service @OfficialKCGS

2 years ago

@OfficialKCGS and @kdfinfo swiftly rescued MV CHAMDA III in distress within Kenya's territorial waters! The ship faced a technical #emergency during its voyage from Tanga to Madagascar. Their expert coordination initiated a towing operation to ensure safety for

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Here’s what I know: 1. Today will be today regardless of yesterday or tomorrow. 2. Happiness is an inside job. 3. You are stronger than you think and braver than you feel. 4. Every challenge is an opportunity in disguise. 5. The present moment is all you truly have – make the most of it. 6. Kindness costs nothing but means everything. 7. Success is not final, and failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. 8. Gratitude turns what we have into enough. 9. Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but about learning to dance in the rain. 10. Authenticity is the most beautiful gift you can give to the world. 11. The journey is as important as the destination. Happy today. Okay. Love you. Bye.

"No piece of art has ever emotionally affected me the way this robot arm piece has. It's programmed to try to contain the hydraulic fluid that’s constantly leaking out and required to keep itself running...if too much escapes, it will die so it's desperately trying to pull it back to continue to fight for another day. Saddest part is they gave the robot the ability to do these 'happy dances' to spectators. When the project was first launched it danced around spending most of its time interacting with the crowd since it could quickly pull back the small spillage. Many years later... (as you see it now in the video) it looks tired and hopeless as there isn't enough time to dance anymore.. It now only has enough time to try to keep itself alive as the amount of leaked hydraulic fluid became unmanageable as the spill grew over time. Living its last days in a never-ending cycle between sustaining life and simultaneously bleeding out... (Figuratively and literally as its hydraulic fluid was purposefully made to look like it's actual blood). "The robot arm finally ran out of hydraulic fluid in 2019, slowly came to a halt and died - And I am now tearing up over a friggin robot arm 😭 It was programmed to live out this fate and no matter what it did or how hard it tried, there was no escaping it. Spectators watched as it slowly bled out until the day that it ceased to move forever. Saying that 'this resonates' doesn't even do it justice imo. Created by Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, they named the piece, 'Can't Help Myself'. What a masterpiece. What a message." Extended interpretations: the hydraulic fluid in relation to how we kill ourselves both mentally and physically for money just in an attempt to sustain life, how the system is set up for us to fail on purpose to essentially enslave us and to steal the best years of our lives to play the game that the richest people of the world have designed. How this robs us of our happiness, passion and our inner peace. How we are slowly drowning with more responsibilities, with more expected of us, less rewarding pay-offs and less free time to enjoy ourselves with as the years go by. How there's really no escaping the system and that we were destined at birth to follow a pretty specific path that was already laid out before us. How we can give and give and give and how easily we can be forgotten after we've gone.. How we are loved and respected when we are valuable, then one day we aren't any longer and we become a burden...and how our young, free-caring spirit gets stolen from us as we get churned out of the broken system that we are trapped inside of. Can also be seen to represent the human life cycle and the fact that none of us make it out of this world alive. But also can act as a reminder to allow yourself to heal, rest and love with all of your heart. That the endless chase for 'more' isn't necessary in finding your own inner happiness.” - James Kricked Parr

Canva just dropped their all in one Magic Studio, the BIGGEST AI upgrade ever Professional designers are facing an extinction-level event... 12 of the wildest things it can do:🧵

always.

The skills you build and practice can make or break a Product Manager's success 💪 Over my career, I have found these skills always remain part of my arsenal. Let's take a quick look at 10 essential skills and some helpful frameworks to study in this thread 🧵👇

10 mistakes killing your story - and how to avoid them: (a visual thread)

