Product Management

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  Ask A Good Product Manager

• How do I position a new version of an existing product and avoid cannibalization?

  jefflash

  26 Oct 2009 | 7:21 pm

  Question: How do I position a new version of an existing product and avoid cannibalization? We have a server-based software product and we are introducing a new desktop-based product. The products have the same features, they just differ in how they are installed. Rather than the new product replacing the existing one, we want both products to continue to exist in parallel, though obviously the goal is to increase revenue overall. What are some techniques and approaches to launch the new product without it having a negative impact on our sales? Answer from Mara Krieps of Pivotal Product…

• What goes in to a product strategy besides goals, objectives, and tactics?

  jefflash

  21 Jun 2009 | 6:40 pm

  Question: 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?

  jefflash

  1 Jun 2009 | 7:32 pm

  Question: 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?

  jefflash

  21 May 2009 | 7:00 pm

  Question: 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?

  jefflash

  29 Mar 2009 | 4:34 am

  Question: 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…

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  Rymatech - PMV Webinars

• Product Innovation Through Powerful Problem Statements

  Val Workman

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:09 pm

  Craig Gygi, Principal and Managing Director, CKGygi About the Webinar: Ryma's December 9th webinar will be presented at noon ET by Craig Gygi. For years, experts have recommended problem statements as a tool to help effectively manage product development projects. But there has been resistance. Some feel that a problem statement restricts innovation and flexibility--characteristics increasingly critical to marketplace success. Others say that limiting a new product to the bounds of a customer- or market-driven objective precludes finding the ideal solution which surpasses what the customer…

• Unify Cross-Functional Activities for Painless Product Management

  Val Workman

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:26 am

  Brittney Herrera, Co-Founder pmNERDS About the Webinar: RYMA's December 30th Webinar will be presented by Brittany Herrera. Attendees of this webinar should gain insight into roadmapping activities designed to address issues found in typical roadmapping processes, and help companies reap the benefits of a unified roadmapping initiative. Unlike typical roadmapping discussions that focus on a single person, or department creating a silo'd product roadmap, this webinar will address issues and solutions in cross-functional teams, strategy alignment, and consensus on roadmapping decisions found in…

• Towards Compositional Software Product Lines

  Val Workman

  11 Nov 2009 | 5:05 am

  Jan Bosch, VP Engineering Process at Intuit About the Webinar: RYMA's December 2nd Webinar will be presented at noon Eastern Time by Jan Bosch of Intuit. Software product lines present the first successful approach to intra-organizational reuse. Companies that successfully deployed software product line technology were able to achieve order of magnitude growth over a decade or achieve major business milestones and the talk will present several of these. Our experience with dozens of companies shows that successful product lines, however, over time suffer from increasing dependencies the…

• Introduction to the SEI Framework for Software Product Line Practice

  Val Workman

  3 Nov 2009 | 12:12 pm

  Patrick Donohoe, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University Download Slides HERE About the Webinar: RYMA's November 11th Webinar was presented by Patrick Donohoe of the SEI. This is part two of a three-part series on Software Product Line Management. Also watch for part three "An Implementation and Maintenance Case Study." Software product lines have emerged as a new software development paradigm of great importance. A software product line is a set of software intensive systems sharing a common, managed set of features, that satisfy the specific needs of a particular market…

• "Where the Wild Thngs Are":Social Media's Influence on Market Research

  Val Workman

  21 Oct 2009 | 7:03 am

  Jim Holland, Founder and principle consultant Mission Creek Partners DownLoad Slides Here About the Webinar: RYMA's October 28th Webinar was presented by Jim Holland. Social media - its conversations and content have opened avenues to untapped audiences, unconstrained demographics and unbridled opinions. But lurking in the forest are all types of distractions, information and potential monsters that may lead you astray. As product management, is there value lurking "where the wild things are?" In the forest of conversations, connections and content, should product management venture in search…

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  Product Management 2.0» Product Management & Product Marketing Experts

• When to quit your product management job

  Brian

  9 Nov 2009 | 9:16 am

  Not sure whether to leave your current product management job? In my opinion one of the worst things you can do is stay too long if you are unhappy. If you do then  you may become branded as being jaded or negative, which can hurt your career for years to come. I have personally stayed in a few positions for too long only to realize once I moved on that it was a huge relief. With that as the background here are the top ten reasons why you might just want to brush up that resume and start looking: You have an engineering group that has no desire to be part of a team You are no longer…

• PM 2.0 Newsletter Oct 30, 2009

  Brian

  30 Oct 2009 | 12:14 pm

  Events Product Management Education Conference (PMEC) Nov 16-17, San Jose, CA. I am delivering the keynote address “How to be a Phenomenal Product Manager” at the PMEC, will be doing a book signing for The Phenomenal Product Manager and will be part of the Product Management Battle of the Bloggers (anyone can attend the blogger battle for free). Greg Cohen of the 280 Group is also delivering our new course, Excellence in Agile Product Management, as track one during the first day. You may have attended a Pcamp or a local Product Management Association event, which are great ways…

• Product Management Education Conference Nov 16-17 San Jose, CA

  Brian

  23 Oct 2009 | 1:32 pm

  Please join us at the 2009 Product Management Education Conference (PMEC) in San Jose, CA November 16 and 17. The theme this year will be “Cracking The Code: Deciphering The Secrets From The Inside”. To make sure you can’t resist attending the AIPMM and the 280 Group have put together an incredible deal for you - you can save up to $999 when you attend the conference and purchase the Certified Product Manager Self-Study Course and Exam  OR the Agile Certified Product Manager Self-Study Course and Exam and the Product Management Office Professional. If you haven’t…

• “All About Product Management Certification” webinar now available.

