18 Blog Posts You Loved in 2016
January 3, 2017

18 Blog Posts You Loved in 2016

by Brian de Haaff

I seek adventure in two places: business and wilderness. When the two intersect the result is something special. And as far as adventures go, 2016 certainly offered fodder for some wild topics. I think you can see that reflected in what we wrote about on the Aha! blog this past year.

I love writing about the adventure of finding meaningful work and living a meaningful life. And so do the rest of the Aha! team members who contribute to the blog.

Each post was inspired by our experiences, both good and bad. We took a lot of time to consider how our words might help you in your journey. And we hit a nerve — roughly 1 million pageviews and thousands of comments.

So, let’s look back at some of the most popular Aha! blog posts from 2016 — the ones you read, loved, and shared. Plus maybe a few that you missed. (In that case, consider this your reading list for the first week of 2017.)

And if you find yourself thinking, “What is my next adventure?” Well, you might want to consider joining us for the ride.

Here are the posts you loved, organized by topic:

Product management

1. Are never-ending product battles beating you down? Stand firm with five tactics for fighting the good fight.

2. If you are trying to break into product management, you might need a quick refresher on the various roles.

3. So you have an angry customer on your hands. Guess what? This is good news! Find out why.

4. Most product managers develop a close working relationship with their engineering team. Even still, there are likely a lot of things that you might not know about them.

5. Don’t fall into the trap of believing that jargon is the secret password to any given group.

Company building

6. How can a consultant ever understand your business better than you do?

7. If you have ever ordered the steak and lobster special at a dinner that your startup was paying for, go slap yourself.

8. You may be off to a quick start, but this is the real proving ground. Do you pop the corks or keep building?

9. Commutes are depressing — they can negatively impact your health, work, and relationships. But there is a better way.

10. One of the best parts about working on a fully distributed team? Spending workdays with our four-legged friends.

Career advice

11. Stop living to please others. Start being yourself. Life is just too short to be anyone else.

12. Is your resume in the “NO” pile? You might be forgetting something important in your rush to impress.

13. The last thing you want is to leave a prospective employer with a negative opinion about your experience and qualifications.

14. Yes, they are just words. But the words we choose convey a powerful message about what we believe and value.

15. With no action behind it, the idea of “employee empowerment” becomes nothing more than an empty promise.

Innovation

16. It is only when you decide to put that strategy into action that it can do its work — transforming your business.

17. When “no” becomes the knee-jerk response to new ideas, it builds a culture of fear that stifles innovation.

18. Business Morse code forces others to work harder than necessary to comprehend the true meaning behind our words.

What do you want to see more of in 2017? Share your ideas in the comments below.

Brian de Haaff

Brian de Haaff

Brian seeks business and wilderness adventure. He is the co-founder and CEO of Aha! — the world’s #1 product development software — and the author of the bestseller Lovability. Brian writes and speaks about product and company growth and the journey of pursuing a meaningful life.

Follow Aha!

Follow Brian

Related articles

Most Popular New Aha! Features Launched in Q4 2021
December 22, 2021

Most Popular New Aha! Features Launched in Q4 2021

What does it take for product teams to be happy? I believe it comes down to delivering real value — for customers and the business. You need to have the right people in…

Share Visual Roadmaps With Customers via Ideas Portals
January 19, 2022

Share Visual Roadmaps With Customers via Ideas Portals

Eighteen thousand ideas portals. Three million ideas. Altogether our customers collect an incredible amount of information from their own customers via portals in Aha!…

Create One Unified Product and Engineering Backlog in Aha! Develop
December 2, 2021

Create One Unified Product and Engineering Backlog in Aha! Develop

How do you balance building new product functionality against improving technical capabilities? Many product development teams struggle with this challenge. You want to…

Aha! Commits $400,000 to Charitable Giving in 2022
December 20, 2021

Aha! Commits $400,000 to Charitable Giving in 2022

Learn about the history of our philanthropic giving program Aha! Cares and the nonprofit organizations that are receiving funding in 2022.