The CxO View offering a C-Level perspective of Product Management and Product Management Issues. This is the second webinar of the CxO View Webinar series.Barbara Tallent Co-Founder at LiveBinders About the Webinar: Ryma's Aug 19th webinar will be presented by Barbara Tallent. Ask any CEO, "Confidentially, how good is your product marketing?" and you will get an earful. Why is it that CEOs are notoriously upset with product marketing? Having been in both in the position of "upset CEO" and "product manager who upset the CEO", I decided to take my perspective and build on that by interviewing…
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Rymatech - PMV Webinars
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Why are there so few great product managers? A CEO's perspective
24 Jun 2009 | 8:09 am -
Twitter Playbook for Product Managers - Chapter One
23 Jun 2009 | 2:54 pmKevin Stirtz Customer Loyalty Author About the Webinar: Ryma's Aug 12th webinar will be presented by Kevin Stirtz, "The Amazing Service Guy". You asked for more. We listened. We heard. We've done it! In March we brought you "Intro to Twitter" and many of you said you wanted more. So here is our follow-on webinar that takes us deeper into the world of Twitter. Twitter has changed the rules of customer engagement. It's the youngest of social media tools yet it dominates the space. For many reasons, Twitter is a game changer in the world of customer engagement. Things will never be the same! -
Client Endorsement
22 Jun 2009 | 6:27 amLarry Coppenrath & Alannah T. Sinclaire About the Webinar: Ryma's July 29th webinar will be presented by Larry Coppenrath and Alannah Sinclaire. Is Client Endorsement just another fad in customer satisfaction? Is this all just rhetoric? Together, Larry and Alannah will review the evolution of Client Endorsement as the industry has shifted from customer satisfaction to loyalty to and now to customer endorsement as corporate pillars. They will present the benefits of Client Endorsement as a unification factor across all the activities of the innovation value network. They will demonstrate… -
Business: A System of Systems
19 Jun 2009 | 6:49 amThe CxO View offering a C-Level perspective of Product Management and Product Management Issues.Mark Oakes President, CEO and founder of 3 companies About the Webinar: Ryma's July 15th webinar will be presented by Mark Oakes. Mark is kicking off a new webinar series for us; The CxO View. This series will address how C-Level people perceive Product Management and Product Management issues. Every 3rd Wednesday, we'll be hosting a webinar in The CxO View webinar series. Let us know what you think, we're very excited about it and have some great webinars in this series scheduled. This webinar is… -
Web 2.0 and 3D Powered Communications
17 Jun 2009 | 12:49 pmDr. Anders Gronstedt president of the Gronstedt Group About the Webinar: Ryma's July 22 webinar will be presented by Dr. Anders Gronstedt. A new breed of digital natives are entering the workforce and market place, with little patience for traditional "Web 1.0" product management processes. They want to be engaged, in control, and part of the storyline. Leading companies are turbo-charging product management with communication programs that focus on doing, simulating, socializing, playing, sharing, and collaborating. Learn how industry leaders are redefining and energizing collaboration with…
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Rocket Watcher
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VC Pitch Template
25 Jun 2009 | 8:03 amI've been working on a presentation for a startup to use to pitch their business to VC firms and I've used and shared this template enough now that I thought I would share it with all of you. Every company is different and my experience has been mainly around Business to Business companies but in general I think the flow works. The slide where you describe current customers will change for a business to consumer play but otherwise the rest applies. Here is the flow: The vision Market opportunity Customers The business problem What is the product/solution Value proposition Sales… -
Looking for the Winner when Markets Collide
23 Jun 2009 | 8:29 amSome of the most interesting ideas for new startups come from the intersection of markets. If I look back at some of the V1 products I have worked on I see it over and over again. One thing to keep in mind when developing the messaging and positioning around such products is to make sure you are targeting the right buyers. Whenever there are markets colliding there will be one side that always "wins" over the other in the gray space in the middle. You can probably still make sales to both sides but selling to the winning side will be much, much easier.While I was working with the Nortel… -
Startups and The Vision Thing
15 Jun 2009 | 9:03 pmDavid Crow has a thoughtful post about how startups need to think through their exit strategy in order to make smarter decisions along the way to make it happen. He talks about how he's surprised that almost every startup he talks to has a plan to get acquired by one of the big guys. Here's an excerpt: When I talk to startups everyone seems to think that acquisitions are a dime a dozen. That even based in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Waterloo that they are prime acquisition targets for Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Cisco and other Valley companies. Which surprises me! Sure all of these… -
Will PR own Customer Relationships?
3 Jun 2009 | 7:11 amTodd Defren over at PRSquared (an awesome blog for PR folks that you should read) raises an interesting question about the future of PR and poses that the role of PR is shifting. Here's an excerpt:When people talk about the “Death of Public Relations,” it doesn’t bother me at all. I know what they are talking about. They are talking about the death of MEDIA RELATIONS. That’s what PR’s been all about for the past 50-odd years. After all, during that era, the only way to reach the masses in a reliable way was through mass media. Now that that’s changing, our approach can… -
Social Media: Just Another Marketing Channel?
1 Jun 2009 | 4:00 amThere was a study that was reported on recently with the bold headline "Social Media Fails to Manifest as a Marketing Medium". The article covers the results of a study done by consumer research firm, Knowledge Networks. Their press release summarizes the results with the equally bold title "INTERNET USERS TURN TO SOCIAL MEDIA TO SEEK ONE ANOTHER, NOT BRANDS OR PRODUCTS" (the use of caps is theirs). The findings were, according to them "surprising" and included the following insight: ...when Knowledge Networks asked users whether they regularly turn to (social media) sites when trying…
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Tyner Blain
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Agile Maturity Model – What’s Next?