  Brian

  19 Oct 2009 | 11:08 am

  Recorded webinar is available at http://bit.ly/kk8g8. Slides are at www.280group.com/cert.pdf. Complete comparison of 280 Group certifications can be found at: http://bit.ly/1WoYO1 Comparison table of all 280 Group certs at: http://www.280group.com/cpm/280certs.pdf. NOTE: The $300 special offers for the AIPMM CPM/CPMM and Agile CPM as well as the $500 specials for the 280 Group Blackblot training course and cert are still good, but expire shortly.

• Competitive Analysis Toolkit & New PM Office Released

  Brian

  14 Oct 2009 | 5:48 pm

  We are very excited to announce the release of our newest product: The Competitive Analysis Toolkit ™. The competitive analysis toolkit is a comprehensive set of templates and a narrated training course that will help you to quickly and thoroughly tear apart your competition in record time. We are also releasing version 2.0 of our award-winning Product Management Office™ Professional. Version 2.0 adds the competitive analysis toolkit to give you all seven of our toolkits (Product Manager’s, Roadmaps, Launches, Product Reviews, Beta Programs, Competitive Analysis and Developer…

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  Rocket Watcher

• I'm the #1 PM Blogger!

  April Dunford

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:26 am

   The Association of International Product Marketing and Management (AIPMM) held their educational conference this week and hosted a "Battle of the Product Management Bloggers" contest which I was happy to be asked to take part in.  At short notice my travel plans changed and when I let them know I couldn't make it, they invited me to do my presentation remotely over Skype.  Trying to be entertaining without being able to see or hear the audience is goofy!  People walking past my office would have seen me flapping my arms "presenting" at my computer and likely thought I'd done one too many…

• The Heretech Podcast with Me

  April Dunford

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:21 am

  My mother always said I had a face for radio and lately I'm doing a lot of podcasts.  Here's a conversation I had with Tom Grant a Sr. Analyst with Forrester Research and the creator of the excellent Heretech podcast.  He calls me a lot of names at the beginning like "ebullient" and "irrepressible" but I don't hold that against him :)Click here and have a listen.Subscribe to this blog or follow me on Twitter or Friendfeed

• Trafcom News Podcast: Product Management and Social Media

  April Dunford

  9 Nov 2009 | 7:17 pm

  At ProductCamp Toronto a few weeks back I got a chance to sit down with Donna Papacosta of the Trafcom News Podcast.  Donna does a high quality podcast that's a must-listen for communications, PR or Marketing folks.  In our conversation we touched on the subject of how Product Managers should be using social media and talked a bit about how Product Managers should work with PR/Communications to get to "Communications Utopia".Go ahead, click on the link to have a listen.  It's not every day you get to hear my awe-inspiring Canadian accent in all its glory.Subscribe to this blog or follow me…

• Marketing Lessons from Foursquare

  April Dunford

  5 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  Foursquare is a location-based social networking application that's been described "Twitter for locations."  It lets users subscribe to each other and the information shared is about where you are rather than what you are doing.  It's been rolling out on a city by city basis over the past few months.  I finally got a chance to try it and I think there are some interesting things that marketers can learn from foursquare.   Winning is Fun - unlike Twitter, foursquare has been designed as a game. Users earn points for checking in and foursquare publishes a leaderboard for your friends…

• Can B2B Products be "Social Objects"?

  April Dunford

  3 Nov 2009 | 1:26 pm

  A couple of weeks back I attended MeshMarketing and Hugh MacLeod of Gapingvoid was the keynote speaker.  In his talk he discussed "social objects".  By his definition a "social object" can be a thing a person or an idea that people talk about.  Hugh talked about working at an ad agency where customers would ask them to get people talking about products like it was as easy thing to do.  His comment was (I'm paraphrasing) "Getting people talking is magic!  They were asking us to perform magic but their perception was that we were just pulling a lever."  His described how people talk about…

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  Tyner Blain

• Can You Write Website Requirements Without a Product Manager?

  Scott Sehlhorst

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:35 pm

  A couple weeks ago, our article on writing design-free requirements triggered some great discussion around requirements and design (also known as “reqs and specs”).  What happens when you’re dealing with a website?  There are many stakeholders, who are clear about their own goals.  Who then turns them into requirements? A Website Requirements Scenario Consider the following situation.  Your company has a website, and through that website you sell hats- it is an eCommerce haberdashery.  You have at least three stakeholders that are important in this scenario: Customers…

• SEO Product Management

  Scott Sehlhorst

  10 Nov 2009 | 7:36 am

  SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is an area that every online website needs to think about.  The idea is that the more traffic you can get to your website, the more products you’ll sell.  Just because you can lead a horse to water doesn’t mean you can make him drink.  What a great opportunity to product manage your website and ask why about SEO. SEO When you’re building a website, you have four primary channels by which you get traffic (visitors) to your site: Direct Traffic – people who type in the URL (address) of a page on your website directly into their…

• Design-Free Requirements

  Scott Sehlhorst

  3 Nov 2009 | 8:16 am

  Design-Free requirements are important for two reasons, and hard for two other reasons. Design-free requirements are hard because you “know what you want” when you should be documenting “why you want it.”  Writing design-free requirements can be hard when you don’t trust your development team to “do the right thing” even though it is not your job to design the solution. Design-Free Requirements – Revisiting It has been three years since I wrote Writing Design-Free Requirements as part of The Big Ten Rules of Writing Requirements.  In that…

• Foundation Series: Cross-Selling and Upselling

  Scott Sehlhorst

  28 Oct 2009 | 9:40 pm

  You have an eCommerce site.  You sell products online.  Do you cross-sell additional products?  Do you upsell to better products?  This article explains the difference between cross-sell and upsell, and looks at some real-world data about the effectiveness of both. Cross-Sell and Upsell – What Are They? Cross-selling and upselling are marketing techniques that are applied during the sales process to increase the value of the transaction to both the buyer and the seller.  Technically, they only increase the value to the seller – but they should also be increasing the value to…

• Agile Prioritization: Which Widget?