Don't create a Product Strategy Document until you read this! After my last post on Product Vision, Strategy, Roadmap and goals, many people wanted to know what the perfect Product Strategy Doc should look like. Here is my answer: 1. Keep it simple 2. There is no "perfect" strategy doc 3. Create what works for you AND the team 4. Iterate with time to keep it relevant 5. Avoid making it too long (read:boring) I like to include only the following sections in my strategy documents 1️⃣ Vision Statement Always start with the vision statement, to remind people of your larger goal and the destination you're moving towards Ex: JustAnotherPM (JAPM) wants to equip 500K product managers with the knowledge and tools to help them create world-class products used by billions of users. 2️⃣ Focus areas Based on the vision, try to think of 2-3 areas you want to focus on for the next 12-24-60 months (or any time frame you choose) Every 6 months evaluate focus areas to check how much progress you've made and if they need to be revised. Ex focus areas for JAPM 1. Create 100 detailed and actionable guides explaining fundamentals of product management [Time horizon: 12 months] 2. Transform JAPM into a platform that serves all needs for new and existing product managers (guides, courses, mentors, jobs, case studies, etc.) [36 months] 4. Generate $30K MRR [48 months] 3️⃣ Target market / User personas / Target user Define, in detail, the users and the markets you want to target for your product. This section ensures everyone in the company knows exactly who they are targeting. Do NOT make this section vague or ambiguous. Ex: Vague user persona: "New product managers across the globe" Specific user persona: "Product managers with 1-3 years of experience, who have graduated in the last 4 years, and are based in a developing economy" 4️⃣ Competitive analysis In this section, include details about competitors on the following aspects: 1. Market share 2. List of competitors and their vision, focus areas 3. Recent wins 4. Immediate threats and opportunities 5. Partnership opportunities 5️⃣ Roadmap If you've done all of the above well, this section becomes easy. Use this section to highlight the biggest initiatives and/or features that will help you achieve your focus areas. First, identify the initiatives with "highest impact." Then, sequence them in the order which gets you to your goals quicker. Third, reevaluate regularly and iterate as needed. -- [Coming soon: A detailed post on best practices to create a roadmap] -- What do you include in your strategy documents? What am I missing?

I'm a Product Manager who works with a lot of designers. (I have even managed some. Don't ask how that's possible.) Is my work necessary? Not at all. And also, absolutely. Wait, what? Why the paradox? Here's why: Somewhere along the way, there’s a certain roles & responsibilities positioning that evolves on the product team. It is the rigid, categorical delineations we all read about that create this. “Designer is responsible for usability, Engineer is responsible for feasibility. The PM is responsible for value and viability.” Even if the subtext says, “Actually, they are all responsible for all of that together,” everyone fails to ingest that part. “OK, if I’m a designer, I will go hard on usability.” Designers decide that they are THE ONLY CHOSEN ONE to bleed for the user. They are on a blessed crusade to make the world beautiful, and everyone else stands in their way: - Stupid PMs who just want to cut scope and learn fast (if there's fit). - Damned engineers who can’t cobble together code to make this thing real. - Annoying business execs who don’t get design and just want to hit revenue targets. (Same can be said about engineers, too. They play their own game: increased scalability, new frameworks, more hygiene - a.k.a. premature optimization. They roll their eyes at everyone else, for their own reasons.) It becomes a combative, roll-your-eyes, “f*ck the business” narrative. Designers & engineers have their own community, and so this propagates widely. (I don’t think PMs have the same community, though they might roll their eyes too.) PMs start to play their own little game too, of course. They move to become more commercially focused. Or they move to become more delivery focused, to ship something. They "fill the gaps". - Designers move into ONLY UX - Engineers move into ONLY TECHNOLOGY - PMs move into ONLY BUSINESS As these dimensions become maximized along individual axes, together they achieve only local maxima. The gaps-to-fill become wider. And guess what? The user and the business ultimately suffer. Building the perfect product takes time. The user waits. The business waits. Both user and business only benefit when something that fits ships (and, ideally, sells - which is another way to say "it provides value"). Both don't just want the perfect product. They want a solution to fit. They need their problems solved. Sooner, not later. If we continue to hard-split roles & responsibilities like that, you will always need Product Managers. And it will still suck. So now, let’s say Thanos wipes out half of humanity. And that half is all Product Managers. (This is comic book math, sorry.) Will engineers & designers suddenly take up the reins and prove once and for all that PMs are unnecessary? If you expect a designer or engineer who used to bleed for just UX or just TECH to all of a sudden learn how to do financial modeling, or think in terms of business and product strategy, learn how to build scrappy no-code/low-code prototypes (and want to build those to learn faster), or learn how to dig for willingness to pay... you’re kidding yourself. So what do we do? They say 2 heads are better than 1. That is still true. But if you still want a product trio, you probably want something like a conjoined triplet, not 3 people tied together with rope. Principle 1: Smaller teams. We all know that, so I won’t spend time on this. The more nodes there are where the information has to travel to and from, the longer it takes for the information to travel, the more information loss, and the longer it takes for things to happen. Principle 2: Tighter knowledge integration, which is a 2-parter. 2.1. External knowledge. The packets of information have to be smaller. A.k.a, don’t throw the 10-page PRD over to designers & engineers, they won’t read it. Don’t throw a 20-slide research summary deck and expect everyone to know the customer intimately. 2.2. Embedded knowledge. If a PM is technical and has UX research skills; the designer can model adoption and impact on revenue, or write front-end code and run SQL queries; the engineer knows about no-code tools and has workflows to set up builds in a few minutes, no one’s eyes glaze over when it comes to these topics. - Designers should read business books and study how businesses grow. - Engineers should read design books and think about distribution. - PMs should study research & design and have a better-than-average, tacit understanding of technology. Do you agree? Did I miss anything?

