By Prabhakar Gopalan Walk into an established software company and you see these product management and product marketing silos. [note: startups or well run product organizations don't have this problem at all - see last paragraph in this skeptical PMM view] hole not whole. Picture credit: iStockphoto contributor MISHA To begin with, product managers and marketing managers are saddled with two divisive documents – PRDs and MRDs. Move a little further there’s the big question of ownership. Product managers want to ‘own’ the product. They’ve conveniently…
Product Management
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Most Topular Stories
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The Whole Product Manager
On Product Management7 May 2013 | 7:16 pm -
The Agile Business Gap – Interview
Brainmates - Boosting People and Product Performance18 Apr 2013 | 6:21 pmI (Nick Coster) was interviewed on the Global Product Management Talk about a topic that I have been thinking about and working on for quite some time. The interview was with Cindy F Solomon and together we discussed The Agile Business Gap. The Agile Business Gap exists where there is no well understood and repeatable way of converting high level ideas or business objectives into the level of granularity and detail that is required of a user story to effectively populate a product backlog to work effectively with an Agile Development team. The event details are here:… -
Moving From Product Management Into Product Strategy
MindTheProduct14 May 2013 | 9:00 pmI’ve worked as a product manager since 2005. My first role was part of the core product team at BSkyB in strategic product development. We were product owners of the concept through to delivery to market of all the new set-top boxes and in-home consumer devices such as routers and wireless bridges, as well as the electronic program guide software for the set-top boxes. At Sky I was fortunate to really learn my trade well as product manager, working as I did with the best of the best across the organisation in finance, supply chain, procurement, strategy, marketing, research,… -
Inspiration: A desk is a dangerous place…
Under 10 by Steve Johnson14 May 2013 | 4:46 amA desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world.—John le Carré. David John Moore Cornwell, pen name John le Carré, is a British author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for the British intelligence services MI5 and MI6, when he began writing novels under a pen name. Wikipedia I’ve been reviewing job descriptions for product managers and product owners and something’s missing. The responsibilities include “representing the customer” and “being expert on the market.” Then they list a bunch of meetings and artifacts and office work. -
My TEDx talk The Need to Explore
Web Ink Now14 May 2013 | 9:45 amThe video of my talk was just posted to the TEDx YouTube channel. Direct link to The Need to Explore on YouTube. This is a completely new speech for me with no reliance on the material I use in my keynotes. It was fun (but hard work) to create a brand new talk combining several subjects I am passionate about: space exploration and our ongoing communications revolution. Soon I will post about how I created the talk.
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Optimal Product Management and Product Marketing ™
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Product Marketing Rule 7: Business Research is About Decisions, Not Questions
16 May 2013 | 10:34 amProduct Marketing rule #7 from the best-selling book, 42 Rules of Product Marketing, was written by Al Scharer, Filigree Consulting “Define the decisions that you need to make, then define the research tools you will use to make the decisions.” From a product marketing perspective, research is about decisions. Research is a systematic approach to [...] -
Product Management Rule 7: There Is a Fine Line between Knowing It All and Being a Know-It-All
9 May 2013 | 10:28 amProduct Management rule #7 from the best-selling book, 42 Rules of Product Management, was written by Alyssa Dver, CEO, Mint Green Marketing “Refrain from being the know-it-all—instead be someone that all know they can follow, learn from, and ultimately trust to lead the product toward success.” We become product managers for a variety of reasons, [...] -
Product Marketing Rule 6: Work Effectively with Analysts
30 Apr 2013 | 4:14 pmProduct Marketing rule #6 from the best-selling book, 42 Rules of Product Marketing, was written by John Armstrong, Consultant, previously Director of Product Marketing at Guidance Software “The ability to work and communicate effectively with industry analysts can make a significant difference in the analyst’s perception of your product or service.” If you are recognized by your [...] -
Product Management Rule 6: Product Management Is Inherently Political
23 Apr 2013 | 3:58 pmProduct Management rule #6 from the best-selling book, 42 Rules of Product Management, was written by Rich Mironov, Author, The Art of Product Management Product managers tend to have very rational, process-driven views of the world. We’d like to believe that our various stakeholders are thoughtful, unemotional, and willing to compromise and put the company’s [...] -
Who inspired you as a Product Manager?
23 Apr 2013 | 10:02 amThis week two of our Senior trainers, Phil Burton and Pam Schure, were delivering our course “How to be Phenomenal Product Manager” (we deliver this in-person via public courses and privately both on-site and virtually). The course is based on my best-selling book, The Phenomenal Product Manager, and teaches techniques and strategies based on the best [...]
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ProductMarketing.com
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Quotes to Think About as Marketers
15 May 2013 | 3:10 pmWhile the presentation is focused on M&A considerations, I think it is a good set of quotes for Marketers and Product Managers to embrace strategically, even if some of the personalities quoted might not be a traditional source for marketers to reference. Top 10 M&A Quotes from Firmex -
A Product Launch Resource You May Be Overlooking
5 Apr 2013 | 6:43 amDuring the feverish pitch leading up to the launch of a new product or new version of an existing product, it’s easy to focus on the obvious: product, sales channel, and marketing. You may be overlooking an important product launch resource available to you that could have a big impact on your next product launch. That resource is your customer support team. Often the fastest way to achieve product launch goals is to target your customer base: the folks who love you and your products. Of course you’ll want to be sure the customer support team is ready to support the product being… -
Pragmatic Marketing’s 13th Annual Product Management and Marketing Survey Now Available
28 Feb 2013 | 10:54 amThe more things change, the more they stay the same. One of the things that stood out in our 13th Annual Product Management and Marketing Survey was just how consistent much of the data has remained over the years. This is particularly true in terms of the demographics of the group—age (40), gender (2/3 male), and education (40 percent have master’s)—as well as compensation (adjusted for inflation). These numbers have not moved notably in any year we’ve run the survey. In some ways, we’ve come a long way. We’ve seen marked improvement in both the understanding of these roles… -
8 Ways to Influence and Work with Industry Analysts
27 Feb 2013 | 2:30 pmThis presentation cuts to the chase with analysts, even if there are 2 number 7′s. So I’d maybe add a 9th – get someone to review your slides before you pitch an analyst. Working with-industry-analysts from Susan Etlinger -
8 Ways to Influence and Work with Industry Analysts
27 Feb 2013 | 2:30 pmThis presentation cuts to the chase with analysts, even if there are 2 number 7′s. So I’d maybe add a 9th – get someone to review your slides before you pitch an analyst. Working with-industry-analysts from Susan Etlinger
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On Product Management
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Product Management vs. Systems Analysis
18 May 2013 | 8:39 pmBy Rivi Aspler It still surprises me that people confuse system analysis with product management. Surprise is one thing, totally harmless. The risky thing is hiring a systems analyst when you actually need a product manager and then being surprised with a failure product. This post offers 2 main questions that can assist you in understanding what does your product mostly need, a System Analyst or a Product Manager. The most important question, in my mind, is: Are you developing an off-the-shelf product, or are you customizing a system to fully match specific customers’ requirements. A… -
The Whole Product Manager
7 May 2013 | 7:16 pmBy Prabhakar Gopalan Walk into an established software company and you see these product management and product marketing silos. [note: startups or well run product organizations don't have this problem at all - see last paragraph in this skeptical PMM view] hole not whole. Picture credit: iStockphoto contributor MISHA To begin with, product managers and marketing managers are saddled with two divisive documents – PRDs and MRDs. Move a little further there’s the big question of ownership. Product managers want to ‘own’ the product. They’ve conveniently… -
Strategic Product Management – Job Responsibilities or End Results?