  Scott Sehlhorst

  19 Oct 2009 | 8:54 pm

  Your company is building out a toolkit to support third-party developers.  You’ll need a bunch of different types of widgets – combo-boxes, text entry fields, domain-specific controls, etc.  You’ve got a long list of desired controls from your customers.  You’re agile.  What do you build first? Agile In A Soundbite Being agile is about delivering incremental value, quickly, getting feedback, and then delivering more incremental value.  Repeat until “done.”  Good agile adds a qualifier – do the most valuable thing quickly, get feedback, do the…

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  ProductMarketing.com

• Friday fun: Google pricing

  Steve Johnson

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:40 am

  Notice anything about the "new cost" pricing for Google apps? For more on pricing, read Don't just roll the dice - a usefully short guide to software pricing and Camels and Rubber Duckies.

• Product Camp Minnesota

  Steve Johnson

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:39 am

  I've been asked to offer the keynote at Product Camp Minnesota. Will you be there?

• Survey: has your job changed?

  Steve Johnson

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:25 am

  "Have you seen your job change in the last two years? If so, how" Want to add your comments? Take Pragmatic Marketing's Product Management and Marketing Benchmark Survey for 2009-2010. (image courtesy of Wordle)

• Let's play "Req or Spec": initiate diagnostic routines

  Steve Johnson

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:17 am

  There's often confusion about what is a requirement and what is a specification. Let's play "Req or Spec." Is this a requirements or a specification? Which is this? How would you improve it? Add your comment below. See On Reqs and Specs for more.

• The Pragmatic Marketer Volume 7 Issue 5

  Steve Johnson

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:46 am

  Some notable articles are featured in the new issue of The Pragmatic Marketer including Updating the Pragmatic Marketing Framework™ written with Jim Foxworthy and an update on our popular article on The Product Management Triad. Also Top 10 Tools to Measure User Experience and The Strategic Product Manager and the CFO. Read more in The Pragmatic Marketer Volume 7 Issue 5.

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  On Product Management

• Vote For Us! ComputerWeekly IT Blog Awards

  saeed

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:28 pm

  It must be that time of year. We have been nominated (for the second year running) for the ComputerWeekly IT Blog awards. And just like last year, you can vote for us in 3 easy steps. 1. Click the “VOTE FOR ME” image on the right (or click here). 2. Scroll down to the IT Project Management category (#7) and select our blog ( On Product Management ) from the list. 3. Scroll down a bit further and press Done. That’s it. One more thing. Don’t let the fact that this is a ProJECT Management category fool you. There are other ProDUCT management blogs listed, and one of the criteria…

• Canadians take top spots at PMEC Battle of the bloggers

  saeed

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:11 pm

  Congratulations to April Dunford of RocketWatcher, and our own Ethan Henry for coming in first and second respectively at the PMEC Battle of the Bloggers in San Jose, CA today. There was stiff competition from a number of prominent bloggers including Michael Ray Hopkin, Tom Grant, Ivan Chalif, and the team from Brainmates in Australia. Here are a few tweets about April’s and Ethan’s performances. And here are the official results. Congrats also to Tom Grant, Ivan Chalif and Ivan Lybbert. Posted in Admin, PMEC, Product Management, Product Marketing

• Surprise us: Seeking examples of SURPRISING positioning statements

  Alan

  10 Nov 2009 | 10:37 am

  We write a lot here, and we hope that it helps you. Now I’m looking for your input. Can you help? If you do, I will feature you on our blog. But I need the responses within 1 day! The request I am looking for examples of positioning that takes the buyer by surprise. The classic example of this is AVIS, as told and retold by Ries and Trout in their classic books on marketing and positioning. AVIS was not the leader in its category, so it claimed a different position: “We are only #2, but we try harder.” Very few companies would be willing to admit that they have a #2…

• Battlin’ Bloggers

  Ethan

  8 Nov 2009 | 12:10 pm

  On behalf of Saeed, Alan and myself, I’ll be speaking on November 17th at the 2009 AIPMM Product Management Educational Conference in the Battle of the Bloggers. Come and see me prove that three heads are better than one when it comes to Product Management blogging. (The full conference runs Nov 16th & 17th) Posted in Ethan, PMEC, Product Management Blogs

• Taking the “mess” out of Messaging (part 4)

  saeed

  4 Nov 2009 | 8:31 pm

  This is part 4 of the series. Here are links to Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. In this part, I’ll take a look at whether the industry can get out of the mess it’s in. Looking back Before looking forward, let’s take a look back at some ads from a couple of decades ago. Click each image to enlarge. Notice something about these ads? They all look rather similar. Pictures of (similar looking) computers and lots of text! Check out those headlines. “A new way of personal-professional computation”???? What’s that all about? Is it a personal computer or a professional…

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  Write That Down

• Product Management Open House

  Adam Bullied

  5 Nov 2009 | 7:02 am

  There is an open house tomorrow at Forrester being hosted by Tom Grant of the Heretech fame. It starts at 5:30pm, and is happening in order to host lively discussion on, what else, product management and product marketing issues. Specifically for this first session, there will be a focus on how social media is changing product roles within all types and sizes of organizations. If you are in the bay area, be sure to stop by and say hi to Tom!

• reBlog from avc.com: A VC

  Adam Bullied

  28 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

  I found this fascinating quote today: If you look at our portfolio, you’ll see quite a few startups created by young visionaries and quite a few startups created by serial entrepreneurs who are swinging for the fences. There isn’t much else to be honest.avc.com, A VC, Oct 2009 You should read the whole article.