33 HARSH TRUTHS YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND AND INTERNALIZE THREAD

Everyone talks about Outcomes vs. Outputs. But many PMs struggle to explain what it actually means. Let's start with Outputs. That's simple. They are direct results of the work. Something that is produced by a specific process. For example: - Developers implemented a feature - Marketing launched a marketing campaign - You ran a webinar Outcomes, on the other hand, are about meaningful changes those Outputs might or might not trigger. There are three types of Desired Outcomes every Product Manager should know: - 1. Business Outcomes These are company goals, typically related to revenue, costs, churn, or risk reduction. For example, “Reduce Monthly Churn by 20%.” We want our goals to be SMART, so let's add "by the end of 2023." Business Outcomes are lagging indicators of a company's progress. - 2. Product Outcomes The Monthly Churn mentioned earlier is a high-level metric. It’s essential that the product team has a goal that they can influence directly. An example might be, “Customers will spend, on average, 1 hour/month more watching videos by the end of 2023.” As @jseiden noticed in Outcomes over Output, these outcomes are always associated with a change in human behavior. He defined outcomes as “a change in human behavior that drives business results.” - 3. Customer Outcomes (needs) Customers don't care about your goals. Customer Outcomes are a way customer measures their satisfaction (success of a specific "job"). All popular approaches describe functional, emotional, and social aspects. When describing the customer's desired outcome, you typically want to: - Start with a verb (typically minimize or maximize) - Specify the metric (e.g., time, number, likelihood) - Specify what we control (e.g., finding a new, interesting series) - Clarify the context (e.g., to watch with my family) - Product Teams focus on Product Outcomes. For example, when using the Opportunity Solution Tree, you want to solve customer problems (Opportunities related to Customer Outcomes) that, when solved, will drive the desired Product Outcome. What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments. - More information: 1. Read Empower Product Teams with Product Outcomes, Not Business Outcomes by @ttorres: producttalk.org/2020/05/produc… 2. See Outcomes over Outputs, @jseiden on YouTube: youtu.be/CEr4ADNJLL0 3. Download Jobs-to-be-Done (free book) by @Ulwick: jobs-to-be-done-book.com --- P.S. Liked this post? Why don't you join 23,000+ product legends? Get 1 actionable tip for PMs every week: theproductcompass.tech