1 May 2013 | 8:50 pmBy John Mansour Is your reference to “strategic product management” more about job responsibilities considered to be strategic or product initiatives that produce results with strategic impact? I ask the question because product managers almost always refer to strategic product management as job responsibilities considered to be more strategic than tactical. But when I listen to executives, their definition of strategic product management is almost exclusively discussed in terms of end results or impact. Strategic as it appears on most job descriptions is somewhere in the middle. I use… -
Does your content have a clear purpose?
29 Apr 2013 | 11:01 pmBy Saeed Khan Content marketing is all the rage. Well written, targeted content can propel your website traffic, can deliver more leads, can increase your perception as a thought leader etc. And so companies have joined the content marketing fray and started corporate blogs, posted videos on YouTube, and created targeted micro-sites. Companies also create brochures and whitepapers for download, chalk talks and recorded webinars for viewing etc. And each of these is usually measured for clicks or views or likes or downloads etc. And while all of this content is generating a lot of… -
Market research is easy. Visit customers
25 Apr 2013 | 3:28 pmBy Steve Johnson Market research is easy. Visit customers, with or without sales people. Go on sales calls. Go to user group meetings. Go to conferences. Call a few customers on the phone and ask how they are using your product, where they find deficiencies, and what direction they are taking their own businesses. Listen. You don’t have to hire an agency; you don’t need to spend a lot of money. A quick phone call or Skype meeting is often all that’s necessary to get in sync with your customers. The job of product management is straightforward: find a couple of key customers and just…
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Write That Down
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Function Over Form
17 May 2013 | 5:39 pmWhen trying to get a v1.0 out the door, does form really matter all that much? Of course the answer is yes – but in my estimation, not as much as everyone may think. Now, keep in mind – I’m talking from the standpoint of pretty quick releases. Of course, the importance of trying to “get everything right” increases the longer your release cycles are. But that’s a whole different approach. If you are quick enough, you can stay focused on getting something out the door, with as much value as you can eke out. Really worry more about making sure there is a… -
Why Does Focus Count?
17 Dec 2012 | 4:05 amMost people, usually, have the best intentions. Why does it seem like creating a bunch of products, to hedge bets, makes sense when it doesn’t? Mainly, my belief is because it hedges bets. If you put enough products out in to the market, eventually something is bound to work, right? Not so much. Start-ups are typically bound by cash they have on hand. You can only hire so many resources before you start to top out. You can only get them to do so much work before they start to burn out. Why try to get them all spinning on multiple things at once instead of a clean set of priorities… -
5 Ways to Deal With Difficult Team Members
18 Sep 2012 | 8:34 pmThis guest post was provided by Ryan Sauer who contributes in areas of project management certification for the University Alliance, a division of Bisk Education, Inc. He actively writes to help professionals succeed in preparing for their PMP training online. Have you ever experienced the following range of emotions throughout the lifecycle of a project? Eagerness, frustration, raised blood pressure, lack of progress, fear, contempt (the project falls behind), and then anger sets in! We’ve all run this emotional gamut at one time or another during a project where something is not flowing… -
Communication is Imperative
31 May 2012 | 10:41 amSomething that might get lost in the excitement of building all those exciting, shiny new features and products is really quite simple: communication. Talking. Informing. Discussing. If your team / organization doesn’t know what’s going on, there is trouble ahead. If there is a culture of not really talking to one another, again – trouble. People will start to feel unloved, uninvolved, and blindsided when things come down the pike. Some things that I’ve come to appreciate over the years: All-hands meetings Regular team meetings One on one’s Functional updates… -
Welcome Back
21 Mar 2012 | 1:27 pmTesting, 1-2, testing. Is this thing on? It’s been a while. Nice to be blogging again. I have a few ideas I’m fleshing out, but will be posting on what I’ve been up to these last…couple of years. I’m a bit rusty (hopefully a bit wiser – definitely a bit older), so going to ease back in to things. I hope to get back to some regularly scheduled programming slowly but surely. If there’s still anyone out there in Write That Down land, comment and let me know what you’re up to these days – I’d love to start re-connecting. It’s good…
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Brainmates - Boosting People and Product Performance
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Innovation: Briefly Explained
15 May 2013 | 6:37 amIn this presentation we have the extracted the essence of the term “Innovation” and how important and relevant it is to the Product Management Function in an organisation. Brainmates – Innovation, Briefly Explained from Brainmates We would love to hear your feedback in the comments below. -
White Paper: A Pricing Framework for Product Managers
1 May 2013 | 11:33 pmWouldn’t it be great if there was a sure-fire formula for pricing that is guaranteed to increase sales and profits. This whitepaper helps by providing Product Managers with a pricing framework aimed at delivering results in the market. The following topics are covered in our pricing discussion: Popular pricing strategies including cost-plus and value based. B2B pricing methodologies. The use of conjoint analysis in B2C marketing. Common win-win pricing techniques. A Brainmates pricing framework for the planning and execution of pricing to help increase product sales. Download the Full… -
The Agile Business Gap – Interview
18 Apr 2013 | 6:21 pmI (Nick Coster) was interviewed on the Global Product Management Talk about a topic that I have been thinking about and working on for quite some time. The interview was with Cindy F Solomon and together we discussed The Agile Business Gap. The Agile Business Gap exists where there is no well understood and repeatable way of converting high level ideas or business objectives into the level of granularity and detail that is required of a user story to effectively populate a product backlog to work effectively with an Agile Development team. The event details are here:… -
Strategy: Briefly Explained
15 Apr 2013 | 4:31 amStrategy is a term that is often bandied about by many without a crystal clear understanding or definition of what it actually means. We’ve unpacked the term to present a simple view of strategy. Brainmates – Strategy, Briefly Explained from Brainmates What is Strategy? Strategy is the company’s compass. Strategy has both magnitude and direction. Strategy is NOT a detailed plan. Strategy guides the act of planning. Strategy must be responsive to change. What the Experts Say About Strategy? According to Michael Porter… “The essence of strategy is choosing to… -
RELISH Communicating
14 Mar 2013 | 10:49 pmDr. Sarah Colley from Pockets of Brilliance provides Product Managers a simple and effective way of structuring verbal and written communications. The technique is called RELISH. Relatedness: Clarify the purpose of the communication and the role of the person receiving it Expression: Label the emotion that exists around the issue being communicated. Leading the Pack: Be clear about the objective of the communication. Interpersonal Connection: Empathise, connect and show that you understand. Seeing the Facts: Present key data, facts, information and milestones. Hopefulness: Address future…
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Technology Marketing
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Where To Find The Tech Marketing Analysts
8 May 2013 | 9:26 amThis is our final post to the Tech Marketing (TM) role blog, but we are not going away! We have consolidated the number of professional roles you can choose as your home page at Forrester.com, but we have not reduced the scope of challenges we can help you solve to be successful in your job. Posts from analysts whose research you find valuable will still appear on their individual blogs, as well as the role blogs with which their ongoing work is now associated. The analysts who were aligned to the Tech Marketing role are now aligned to one of two other roles. Sales Enablement: At Forrester,… -
Software Companies Can Gain Competitive Advantage By Making Their Pricing Value-Based
20 Mar 2013 | 3:37 pmI help hundreds of technology buyers each year to understand the impact of technology changes on their software contracts, but I also get questions from software providers about how best to price their products. Some are bringing new products to market and want to know how to maximize revenue, while others are struggling with obsolete metrics such as per processor and want to update their pricing for the modern mobile, cloudy world. The answer is usually to find licensing metrics that make their pricing value-based while balancing simplicity and fairness. The more value a customer gets from… -
Enterprises Are About To Get Tablet Fever. How Can Tech Vendor Marketers Reach Them?