• Competitive Analysis – Gathering Marketing Data

  Adam Bullied

  11 Sep 2009 | 8:45 am

  The last component I’ll discuss of the competitive analysis process is culling marketing and sales collateral from your list of identified competitors. Why do this? You want to be acquainted with what they are putting out there. It should give you a sense of how their products are being positioned (however poorly or not). In turn, that should give you a sense of a) how strong your own positioning is and b) positioning around that competitor as a result. These materials can also be used as a quick way to give others in your organization an idea of the lay of the land. It’s better…

• Competitive Analysis Series – Pricing

  Adam Bullied

  9 Sep 2009 | 8:45 am

  One of the regular questions I (and I’m sure others) face when it comes to competitive analysis is, “what are they charging?” This is an especially tricky question to answer accurately. I’ve gone about this in a couple of different ways – obviously, when you are dealing with B2C companies that publicize their prices, it’s simple. But before getting in to potential methods for gathering this data, I wanted to bring up a point as to why this is important information to acquire. The first is sales. When you are assisting your sales team, it’s beneficial…

• Great Companies

  Adam Bullied

  4 Sep 2009 | 10:06 pm

  How I missed this one yesterday I don’t know. But whatever you do, be sure to read through Fred Wilson’s post Ten Characteristics of Great Companies. Awesome stuff, and well worth the time to check out.

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  Forrester: Product Management

• Next PM open house: Agile in tech companies

  Tom Grant

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:55 pm

  Since our first Forrester open house for product managers and product marketers was a success, we're going to start scheduling them regularly. Like, say, once a month. The topic that has received the most votes in our topic survey is, How does Agile affect the company, outside the development team? Other leading topics include: What's the state of the art in requirements? How are other companies structuring their PM teams? How do companies make a successful transition to a new business model? How do other teams handle sales support? What are some strategies for handling the product…

• The Heretech, episode 28: April Dunford on product marketing

  Tom Grant

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:46 pm

  April Dunford, who writes the blog Rocket Watcher, explains the product marketing challenges in the tech industry, and the special problems facing startups. We also talk about how PMs can embrace social media without a huge hit to their schedule. Plus, a juicy tidbit from the upcoming research document on requirements. (c) 2009 Tom Grant

• Remember the KISS principle?

  Tom Grant

  13 Nov 2009 | 2:52 pm

  This morning, I had a briefing with McObject, a tech vendor that specializes in embeddable databases. From cars to set-top boxes to web sites, there's a near-universal need to put data somewhere, retrieve it, and manage it. In these use cases, the simplest database technology is the best. Their product strategy is interesting to the readers of this blog for at least a couple of reasons. First, there's an unstated assumption in many technology companies that complexity is inescapable. If you want to keep pace with your competitors, you have to keep pace with their feature set. Keeping…

• Sometimes, you measure commitment by the hour

  Tom Grant

  13 Nov 2009 | 12:58 pm

  During a breakfast meeting this morning, someone asked a very sharp question: Are businesses really operating differently because of social media? I then jumped in the car, drove from San Francisco back to our Foster City office, and heard how Cisco has used social media to change product launches. The obvious change, of course, is lowering the cost, if you're not renting out the Moscone Center for a big launch party. Slightly less obvious changes include the ability to reach more people in more countries. , the virtual launch also makes it possible to reach more people, in more…

• The Heretech, episode 27: Rob Koplowitz on SharePoint adoption

  Tom Grant

  10 Nov 2009 | 5:23 pm

  Forrester's Rob Koplowitz tells us how organizations adopt SharePoint, and the lessons learned for other technology vendors. But first, a recap of last week's open house on "social product management," and some musings on the product strategy for Google Wave. (c) 2009 Tom Grant.

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  The Accidental Product Manager

• Why ROI Is The WRONG Way To Measure Your Product’s Marketing Program

  Dr. Jim Anderson

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pm

  Image Credit Marketing Programs Require More Important Things Than Just Money To Be Measured Ah the world of product marketing – it’s where artists dream up brightly colored logos and put together viral YouTube videos that nobody really understands but everyone has to watch and send to their friends. Well, as a product manager you may think that that is what goes on in the world of marketing, but in the end you really don’t care. What you want is results, in other words more sales of your product. Let’s reign in the magic unicorns that live in marketing and try to come up with a way…

• How To Market Your Product In 2010

  Dr. Jim Anderson

  15 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pm

  2010 Is Almost Here -- Do You Know What Your Customers Are Thinking? 2009 is dead, long live 2009. Ok, so it’s not quite dead yet; however, even as your sales teams are running around trying to close the year out on a high note you as a product manager need to start to set your sights on what you’re going to do to get ready for next year. Got a plan? Uncertainty Rules No matter what happens with the global economy, things aren’t going to get better overnight. This means that your customers are going to be living in a land of uncertainty next year also. As a product manager…

• AccPM Poll Results: Who gets more respect where you work Product Managers or Project Managers?

  Dr. Jim Anderson

  15 Nov 2009 | 9:27 am

  Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. The question this past week was “Who gets more respect where you work Product Managers or Project Managers?“ It was a light week and in the end, it ended up being a dead heat. However, there’s something to be learned here: this clearly is not a hot topic. I must confess to being just a little surprised by this. As a working product manager,  I can confess to always having been just a bit jealous of my project management brothers and sisters. They seem to have their act…

• Is Your Marketing Message Missing The Point?