30 Jun 2009 | 4:29 pmThe maturity model approach to describing organizations and processes comes and goes out of fashion. It is a repeating framework de jour. In the game of agile jargon whack-a-mole, the agile maturity model is poking its head up again. Agile Maturity Model Ellen Gottesdeiner, author of Requirements by Collaboration, tweeted (@ellengott) a few hours ago with a link to an article proposing a set of maturity models. She graciously passed on the opportunity to comment about the “agile maturity model” when pointing out her like of the collaboration maturity model. The article… -
User Goals and Corporate Goals
22 Jun 2009 | 9:59 pmWhen defining requirements, you always start in the context of a goal – either a user goal or a corporate goal. You need to be aware of both. Having a positive user experience is important, and requires a user-centered understanding. Achieving your corporate goals might be in conflict with some user goals. User Goals A user centered, or user-centric approach to developing software is one where you start by identifying the key persona in your target market. For each of those personas, you identify their most important goals. You then identify the user stories or use cases that… -
Advanced PERT Estimation
18 Jun 2009 | 8:30 pmCreating a PERT estimate for a single task is both easy and straightforward. Creating an estimate for a set of tasks is still easy, but requires a little bit of math. Combining PERT estimates for tasks is easy, but not as obvious. Roll up your sleeves and dive in. PERT Estimate Refresher When estimating how long it will take you to complete a task, you shouldn’t estimate with a single value like “four hours.” “Four hours” does not provide enough information. Estimates reflect that there is uncertainty, and that single value does not give you any insights into how… -
ProductCamps and Class Diagrams
9 Jun 2009 | 1:07 pmFor you product managers out there – here are a couple upcoming productcamp unconferences. For you business analysts, here’s an excuse to do a little domain modeling and practice your UML class diagram skills. Upcoming ProductCamps There are at least four productcamp unconferences coming up in the near future. I’ve been able to attend (and host sessions at) both of the productcamp Austin sessions, and they were great. If you can make it to a session near you, you definitely should. And if you go, you should help out – these are entirely free, and their quality… -
Foundation Series: Price Elasticity
1 Jun 2009 | 3:09 pmWhen prices go up, demand goes down. But how much does it go down? Price elasticity of demand is the term economists use for the math that describes this behavior. Cause and Effect Prices go up and sales go down. Prices go down, and sales go up. There is definitely a correlation – and economists will argue that it is cause and effect. I think they’re right – and here’s the rationale. Imagine an apple, a group of people who are interested in buying that apple. Each person would be willing to pay a different amount for that apple, because each person assigns…
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ProductMarketing.com
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Apple makes $$$ on iPhone
2 Jul 2009 | 4:33 amThe Industry watcher iSuppli says that the new iPhone 3GS costs Apple just $178.96 to build. Apple makes $420 on each iPhone sold. They seem to imply that this is too much profit but they looking only at the cost of the handset; they overlook the cost of infrastructure, the cost of the excellent app store, and the cost of brilliant design.The iPhone's success proves that creating a product that people want to buy translates into low price sensitivity. We don't really care about the cost of goods sold; we care about the value of the solution. And if market demand is any indication, it seems… -
Another introduction to Scrum
30 Jun 2009 | 3:53 amHere's a great Introduction to Scrum by Andy Brandt. (Thanks to my friend Jon Gatrell for sharing this.)After viewing, check out my Living in an Agile World ebook for more on the distinction between product owner and product manager. -
Leadership and Kindergarten
26 Jun 2009 | 7:20 amMichael Ray Hopkin offers this post from Jim Holland on Leadership Lessons from a Kindergarten Class.My addition to the thread is this: "When you go out in the world, hold hands." It’s easier and more fun to do customer interviews with a colleague.What Kindergarten lessons would you adapt to product management? -
Barb Nelson at Games Exchange 2009
24 Jun 2009 | 4:41 amThis Friday, June 26, join the folks at Enthiosys for the Innovation, Design & Serious Games Exchange 2009 in San Francisco. The session notes say,If you are interested in how games solve problems, you are invited to IDSGE. This event is meant for a range of practitioners... from those who have heard provocative things about games or who have experimented a little... through those who use games on a regular basis... to those who design and develop games in the physical and digital worlds.Pragmatic Marketing's Barb Nelson will be there, discussing the need for understanding market problems… -
Visiting customers "in the wild"
23 Jun 2009 | 4:50 amToo many product managers use opinions when data is required; they are in the office more than they should be. Market facts are found in customer environments, not in company meetings. NIHITO, baby!It seems reasonable to be able to visit customers in their place of work but my friend Dave wonders about visiting people in their homes.I think this gets into a tricky area. How do you set up a home visit? And should you? I don't know about you but I'd be cautious of being alone with people in their homes. Lots of opportunity for misunderstanding. So be sure to do home visits with a colleague. And…
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Ask A Good Product Manager
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What goes in to a product strategy besides goals, objectives, and tactics?
21 Jun 2009 | 6:40 pmQuestion: How do product goals, objectives, and tactics relate to the product strategy? Are your goals/objectives and tactics essentially the product strategy? If you’ve defined what you want to achieve (goals), the way that they can be measured (objectives), and then the plans for how to get there (tactics), isn’t this essentially your product strategy? Answer from Janey Wong of brainmates: A product strategy does include goals, objectives, and tactics; however, what differentiates it from other strategic documents is the purpose and supporting content that explains — and… -
How can I avoid cannibalization with a new product?
1 Jun 2009 | 7:32 pmQuestion: How can I avoid cannibalizing sales of an existing product with a new product? I have an existing product that I am planning to introduce a new update version. The update version is needed due to competition. My question is how to manage the new product planning so that it will not impact the sales of the existing product, or at least minimize impact on current sales. For example: How late I should go to avoid letting sales and/or customers know about the new product? And what are the considerations to migrate existing customers to buy new product? Answer from Bob Corrigan of… -
How to go from sales engineer to product manager?
21 May 2009 | 7:00 pmQuestion: How can I transition from being a sales engineer to being in product management? I have been a sales engineer for the past 10 years or so, and would like to move into product management. How can I best make the transition? Should I target specific sizes or types of companies? My thoughts are that a startup would want a seasoned professional, but perhaps a mid- to large-size company might be willing to hire someone who had not had a PM position before. Answer from Steve Johnson of Pragmatic Marketing: Small companies seem more inclined to take risks; larger companies may tend to… -
How can I determine the saleability of an innovative new product?
29 Mar 2009 | 4:34 amQuestion: How can I determine the need and saleability of a “new to the world” of product? I am developing an innovative product which is truly “new” to the industry. How can I determine the need and saleability of this type of product? Answer from Alain Breillatt of Picture Imperfect: This is a question every product manager will likely face at some time in his or her career and it is one of the more complex challenges due to the multi-faceted answer it requires. But let’s start at the most basic assumption: you know who your initial customers are and… -
What are my career options after product management?
2 Mar 2009 | 6:06 pmQuestion: What other roles can product managers fill besides managing product managers? I’m in my 40s now and have reached the Product Management Director level, managing enterprise software product lines and a handful of product managers and user interface designers. I’ve been successful in bringing products to market and generating over $30MM in product revenues over the course of my career. In today’s woeful economic climate and a desire to balance work and family life and possibly downsize one’s lifestyle and career aspirations, what alternative career paths do you…
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On Product Management
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The value of simplicity
29 Jun 2009 | 8:43 amWe have 3 different types of food blenders in our house. They are pictured below. I’ve tried to show them roughly to scale with one another. The first is a “traditional” blender with a base, a large 56 oz. (1.75 L) pitcher-style container and several speed settings for the blades. The second is an immersion blender with a number of attachments for mixing, blending, chopping etc. The third is known as the Magic Bullet blender. It has a small 16 oz. (.45 L) container for the contents being blended and a simple on/off mechanism for the blades. While they all have benefits… -
Friday Fun: Khaaan.com
26 Jun 2009 | 4:05 pmOK, the spelling is off, but a website whose sole purpose is to repeat my last name over and over again is impossible not to share. http://www.khaaan.com Saeed (Wrath of) Khan -
(How) do you measure customer satisfaction?
26 Jun 2009 | 7:10 amDear Readers, I will be writing an article on how to measure customer satisfaction in B2B software. To prepare for that article I would like to hear your experiences or read articles that you find useful. If you have a useful article on the topic, or personal experience measuring customer satisfaction, I would love to hear from you. Please email me directly at customersat@eigenworks.com Here are some focusing questions: Do you measure customer satisfaction? Simple question: do you measure it? What to measure what are your “leading indicators” of customer satisfaction? is customer… -
Our Blog via Email
24 Jun 2009 | 6:26 amFor those of you email addicts, who prefer a message in your InBox vs. an RSS feed, we’ve recently added email subscriptions to our blog. Click here, or use the link on the right sidebar of the blog. Either way, just enter your email address and then whenever we post a new blog entry, you will get it in your Inbox shortly thereafter. -
Embracing New Media
23 Jun 2009 | 5:32 amI’ve written about the CBC radio show “The Age of Persuasion” before. A recent episode entitled “Embracing New Media” is worth listening to. By looking at how people reacted to and dealt with successive versions of “new” media (like the telephone and television) when they first came out, the host, Terry O’Reilly, teaches us some lessons about how to deal with the current slew of new social media in our lives. Enjoy. Saeed
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Write That Down
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Industry Immersion Article
23 Jun 2009 | 10:19 amI wrote an article for the latest issue of the Pragmatic Marketing monthly magazine on industry immersion – essentially, how to learn a new industry when you step in to manage a product within it. And then of course, keeping up to date with that industry and all of the data available to you. Check it out and let me know what you think! -
Interview on the Heretech
16 Jun 2009 | 6:55 pmI did an interview with Tom Grant over on the Heretech podcast. Go and check it out and let me know what you think! -
Competitive Analysis
15 Jun 2009 | 8:45 amDoing competitive analysis can always seem like such a daunting task – but I’ve always found it to be a bit cathartic. It’s easy to start to believe that your competitors have some great, secret, uber functionality that’s going to let them take over the world. While that could be the case, chances are it’s not. You really want to simply get a sense of where other folks in your space are at. To do that, there are a number of things you’ll want to create and deliver – but it all starts out with picking the companies with which you are competing. This… -
Leaving PlanetEye
8 Jun 2009 | 1:55 pmChange is on the horizon. I have decided to leave PlanetEye. In candid discussions with the CEO, it became clear the company is going to benefit from the ability to quickly transact – in essence, move from sales directly to development for quick, successful client implementations. The product is definitely ready to support this approach, and as such, organizational needs have changed. The company needs to be able to rapidly execute on opportunities they are clearly positioned to win. As such, Jonah (the CEO) has given me a fantastic opportunity to pursue the next step in my career. -
Great Requirements PPT
4 Jun 2009 | 4:30 pmA great presentation on requirements from Nainill Chheda. I’ve not seen this before, and it’s been up on Slideshare for about 4 months. Check it out – you won’t be sorry (hat tip, Stewart Rogers). Requirement Writing for Product Management View more Microsoft Word documents from Nainil Chheda.