26 Sep 2012 | 11:05 amMarketers and strategists at tech vendors who sell tablets won't want to miss a webinar co-hosted by Simon Yates and me this Friday, September 28th. Aimed at a CIO audience, our webinar leverages a great deal of data from Forrsights and Tech Marketing Navigator on the opportunity for tablets, how to engage enterprise tablet buyers, on the effects of bring-your-own (BYO), and other, related topics. Tech marketers and strategists won't want to miss our presentation: You'll gain insights into the challenges tablets present for CIOs, and you'll also see hard data on both the opportunity… -
2012 Tech Marketing Priorities – From 50 Tech Marketing Execs
30 Dec 2011 | 3:18 pmUnderstanding the priorities of fellow tech marketers is a great way to tune one's own 2012 initiatives. Over the past two months, my Forrester Technology Council colleagues and I have spent quite a bit of time surveying and talking with members (~ 50 tech CMO's and VP's of Marketing) about their priorities for 2012. Before the champagne pops up here in Boston, I wanted to share a few of the priorities my colleagues and I are hearing most about for 2012:Read moreCategories:Brand Management Community Marketing Demand Generation Demand Management content marketing thought leadership -
Brand Advice For B2B Tech Marketers: Q&A With Siegel+Gale
14 Dec 2011 | 7:22 am"Branding & rebranding" is rising fast on the list of priorities for tech marketers in 2012. Over the past few months, my colleagues and I in the Tech Marketing Council have been engaging in a rising number of client discussions around the topic of "brand." These conversations with our CMO and VP of marketing clients have come in a few different flavors: Branding for Emerging Firms. Small, but not startup, vendors seeking to create better brand position and differentiation to take on the established sector players. (e.g., David and Goliath) Rebrand for Maturing Firms. Midsize…
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The Accidental Product Manager
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Product Managers Need To Know What Their Company’s Cost Of Capital Is
20 May 2013 | 2:00 amTo get your product funded, you’re going to need to know your cost of capital Image Credit You’ve just been put in charge of managing the best product ever. Based on the product development definition, you know that this product is going to be a run-away success: it solves a critical problem that a lot of customers are currently facing. There’s just one problem: either the product does not yet exist or it exists, but doesn’t do what it needs to do. You’re going to need some money – what’s it going to take to get your company to fund your product? What Is… -
How Can Product Managers Get Sales To Use Social Media Correctly?
13 May 2013 | 2:00 amHow can Twitter help boost sales of your product?Image Credit By now just about every product manager knows that not only has social media arrived, it has just about taken over the world. The use of social media has made its way into everyone’s product development definition. The problem that a lot of us are having is that we’re not 100% sure about how best to use this new marketing tool. Where things get even trickier is when we try to figure out how to get our sales teams to do a better job of selling our products using social media. What’s the best way to do this? -
Three Letters That Can Help Product Managers Be More Successful: ATM
6 May 2013 | 2:00 amCreating a product is a first step, where to put it is the most important step Wouldn’t it be great if the product that you were managing was used by millions of people every day? Even better, wouldn’t it be cool if it performed some function that generally made them happy after they used it – like gave them money or something like that? Well guess what, product managers who work for banks and who are in charge of the bank’s ATM machines have this kind of job. What can we learn from them? Location, Location, Location ATM machines have been with us for just over 20 years… -
Which Forms Of Social Media Should Product Managers Be Involved In?
29 Apr 2013 | 2:00 amSo many choices – which part of the social media should a product manager be involved in?Image Credit How many social media ecosystems are out there these days? By my count (if you still include MySpace), there are 9 big ones. As an already overworked product manager working on your product development definition this means that you’ve got an important question that you’re going to have to answer: which ones are you going to use to promote your product and which ones are you going to let fall by the wayside? Picking The Right Metrics For Your Product Before you can have any hope… -
What Every Product Manager Needs To Know About The Hadoop Database Solution
22 Apr 2013 | 2:00 amHadoop is a database that solves the problem of how to handle big dataImage Credit Just in case you’ve been living with your head underneath a rock, the world appears to have gone “big data” crazy lately. Your customers, your company, and probably your competition have all started to talk about the problem of big data and just exactly what can be done about it. Somehow you are going to have to find a way to work “big data” into your product development definition. No matter what type of product you manage, it sure seems like you need to understand what this…
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Lead on Purpose
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How to Foster Productive Communication with Employees
18 May 2013 | 10:25 pmGuest post by Diane Pierre-Louis The best leaders are nearly always excellent communicators. Clear and productive communication between management and staff is a great stage-setter for a successful and rewarding workplace environment. Whether you feel that you’re already communicating well with your employees or know this is an area that needs polishing, it’s always wise to review some common-sense strategies. Listen with Intent The art of meaningful listening requires effort and practice, but it is well worth the effort in the end. Generally, most of us are pretty lousy listeners. -
How can you make a positive perception?
11 May 2013 | 11:29 pmHow we perceive things shapes our lives. In the book Beyond Illusions: The Magic of Positive Perception, Brad Barton—a magician, athlete and all-around great guy—takes you on a journey of looking past illusions and forming positive perceptions that will change your life. When we understand how we’re deceived, we have the power to no longer be enslaved by the illusions and misperceptions that create personal, social and business crises. This is how we achieve freedom. Each chapter deals with a compelling topic, with humor and emotion. I literally laughed out loud reading some parts and… -
How do leaders make lasting change?
4 May 2013 | 4:36 pmOne of the great leaders and thinkers of our time is Clayton Christensen, ”a down-to-earth” alum of BYU, Oxford and Harvard. His book The Innovators Dilemma has impacted the business world perhaps more than any other book in recent history. He has expanded his research and applied his theories to other industries like health care, higher education and even governments and tax systems. I found two recent articles about Clayton Christensen that have increased my understanding about leadership: The first is published in the BYU Magazine’s Spring 2013 edition. (As a BYU alum I get the… -
Trust in Leadership – 5 Key Practices to Earn Trust
27 Apr 2013 | 5:30 amGuest post by Daniela Baker One recent article in Forbes magazine examined the interesting phenomenon behind a shift in today’s leadership principles. The article’s author asserts that old leadership models were based on power because business was essentially about competition. Today’s more collaborative, creative business models, on the other hand, require leaders with high emotional intelligence – business leaders who can build trust among their colleagues and employees. The bottom line: if you want to make it as a real leader in today’s business culture, you’ve got to earn… -
Why Sports Builds Leadership
20 Apr 2013 | 7:23 pmGuest post by Jordan Spindler Leadership is a personal trait that often proves elusive to many people, however is intimately related to personal success. Leaders are at the forefront of their fields; they are respected and quite often wealthy. Leaders also foster social change, and most of our cultural, social and economic progress is the result of leadership. It’s no surprise that many people would like to acquire this trait and would like to see their children develop strong leadership skills. While leadership remains easy to define and identify, a consistent summation of characteristics…
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Joca on stuff
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HR, participative management, democracy in the workplace and leadership
6 May 2013 | 5:41 amReaders of this blog already know Clóvis Bojikian, former Semco’s HR director. Back in 2009, when I met Clóvis, I wrote a long post about Clóvis experience in participative management. One month ago I received a Linkedin invitation to connect with Heiko Fischer: Salut Joaquim, I follow your blog and love it! My team made HR redundant at Europe’s largest videogames company. We called it the Way of Resourceful Humans, basically democratic entrepreneurship. I was wondering if you could get me in touch with Clóvis Bojikian. I would love to invite him! Thank you! Doing some… -
Why the hurry to launch an MVP?