  Dr. Jim Anderson

  10 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pm

  Image Credit Your Marketing Message Has To Be Aligned With Your Customer's Needs If you were going fishing, how much luck catching fish do you think that you would have if you didn’t use any bait on your hook? Sure, there are probably some either dumb or near-sighted fish that might still bite, but you’re going to be doing a lot of sitting around waiting. Is it possible that as a product manger you are fishing for customers for your product without bait? The Problem With Market Assumptions As a product manager you work hard to create a product that meets what you think the…

• Learn To Read Your Customer’s Mind In 3 Simple Steps

  Dr. Jim Anderson

  8 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pm

  Image Credit Teach Your Sales Teams How To Get In Their Customer's Heads... Just shut-up and buy my product! In fact, while you are at it, buy a lot of my product. If only we could really tell our potential customers this then life would be so much simpler. However, try this little verbal outburst just once and then you’ll have a chance to sit back and spend some time polishing your resume as you look for your next product manager job. If you really want people to buy more of your product, then do what I’ve done – learn how to read minds… How Most Product Mangers…

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  enthiosys agile product management

• Haut Tech: Scio Uses Innovation Games

  rich mironov

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:54 am

  Excerpting a post on Scio’s “Haut Tech” blog from 19-Nov-09: At Scio, we use Innovation Games with our clients in several contexts, from new product definition to ongoing product management. For a new product design, the games help us work with our client team to uncover customer requirements that are still loosely defined, as well as to help our development team understand the key selling points of a product. For ongoing product management, the games help us work with client product managers to come up with new ideas, develop and prioritize their product roadmap and…

• Nov-11-09: Transitioning to Agile Product Development - Lessons Learned

  rich mironov

  9 Nov 2009 | 4:39 am

  PDMA Los Angeles hosts a panel on Agile development: What: “Transitioning to Agile Product Development – Lessons Learned” Where: The Olympic Collection, 11301 W. Olympic Blvd. at Sawtelle Blvd. / West Los Angeles When: Weds, Nov 11th, 6-9PM Register here Members $35 in advance / $45 day of event. Non-members $45 in advance / $55 day of event. Students $30 with ID Learn about the benefit of agile product development as well as the pitfalls and best practices from agile experts and practitioners about transitioning to an agile product development environment. Experts panelists…

• Nov-11-09: “Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play” at Business of Software 2009

  rich mironov

  9 Nov 2009 | 2:54 am

  Luke Hohmann joins a renowned set of presentations including Geoffrey Moore and Don Norman at Business of Software 2009, Nov 8th through 11th. What: “Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play” presented by Luke Hohmann When: Weds Nov 11th, 10am to 10:30am Where: Westin Market Street Hotel, 50 Third Street, San Francisco Registration and more information The conference brings together attendees and speakers interested in building long-term, sustainable and profitable software businesses. Fifteen speakers over two and half days will talk about how to succeed in the…

• Nov-17-09: Battle of the PM Blogs at PMEC

  rich mironov

  9 Nov 2009 | 2:49 am

  Rich Mironov will moderate a panel at PMEC called “Battle of the PM Bloggers.” As a long-standing writer and practitioner of product management, he brings a few decades of PM podium time to the event. What: “Battle of the PM Bloggers” panel and competition Part of: PMEC 2009, AIPMM’s Product Management Education Conference When: Tues, Nov 17th at 4:00 – 5:00 PM as part of a two-day event Moderator: Rich Mironov Participants: top 10 PM bloggers Where: The Fairmont San Jose, 170 South Market Street, San Jose, CA Registration and fees: www.aipmm.com/pmec AIPMM…

• Nov-17-09: “Agile Product Manager Dilemma” at PMEC

  rich mironov

  9 Nov 2009 | 1:05 am

  Rich Mironov presented a talk on “The Agile Product Manager/Product Owner Dilemma” at PMEC in San Jose. This generated  lively discussion about how Product Management is different in agile organizations (especially Scrum teams) and the challenges of Product Owners who lack Product Management support or experience.   Honored to have Jeff Patton contributing. What: “The Agile Product Manager/Product Owner Dilemma” Part of: PMEC 2009, AIPMM’s Product Management Education Conference When: Tues, Nov 17th at 1:00 PM Where: The Fairmont San Jose, 170 South Market…

• 
  How To Be A Good Product Manager

• Save some features for later

  jefflash

  10 Nov 2009 | 5:34 am

  If you want to be a bad product manager, release all of your features at once. If you have some cool functionality, why would you wait to show it to the world? You need to get as much out as you can right away — if users don’t see everything that you have to offer the first time they use the product, there’s a chance you might lose them. Sure, there may be some features that they don’t care about, but customers will gladly sift through extra functionality to find the few pieces which might be really worthwhile. If you want to be a good product manager, save some…

• Product management is more than prioritizing features

  jefflash

  24 Sep 2009 | 7:54 pm

  If you want to be a bad product manager, just focus on prioritizing features. That’s what product managers do, after all — just collect features from customers and decide which are the most important ones to add to the product. Plus, now with all these great tools that let you collect features directly online and have customers vote on them, it’s even easier since your customers are doing all of your work for you! If you want to be a good product manager, realize that your job is much more than prioritizing features. Sure, a product manager needs to understand what features…

• Learn from the mistakes of the iPhone 3G S

  jefflash

  22 Jun 2009 | 8:16 pm

  If 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

  jefflash

  31 Mar 2009 | 6:34 pm

  If 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

  jefflash

  9 Mar 2009 | 8:00 pm

  If 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…

• 
  Lead on Purpose

• Battle of the bloggers

  Michael Ray Hopkin

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:42 pm

  Tomorrow I have the opportunity to speak at the AIPMM Battle of the Bloggers and tell the people why Lead On Purpose is the top product management blog. Given the level of competition among the participating bloggers and the many other great blogs “out there” it’s a daunting task to say the least. In preparing for my brief (~5 minute) speech I’ve come up with a few reasons why Lead On Purpose is important to the product management community: Promoting leadership in product management: The blog was started with the intent to promote leadership practices that will help…

• Book Review: The Three Laws of Performance

  Michael Ray Hopkin

  10 Nov 2009 | 7:12 am

  “One of the flaws of management in this day and age is that we fragment accountabilities and then everyone focuses on their own piece.” In The Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life, authors Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan discuss laws that govern individual, group and organizational behavior. They lay out a framework to help leaders at any level envision a positive future filled with success, based on the Three Laws of Performance: How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them. The first law addresses why things occur to…