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Brainmates
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What Goes Into A Product Strategy?
23 Jun 2009 | 12:20 pmI recently wrote an answer to “How do product goals, objectives, and tactics relate to the product strategy?” for the excellent blog Ask A Good Product Manager. Here is a copy of my answer but to read what other Product Managers have to say, click here. Are your goals/objectives and tactics essentially the product strategy? If you’ve defined what you want to achieve (goals), the way that they can be measured (objectives), and then the plans for how to get there (tactics), isn’t this essentially your product strategy? A product strategy includes goals, objectives, and tactics;… -
Eco-Friendly Mobile Phones
12 Jun 2009 | 1:14 pmWhen BlackBerry launched the Storm and Samsung and LG both released their own touch screen mobile phones, I knew the race to compete with Apple’s ever popular iPhone was on and it would be an interesting one. But then I found out about Motorola’s W233 Renew – “the first certified Carbonfree cell phone on the market”, and I became curious about whether this trend to make eco-friendly phones have caught on with other companies - and it has. The sweep to offer more environmentally sustainable products are hitting the mobile technology world and it’s more than just a race. It’s a… -
The Whole User Experience: Closing the Inexperience Gap
8 Jun 2009 | 11:10 amThe importance of a user-centred design can’t be emphasised enough. Your customers’ positive experiences with your product can have long-term impacts on the value they place on the product, their brand loyalty and the company’s profitability. However, there is often a gap between user intuition and just not knowing how a product functions. The cleverest designs may not be as intuitive or user-friendly to your target market as one may think, even after usability testing. As Product Managers we close this inexperience gap by providing tools to help customers become more familiar with the… -
“Love. Everyone Wants It But Not Everyone Finds It.”
20 May 2009 | 7:07 pmI’ve been religiously following Bravo TV’s Millionaire Matchmaker show. It’s absolutely entertaining. Patti Stanger, Matchmaker Extraordinaire, finds long-term partners for the men and women millionaires in her exclusive dating club, and her technique is appealing. As someone who boasts a 99% success rate, perhaps we can learn something from Patti’s technique to create and match products to customers. Here are some of my observations of how she helps her customers find true love: 1. Find out exactly what your customers want in the ideal or “perfect 10” product. 2. Be honest and… -
Green Products
20 May 2009 | 6:57 pmMany companies are issuing sustainability policies to reduce their environmental impact and positively contribute back to society. To meet their sustainability objectives some companies are launching eco-friendlier products that are • energy-saving • recyclable or bio-degradable • use recycled or organic raw materials, and/or • manufactured in an environmentally neutral method These requirements are just a few of many that Product Managers may need to consider in environmentally sustainable product design and development. As a Product Manager there are various approaches that can be…
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Forrester: Product Management
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Of designers and developers
30 Jun 2009 | 10:25 amIn today's post at The Heretech, I come out of the closet. Yes, I am a bigger history geek than you can possibly imagine. Hello, my name is Tom, and I play wargames. However, by playing a lot of games designed to simulate historical events, I've learned a couple of things that apply to designing products in the technology industry. Specifically, how do you create a design teeam that can overcome some of the common pitfalls, such as unnecessary complexity? To read more, follow this link. [P.S. Thanks for pointing out the problem with the link. Typepad is intermittently eating the… -
Why use cases should drive technology design
25 Jun 2009 | 3:50 pmDuring a briefing from Microsoft's xRM team, the question of how to integrate structured and unstructured data arose. If xRM (the Dynamics platform) is good at the structured stuff, and SharePoint is good at unstructured content, what's the right way to bridge the two? Back in my Oracle days, we faced exactly the same question. At a technology level, there's no obvious answer. Bring together two development teams (the structured and unstructured specialists), and you'll first get a lot of technical-level discussions. How should security work? What API changes might be needed? -
Podcast: My interview with the Cranky Product Manager
25 Jun 2009 | 9:10 amStepping out of the shadows, the Cranky Product Manager and I talked about the sources of crankiness in the technology industry in this week's Heretech podcast. The conversation also ranges from the reasons why product management is a "wretchedly awesome" job, to how overzealous Agile advocates hurt their cause. To maintain anonymity, I masked the CPM's voice. A couple of listeners have already compared the effect to the Cylon voice effect in the old Battlestar Galactica series. I'm not sure if the CPM would be flattered or mortified by that comparison. In the same… -
Agile Executive post on "regime change"
18 Jun 2009 | 7:26 pmMany thanks to Israel Gat at The Agile Executive for posting my thoughts on how Agile is following the same path that many revolutions take. After you've had some initial successes, and take your new programme seriously, what now? -
Making a SaaS of yourself
16 Jun 2009 | 6:07 pmI've worked on both SaaS products and on-premise ones. While the challenges may be different, I was never at a loss for things to do in product management and product marketing. In fact, some of these tasks became more challenging, not less so, in a SaaS world. Which makes me wonder, why on earth would someone who purports to be an expert on SaaS say that PM is not necessary in SaaS applications? To get my complete reaction to this recent post on SaaS University's house blog, click here.