7 Oct 2012 | 7:21 pmI mentioned earlier that I was starting: a new project called “The startup guide: how to create and manage profitable web products”. It’s a blog that will eventually become a book where I’ll explain how to create and manage a web product with a profit. Well, I finished writing the book which is called “The Startup Guide: how startups and established companies can create and manage profitable web products“. The book is focused on how any type of company – no matter if it’s a startup or an established company – can create and profitably… -
Why before how
7 Aug 2012 | 7:33 amThis weekend I was at QCon São Paulo, a great conference made by developers for developers. In this conference I talked about “Guia da Startup” (Startup Guide), a blog (in Portuguese) that became a book (also in Portuguese) about product management lessons for web startups and for non-startups with web projects. I have plans to translate the content of this book to English and post it here. Martin Fowler (@martinfowler) from ThoughtWorks gave the first keynote. At a certain point he used an interesting quote to introduce the topic of good design and technical debt. I commonly… -
You need to talk with real users in order to build good software
12 Apr 2012 | 6:32 pmI was reviewing ThoughtWorks latest version of their Technology Radar, which is a great source of information to help you know what’s hot in terms of software development and IT management, and notice it doesn’t mention Product Management (or you can call it Product Ownership) and put Experience Design (XD) only at the “assess” sector of the technique area of the radar. In my view, Product Management and Experience Design are techniques as critical to successful software projects as DevOps, Continuous Delivery, Testing, Agile and Lean. Product Management role tells… -
How to create a good checklist
16 Mar 2012 | 5:23 pmI already mentioned about “The Checklist Manifesto” book in two previous posts, one explaining how important it is to use checklists, and another one on using checklists to deal with the unexpected. In this post I’ll reproduce some of my highlights from the book. These highlights provide advice on how to create a good checklist: Pilots nonetheless turn to their checklists for two reasons. First, they are trained to do so. They learn from the beginning of flight school that their memory and judgment are unreliable and that lives depend on their recognizing that fact. Second,…
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Product Management News
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Vehicle management software: Mobile workforce automation software from Clevest Solutions
20 May 2013 | 5:20 pmVehicle management system: Clevest Solutions Inc., a provider of mobile workforce automation software including smart grid operations exclusively for the utility industry, announced new capabilities to help utilities more effectively share and manage resources from neighboring utilities during significant outages with the latest release of its ... (more) -
ISGN Appoints Former Xerox Executive Nancy Alley to Chief Product Officer
20 May 2013 | 10:56 amISGN Corporation , a leading provider of end-to-end technology solutions and services to the U.S. mortgage industry, today announced the addition of former Xerox executive Nancy Alley as its chief product officer. -
Google I/O Nexus 7 HD No-Show Does Not Cancel 2013 Release, Hints in Promo Video [WATCH]
20 May 2013 | 3:31 amHugo Barra, director of product management of Google, shows off the Nexus 7 at a media event in June 2012. -
Emerson Network Power Publishes a White Paper on Selective CoordinationFriday, May 17, 2013
19 May 2013 | 1:43 pmCo-authored technical paper discusses meeting code requirements, managing faults, optimizing design and understanding issues with 30-cycle transfer switches Florham Park, N.J. - Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson and a global leader in maximizing availability, capacity and efficiency of critical infrastructure has published a white paper ... (more) -
Bernard Ellis has joined Infor as Vice President of Industry Strategy for Hospitality
18 May 2013 | 7:36 amIn his new position, Bernard is responsible for defining the go-to-market strategy of the entire Infor product suite for the hospitality industry vertical, including product positioning, messaging and partner relationships.
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The Experience is the Product
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Here’s Why I Don’t Read Your Resume
15 May 2013 | 10:59 pmIt doesn’t really matter where you worked before. If you worked at an amazingly successful company, congratulations! You managed to get yourself hired at a successful company. This tells me something about you, but not enough. (In some companies, all this tells me is that you got really good grades at a top college.) Most people are coming from companies I’ve never heard of, or that I only have superficial TechCrunch-esque knowledge of. It doesn’t really matter what products you worked on before. If you got stuck on a crappy product that failed or never launched,… -
Is Your Company Mature Enough to Learn from User Research?
18 Apr 2013 | 9:17 pmI’ve worked on products that were great and ones that were kind of atrocious. And through both ends of the spectrum, I can confidently say that if you’re doing research right, what you learn will make you cringe. You’ll learn that the person who rates you a 10 out of 10 uses less than a quarter of your product’s functionality. You’ll watch someone struggle and mutter under their breath as they try to complete a task that is both critical and (YOU THOUGHT) simple. You’ll see that, even when individual tasks are easy to do, it’s tricky to string them… -
What Does It Replace?
26 Mar 2013 | 12:08 amWhen companies talk about their new product or service, they talk about what it does. Features, bullet points, checkboxes. Maybe, if they’re particularly enlightened, they’ll shift a bit and talk about what problems it will solve. What normal people tell their friends about a product or service, they talk about what it replaces: Now that I use X, I’ve stopped using Y Using X means I no longer need to do Y X is much easier than Y I used to do Y, but I haven’t since I discovered X It’s something I’ve heard a lot lately when listening to people talk about… -
Give Permission to Complain
18 Mar 2013 | 10:12 pmYour customers don’t complain enough. (I know, that can feel awfully hard to believe sometimes.) If they did, you’d know all the interactions that frustrate them. You’d know where you’ve inadvertently forced them through three extra clicks every single time they need to use that feature. You’d understand why they were wary of upgrading to the paid plan and what information would change their minds. Most people don’t complain (to the source, anyways) because they haven’t been given permission. They may believe that an awkward workflow is… -
2 Revealing 1:1 Questions
12 Mar 2013 | 12:29 am“What is the most important thing you could be working on right now?” and “What’s keeping you from working on that?” When you ask these questions of people on your team, there’s basically a 2×2 matrix of possible answers: The green square is amazing. It’s where you assume the people on your team are working, all the time, because you’re such an awesome manager that you perfectly communicate all of your priorities all the time and help them clear the obstacles out of their way so they can breeze about their jobs. But probably, if you…
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Tips For Managing Your Product Portfolio
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Best Practice 8 of 25 - Using Non-Product Dialogues to Answer Product Questions
7 May 2013 | 11:52 am"What’s in the next version?" "What are the top priorities on the roadmap?" These are two common product questions that when answered literally, rarely give people the information they’re looking for. Use non-product dialogues to answer product questions and you’ll be hailed as one of the great product communicators. -
Best Practice 7 of 25 - Segment Markets to Establish Clarity
29 Apr 2013 | 4:37 amClarity! It’s the single biggest benefit that comes from a consistent definition of your target markets in B2B and helps every part of your organization from executive strategy all the way through the execution of product, marketing, sales and operational initiatives. -
Best Practice 6 of 25 - Creating a Two by Four Product Management Discipline
11 Apr 2013 | 1:39 pmWhat if your product management discipline consisted of two integrated teams – problem-finders and problem-solvers? You’d realize four key benefits – higher customer retention, faster growth, better day-to-day execution in the trenches and greater influence. -
Best Practice 5 of 25 – Using Agile Development Techniques to Improve Marketing & Sales
3 Apr 2013 | 4:12 pmFeatures tell us how a product does something but in most cases they don't tell us what it accomplishes or why we care in a context that's conducive to communicating business value. User stories are the heart and soul of agile development. When written in proper context, they can live on long after product development and offer tremendous value to marketing and sales. -
