All posts by Thom James Carter


How to Be a Good Product Manager & Crush Your Workload (Free Tips, Tricks, & Examples!)

how to be a good product manager

This is a guest post by Donald Fomby. Donald is a freelance content writer who works for ClassyEssay. He has spent more than seven years in the copywriting and blogging industries, writing articles, guides, and checklists for small eCommerce businesses. Donald uses his curiosity about online business to write about topics valuable to small business owners.

The product manager’s role is a juggling act.

To fulfill the needs of expectant customers, the product manager needs to work with the sales, marketing, and engineering teams — alongside the rest of the product team — to facilitate necessary changes and improve the product(s) in question.

But that juggling act has gotten even harder as of late.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, many product research and management processes that were done collaboratively and in-person have now pivoted online. Needless to say, this change had made it more difficult for product managers to succeed in their role and complete projects in the way they’re used to.

This transition may have caused workloads to build up, task lists to overflow, sprints to stagger, and thus, impacting the rest of the product team.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. The truth of the matter is that you can successfully manage any product research or development project remotely with optimal organization.

It’s the key to bettering collaboration with your remote team, and ensuring you and the rest of your product management team are keeping on the right track. If you strategically organize your work, you will also be able to instill and maintain successful collaboration with the people you’re working with, despite the many miles that keep you apart.

Seeing as 86% of executives say that a lack of collaboration is the most common reason for failure in their companies, it’s something that you need to get to grips with, particularly as a product manager.

By reading through this Process Street guest post, you’ll do exactly that. To boot, I’ll also provide some extra tools to help you thrive as a product manager! Just make your way through these sections:

Let’s get started.

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Sorry, Windows Users — macOS 11 Big Sur Is the Best Operating System to Date

macOS 11

Republican or Democrat. Brexit or remaining in the EU. Pepsi or Coke.

There are some things that people just can’t agree on.

These debates all pale in comparison to the one argument that is so vitriolic, so polemic, and so bitter that it’s infamous the world over: The Mac vs Windows debate.

The heated rivalry has brought out the worst in people, with message boards, forums, and social media threads being the digital battlegrounds for these two factions to clash. The primary method of attack for Windows supporters is to scoff at the price of Apple’s Mac products. Mac aficionados — while they only make up 9-13% of all operating system users — go for the throat by ridiculing how error-prone Windows is.

But I’m glad to say that the operating system war has finally come to an end with a clear victor.

Mac.

With their trojan horse — Big Sur — they’ve created an OS that’s so streamlined, easy to use, and downright fast — all while tying it in with the interface of iPadOS and iOS — that Windows 10’s defeat was inevitable.

But what’s changed, exactly? What are Big Sur’s most exciting features? And, more importantly, when is macOS 11 being released?

Make your way through the following sections in this Process Street post to find out:

Hey, Siri?

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A Deep Dive Into How We’re Winning at Guest Posting (300+ Great Posts Published!)

guest posting

If Shakespeare offered to write a guest post for TechCrunch, I highly doubt he’d be declined.

Similarly, if Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, Fitzgerald — or any other great writer — wanted to post on the blog of Atlassian, Buffer, or Unbounce, these sites wouldn’t exactly say no, would they?

That’s because they’re the lucky few who became internationally-renowned as stellar writers. The hard part wouldn’t be pitching and writing for these incredible, modern-day sites and blogs; it’d be resurrecting themselves so they could write in the first place.

How do you get your business’ writers — who are all incredible in their own right but don’t have the reputation of the above (yet) — published by other sites? How can you add authority, improve targeted traffic, increase qualified leads, and secure backlinks with guest posting? What needs to be done?

That’s exactly what you’re about to learn.

At Process Street, we’ve been guest posting for sites like TechCrunch, HubSpot, G2, TheNextWeb, AppSumo, and hundreds of others for years. Our offsite efforts make up a fundamental part of our content marketing machine, and have since helped us achieve a high domain rating, clinch the #1 spot for our most useful keywords, and get lots of juicy backlinks, too.

If you want to learn how we did it — and how you can, as well — just read through the following sections:

“Brevity is the soul of wit”, Shakespeare once said.