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The Accidental Product Manager
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License vs. Sale: Product Managers Need To Know The Difference
1 Jul 2009 | 3:59 amProducts That Are Licensed And Not Sold Can Cause Problems [Note: I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. I am not giving out any legal advice in this posting. Should you need legal advice, please contact a lawyer in your town.] In this crazy mixed-up world that we live in, it’s the words that can often trip us up. For those of us who’s products are software products, often our products come with some carefully chosen words that inform our customers that we have not “sold” them our product, but rather we have “licensed” it to them. What’s the… -
Product Logo Redesign Time For Product Mangers
29 Jun 2009 | 3:59 amIs Your Product's Logo Working For Or Against You? So I’m going to guess that you are pretty comfortable with your product by now. You know what it does, you know what it doesn’t do. You feel that you’ve got a pretty good grasp of how your customers view your product. Maybe that’s a problem. Is it time for you to shake things up a bit and redesign your product’s logo? About That Logo Not every product has a logo; however, they all should. If you are lucky enough to be in charge of a product that has a logo (or will be someday), then you’ll have to… -
Grow Your Career – What Product Managers Need To Do For Success
24 Jun 2009 | 3:59 amProduct Managers Are Responsible For Growing Their Career - But Not Like This! As though the job of being a Product Manager was not hard enough, there’s also that added responsibility that you have to manage your career. With all of the turmoil of the past couple of years, it’s now more important than ever for Product Managers to find the time to tend to this task. Growing Your Career – It’s Like Another Job The #1 thing that Product Managers need to realize is that it is no longer good enough to sit passively by and hope that your career will take you to someplace… -
Internet Product Promotion – 4 Secrets For Product Managers
22 Jun 2009 | 3:59 amSuccessful Product Web Sites Get People Talking About Your Product So there you stand: somehow you’ve managed to convince the powers that be that your product needs to have its very own web site (or an upgrade to the one that it already has) in order to attract the masses of customers who would be buying it today if only they knew that it existed. Where to start: embedded flash? viral videos? There’s just too many choices! Here’s a wake-up call for you – your site’s success depends on four non-technical secrets. Kodak Got It Right Kodak got it right when they… -
Guest Post At The “On Product Management” Blog
19 Jun 2009 | 8:24 amThe guys over at the On Product Management blog have been kind enough to post a guest post that I wrote for them. Follow this link if you are interested in finding out 5 Things That PMs Should Do To Get Their Products Noticed. Oh, and check out their blog because they do a nice job of covering the world of product management… Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Product Manager Blog is updated. P.S.: Free subscriptions to the brand-new The Accidental Product Manager Newsletter are now available. It’s your product - it’s your career. Subscribe to The Accidental…
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enthiosys agile product management
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Living in an Agile World: The Role of Product Management When Development Goes Agile
1 Jul 2009 | 11:57 pmThis Kindle e-book is written jointly by Pragmatic Marketing’s Steve Johnson and Enthiosys’ Luke Hohmann and Rich Mironov. It discusses the role of product manager in an Agile development environment. No matter how agile Development is, you’ll never build a successful product if the work being done isn’t aligned to the company strategy and market needs. A PDF version is also available on Pragmatic Marketing’s site. -
Jul-18-09: Product Camp NYC
1 Jul 2009 | 8:01 amEspecially for those who’ve never been to a P-Camp/Product Camp… we’re thrilled to see this event in The Big Apple: What: Product Camp NYC Where: Down Town Association, 60 Pine Street, New York City 10005 When: Saturday, July 18, 2009, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm Cost: Free, more information here Organized by: New York Product Management Association ProductCamp is a collaborative, user organized professional conference, focused on Product Management and Marketing topics. At ProductCamp everyone participates in some manner: presenting, leading a discussion, showcasing a best practice,… -
Jul-28-08: “Agile Comes to You” one day seminar, Bellevue WA
1 Jul 2009 | 7:47 amRich Mironov is keynoting a one-day seminar on Agile adoption presented by leading Agile solution providers. What: “Agile Comes to You,” a mini-conference with experts from AccuRev, Coverity, Electric Cloud, Enthiosys, and Rally Software. Hosted by CM Crossroads, Where: The Westin Bellevue, Bellevue, WA When: Tuesday, July 28, 8:30 AM – 3:00 PM Register here Shrinking budgets. Competing priorities. Schedule risk. It’s easy in a turbulent time to keep your head down, focus on putting out one fire at a time, and hope things get better. But this is actually a great… -
Aug-24/08-09: Agile 2009 Conference, Chicago
1 Jul 2009 | 6:18 amThe Agile Alliance’s annual conference will be in Chicago this year, bringing together Agilists from all over the world. It’s theme is “Making Agile Real.” What: Agile 2009: Making Agile Real When: August 24-28, 2009 Where: the Hyatt Regency Chicago Register here! The entire Enthiosys team will be joining in the fun, including three sessions with Luke Hohmann centered around Innovation Games, and a talk by Rich Mironov about agile product managers/product owners, who chaired the conference’s APM/PO track. Agile 2009 will be an exciting international conference… -
Sep-29/30-09: Innovation Games Talk/Workshop, Monterrey, MX
1 Jul 2009 | 5:23 amLuke Hohmann has been invited to give a keynote and Innovation Games workshop at SG’09, a major software convention sponsored by the City of Monterrey and the Software Council of Nuevo Leon (csoftmty) What: Innovation Games talk and workshop, part of the SG ‘09 Conference and Expo When: Sept 29th (keynote) and Sept 30th (workshop) Where: Cintermex Convention Center, Monterrey, MX Conference details and registration (in Spanish) SG ‘09 Expo is about software development, focused on professional IT leaders in Mexico and Latin America. The goal is to reach the local professionals…
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How To Be A Good Product Manager
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Learn from the mistakes of the iPhone 3G S
22 Jun 2009 | 8:16 pmIf you want to be a bad product manager, copy everything that Apple does. Everyone knows that Apple has some of the best products in the world, so you’d be a fool not to copy what they do. If you want to create a product as successful as the iPhone or the iPod, then just follow their lead. If you want to be a good product manager, learn from the mistakes of Apple, including those related to the iPhone 3G S. Apple has produced some legendary products which have been wildly and there are many aspects of their product development process which product managers would be wise to understand… -
Consider your market window as part of your product strategy
31 Mar 2009 | 6:34 pmIf you want to be a bad product manager, start developing a product and release it as soon as possible. If you’ve got a good idea for a product, why wait? You need to get it defined, get it developed as quickly as you can, and then release it right away, without any delay. Everyone knows that the first product to market usually wins, and the sooner it’s released, the quicker you’ll be profitable. If you want to be a good product manager, consider your market window as part of your product strategy. Often companies come up with what they believe to be a fantastic idea for a… -
Define the problem before solving it
9 Mar 2009 | 8:00 pmIf you want to be a bad product manager, don’t worry as much about defining the problem as quickly finding the solution. Problems are usually very obvious and clear, and any time you spend dwelling on it is wasted time that could be spent on solving it. The sooner you start solving the problem, the soon you’ll have it figured out. How hard is it to define a problem, anyway? If you want to be a good product manager, get a good understanding of the problem before you try and solve it. Product managers and many others unfortunately assume the problem is evident and jump right to… -
Decide go / no-go before buy vs. build
13 Feb 2009 | 4:24 amIf you want to be a bad product manager, make your decision about whether to buy, build, or partner on a product one in the same with your decision about whether to create the product at all. Maybe the market isn’t particularly attractive, but you can get into it pretty easily by partnering with a company. Or maybe you have a good idea for a product and you think it will be to difficult to build it, so the idea should get “shelved.” After all, you have to figure out how the product will get created at some point, so you might as well figure that out before you decide to go… -
Differentiate to avoid being a “me too”
15 Jan 2009 | 6:15 pmIf you want to be a bad product manager, rush an undifferentiated product to market in order to grab market share. Sure, a competitor may have beat you to the market, but now that they are out there creating demand for an innovative offering, you don’t have time to waste. Your version may not be terribly unique and it may be a bit less than what the competition offers. Still, there may be customers who don’t like what the competitor has so you’ll get their business, or you can skim on advertising and sell yours a bit cheaper to create more demand. Either way, it should be…
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Lead on Purpose
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Leadership and endurance
1 Jul 2009 | 10:03 pmSuccess is a marathon, not a sprint. The only way to truly prepare for a marathon is to train, to practice, to run. You need to get out on the road. You need to put in the miles. It takes time, it takes effort, and sometimes it hurts a lot. As the marathon runner Juma Ikanga said after winning the New York Marathon: “The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare.” You can want to win more than anyone else in the world; yet if you do not want to put in the work to prepare, it will not matter. A great example of enduring leadership was Samuel Adams, one of the Founding… -
Knowledge is power
30 Jun 2009 | 8:37 amTo what do you attribute your success? This question was answered in a very interesting fashion on a on a podcast where Dr. Paul interviews Dayna Steele, a lively author and former rock-n-roll disk jockey in Houston. In the interview Dayna talks about meeting and associating with rock stars like Jon Bon Jovi, Sammy Hagar and other rock legends. She provides interesting insight into their lives, how they think and what drives them. In her book Rock to the Top Dayna talks about what drives these famous rock stars to be successful. What most caught my attention was her answer to the question… -
Guest Post: Leadership Lessons from a Kindergarten Class
25 Jun 2009 | 9:35 pmToday’s post comes from Jim Holland. Jim’s passion is enabling product marketing teams. With over 20 years of technology experience, he has a fresh and unique perspective in guiding and managing product teams and has a knack for synthesizing conceptual ideas and turning them into reality. Enjoy the post and don’t hesitate to tweet your comments to Jim directly. What can a classroom full of bright-eyed and energized kindergartners teach you about leadership? A lot! My wife is a gifted Kindergarten teacher. She’s a tuned-in educator who engages each child with the attention of a ninja… -
Forward progress
22 Jun 2009 | 5:46 amA key axiom for today’s leaders is that forward progress comes through hard work and persistence. This applies not only to your progress as a leader, but also to the progress of the people you lead. The ups and downs of daily interaction can inspire or drain, depending on your attitude and perseverance. To make progress you have to look at each situation and determine what you can do improve to your success given the circumstances. As Tom Peters says so frankly, “Only those who constantly retool themselves stand a chance of staying employed in the years ahead.” You need to… -
Realities of change
20 Jun 2009 | 2:00 amI’m out camping in the mountains this week, far away from the connected world, so I “pre-loaded” my blogging gun with a link to a great post. Today’s link comes from Mark Sanborn. Change is a constant part of growing, whether it be personal growth or growing an organization. In his post The Realities of Change, Mark presents ten truths to help you progress in your career.