Best Practice 4 of 25 – A Framework for Interviewing Target Customers
18 Mar 2013 | 4:16 amInterviewing Target Customers to Deliver Maximum Value
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Web Ink Now
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Building inbound marketing assets are not marketing expenses
16 May 2013 | 7:03 amI get pushback from many entrepreneurs and business owners as well as CMOs in larger businesses about the idea of using inbound marketing because they see the investment in people to create content as a barrier. They say things like: "I cannot find money in my budget to spend $5,000 a month (or whatever the number) on content creation." When I probe, the vast majority of these decision makers are looking at content creation in the same way as they look at other marketing expenses they currently have such as advertising, trade show booths, spending on agency retainers, and printing brochures. -
My TEDx talk The Need to Explore
14 May 2013 | 9:45 amThe video of my talk was just posted to the TEDx YouTube channel. Direct link to The Need to Explore on YouTube. This is a completely new speech for me with no reliance on the material I use in my keynotes. It was fun (but hard work) to create a brand new talk combining several subjects I am passionate about: space exploration and our ongoing communications revolution. Soon I will post about how I created the talk. -
How to Pitch a Blogger
8 May 2013 | 8:41 pmI get several hundred pitches a week from well-meaning PR people. Conversations with other bloggers suggest this is the norm, so now it is as tough to reach a blogger as it is to reach a mainstream journalist. It may be even more difficult since most of us work part-time on our blogs and we devote less time to wading though pitches as journalists. Sadly, nearly all of the pitches I get are just plain spam. But the good news is that I do pay attention to things that people send me. I occasionally write about them. So how do you increase your chances of getting a blogger like me to talk about… -
How Gareth Fairhurst used content marketing to get elected
2 May 2013 | 9:14 amGareth Fairhurst, a local councillor on Wigan Council, has used online communications and social media, including his blog, Twitter @cllrgwfairhurst, and Facebook to communicate with his constituents in Standish, a village in Greater Manchester, England. In 2012 Gareth, an independent, won re-election with twice the number of votes as his nearest major party rival. He credits his content marketing efforts as instrumental in his success. "In the last local elections [May, 2012] I knew I had to try the online experience, as I was an independent candidate and that is always a disadvantage to the… -
World's worst website
29 Apr 2013 | 7:25 amI'd like to nominate the English-language edition of the Tokyo 2020 Candidate City website as the worst English-language site in the world. The site is built in support of bringing the 2020 Summer Olympic Games to Tokyo. Where to start. Well anywhere, really. So let's look at content. How about Vision: "Tokyo 2020 will bring together dynamic innovation and global inspiration. It will unite the power of the Games with the unique values of the Japanese people and the excitement of a city that sets global trends. It will be a unique celebration that will help reinforce and renew the Olympic…
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Product Management Meets Pop Culture
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Haiku: The Whole Product Manager
9 May 2013 | 9:25 pmImage source: Silver Age Comics The wind is blowing! Prod Owners? Rev Marketers? I don’t like the wind. Prabhakar Gopalan wrote an interesting article recently about the growing divide between Product Managers and Marketing Managers, and offered this idea: Start thinking end to end — become the system thinker, the Whole Product Manager. Learn everything for the sake of your product and do everything for the sake of your product. It’s your baby. If you can’t raise it, don’t expect others to raise it for you. The solution sounds simple and true — for a… -
Complainers Kill Your Brain. But You Can’t Kill The Complainers. So Here’s What To Do.
15 Apr 2013 | 2:15 pmAs a Product Manager, you’ve probably heard a complaint once or twice. Working through uncomfortable issues with customers can be challenging. But, personally, I find complaints from inside the company to be way more taxing than complaints from the outside world. Sitting in the nexus of engineering, marketing, finance, and the rest of the company, Product can sometimes feel like the central dumping ground for all the abject misery roiling through an organization. The good news is: It doesn’t need to be that way. Why Do People Complain So Much? Psychotherapist F. Diane Barth cites… -
Wonder Woman Shows Product Managers The True Meaning Of Focus
12 Mar 2013 | 12:20 pmFocus is not saying “yes” to a single great idea. Focus is saying “no” to a ton of great-sounding ideas because they aren’t really a fit for your customers. And it means saying “no” even if one of those deceptively great-sounding ideas comes from the Man of Steel himself. Keep the conversation going! Subscribe to the feed to receive future updates; listen to our product management podcast; and follow me on Twitter to keep the discussion going or talk about Wonder Woman’s role in the DC Universe. -
Resurrected Assassins And The Men Who Killed Them Teach Us Something About The Relationship Between UX And Product Management
31 Jan 2013 | 8:50 pmIn the anime series Gungrave, Brandon Heat — driven by the need for revenge — returns from the grave to destroy Harry MacDowell — Brandon’s former best friend, former employer, and murderer. And you thought your office politics were tough. < SPOILER WARNING > We’re going to discuss key plot points of this animated series as we explore the “right” relationship between usability and product management. You have been warned! < /SPOILER WARNING > “The dead are notoriously unproductive.” Gungrave opens 13 years after Brandon Heat is… -
Batman Offers Practical Advice To The Product Manager Who Seeks To Create The Perfect, All-Encompassing Product Requirements Document
30 Dec 2012 | 5:17 pmIn other words: instead of trying to create the Ultimate PRD up front, get the core down and then refine as the project gets underway. Otherwise, it’ll never get underway. Keep the conversation going! Subscribe to the feed to receive future updates; listen to our product management podcast; and follow me on Twitter to keep the discussion going or wax poetic about Batman.
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spatially relevant
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Quotes to Think About as Marketers
15 May 2013 | 3:10 pmWhile the presentation is focused on M&A considerations, I think it is a good set of quotes for Marketers and Product Managers to embrace strategically, even if some of the personalities quoted might not be a traditional source for marketers to reference. Top 10 M&A Quotes from Firmex -
8 Ways to Influence and Work with Industry Analysts
27 Feb 2013 | 2:30 pmThis presentation cuts to the chase with analysts, even if there are 2 number 7′s. So I’d maybe add a 9th – get someone to review your slides before you pitch an analyst. Working with-industry-analysts from Susan Etlinger -
Design Trends: Interactive Design Circa 2013
1 Feb 2013 | 5:43 pmTrends in interactive design 2013 from Prophets Agency -
Mobile Outlook: Android, iOS and 2013 Metrics
18 Jan 2013 | 8:24 amMobile Outlook 2013 from Flurry -
Atlanta and Georgia Product Managers and Marketers: TAG Annual Awards Nominations
11 Jan 2013 | 6:18 amThe Technology Association of Georgia is having their annual award dinner and nominations for 2012 activities. Here is a snippet from the site: The Technology Association of Georgia’s Product Manager of the Year Award 2012 recognizes the outstanding efforts of a Product Manger to development, adhere, and execute the ideals of our profession. Whether it is a product or service that breaks new ground or driving a product through its life cycle, this award is to an individual that upholds the highest standards of Product Management. It may not yet be proven in the marketplace but an…
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A Girl's Guide to Project Management
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How to provide constructive criticism
20 May 2013 | 1:44 amDon’t use email to give criticism This is a guest post by Sarah Clare. As a project manager, there is sure to come a time when you have to address poor performance or substandard work. We all make mistakes, and we can all find ways to improve our work. When you are a project manager, it is your responsibility to make sure that you help your team to learn from those mistakes and to find ways to improve the quality of their work. However, delivering constructive criticism can be difficult. You may not know how to distinguish it from plain criticism, or you may not know how to deliver it… -
Why do stakeholders contribute?