Many PMs struggle to explain the difference between Vision, Strategy, and Roadmap. But those are extremely simple concepts. So let's tackle them one by one: - 1. Product Vision (Why) Product Vision is the long-term mission of your product. It’s aspirational and motivates your team to wake up every morning and go to work. For example, “Send humans to the Moon” or “Help tour operators focus on doing what they love.” Effective vision needs to be: - Inspiring: people who help to implement the vision should feel inspired - Achievable: it must have a decent chance of working. Don’t dream of traveling to Alpha Centauri until you send humans to Mars - Documented: do not let the vision stay in your head. You actually need to write it down to make it work - Communicated: it seems obvious, yet many forget about this. The Vision will only be effective if you communicate it to others - Emotional as well: vision becomes much more memorable when others can imagine themselves doing something practical and when it speaks to their hearts - 2. Product Strategy (Where & How) Despite what many experienced people repeat, Strategy is not a plan, a goal, or a set of actions. It's a cohesive set of choices that, as you believe, will allow you to win (achieve your Vision) at the playing field of your choice. For example: - market and its constraints (e.g., geography) - value proposition - relative costs - tradeoffs - growth model (e.g., PLG) Strategy should pass the “can’t / won’t test” so that competitors can't copy it without sacrificing their existing businesses. A fantastic, short video by Prof. Roger Martin: lnkd.in/d6Dbnmg4 For more information about Strategy, see my free article (no email, no paywall): lnkd.in/ep4Vqa8f - 3. Product Roadmap (What) Product Roadmap is a communication tool that allows you to align everyone in the organization. It creates focus on what’s important right now. It should also explain the reasoning behind it. In 3 Ways to Create 10X Better Product Roadmaps, I emphasized that it's extremely important to: - Focus on goals, not features (an extremely common mistake) - Do not commit too soon - Shorten the planning horizon Free article (no email, no paywall): lnkd.in/dRKgaJzb - More information: - Vision, mission, and purpose are often confused, and everyone interprets them differently. I use a single term. An article by Prof. Roger Martin: lnkd.in/e_-mYxus - Some say that Vision is part of Strategy. It makes sense, as Strategy is an integrated set of choices. And you develop them together. But that’s not the most common opinion. So during interviews, you might want to keep it simple. Hope that helps. What are your thoughts? - P.S. In my latest newsletter, I debunked 16 other misconceptions in Product Management. Read it here by becoming a subscriber: lnkd.in/edJnMD77

The @GMESAfrica Marine & #Coastal Operations for Southern Africa &the Indian #Ocean Consortium #MarCOSIO @AfricaGmes is unlocking the power of #EarthObservation to support #aquaculture #sustainable #fisheries #BlueEconomy #Africa #foodsecurity 🛰️🎣🌍➡️eu4oceanobs.eu/gmes-africa-ma…

A busy life is not a symbol of status. It's a symptom of trying to do too much for too many people. A full calendar brings a surplus of stress and a shortage of energy. Reflecting and relaxing should be top priorities. Unscheduled time isn't wasted. It's invested in well-being.

It's #InternationalWomensDay and while I love celebrating women, let's talk about what supporting women does and doesn't look like...#IWD2023

Good afternoon South Africa 🇿🇦: This @Space_Station pass begins just south of Cape Town and heads across to @CityofJoburgZA - which we ALMOST get to see - except right at that moment we had a Loss of Signal event. @CityofCT @lovecapetown @SABCNews Jan 23, 2023 12:05 SAST

Registered and ready to represent @AfricaGmes #fisheries and #aquaculture at the #geoblueplanetsymposium here in Accra, Ghana

#Workshop alert! I will be presenting our @AfricaGmes #WIO #CoralBleaching monitoring service, co-developed by @CSIR and @cordioea, during the session : Biodiversity Conservation in a context of #ClimateChange

Copernicus Marine @CMEMS_EU

4 years ago

📢Save the date! “Biodiversity in Coastal Ecosystems” workshop will take place on 11 & 12 October 2022 Discover how #Copernicus services contribute to #biodiversity in the coastal ecosystems. 👉 marine.copernicus.eu/events/coperni…

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It is 4pm, I cannot make that transfer anymore. Sorry @StandardBankZA, this was the last of it. Your standards have reached an all time low. Do what you do - I will not be part of this anymore.

Apparently you cannot see MY accounts that I have with YOU, @StandardBankZA . No one can assist me NOW since a full scale investigation has been launched to FIND my money that is in my account at @StandardBankZA bank.