By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
Teresa Torres and members of the Continuous Discovery Habits community share the personal knowledge management (PKM) tools and habits they use to capture, organize, and reuse what they learn about products, customers, and the wider industry. The piece frames PKM, popularized by Tiago Forte's Building a Second Brain, as a way to avoid being overwhelmed and to apply knowledge to real problems. It profiles tools including Readwise, Notion, Miro, Snipd, Trello, and Obsidian, each paired with a specific capture or review workflow. The common thread is that PKM is an evolving practice best built incrementally through experimentation rather than perfected upfront.
01Key takeaways
- Capture small pieces of knowledge daily, such as tagging a few highlights, so a searchable library builds with little effort.
- Separate quick capture from organizing; process notes later so you don't lose focus on the ideas themselves.
- Add your own wording and interpretation to saved resources so your future searches match how you think.
- Make notes visual or revisitable, since unreviewed reading is quickly forgotten.
- Start with one simple tool and one habit, then add components as the system proves useful.
- Treat your PKM system like a product: iterate in small steps and evaluate how it is working.
02Key sections
- Why personal knowledge management matters
- The article explains that product people face a flood of customer insights, industry content, and new tools, and that PKM offers a structured way to save and apply that knowledge.
- Resurfacing highlights with Readwise and Reader
- Teresa Torres tags her Kindle and web highlights by topic and reviews a handful daily, turning reading into a searchable, revisitable database.
- Visual notes in Notion, Concepts, Miro, and Snipd
- Several members use visual and audio tools to make notes easier to revisit, including mind maps, book summary boards, and podcast snippet reels.
- Searchable resource libraries in Trello
- Christian Martinez stores resources as cards and relies on search, adding his own wording so future searches match how he thinks.
- Obsidian for quick capture and a digital garden
- Milos Belcevic separates fleeting capture from long-term storage, while Sebastian Kamilli uses PARA and CODE and publishes a digital garden of working notes.
- Common threads and advice
- Everyone changed their system over time, and the consistent advice is to start small, experiment, and iterate rather than seek a perfect setup.
03From the post
“The world of digital products is evolving quickly. Whether you’re trying to keep track of everything you learn about your customers during continuous discovery, keep tabs on the latest thought leadership and learnings from others in the industry, or keep on top of all the newest products on the”
04Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.