14 May 2013 | 11:17 pmI’ve recently read Project Stakeholder Management by Pernille Eskerod and Anna Lund Jepsen (part of Gower’s Fundamentals of Project Management series). It talks about why stakeholders contribute to projects. You might think that it’s obvious. After all, your project sponsor is probably the one who wanted this project to happen in the first place, and he or she has a vested interest in making it a success. But aside from the sponsor, all those other stakeholders don’t have to play nicely. They make an active choice to either help out, or hinder your project. Eskerod and Jepsen say that… -
Giveaway: Project Management for Musicians
13 May 2013 | 1:32 amNot sure if this cover image is supposed to be a keyboard or a mixing desk. Or some other music thing I don’t recognise. I have a great giveaway for you today – one of the heaviest books I’ve ever had to ship out as a giveaway! It’s Project Management for Musicians: Recordings, Concerts, Tours, Studios & More by Jonathan Feist. Published in February by the publishing wing of Berklee College of Music, it’s a complete guide to getting your music projects organized, whether that’s recording, going on tour, launching your music business or a studio or… -
Effective Meetings: Reloaded
7 May 2013 | 11:36 pmGuillermo Solis This is a guest post by Guillermo Solis. Managing successful meetings is not a new subject, but neither is a waste of time to refresh ourselves about how best to manage meetings. Below I have some suggestions to bear in mind before, during and after meetings, when we are in charge of the meeting. These are based on experience mostly in Mexico and Central America projects. 1. Before the meeting Objective. Define what the meeting is for and what we are expecting as a result: an agreement, approval, a work plan, etc. The meeting should start with a brief welcome and then the… -
Infographic: 10 Things You Should Know About APMP
5 May 2013 | 11:01 pmCopyright © A Girl's Guide to Project Management [Infographic: 10 Things You Should Know About APMP], All Right Reserved. 2013. Related posts: Infographic: Conflict in Project Management Infographic prepared for me by thegappartnership.com. Click the graphic to see a larger version. Copyright © A Girl's Guide to Project Management [Infographic: Conflict in Project... Inside PRINCE2: Working with APMP This entry is part 3 of 11 in the series Inside PRINCE2PRINCE2 is a well known qualification, but that doesn’t make it incompatible with other... The glass ceiling and…
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OutsideIn View
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Product Marketing Owns Insight
16 May 2013 | 4:52 amOn the advice (and prodding) of my friend Jim Holland, I also recently read The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson of the Corporate Executive Board. Like Jim, I then picked it up again, with a highlighter and pen and started again. (Side note – Jim was referred to this book by Steve Johnson.) Jim wrote a great post about what he learned, as a product leader. In his post, he focuses on the main point of the Challenger Sale, that it is not about sales building relationships, but to challenge them. To rethink, reshape and change how you engage and lead. He… -
Product Camp Session: Putting Agile on Trial
15 May 2013 | 7:11 amFor the upcoming Product Camp South Florida (June 8 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL,) I plan to propose a session. I need your help. The session is (tentatively) titled “Agile vs. Product Management,” and the idea is to have a 45 minute courtroom scene. One side, an esteemed colleague (played by W. Alejandro Polanco) who has agreed, will argue that Agile is a benefit to the field of product management while the other side (played by me) will argue that Agile is killing product management. First, we need to propose the session and it needs to be voted in. But, as we both prepare for the… -
Are you Generating Leads or Creating Demand?
17 Apr 2013 | 8:40 amIt’s common for product marketing job descriptions to include a line or two about working with market plans to generate leads for the sales force. But, are the number of leads really the right metric for product marketing? Wouldn’t it be better if product marketing is tasked with generating demand? No, I’m not splitting hairs. There is a difference. Leads are simply names and info of people. There are different qualities of leads to consider, from the name provided simply for them to receive your offered trinket – to the name offered because they recognize that you solve… -
Get Over Yourself
8 Apr 2013 | 1:19 pmWhether you are a product manager or a product marketer, you need to get over your product. I know, you spend your days – and nights – thinking how wonderful your product is, how you can improve it, and why others haven’t seen the same vision you do. Maybe, just maybe, the answer is – your product is not what they seek. What?!? Heresy you say! Of course they need, and want, my product. Well, maybe not. Think about it. It’s about the customer, the buyer, the market – not you. It’s not about the product, it’s about them. It’s about their problem and how you solve it. Do you… -
The Pendulum has swung to the other side
28 Mar 2013 | 5:48 amTraditional new product launch has included catching a new product as the development organization tossed it over the fence. Product marketing would dust off their launch check list and make sure that all the tactics were accomplished. They would book appearances at trade shows, write press releases, design data sheets, plan direct mail campaigns to current customers, research advertising opportunities in trade publications and other assorted tasks on the checklist. The pendulum has shifted to the buyer. The internet enables buyers to research the market, understand options and narrow choices…
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A Random Jog
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About Products – A Few Things I Think I Think
24 Apr 2013 | 8:11 pmInspired by David Lee’s post, I put together a list of current topics that I have found thought provoking. Hopefully, you will find some of them useful too. I think Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing should be required watching. If you are focusing on a SMB SaaS product, read Tomasz Tunguz’s article on the subject. When it comes to a successful SMB offering Tom is spot on when he writes, “The most successful SMB SaaS products typically offer a 2 step value proposition: an initial value proposition to the end user and a longer term value proposition to a… -
A few thoughts on 2013
18 Feb 2013 | 4:35 amI have been thinking about what to do in 2013 with this blog for the last couple of weeks/months (and yes, I know I am a bit behind with my New Year’s resolutions). Here’s a brief history over the last five years: It all started as a place to jot down notes on a side project and learn WordPress It became a place to learn how to blog And then to experiment with video Evolved into thoughts on product management and product marketing Then added a podcast It has been a great learning experience and honestly, a lot of fun. But something has been nagging at me that now is time to take… -
The Product Marketing Podcast #18 – Losing Product Leadership
20 Dec 2012 | 4:31 amIn this episode of the Start with the Customer Podcast, I am excited to be joined by Jim Holland, of the Product Management Tribe, and Scott Sehlhorst, of Tyner Blain. The agenda for the call was to discuss what happens when Product Management gets pulled in too many directions. While the aim is to be the product leader, spreading yourself too thin can result in product management becoming more of an administrative function in the organization. Jim’s latest blog post, That Sucking Sound…, did a great job of describing the problem so we wanted to spend some time digging deeper… -
Giving Thanks for the Twist Image Podcast
27 Nov 2012 | 4:20 amIt is the season for giving thanks so I want to take a minute to express some gratitude for what I think is one of the best resources out there for marketers. It doesn’t matter if you are focused on outbound, inbound, sales, PR, social, or product, the Twist Image Podcast, hosted by Mitch Joel, is guaranteed to make you better at what you do. How’s that? By providing you a weekly update on what’s working today for marketers and what you should be thinking about next. By letting you hear directly from thought leaders like Avinash Kaushik, Mark W. Schaefer, Jeremiah… -
Product Storytelling – Don’t Forget the Context
20 Nov 2012 | 7:44 pmWhen launching a new product, it is important that customers understand what problems your product is solving. You don’t have time to tell a long story so you need to make sure your message is effective in creating a desire to learn more. This is where context can help. If you are trying to tell a story about your product, context is the background information that helps the scene make sense. Without this context, you leave it up to the customer to figure it out on their own. I recently wrote an article highlighting Box.com as an example for setting good background context on their…
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svpg blog
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Stakeholder Management