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Product Management Tips
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Contact Us but facilitate it ….
8 Jun 2009 | 3:00 amAll companies on their website have an About Us or Contact Us section. However, not all companies provide their phone contact information on their website and instead ask you to fill out a web form or email them if you want to contact them. This unfortunately sends wrong messages. The message could be construed as any [...] -
Product Camp – New York
7 Jun 2009 | 6:30 amAre you a product manager who lives around New York City or will be in NYC during the weekend of July 18? Do you want to learn about product management from other product managers who are walking in your shoes everyday? Look no further, ProductCamp is coming to town on July 18th. I will be [...] -
Adding customer value by subtraction
2 Jun 2009 | 7:44 pmAs product managers, we are trained to look for ways to add value to customers such that they are willing to buy our products. Now, what does adding value actually mean? Adding value, does not necessarily mean that customers have to necessarily see an uptick in their revenues after they buy your product. For example, your [...] -
Leverage the baby steps …..
21 May 2009 | 3:10 pmYou bike the 180 mile PMC challenge from Sturbridge, MA to Provincetown, one pedal at a time … You walk the 20 mile Walk for hunger one step at a time … You run the Boston Marathon one mile at a time … You process the 100 emails in your inbox one at a time … (unless you [...] -
Dogs, Cows and Kids …
19 May 2009 | 8:04 pmIn every company, product managers have more things to do than you have time for. So how do you decide which products to fund? which projects to work on? and more importantly what NOT to work on? After all, if you have more things to do than you have time for, there is nothing worse [...]
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Seilevel's Software Requirements
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What do you do when the client isn't focused on the business outcome?
29 Jun 2009 | 7:00 amOne of the values that we bring is that we can help our clients to decide what scope to cut by providing them with a framework that links quantifiable business objectives to specific features. We create an objective chain to do this and it helps to spotlight features that don't feed into the core business purpose. Typically our stakeholders are able to cut a minimum of 10% of features and as much as 90% while achieving their objectives. What we are finding though is that it is sometimes a challenge because the features that are good for the company are not necessarily good at making the lives… -
RML™ Requirements Model 5 - The Data Flow Diagram (DFD)
26 Jun 2009 | 7:00 amThe Data Flow Diagram (DFD) is a very useful part of the Requirements Modeling Language (RML™). The Structured Analysis Wiki contains a great explanation of how to create a DFD, so I’m not going to cover that information here. Instead, I’m going to provide one answer to the question “How do I know when to use a DFD?” This answer comes from my own (unique) view of the world, so some of you probably won’t relate to it, but others will--I’m sure there is at least one more out there…Sometimes I have what I think of as an "equation" in my head. In vague terms, I may be thinking… -
What does "requirements sign-off" mean in agile?
25 Jun 2009 | 7:00 amI was recently working with a cusotmer on a project using an agile methodology. The organization was moving towards trying to do most of their projects in agile, so the nature of this is that they have a lot of non-agile pieces to their methodology still in place. We were cruising along in defining requirements and development was well into the first sprint, when the project manager told me we had a target date for the requirements to be signed off. Wait a minute! Hold your horses folks! Sign-off? In an agile project? I took it upon myself to remind her of the development methodology of… -
Lessons from a Bad Haircut
24 Jun 2009 | 7:00 amI got a lousy haircut the other day. I’m not happy. And, one of the things I’m least happy with is the fact that I can trace one comment I made to what ended up happening. I still hold the hair stylist responsible, because she’s the expert. I left something unspoken related to the comment, so what I said in total was inconsistent. She should have asked the questions to get it right. She should know that lay people use industry terms incorrectly and she should be restating what she is hearing to make sure her understanding is right. She’s the expert.It’s made me think about how I do… -
Live from REFSQ: Deriving Information Requirements from Responsibility Models
23 Jun 2009 | 7:00 amTim Storer from St. Andrews University in Scotland presented this paper. His underlying assumption is that in large scale socio-technical enterprise systems, you are constrained by the design of the platform you select, integration to other systems, and systems of systems factors. He contends that the functional requirements in these projects are more useful in the procurement process where you select the system to implement, and specifically less useful in the actual implementation. The reason for this is that the system is already constrained by behavior based on what you select. While I…
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ack/nak
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palm pre: use-case analysis vs iphone
8 Jun 2009 | 7:08 amLike many of you I've been tracking the development and release of the Palm Pre as an example of how to go after a market leader.And like many of you I've been wondering how the Palm Pre stacks up against the iPhone where it truly counts - the day-to-day user experience. Because the Pre certainly looks nice and seems to stack up well on paper, with a few key advantages that you'd think would really resonate with the buying public.So when I find detailed user experience comparisons between the two devices, I pay close attention.Here's one I discovered this morning on a comment chain in… -
user testing: success
7 Jun 2009 | 1:09 pmI wonder what the disclaimer for this looked like. . . to say nothing of the requirements.electric stimulus to face from toniwenwen on Vimeo. -
surprise: gordon ramsay's scrambled eggs
31 May 2009 | 10:48 amAnd surprise surprise, not a single F-bomb. -
deck: why most presentations suck
29 May 2009 | 12:49 pmThanks to Jon Gatrell at Spatially Relevant for turning me on to this. And may I suggest that step one to making your presentations suck less (if not lose their suckiness entirely) is to start thinking of yourself as a storyteller who needs to entertain first and inform a close second. It unleashes a flood of karmic goodness when you put the well-being of your audience first.Why most presentations suckView more Microsoft Word documents from Slideware Manager. -
transitions: onward and upward
29 May 2009 | 6:49 amThoughtful readers of ack/nak will have noticed I've been rather quiet this month.Like many Americans I got caught up in the economic downturn, and found myself on May 1st to be, as the euphemism goes, "exploring new opportunities".What I made were a lot of discoveries.One of the biggest was in stress management, as I took to going to the gym on a near-daily basis, figuring if I exhausted myself I could purge some of the stress-toxins. It worked quite well. I'm sorry I didn't discover this a long time ago.I discovered there were a lot of people who appreciate what I "do". Thank you to…
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Google News: Product Management News
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Craftsman's Innovation Showcase Wants You to Make It So. - Wired News
3 Jul 2009 | 4:25 amWired NewsCraftsman's Innovation Showcase Wants You to Make It So.Wired News at Sears headquarters to present the product to representatives of corprorate brand management, product development and product management teams. and more » -
Gridiron launches Flow product management app - MacNN
1 Jul 2009 | 11:14 pmMacNNGridiron launches Flow product management appMacNNGridiron Software has launched its workflow tool for professional product management, Gridiron Flow. The application provides creative professionals and and more » -
Lime Wire Adds Digital Media Exec to Oversee Product - PR-USA.net (press release)
1 Jul 2009 | 11:53 amLime Wire Adds Digital Media Exec to Oversee ProductPR-USA.net (press release)Jason Herskowitz has joined Lime Wire as Vice President, Product Management, it was announced today by George Searle, Lime Wire CEO. and more » -
TrueCar Taps Edmunds.com For VP - socalTech.com
1 Jul 2009 | 10:29 amEarthtimes (press release)TrueCar Taps Edmunds.com For VPsocalTech.comSanta Monica-based TrueCar announced today that it has snagged an executive from Edmunds.com for its new Vice President of Product Management. TrueCar.com Hires Former Edmunds.com ExecutiveSYS-CON Media (press release)all 8 news articles » -
Globoforce Names Two New Key Executives to Management Team - PR Web (press release)
1 Jul 2009 | 8:50 amPR Web (press release)Globoforce Names Two New Key Executives to Management TeamPR Web (press release)A human resources technology industry veteran who brings nearly 20 years of HR software and services product management and marketing leadership to and more »
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Product Management News
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A Look Inside the NYSE/DTCC Derivatives Clearing Venture
2 Jul 2009 | 6:25 pmNYSE Euronext has joined forces with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation to launch a joint venture for clearing U.S. fixed income derivatives. -
Leatt Neck Braces to Be Featured at 2009 BMW Motorrad Days
2 Jul 2009 | 10:20 amWe can be found at Tent 31. You can get information and directions about this major BMW Motorrad product expo at at .bmw-motorrad-days/english . Plan to visit with Andreas Geisinger, Leatt's Head of International Marketing and Product Management, who will be attending this major 3-day event. -
ImageTree, GeoEye and MJ Harden Sign Agreements to Develop Cost-Effective Forest Inventory a
1 Jul 2009 | 12:26 pmJuly 1, 2009 - ImageTree Corporation has signed agreements with GeoEye, Inc., and MJ Harden Associates, Inc., enabling the three companies to cooperatively create, market, sell and deliver commercially viable, management inventory solutions to the forestry industry. -
Pinnacle Renews Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Status
30 Jun 2009 | 3:20 amThe Pinnacle Corp., a major supplier of automation technology to the convenience store and petroleum industries, said that it has renewed its Gold Certified Partner status for 2009/2010 in the Microsoft Partner Program with competencies in ISV/Software Solutions and Business Intelligence, recognizing Pinnacle's expertise and impact in the ... -
Kace to boost Mac features in systems management appliances
29 Jun 2009 | 7:14 pmSystems management appliance maker Kace Networks on Tuesday plans to unveil changes to its Kbox product line that it says will create a true cross-platform environment for managing Mac and PC systems.