• Three steps to the next big opportunity

  Michael Ray Hopkin

  4 Nov 2009 | 10:26 pm

  One of the keys to career progress (advancement) is identifying and taking advantage of new opportunities. Most of the time the new opportunities are not obvious; after all, when things become obvious they are usually past the “opportunity” stage. The crucial habit for progress is watching, learning and becoming aware of trends and changes going on around you. Here are three steps to help you prepare yourself for the next big opportunity: Demonstrate flexibility: The word ‘flexible’ has various meanings; in this context think of ‘willingness.’ Be the person…

• A new Leadership Development Carnival

  Michael Ray Hopkin

  2 Nov 2009 | 6:14 am

  The Lead on Purpose blog is featured in the November Leadership Development Carnival of Dan McCarthy’s Great Leadership blog. The latest Leadership Carnival brings together links to more than 30 fresh posts on topics such as mentors and role models, leading teams and maximizing your performance. You’ll find posts from great bloggers such as Wally Bock, Steve Roesler, Chris Young and others. The Leadership Development Carnival is a great way to expand your leadership knowledge and get to know the bloggers who are making it happen.

• Trust in business

  Michael Ray Hopkin

  1 Nov 2009 | 12:13 am

  One of the things I’m finding as I continue to read The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey is the abundance of leadership quotes he has included in the book. They give excellent insight into the importance trust plays in your success. The following quote points out the importance of trust in business: You can’t have success without trust. The word trust embodies almost everything you can strive for that will help you to succeed. You tell me any human relationship that works without trust, whether it is a marriage or a friendship or a social interaction; in the long run, the same…

• 
  Product Management Tips

• 6 “bootstrapping” tools for software product managers

  gopalshenoy

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:41 am

  You are a software product manager trying to start a software company on your own. Or you work for a startup or a small software company and don’t have much money to spend. But you still need to design a good user experience, do early usability testing with your prospects, do a quick show and [...]

• Customer Visit: 2 creative ways to get a budget

  gopalshenoy

  8 Nov 2009 | 7:06 pm

  Times are tough, budgets are being cut, there is a travel ban in companies, so as a product manager, how do you get a travel budget so that you can get out of your office for on-site customer visits? It is hard, but here are two creative ways you can make it work. 1) Think local [...]

• What is product simplicity?

  gopalshenoy

  3 Nov 2009 | 4:39 am

  The KISS principle – Keep it simple stupid – something all of us as software product managers have heard one time or another. But when it comes to products, what exactly is product simplicity? Product usability and simplicity typically falls into three different categories, in my perspective. This perspective is based on my 13 year [...]

• Death by a thousand paper cuts ….

  gopalshenoy

  26 Oct 2009 | 7:48 pm

  In my last post, I discussed the benefits of doing an on-site customer visit where you get to observe customers/prospects use your product or competitive products to get their job done. In my experience doing these visits, I often discover what I call “death by a thousand paper cuts” issues. These issues are essentially annoyances [...]

• Five reasons customer visits beat other requirements gathering techniques

  gopalshenoy

  7 Oct 2009 | 3:15 pm

  I am a big fan of customer visits – ones where you visit customers on-site and observe them using your or competitor’s product. Now why do this? What are the benefits of doing this over talking to the same customer/prospect over the phone, while at a conference/trade show or doing a survey etc. Here are [...]

• 
  Seilevel's Software Requirements

• First call for papers for RE'10. Can you hear the kangaroos calling us?

  Joy

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:24 pm

  Pack your bags folks, we are heading to Australia in 2010! I'm excited to post the first call for papers (CFP) for IEEE's RE'10, held in Sydney Australia next September. I'll copy the key components of the CFP here, but visit the link for more details. I'm excited about this because we'll be working closely with conference organizers to ensure a very strong industry track - with many enhancements/improvements over past years conferences to help attract a great set of practitioners from the Product Management and Business Analyst communities as well!CALL FOR PAPERS AND PROPOSALS 18th IEEE…

• Resource with Tips for Virtual Teams

  Joy

  2 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am

  I am a huge fan of Thiagi's work on games to use in training. He has made many games publicly available for use in your own training environments. In the past I've done some writing (here) about how we've adapted his games to Requirements Engineering training courses. But today I was browsing his site and found something I thought might be useful to others. He has posted a list of tips for virtual teams. There are just over 100 simple tips, that if you just skim the list I'm sure you'll find a handful of them can be applied immediately in your organization. Does anyone have comments on ones…

• Delivering Business Value with Agile Approaches to Requirements, continued

  Joy

  30 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

  This post is a continuation of a previous post found here. Changes Dave believes are coming with respect to agile-run projects and my own commentary on these: Requirements engineers make decisions, they are not just documenters. Expect to see that product owners are the BAs. They will less often be called systems analysts, and more often called product owners. A few years ago, we shifted from calling our requirements team members “Business Analysts” and started calling them “Product Managers” because that’s really what they have to do – own the product, even if it’s just an…

• Delivering Business Value with Agile Approaches to Requirements

  Joy

  28 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

  I attended a keynote at RE’09 in Atlanta that I wanted to go back and post a summary of and my thoughts on. And just to be completely honest, this is a rarity. For whatever reason, I really tend not to get much value out of keynote talks – either they are too technical, the speaker isn’t great at well, speaking, or they are so out there I cannot engage in it. Today was different though, it was captivating for me. This one was given by Dave West of Forrester Research. The talk was titled “Developing Business Value with Agile Approaches to Requirements”.To be fair, he had my attention…