30 Apr 2013 | 10:09 amI'm not sure why I haven't written specifically on this topic before because it comes up as an issue with so many teams. For many product managers, managing stakeholders is probably the least favorite part of their job. I don't want to suggest that this can always be easy, but it can usually be substantially improved. First let's discuss just who is a stakeholder, then what the product manager's responsibilities are with these stakeholders, and then we'll talk about techniques for success.STAKEHOLDER DEFINEDIn most companies, just about anyone and everyone feels like they have a say in… -
Value Creation vs. Value Capture
21 Apr 2013 | 5:16 amPeople approach creating products from many different perspectives. Some seek out customer pain and dedicate themselves to solving their problems. Others follow the technology and strive to deliver solutions that are just now possible. Some like to follow competitors and deliver better solutions in a fast-follower model. Others are simply trying to find a way to make some money so that they can sustain their business. No matter your approach, our job in product is to create value. Unfortunately, many product leaders think their job is not to create value, but rather,… -
The Inconvenient Truth About Product
17 Mar 2013 | 6:18 amEvery week I continue to find product teams laboring away on old-style product roadmaps that have been painstakingly negotiated with management and stakeholders, sometimes for several quarters in advance. I have written several times about the problems with this approach and why it so seldom results in the business impact that the organization was hoping for (see The Opportunity Backlog and Product Roadmaps). In this article I wanted to shine a light on the underlying reason why, even with the best of intentions, these roadmaps typically lead to very poor business results. I have begun… -
Vision Pivots vs. Discovery Pivots
3 Feb 2013 | 4:02 pmThe term "pivot" is probably one of the most overused and abused terms in today's product teams. If you're not familiar with the concept, see Your Business Plan Is Wrong. As I work with different teams I find the term used in so many different ways. Mostly the different uses of the term are pretty harmless. It is often used as a synonym for "change." I've heard teams refer to a "pivot" of their technology stack (e.g. from Java to Ruby), or a "pivot" of their development process (e.g. from Scrum to Kanban), or a "pivot" of a dedicated product team to work on… -
Top-Down Dates
22 Jan 2013 | 2:25 pmIn my last article, I discussed how we manage public commitments in an Agile, Dual-Track environment. In that article I talked about those public commitments that are needed to run a business, such as when a customer can count on getting some capability, or when a development partner can plan on testing, or determine what will be available for the upcoming holiday season. But several people wrote in and asked me about a different type of date. Namely, what about those situation where your management puts a stake in the ground and says "we really, really need to have X live by this…
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Optimal Product Management and Product Marketing ™
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Product Marketing Rule 7: Business Research is About Decisions, Not Questions
16 May 2013 | 10:34 amProduct Marketing rule #7 from the best-selling book, 42 Rules of Product Marketing, was written by Al Scharer, Filigree Consulting “Define the decisions that you need to make, then define the research tools you will use to make the decisions.” From a product marketing perspective, research is about decisions. Research is a systematic approach to [...] -
Product Management Rule 7: There Is a Fine Line between Knowing It All and Being a Know-It-All
9 May 2013 | 10:28 amProduct Management rule #7 from the best-selling book, 42 Rules of Product Management, was written by Alyssa Dver, CEO, Mint Green Marketing “Refrain from being the know-it-all—instead be someone that all know they can follow, learn from, and ultimately trust to lead the product toward success.” We become product managers for a variety of reasons, [...] -
Product Marketing Rule 6: Work Effectively with Analysts
30 Apr 2013 | 4:14 pmProduct Marketing rule #6 from the best-selling book, 42 Rules of Product Marketing, was written by John Armstrong, Consultant, previously Director of Product Marketing at Guidance Software “The ability to work and communicate effectively with industry analysts can make a significant difference in the analyst’s perception of your product or service.” If you are recognized by your [...] -
Product Management Rule 6: Product Management Is Inherently Political
23 Apr 2013 | 3:58 pmProduct Management rule #6 from the best-selling book, 42 Rules of Product Management, was written by Rich Mironov, Author, The Art of Product Management Product managers tend to have very rational, process-driven views of the world. We’d like to believe that our various stakeholders are thoughtful, unemotional, and willing to compromise and put the company’s [...] -
Who inspired you as a Product Manager?
23 Apr 2013 | 10:02 amThis week two of our Senior trainers, Phil Burton and Pam Schure, were delivering our course “How to be Phenomenal Product Manager” (we deliver this in-person via public courses and privately both on-site and virtually). The course is based on my best-selling book, The Phenomenal Product Manager, and teaches techniques and strategies based on the best [...]
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MindTheProduct
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Moving From Product Management Into Product Strategy
14 May 2013 | 9:00 pmI’ve worked as a product manager since 2005. My first role was part of the core product team at BSkyB in strategic product development. We were product owners of the concept through to delivery to market of all the new set-top boxes and in-home consumer devices such as routers and wireless bridges, as well as the electronic program guide software for the set-top boxes. At Sky I was fortunate to really learn my trade well as product manager, working as I did with the best of the best across the organisation in finance, supply chain, procurement, strategy, marketing, research,… -
The Minimally Viable Feature Approach
8 May 2013 | 7:10 amMinimally Viable Feature approach (MVF) is creating enough of the feature to test the adoption and usefulness before expending lots of resources on fully building out the feature. In the case of ProdPad, we created the simplest form of the roadmap we could, with just enough functionality to be useful and yet provide users with a good sense of what the roadmap did. The roadmap design in ProdPad was such a radical departure from traditional roadmaps that we had no idea whether it would a) work and b) be accepted by users. If we spent lots of time building out a roadmap that then tanked, it was… -
Tips for managing time expectations in consulting
24 Apr 2013 | 2:20 amAs a freelancer, one of the most common scenarios I’ve been asked about over the last few months is what to do when the hiring company believes they need a full-time person, but you’re only interested in part-time projects. While some may be interested in taking on that type of project (more security and potentially more money), personally, I’ve always pushed back on the client (ever so gently) and assured that the work can be done in a more flexible way, often without the typical five-day-grind commitment for either of us. A few things to keep in mind when proposing an… -
Fear or the fallacy of intuitive UX
18 Apr 2013 | 6:07 amHow often do people feel fear when they are using your product? I’m not talking the fear of a haunted house, but the fear of failure, the fear of screwing something up, the fear of making a mistake. Fear when using a product is always there, manifesting itself in different ways. On Twitter it could be the fear of posting something private to your public timeline. For a CRM, it could be the fear of deleting an important contact. It happens to everyone and on every product. I remember when I was first using VisualWebsiteOptimizer I set up a test that used the regex on the URLs to control… -
Dine and Pitch with an MTPcon speaker
12 Apr 2013 | 8:21 amIn association with General Assembly, we’re offering you the chance to meet George Berkowski, Head of Product at Hailo and one of the speakers at our Mind the Product 2013 conference. Dine and Pitch Enter for a chance to pitch your startup idea and get a ton of product feedback from London’s top product pros over a private dinner at Duck and Waffle. Enter your 140 word pitch by April 21st. The Prize Package One lucky winner will receive: A private dinner and pitch session with George Berkowski (Head of Product, Hailo), Janna Bastow (Co-Founder, ProdPad) and Kate Leto (Instructor,…
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Product Talk
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Measure What Matters