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The Experience is the Product | Better product management and products
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How the Blender illustrates “designing the product” vs. “designing the whole product experience”
30 Jun 2009 | 7:33 amThere’s a new post over at On Product Management about blenders, and what they tell us about simplicity. Now, as it happens, my blender of choice is not a simple blender. I’m a dedicated - but very non-fussy/pragmatic - gourmet cook, and I love my BlendTec. (You may recognize the name from the “Will It Blend?” YouTube [...] -
7 “If-then” thoughts for today
24 Jun 2009 | 12:25 pmIf you start recruiting via social networks and social media, talent will expect you to respond more rapidly. Different modes of communication have different expectations of “real-time” response. If your initial business model assumptions were incorrect, you will need to adapt your execution plan. It may be possible to still succeed if you can provide a [...] -
“Come Back When You’re Done”
17 Jun 2009 | 12:48 pmHere’s why I won’t be using Hunch: Anatomy of a bad user experience - step by step: Read an article about Hunch, remembered that I had a beta account. Thought of a question that I wanted an answer to. Went to hunch.com and tried to type it in - you CANNOT ask a new question. If what you typed [...] -
How can I show a Minimum Viable Product and still look credible?
17 Jun 2009 | 12:19 pmIt’s hard to argue with the concept of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) - build the smallest possible representation of your product vision first - then validate it, get feedback, and refine it. But how can you balance the Minimum Viable Product with maintaining credibility? Companies who do not employ iterative development processes may not understand that [...] -
Breaking the 90-10 “rule” - Twitter vs. Facebook, and customer communities
12 Jun 2009 | 9:41 amBy now we’ve all seen the numbers showing that 90% of Twitter’s content is contributed by 10% of their users. First thought: why is this a surprise? Second thought: why is no one talking about how to change these numbers? What we should be asking is: How can we break the 90-10 “rule”? It can be done. Un-scientific research of [...]
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The Productologist
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Product Management Reader: 2July09
2 Jul 2009 | 5:46 amToday’s edition of the Product Management Reader is powered by gin and tonic, so pay extra close attention for bonus wittiness and idle banter. And would you believe two separate posts from two separate Product Management bloggers about blenders? BLENDERS! It boggles the mind. Plus, there may be an exhibition by that ever-elusive double entendre. Eyes wide open, now. Agile Maturity Model – What’s Next? [Tyner Blain] Advice for up and coming Product Managers [All About Product Management] The Quarterly Vacation [Product Management Zen] How the Blender illustrates “designing the… -
Product Management Question Corner: Rene Larro, Model N
29 Jun 2009 | 5:20 amPeople, people…please calm down. I know that it’s been more than a month since the last Product Management Question Corner, but these things take time. Fortunately, this one is worth the wait! This edition of the Question Corner brings us Rene Larro, VP of Products and Solutions Marketing at Model N, a provider of revenue and compliance management software. Rene brings us the perspective of a Product Manager who started out as a traditional consultant and rose through the ranks of Product Management all the way to the VP level. Q: How did you come into the role of Product Manager… -
MRDs: Too Much of a Bad Thing
22 Jun 2009 | 6:03 amI have recently been embracing the change from traditional waterfall product development to an Agile framework. In the past, I have been wary of Agile, especially for enterprise products, but as I gained a better understanding of the Agile principles, I started liking it more. There are still caveats for using Agile methods and success of Agile process depends heavily on the staff managing the framework, but I am starting to see why Agile development is so appealing. From a Product Management perspective, one of the most appealing aspects of Agile is how requirements documentation works. For… -
Product Management Reader: 17June09
17 Jun 2009 | 6:34 amWrite text here… Why you need a launch owner [Launch Clinic] Startups and The Vision Thing [Rocket Watcher] Success is not a zero-sum game [Lead on Purpose] Roadmap: Product Vision Statement [Strategic Product Manager] Who’s in charge of price? (Hint: It’s the person who speaks with the buyer.) [On Product Management] Your Mother Was Right: How Product Managers Dress For Success [Accidental Product Manager] Saying No to Customer, Sales, and Exec Feature Requests (with Justification) [The Experience is the Product] Claim Your Productivity Day! [Product Management Zen] Disclaimer:… -
Time Keeps on Slippin’, Slippin’, Slippin’
5 Jun 2009 | 6:49 amUnless you live in some alternate reality (and maybe you do), every Product Manager I know always has a lot going on each day. We go to meetings, we take calls from Sales, we answer emails from Sales, we give presentations, we work on strategic analysis, we go to meetings. You know the drill. At the end of each day, you look back and wonder, “What the Hell did I accomplish today?” “Did I even make a dent in my task list?” “Where did the time go?” “I’m never gonna get to take a vacation.” On the off-chance that you do actually get to sit…
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The Cranky Product Manager
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[Guest Post] Death to Funnel Hawks
2 Jul 2009 | 8:01 amThe Cranky Sales Engineer swears that the next marketing person who flies into town and plunks himself down in the CSE’s cube and asks, “So what deals are you working on with my product?” will be boiled in his own bullshit. The CSE does not need a marketing funnel hawk. Funnel hawks, for those who don’t know, are a parasitic form of marketing dweeb who think that they can maintain a funnel report by badgering the sales force. The sales force avoids talking to these people for the same reason they don’t reply to spam, because any communication will cause a… -
Defending the CPM’s Fictional Name
1 Jul 2009 | 8:58 amYou “regular” people will probably never understand this, but it is TOUGH TOUGH TOUGH being a fictional product management celebrity. (Please, cry for me, Argentina.) For one, the paparazzi never leave you alone. Second, you never get any ”real-world” Web-2.0 cred – even at a time when everyone else is vomiting ”social media brand-building” all over their resumes. Well, guess who has more social media cred than 95% of you? THE CRANKY PRODUCT MANAGER, THAT’S WHO. But does the Cranky PM get to brag about such things on her “real… -
I blame the the Product Manager
28 Jun 2009 | 3:50 pmThe Cranky Sales Engineer has botched his Facebook username and is doomed to live with the error forever as there is no delete, no backspace, no rename, and no access to customer support. He blames product marketing. What kind of idiot creates a product that assumes 100% accuracy from its users? ----------The above is a post from The Cranky Product Manager blog. Subscribe to the RSS feed. Copyright © 2006-2009 Cranky Productions. I blame the the Product Manager -
Happy Birthday to Me
15 Jun 2009 | 3:11 pmOK, everyone. The Cranky Product Manager wants you all to get up and sing. SING, DAMMIT, SING. Because the Cranky Product Manager is now officially THREE years old. OK, three years old plus 4 days. The CPM is a little bit late with her own birthday - this blog was born on June 11, 2006. 3 years and 130 posts later, the Cranky Product Manager is still here. And still anonymous, despite having a (now defunct) cyberstalker and her committing countless careless gaffes. Hard to believe! In honor of this momentous occasion, the Cranky PM is going to refer you to some of her favorite… -
How Product Marketers Are Like Bad Real Estate Agents
12 Jun 2009 | 12:30 pmOK, true confessions. The Cranky Product Management is a bit of a real estate whore. While she is missing the part of the X chromosome that likes shopping for shoes and wearing sassy little dresses, when it comes to gawking at beautiful homes and all the fantabulous things in them, the Cranky Product Manager is a total fangirl. Yep, the Cranky PM constantly daydreams about upgrading her digs. And when she goes away for the weekend, she is prone to fantasizing about buying a vacation home or even just flat-out relocating… leaving behind the Silicon Valley rat race and all that. …