• An example of Blueprint in Use on an Agile Project

  Joy

  26 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

  I attended a talk by folks from BluePrint and Lexis Nexis at BAWorld on Tuesday at BAWorld: Boston called "Requirements Definition for Agile Projects". The first bit of the talk was just an intro to agile and why it is useful on the projects. The part that I found most interesting was from Kathleen McGoey who owned business analysis on lawyers.com - she effectively gave a verbal case study of their team using agile and Blueprint to deploy this site. This was refreshing because she was brutally honest about the state of their organization 2 years ago, some of her dislikes about other tools,…

• 
  ack/nak

• considering: what's first

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:48 pm

  I'm waiting."What are you waiting for? Godot? Mr. Goodbar?"I'm waiting for my new job to begin."Woo hoo! Terrific! What are you going to be doing?""Product management.""Where?"Can't say. Yet."Why?"Can't say that either. But I can say that I'm looking forward to starting, and I'm considering what to do first."What you do first is easy. You sign a lot of papers, you get your picture taken, you shake a lot of hands."That stuff doesn't count. I'm talking about what's first."You've already written about that. You take a document inventory."Well, yes. . . but. . ."Come on, don't tell us that you're…

• thinking: about the blessing of mileage

  12 Nov 2009 | 7:22 pm

  A friend of mine has just started a new business - a genuine wine and cigar "bar" in Brighton, Michigan. It's already getting some great press. You should go there. But that's not why I'm writing this.I know the guy who owns it. He is, as one of my Irish ancestors would say, a mensch. Such a man as operates this genuine wine and cigar "bar" you will rarely find, even if you lift up rocks in the search for said brand of fellow.I know him from Way Back When, and I know a little about the trip he's taken to get to where he is today.I don't envy him that trip.Looking at the Facebook page…

• link: the software maven

  29 Oct 2009 | 6:51 am

  If you're a developer or a product manager who has come up through the software development ranks, you probably already know about Travis Jensen's blog The Software Maven.What I really enjoy and value about Travis' writing is his focus on how the product development and product management roles relate (or don't relate, as the case may be) to each other over time, which is to say at different points of the software development life cycle. Each season of the product development process brings different challenges; Travis' insights into these different seasons makes for terrific reading.So how…

• hello: visitors from pragmatic marketing

  14 Oct 2009 | 12:54 pm

  If you've just finished reading my article in October's Pragmatic Marketing newsletter and have decided to pay a visit, welcome. You may skip the next line.If you have not read that article, please refer to the link above, then come back.For your amusement and edification I have made it easy for you to find what you want here at ack/nak. Simply use the tags found on the upper right hand side of the page, relax with a delicious beverage and your choice of snacks, and enjoy.

• idea: the LRD (life requirements document)

  6 Oct 2009 | 9:53 am

  In one of my first posts here I wrote about the importance of writing the MRD first. It's amazing to think that was almost four years ago. Gosh I'm long-winded.Recently I've come to appreciate that there's a document that must be written prior to the MRD.It has nothing to do with your market, your products, or your company. It has everything to do with you.I can't take credit for this - my wife made it clear to me that I needed to write down "what I wanted" if I was going to conduct a successful search, whether it was for consulting clients or a full-time gig."If you're such a hot-shot…

• 
  Google News: Product Management News

• Doug Busk Joins Whoop(R) Management Team - PR-CANADA.net (press release)

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:47 pm

  Doug Busk Joins Whoop(R) Management TeamPR-CANADA.net (press release)Previously, Doug held business development and product management leadership roles with spinvox, Amdocs and singlepoint. Doug has also led product

• Guest Post: Launching a Business While Searching for Work - Wall Street Journal (blog)

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:38 am

  Guest Post: Launching a Business While Searching for WorkWall Street Journal (blog)Mr. Jones, 43, spent 11 years at the company with roles in IT operations, software development, business development and product management. and more »

• WorkForce Management Software Group Announces OEM Agreement - Earthtimes (press release)

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:24 am

  WorkForce Management Software Group Announces OEM AgreementEarthtimes (press release)“WFMSG is committed to delivering superior functionality and design on the most modern platform,” says WFMSG, Principle responsible for Product Management and more »

• Google's Chrome OS in 2010 - Foreseen Events Festival Guide (blog)

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:19 am

  Globe and MailGoogle's Chrome OS in 2010Foreseen Events Festival Guide (blog)As outlined by Sundar Pichai, Google's Vice President of Product Management, "in Chrome OS, every application is a web application. Live From Google's Chrome OS EventWashington PostBrin: Google's OSes likely to convergeCNET NewsChrome OS UnveiledAccuraCastNews In Tech (blog) -T3 -TopNews Singaporeall 1,033 news articles »

• Enterprise Product Management Center-Stage at Management World Americas 2009 - SYS-CON Media (press release)

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:23 am

  Enterprise Product Management Center-Stage at Management World Americas 2009SYS-CON Media (press release)Throughout the show Tribold will be discussing the rapid adoption of Enterprise Product Management (EPM) with the company's Chief Technical Officer,

• 
  Product Management News

• Google sheds light on netbook plans for Chrome OS

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

  Google has taken the wraps off its Chrome OS for the first time. At an event held at its Mountain View HQ on Thursday, Google vice president of product management Sundar Pichai gave the assembled press a tour of Chrome, which showed the basic look and feel as very similar to the Chrome browser.

• Google open-sources operating system

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:55 pm

  Google Inc. announced Thursday the open-sourcing of code for Chrome OS, the cloud-based operating system the company is developing to power netbooks.

• Gerber Technology Attains Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Status

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:07 am

  Gerber Technology, a business unit of Gerber Scientific, Inc. and a world leader in automated CAD/CAM and PLM solutions for the apparel and flexible materials industry, today announced it has attained Gold Certified Partner status in the Microsoft Partner Program with a competency in ISV/Software Solutions recognizing Gerber Technology's expertise ...