14 May 2013 | 8:01 amI met with a designer yesterday who shared with me that she wants to learn user experience design and asked for my advice. I asked her what she was reading and if she had joined any local groups. What had she found useful so far? She was reading Alan Cooper. Good. She had joined the local product design guild. Good. So then I asked about her job. Did she have an opportunity to learn on the job? I have a strong bias towards learning by doing. Don’t get me wrong. I love to read and I love to talk shop. But you can’t learn to build great products by reading or talking, you have to… -
5 Steps For How To Develop Empathy
1 May 2013 | 8:39 amEmpathy made my list of Top 7 Traits of a Good Product Manager. So let’s take a look at what it is and how to develop it. As we learned in that article, empathy is the ability to feel another person’s feelings. It is often confused with sympathy. If you injure yourself and I feel bad for you, that’s sympathy. If I put myself in your shoes and imagine what your pain feels like to the point where I can feel it, that’s empathy. So why is empathy so important for developing good products? Products tend to either solve a problem or create delight. It’s hard to deliver… -
The 7 Core Traits of a Good Product Manager
9 Apr 2013 | 7:48 amWhat makes a good product manager? I’ve been obsessed with this question. It’s why I started this blog. As a practitioner, I want to master my craft. As a consultant and coach, I want to help you master your craft. But how do we do that without first understanding what makes us good? Building great products requires a broad skill set. We need to know how to explore a problem space, uncover unmet needs, design feasible solutions, validate those solutions. We also need to be able to work with engineers, sales, management, and so many others. We need to develop technical… -
What We Can Learn From Facebook About Managing Change
2 Apr 2013 | 9:52 amDoes this sound familiar? You spend weeks researching a problem. Your team whiteboards multiple solutions. You user test each one. You build the best one. And despite great feedback from your users along the way, when you finally release, all you get are complaints. Change Is Hard The reality is, change is hard. Even if your new version is better than your old version, even if you built exactly what they asked for, your users are still going to have to adjust to the change. It will still be disruptive. Knowing this, how can we manage the distruption? How can we make the change as easy as… -
Your Requirements Are Garbage
21 Mar 2013 | 7:38 amYou have an idea. You write it down. Maybe you sketch it on a white board. You talk to some engineers. You write user stories. And away you go. You start building. That sounds right. Isn’t that what we are all doing? It’s what many of you are doing. And it’s exactly why your requirements are garbage. Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a post about understanding the problem you are solving, or where ideas come from. It’s not about understanding your market, your users, or even your business. This post is going to assume you’ve done all the right work, that…
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Frank Lio: Practical Marketing, Managing, Strategy, And Life - Blog
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Gamestorming - "Funication" at Work
20 May 2013 | 8:21 pmPost-Up Gamestorming Presentation (1 Topic Wall) Instead of a typical brainstorming meeting where either everyone sits in silence waiting for ideas to come up or Type A personalities take over and effectively shut off participation, try a “Gamestorming” session. I used Gamestorming to:Inject fun and energyEncourage participation from all attendeesMinimize the possibility of strong personalities dominating discussions The core game that we “played” was “Post-Up” where players generated ideas on sticky notes (3M Post-It Notes™) and shared them later by… -
Practice Random (and Intentional) Acts of Kindness
13 May 2013 | 1:49 pmAt the Food Pantry - Sorting food collected from the US Postal Service Food Drive Today was a wonderful day! Almost thirty of us went to the local food pantry to sort canned and dried foods collected by the US Postal Service food drive on Saturday. Together, we unloaded bins and bags of food and sorted them into different boxes for further distribution to those in need. It was wonderful to see the small mountain of food, the camaraderie amongst us, and knowing that we did a good deed (with double Brownie points since it was in a church). Everyone was smiling and… -
Strategy: Who Are You Really Competing Against?
6 May 2013 | 6:20 amHave you ever looked at a company’s activities and wonder “What does any of this have to do with getting and making a customer happy?” Show me a company that bases their strategy on internal operations, activities, and metrics and I will show you a company that will fail. "Who Are You Competing Against?"Improving productivity, inventory turnover and other internally focused activities alone means making investors happy, but has nothing to do with getting business. In this case, who are you really competing against? Your own old “self”! Such… -
Negotiating 101 - Know Your ZOPA
23 Apr 2013 | 7:37 amZone of Possible Agreement (ZOPA) In life and Sales, there exists the Zone of Possible Agreement. The Zone of Possible Agreement is considered an area where negotiating parties may find common ground - where parties will often compromise and strike a deal. In a traditional sales negotiation, it is defined by the highest possible price that the buyer is willing to offer, and the lowest possible price that the seller is willing to accept. (Remember that ZOPA is not necessarily just about price in terms of money. It can include other terms and conditions.) Suppose that you want to… -
Getting Unstuck - Your Circle of Influence
18 Apr 2013 | 1:11 pmCircle of Influence vs. Circle of Concern Gac Filipaj (Courtesy Columbia University) The Story of Gac FilpajGac Filipaj left a war-torn Yugoslavia as a refugee for the United States in 1992. He fled after almost finishing law school in Belgrade, where he commuted for years by train from Montenegro. He started working as a restaurant busboy while living with his Uncle in the Bronx. In his words: “I asked people, which are the best schools in New York?" Since Columbia topped his list, "I went there to see if I could get a job." Gac worked full time as a custodian at…
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Under 10 by Steve Johnson
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Inspiration: A desk is a dangerous place…
14 May 2013 | 4:46 amA desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world.—John le Carré. David John Moore Cornwell, pen name John le Carré, is a British author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for the British intelligence services MI5 and MI6, when he began writing novels under a pen name. Wikipedia I’ve been reviewing job descriptions for product managers and product owners and something’s missing. The responsibilities include “representing the customer” and “being expert on the market.” Then they list a bunch of meetings and artifacts and office work. -
Four types of product management skills
9 May 2013 | 5:31 amIn recent years, we’ve seen new definitions for old titles and many new titles being created. We’ve got product managers, product marketing managers, product owners, business analysts, product strategists, product line managers, and portfolio managers. Let’s keep it simple. There are four types of skills needed to define and deliver products to market. Product leaders (by whatever title) attempt to support the team with all four types of knowledge but it’s rare to find all of these capabilities in a single person. Technology expertise Technology expertise is about how the product… -
Stop Treating Software Development Like Factory Work
8 May 2013 | 5:00 amMy article, Stop Treating Software Development Like Factory Work, has been published on Digital Growth Insights. In the old days, machine time was expensive and people were cheap. So developers spent days, weeks, even months designing solutions on paper before they put them into the machine. Programming in those days involved flowcharts, pseudo-code, and many, many reviews. And then personal computers came along. Read the full article here. -
Pricing, subscriptions, and the weather
7 May 2013 | 6:09 amWhy don’t you go to the carwash more often? When it’s a beautiful sunny day, many drivers think, “Hey, how about getting the ol’ car washed?” And then they check the weather forecast on their phone. After all, why bother to get the car washed if it’s just gonna rain tomorrow? So the people who run car washing services see ups and downs in their revenue, entirely dependent on the weather forecast. Is there another way? What if customers had the option to get the car washed again within 7 days? Or what if the car wash sold a membership, a… -
Inspiration: There cannot be a stressful crisis next week…
30 Apr 2013 | 4:44 amThere cannot be a stressful crisis next week. My schedule is already full.—Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger is a German-born American writer, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. A recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, he served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. After his term, his opinion was still sought by some subsequent US presidents and other world leaders. Learn more… A recent survey reveals product managers and product marketing managers spend 46% of…