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Product Beautiful: Building Product Management by Paul Young
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Your Platform From a Developer’s POV
26 Jun 2009 | 4:29 pmThere is a very cool article written by a application developer for Blackberry online named Marcus Watkins at VersatileMonkey. It is great because you get a window into the mind of both a developer and a startup company as they determine what platforms to develop for, what feature sets to choose from, how to market, how to price, and how to support his app. It’s like a mini-case study, and there are a lot of key learning’s for budding platforms as well. Marcus chose to develop on RIM’s platform because of the size of the installed base and relative lack of competition… -
Becoming a Platform
28 Apr 2009 | 11:15 pmTurning your product into a platform is en vogue. From salesforce.com, to the Apple iTunes App Store, to Valve’s Steam, many companies are attempting to open the architecture of their product to the World in the hopes of building the critical mass that becoming a platform provides. Making a platform play is hard, and most companies fail - how many of us have added “API” or “SDK” to our roadmaps and been unsatisfied with the results? Let’s explore what makes a product succeed or fail as a platform, and the decision criteria you can review with your… -
Work With Me Here!
2 Apr 2009 | 7:59 pmI’m looking to hire a Technical Product Manager / Business Analyst in the Bay Area, California. IT systems’ management, services, software, and SaaS experience are pluses. If you are really good at listening to customers, understanding their problems, working with other Product Managers and Architects to define solutions, and acting as the Voice of the Customer to Development then maybe we should talk. If you’re interested, drop me an email with your resume. No recruiters pretty please! -
Pragmatic Marketing’s New Site
24 Mar 2009 | 9:52 pmPragmatic Marketing updated their site design. Aside from the nice facelift, they now have links where you can connect with them on social tools like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Oh…and Austin and Product Beautiful are representing strong - they used both mine and Roger Cauvin’s images to signify “Product Manager.” Cool. UPDATE: I missed it, but Scott Sehlhorst of Tyner Blain, another Austinite is also pictured. -
What if…
23 Mar 2009 | 10:41 pmWhat if we blew off all of our internal meetings this week and only talked to customers? What if we didn’t refactor our roadmap…again? What if we didn’t spend time fighting for headcount from HR, phones from IT, or travel from Finance? What if we ignored all of the built up processes and built something awesome anyway? What if instead of 20 hours of meetings, you spent 20 hours blogging, tweeting, and talking with potential customers online? What if we stopped trying to connect our internal projects and started connecting with customer needs? What if we never used another…
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ZIGZAG Marketing - Blog
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The 80/20 Rule & Your Sales Team
1 Jul 2009 | 1:00 amIf 80% of the sales come from 20% of the salespeople - what the heck are the others doing? -
Red Onions & Hotel Room Usability
4 Jun 2009 | 1:48 amA Call for Product Management in the Hospitality Industry If there’s one industry that gets instant feedback on its products... -
If I Were GM's Chief Product Manager
14 Apr 2009 | 4:13 amI've watched this most recent auto industry saga unfold with both sadness and delight.  -
The Power of Process - Good or Bad
25 Mar 2009 | 2:35 amIs it really easier to follow bad processes just because they exist? -
Don’t Let a Good Recession Go To Waste
4 Feb 2009 | 12:26 amIf there was ever a time to wipe the slate clean of anything and everything that doesn’t have a blockbuster...
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Web Ink Now
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B-to-B marketing fundamentals do not change
2 Jul 2009 | 10:06 amTimes change. Markets change. Technologies change. Fundamentals of B2B marketing don't. I keynoted the Business Marketing Association's 2009 “UnLearn” national conference in Chicago last month. Just prior to my gig was a live staging of McGraw-Hill's classic 1950s "Man in the Chair" ad. Fortunately it was captured on video because it is terrific. (Tough act to follow!) It's fascinating how the fundamentals of business-to-business marketing are the same today as they were 50 years ago. It's still about relationships although today we have new tools and techniques at our disposal. Direct… -
Social Media is the new punk rock
30 Jun 2009 | 3:10 amThanks to Trevor Young the PR Warrior for alerting me to this wonderful video produced by Engage | ORM. Back in the day, I was into punk rock. It was loud, it was NOT disco, there was a culture surrounding it, and the cult-like followings for the bands were intense. Although I didn’t do the hair thing, I did dabble in the clothing and attitude a bit (well, as much as a suburban kid from Connecticut going to Kenyon College in Ohio could). This will date me, but… The Ramones played my high school at the time their first album came out. That was Rock and Roll High School. I was fortunate… -
So you want to write an ebook? 30 tips for success
29 Jun 2009 | 5:23 amEbooks are one of the most effective forms of new marketing. Ebooks have tremendous perceived value and therefore people tend to pass them on. They help solve problems and therefore buyers appreciate the content, branding the writer as someone worth doing business with. Ebooks lead to sales! Many people have achieved business success by writing an ebook. So can you. Martin Soorjoo sent me his latest ebook The Black Book of Lie Detection: Effective techniques from a professional lie detector. It is really well done and I hope Martin doesn't mind, but I am using his ebook as our example. What… -
Launching ideas at the U.S. Air Force
25 Jun 2009 | 5:23 amI recently spent the day at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ to meet with public affairs officers and senior leaders of 12th Air Force / Air Forces Southern Air Combat Command. In this video, I ask my friend Capt. Nathan Broshear about his current role as Director of Public Affairs, how he uses social media, and a little about his 6 months in Baghdad working in public affairs in a war zone. Capt. Broshear says of his work: "We're not launching missiles, we're launching ideas." While mainstream media is critical for launching ideas such as the 60 Minutes story that Capt. Broshear… -
ZeroTrash shows how to create a social media grassroots movement
22 Jun 2009 | 6:30 amI had an opportunity to connect with Chip McDermott, founder of ZeroTrash who I originally met at the Inbound Marketing Summit in San Francisco. I haver become fascinated with the online grassroots movement Chip started that's gathering momentum and is now instrumental in ridding the streets and beaches of Laguna Beach, CA of trash. Chip started ZeroTrash Laguna as a nonprofit organization in November 2007 with the support of XS Energy Drinks, Hobie Sports & Thalia Surf Shop. Though population and tourism had exploded, the city had not kept up in providing a sufficient infrastructure for…
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Product Management Meets Pop Culture
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Win-Loss Analysis Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 8
30 Jun 2009 | 2:03 pmI love the TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Maybe a little too much. Since BTVS went off the air in 2003, I’ve purchased all 7 seasons on DVD, two statues, one bust, a pair of script books, three action figures, more tie-in novels than I care to remember, and a philosophy book titled “What Would Buffy Do?”. And don’t forget the Angel Puppet Replica… So, yes: It’s a bit of an understatement to say I was pumped when Dark Horse Comics announced that Buffy’s adventures would continue in comic book form with “Buffy Season 8”. And that excitement lasted from early 2007… -
In Search Of A Metaphor
24 Jun 2009 | 10:05 pmIn a recent post, Saeed got me thinking (as he usually does) — this time, though, about something I’d said, about a metaphor I used in a presentation to describe product management to people unfamiliar with the practice. It was about grease and glue. In context, it works, but I can see its limitations. And, well; it’s kind of gross. So, I went in search of other options… Product Manager: Mini-CEO Of The Product? You hear this one a lot. I disagree with this metaphor, partially because of the issues that Ivan and Adam cite. But mostly because “mini-CEO”… -
Are You An Angry Product Management Buddha?
