Aren’t documentaries an amazingly underrated source of information?
In actual fact, there are some truly insightful and thought-provoking documentaries about the product world out there that can teach us a great number of useful things, spanning human behavior and psychology, business and economics, and technology and design.
We’ve selected five of our favorite documentaries, each unique in its own way, that will give you new insights and a fresh perspective, helping you to build better products and rule the product world!
Let’s quickly glance through them-
1. The Social Dilemma
Summary: The Social Dilemma examines how social media’s design nurtures addiction to maximize profit and its ability to manipulate people’s views, emotions, and behavior and spread conspiracy theories and disinformation.
Learning for Product Managers: The Social Dilemma presents a useful opportunity to see what the fears are surrounding social media and the possible harmful implications.
If you work in social media, it’s an exercise in listening to your customers and possibly even considering different approaches to providing value while regaining their trust.
Watch here: Netflix
2. The Creative Brain
Summary: Neuroscientist David Eagleman taps into the creative processes of various inventors while exploring brain-bending, risk-taking ways to spark creativity.
The film follows a very simple outline, using each member of a realm of creativity as a conduit for explaining what the brain is doing in that creative process and how to harness it the way the subjects of the film do.
Learning for Product Managers: Product Managers are some of the most creative people in technology because that’s what it takes to find solutions to problems.
This documentary will help them re-engage that side of the brain and unlock their creative powers.
Watch here: Netflix
3. Healed Through A.I.: The Age of A.I.
Summary: In this touching documentary, world-renowned actor Robert Downey Jr. explores the ways in which emerging A.I. technologies can revolutionize medicine by helping people battling incurable diseases regain their lost abilities.
Learning for Product Managers: How can artificial intelligence, machine learning, and artificial neural networks create a new world in which all diseases will be curable and personalized, high-quality healthcare will be the norm, not the exception?
If you’re one of the many PMs who isn’t actually that technical and you’re looking for an accessible way to start learning more about the possibilities and applications of A.I., this is for you.
Watch here: YouTube
4. Design & Thinking
Summary: This documentary grabs businessmen, designers, social change-makers, and individuals to portray what they have in common when facing the ambiguous 21st century.
What is design thinking? How is it applied to business models? How are people changing the world with their own creative minds? It is a call to conventional minds to change and collaborate.
Learning for Product Managers: The message coming from the product design world is loud and clear: design needs a seat at the table from the very start of the development process.
Watch here: YouTube
5. The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
Summary: The story of Theranos, a multi-billion dollar tech company, its founder, Elizabeth Holmes, the youngest self-made female billionaire, and the massive fraud that collapsed the company.
Learning for Product Managers: First of all, Theranos is an important part of Silicon Valley history, with Holmes set to be “the next Steve Jobs.” It also provides us with an opportunity to pause and reflect on the danger of having a vision but no means to achieve it.
Product Managers are the keepers of the product vision of the North Star. Theranos is a cautionary tale of what can go wrong when you don’t really have anything else.
Watch here: HBO