So without more ado, let’s get started! ✍️

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How to Conquer the Day (and Night) by Hacking Your Chronotype

chronotype

In the Before Time (read: before coronavirus struck and remote work became more commonplace) there were four types of people on the morning commute.

First, there was the person falling asleep in their seat – most likely one of the 15% of Americans who doze off while at work. Second, there’s the one working on their laptop while drinking their fourth cup of coffee of the day. Then there’s the person who’s listening to music or reading a book, conserving their productivity for the office. Last but not least, there’s the individual who’s working one minute but snoring the next.

These people are wolves, lions, bears, and dolphins respectively.

Not sure what the hell I’m talking about?

Then you haven’t heard of chronotypes.

Luckily for you, in this Process Street post I’ll be exploring what a chronotype is, the 4 different sleep chronotypes, and how to find and hack your chronotype for maximal productivity.

Just read through these sections to get completed clued-up:

Time’s ticking, so let’s dive in! 🌙

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How to Radically Improve Your Sales With a Sales Process Template

sales process template

Etymologically-speaking, the word “template” has an interesting history. Our modern usage of it is linked to the Proto-Indo-European word “tempos”, which means “to stretch”. Specifically, though, it refers to time and the stretching of it.

As time-bound human beings, making use of templates allows us to have more time each day. By completing recurring processes and actions far faster overall whether they’re marketing processes or sales processes, we’re able to, in a way, cheat time itself.

For sales teams, templates are a necessity for both cheating time and doing great work, repeatedly.

Seeing as 20% of sales staff turnover happens within the first 45 days, there needs to be a thorough, documented template for how to onboard staff properly. Similarly, for the sales process itself, there needs to be a sales process template (or better yet, templates).

With such playbooks at hand, it could help your team become high performers by a whopping 33%!

That’s why, in this Process Street post, I’ll discuss what a sales process template is, provide you with a stellar sales process template, and tell you how you can use more or even build your own templates from scratch.

Just read through the following sections:

Or, if you can’t wait and want to start using the aforementioned stellar sales process template, here’s our MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template:

Click here to get the MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template!

Carry on reading to find out how to cheat time further. ⏳

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Video SEO Marketing: How to Optimize Video Content for Better Search Rankings

video SEO marketing

Lesley Vos is a content strategist at Bid4Papers, specializing in data research, copywriting, and content promotion. She has been published on Moz, CXL, Forbes, and more. Follow her on Twitter to read her latest articles.

The world’s demand for video content is enormous. It makes up 80% of all online traffic, and yet 53% of people want to see even more videos from brands they support!

In short, if you don’t consider video a part of your marketing plans, you’re missing a huge opportunity to grow. Not only does video content impact your brand’s authority, but it also can improve your traffic and overall search engine rankings by far.

But this is all easier said than done.

While producing and sharing a video might seem a great idea, you need to remember that it should complement your overall SEO and marketing strategy. After all, if you fail to organize and optimize your video content in the early stages, not only will it cost you a pretty sum, but it will be money spent in vain.

That’s why, in this guest post for Process Street, I’ll discuss video SEO marketing and optimization so your video content can achieve better rankings.

Just read through the following sections:

Or, if you wanted to start working through an SEO checklist straight away, use this template.

Click here to get SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process!

Lights, camera, action, 💥

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How to Avoid Burnout and Thrive as a Remote Team (Free Tips & Templates!)

how to avoid burnout

This is a guest post by Rodney Laws. Rodney is an ecommerce expert with over a decade of experience in building online businesses. He’s worked with the biggest platforms in the world, making him the perfect person to offer advice on which platforms to build your website with. Check out his reviews on EcommercePlatforms.io and you’ll find practical tips that you can use to build the best online store for your business.

Even after full-time remote work became a viable option, most businesses were strongly wedded to the classic 9-to-5 office setup.

Many thought it would tank productivity, impede communication, and damage how their business was perceived, despite the 30% of people working remotely full-time proving that remote work, well, works.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to try alternative measures. Those reliant upon footfall either pivoted drastically or shut down entirely, and all other companies faced the same, urgent question: Can we transition to being 100% remote?

Remote teams who were once dubious about remote work are now enjoying the benefits of increased flexibility, enhanced productivity, and saving money while working from the comfort of their own home. In fact, 74% of CFOs will move at least 5% of their onsite workforce to work permanently offsite.