22 Jun 2009 | 5:08 amMarc Maron is a comedian. He has narcissistic tendencies, wears his heart on his sleeve, and co-hosts the Internet talk show Break Room: Live!. He’s an acquired taste, but I enjoy his work immensely. Visit Marc’s official website A few weeks ago, a BRL viewer was giving Marc grief in the post-show live chat–casting aspersions on BRL’s relevance and authenticity–and Marc’s reaction to this person got me thinking (a dangerous past time, I know). Here’s A Clip Of The Exchange Note: The following video clip features adult language. If you find adult language objectionable, please… -
The Wow Factor, Japanese-Style
15 Jun 2009 | 8:07 pmAs product managers, we talk about the Wow Factor in Kano analysis and requirements writing … but there’s “wow” and then there’s WOW. Image courtesy: Bandai corporate blog To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the anime series “Mobile Suit Gundam”, Bandai created a 60-foot-tall, in-scale replica of the legendary RX-78 mecha. Image courtesy: Danny Choo As if that’s not impressive enough–and, brother, that’s pretty damn impressive–Bandai also included head movements, light-up eyes, random bursts of steam, and mechanical sound effects. -
Product Managers: Do You Have A Moral Code?
9 Jun 2009 | 7:56 pmYesterday: We recapped Ghost Rider #35 “Deathrace” … in 10 Panels Or Less™. Today: We’re using this story recap as a springboard into this week’s topic: In product management, do the ends justify the means? Do we need a moral code? Disclaimer! Not all ethics quandaries can be resolved with hellfire. Death Is Coming For You–And Death Never Loses! In the Marvel Universe, Death rides a sled and challenges bikers to duels to the, well, death. The problem is, Death cheats. Constantly. At one point, Ghost Rider tires of Death’s cheating ways and blasts…
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spatially relevant
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I’ll trade you 3 lifestreams for 1 blog
29 Jun 2009 | 9:48 amWith all the bluster around blogs being dead AGAIN, I thought I just might approach the topic from a personal perspective. The theory being floated around is that blogs are being replaced by lifestreams or at least something smaller than blog, if it is not a lifestream. A lifestream is a series of links, short content and general real-time communication which represent your life. Think Facebook wall post and Twitter. The premise of the latest death knell is that things are going real-time and there isn’t much real-time about blogs, so they must be dying. At least that is a theme… -
Things I’ve found from June 25th to June 28th
28 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pmhere you go, been slacking for a couple of days or more: A.P.I.M.: A Practice in Meaning (aka KISS) Machiavelli in Reverse Twitter, Iran and the First Amendment 2009 Geospatial Technology Report is now available – GIS in Education Projected Food, Energy Demands Seen To Outpace Production The Product Management Cringe List -
Can’t argure with the math, 3+3+2=Scrum in
28 Jun 2009 | 12:45 pmAndy Brandt’s presentation on an Introduction to Scrum is about as compete an overview I’ve seen online. This presentation is not as salesy as the Working with Sprinters preso, also <30 minutes. Introduction to Scrum from Andy Brandt on Vimeo. -
Using Social Tools to Connect with Your Market
28 Jun 2009 | 6:09 amUsing Social Tools To Connect With Your Market (4) View more OpenOffice presentations from minesm. -
Taxation and economics not quite simplified
27 Jun 2009 | 5:34 amI don’t spend too much time thinking about taxes, but ran into this slide deck which uses a “3 guys go to a bar” approach which includes a little revolution and potential expats along with the cartoon characters. I take a little issue with the zero contribution and zero benefit approach, since math bears out that worker guy over time received $1000’s in benefit in the model laid out. I guess that might be the point – no tax cuts or we have to pay for our own beer. I’m actually a little confused by the message, it’s almost inverse Marxism with the…
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Effectivus: Product Management and Marketing
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Hippocratic Oath for Product Managers
29 Jun 2009 | 2:45 amOn June the 3rd 400 students graduating from Harvard Business School took an oath to “serve the greater good”, “act with the utmost integrity” and guard against “decisions and behaviour that advance my own narrow ambitions, but harm the enterprise and the societies it serves.” It is not exactly a Hippocratic Oath, which was sworn to Apollo and starts with a promise to share your goods with your teacher and his children, but an oath nonetheless. Read the rest of Hippocratic Oath for Product Managers © Chris for Effectivus, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post… -
The road to salvation for “Pants 2 You”
22 Jun 2009 | 8:00 amIn “Pants 2 You is a poor customer message” I told a sad story of appalling customer service at a major high street retailer. As a consultant I spend most of my time helping organisations face the reality of the situation that they are in and work with them to chart a way through it. So, I really could not leave this story without putting my consulting hat on and figuring out how “Pants 2 You” would get itself out of this mess. My plan would not be difficult, very inexpensive, use little executive time and definitely work. Unfortunately it would take courage and a willingness to… -
“Pants 2 You” is a poor customer message
14 Jun 2009 | 11:14 amThat Friday afternoon, after school, my son convinced me to give him a lift to the local toy megastore. He desperately wanted the newly released “Grand Theft Auto IV” for the weekend. It was in short supply and he had reasoned that it would be available in “a shop that nobody goes to” and had even rung to check ahead of time. Like a military raid we dashed into the dreaded emporium, located the “take this to the checkout” ticket, and made for the tills. Just one was open and that was unmanned as the shop assistant had gone off to answer some query. We all stood in line,… -
The art of writing very little
8 Jun 2009 | 3:22 ameffectivus Wordle (www.wordle.net) I was at the Thames Valley Innovation Conference. We’d already had a long morning of “death by PowerPants”; a succession of grey men in dark suits talking about “innovation” but completely failing to do anything innovative other than the odd feeble PowerPants animation (”oh look, shiny thing moving, ooooh”). Then Harry Hobson and Andy Reid of ?WhatIf! stood up. They bounced around the stage like a couple of Duracell bunnies, got the audience on their feet (reluctantly) and engaged, for the first time that… -
Tell me a story
29 May 2009 | 7:00 amThe phone rang as soon as I sat down at my workstation that morning. “Hi, it’s Puck. I’ve got a problem” Puck, I thought, recalling a giant of a visual effects artist. Isn’t he in California? And it’s just before 10am here in London.He went on to describe the problem that he was having in Matador and why it was so urgent that the job he was working on was finished in the morning. Morning?I thought.It’s already 2am there. “Listen, I’m going home to bed, ring me at home when you fix it and I’ll come back into the office”.He concluded, after I’d promised to try to fix the…