However, there can also be disadvantages to remote work if they’re not nipped in the bud, such as burnout.

That’s why, in this guest post for Process Street, I’ll tell you how to avoid burnout as a remote team. I’ll cover what burnout is, why it’s so destructive, and provide you with tips and templates for making sure your remote team doesn’t suffer down the line.

Read through the following sections to get up to speed:

Or, if you wanted to dive into a template that helps team members to appropriately manage their days without overworking, there’s the Remote Daily Work Schedule Template below.

Click here to get the Remote Daily Work Schedule Template!

It’s time to get started with the rest of the post. ⌚️

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Customer Experience Measurement: How to Gain CX Insight & Reach the Aha!

Customer Experience Measurement

This is a guest post by Alyse Falk. Alyse is a freelance writer, and she handles stories about the latest developments in the field of technology. Passionate about AI, Alyse has extensive experience writing articles and essays on data-driven analytics, cloud computing, cybersecurity, machine learning, and IoT devices.

Customer feedback is integral to understanding how to deliver a consistently good customer experience. By gathering feedback, you stop guessing about what your customers do and don’t like and, instead, gain direct action items for how to improve customer experience in the future.

Improving customer experience (otherwise known as CX) comes with many benefits. Perhaps the largest of all is that your customers will get better service quality, leading to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.

Besides improved customer experiences, you will also get significant financial benefits. In fact, 73 percent of companies with above-average customer experience perform better financially than their competitors with a lower level of CX!

However, getting good customer feedback and reaching that ‘Aha!’ moment so you can improve customer experience can be tricky.

That’s why, in this guest post, I’ll be telling you everything you need to know about customer experience measurement, how to do it, and how Process Steet can help.

Read through these sections for everything you need to know:

Or, if you wanted to start compiling customer feedback straight away, here’s Process Street’s Customer Feedback Checklist Template.

Click here to get the Customer Feedback Checklist Template!

Let’s jump right in.

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MEDDIC: How to Get Higher Close Rates and Masterfully Qualify Leads (Free Template!)

MEDDIC

From sales prospecting to cold calling and emailing, and qualifying leads to closing the sale, it’s a well-known fact that sales reps have their work cut out.

But did you know that, according to research by The Bridge Group, 1/3rd of salespeople fail to meet their sales quotas? Not just from time-to-time either, but on a permanent basis.

As somebody who’s at the helm of your sales team, it’s your duty to supply your colleagues with the right systems, processes, and tools. You must make sure your team succeeds.

For sales success – specifically, qualifying leads for the sales pipeline properly, getting higher close rates, meeting quotas, and dramatically boosting your bottom-line – use the MEDDIC methodology and process.

Never heard of MEDDIC before?

No sweat.

Read through the following sections in this Process Street post to get clued up:

Or, if you wanted to make use of our MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template straight away, grab it here:

Click here to get the MEDDIC Sales Process Checklist Template!

Let’s dive on in. 📈

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How to Implement a Powerful Procurement Process Like a Pro (Free Templates!)

procurement process

If there’s one thing the COVID-19 pandemic has taught the world of business (apart from that remote work is the future), it’s this: We aren’t prepared for disruption.

Supply chains, in particular, suffered a massive shockwave, with supermarkets, shops, and services being unable to operate the way they did before the virus struck. In fact, more than 3,000 suppliers in China were driven to force majeure declarations in the first few months alone.

As the world moves toward a new normal, you’ll be thinking about disruption and risk a lot more than you had done previously.

For businesses using suppliers, it’s necessary – now more so than ever – to establish a stellar procurement process to ensure goods and/or services can always be secured, no matter if micro (small, every day) and macro (large, extraordinary) disruptions happen.

That’s why, in this post, I’ll be discussing what the procurement process is, the benefits a documented and solid process brings, what the flow of a robust procurement process looks like, and how Process Street can help.

Read through the below sections to get up-to-date:

Or, if you just wanted to get your hands on a procurement process that you can default to in every day and extraordinary situations alike, grab it here:

Click here to get the Procurement Process Checklist Template!

Ready to become a pro at the procurement process? 📦
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