• Job - Interaction/Visual Designer - Web and Software Applications...

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:06 pm

  Location: Ventura County Skills you will need: Experience defining information architecture, visual design and/or interaction design for software applications, web applications and/or a significant e-commerce website, UX Responsibilities: Ensures that design work is consistent with documented design standards.

• Google to demo Chrome OS; Detail launch plans

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:56 pm

  Google on Thursday will give a technical update on its Chrome OS. The company is holding an event at its Mountain View campus.

• 
  The Experience is the Product | Better product management and products

• Maybe We Should Call It Minimum Viable Process

  Cindy

  12 Nov 2009 | 11:54 am

  I really enjoyed this cautionary blog post yesterday: We were going to build the coolest tree house around. It was going to be 10 feet off the ground at floor level and have 120 square feet of space under roof… You’ve probably already guessed that we did not, in fact, build the Minimum Viable Tree House.  [...]

• Why “Innovation Teams” Fail (and how to prevent it)

  Cindy

  5 Nov 2009 | 11:25 am

  It’s OK to say you belong or reside within and have an innovation team within a corporate/business environment. Innovation is not a dirty word. - Carl Knibbs, Cup of Innovation, Anyone? I agree!  I’ve seen two reasons why “innovation teams” are poorly regarded within larger organizations.  Actually, they apply to pretty much any type of “special [...]

• Why You Must Solve the First User Experience, First

  Cindy

  29 Oct 2009 | 11:40 am

  The Bay Bridge is closed, shutting down the major commute artery for thousands and thousands of people.  Luckily, there are public transit alternatives - the BART trains that run under the bay and the high-speed ferries. That doesn’t mean people are using them. Judging by local news radio reports and anecdotes I’ve heard the last few [...]

• Front-Load the Pain

  Cindy

  21 Oct 2009 | 12:15 pm

  This is a story about a bug that I still think about. It could have been avoided if I’d been able to successfully convince us that we should sacrifice a little bit of backwards-compatibility.  It would’ve meant customer complaints. Some customers would have delayed their upgrades; some may have even threatened to not renew their contracts [...]

• The “Good Enough” Formula for Segmenting an Existing Market

  Cindy

  15 Oct 2009 | 10:01 am

  The recent press about Mint’s acquisition and the “Good-Enough Revolution” has gotten me thinking that there’s an emerging pattern here that more startups (and established companies!) should be capitalizing on. The Formula Look for markets where the existing solution is incredibly powerful but people dread using it, or feel stupid using it because they haven’t invested enough [...]

• 
  The Productologist

• Book Review: Product Manager’s Desk Reference

  Ivan Chalif

  5 Nov 2009 | 4:56 am

  Product Manager’s Desk Reference by Steven Haines There are books and there are Books, and with 700+ pages, the Product Manager’s Desk Reference (PMDR) definitely falls in the latter category of capital B books. It’s not a book you can throw in your laptop bag to read on the plane (or train). Actually, you could, but you might not have room for your laptop! There are many books (and blogs) out there that purport to tell you how to be a Product Manager. I have discussed some of them here before and there are many reviews on sites like Amazon. The PMDR is unique among them in…

• Las Vegas as a Model for Products

  Ivan Chalif

  28 Oct 2009 | 5:30 am

  The BW and I took a trip to Vegas this summer (her first) as long weekend getaway. Our experiences there were quite different, even though we were together 99 percent of the time. Vegas is many things to many people and we had different expectations (from each other) going in and by the time we were headed home, we had different views about the experience. On the outside, Las Vegas is flashy. A large, shiny diamond with many facets, twinkling in the light. Everything blinks or flashes or emits sound. Sometimes all three. Sometimes, all the time. Everything in Las Vegas is vying for your…

• Product Management Reader: 5Oct09

  Ivan Chalif

  4 Oct 2009 | 5:53 am

  Travel usually makes for a very productive Productologist (long waits in airport terminals and poor in-flight entertainment typically give me the time to crank out the great blog posts you all have become accustomed to). But lately, I have been worshiping at the altar of the Red-Eye trans-continental (or trans-Atlantic) flight, which has resulted in a decrease in blog productivity, but an increase in actual work productivity and familial relations. It’s not that I don’t like you, it’s just that I don’t LIKE-like you. Sorry. Here, take this pen. It’s a really nice…

• Product Management Question Corner: Amita Paul, ObjectiveMarketer

  Ivan Chalif

  21 Sep 2009 | 5:46 am

  Well folks, this is it. The FINAL PMQC.  Today we are talking with Amita Paul, Founder of ObjectiveMarketer, a solution for extending Marketing, Sales and Customer Service into Social Media. This session has been in the works for a looong time. Originally, Amita was going to write some guest posts for The Productologist, but we couldn’t quite get the timing right. Then she started working on ObjectiveMarketer and as anyone who has started their own company knows, there is not much time for extracurricular activity. Ideally, this interview would have fit in with the entrepreneurial ones…

• Temporary PM gig in NYC

  Ivan Chalif

  10 Sep 2009 | 9:39 am

  Another opportunity, albeit, a temporary one for a Web Product Manager in New York City. Unfortunately I don’t have any details other than those below. Send me a note if you are interested. It’s  a 3- or 4-month position with the following responsibilities– Perform research and analysis to shape product vision and strategy in pursuit of business goals Define and write product requirements and functional specifications Identify potential vendors and partners Create and maintain development and production schedules Obtain necessary legal clearances Manage the flow of assets…

• 
  The Cranky Product Manager

• Translation of The Cranky Product Manager

  The Cranky Product Manager

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  Like all product managers who’ve lasted more than a year or two, the Cranky Product Manager has learned a few key phrases that keep her out of trouble. We all do it. Don’t kid yourself. “Weasel words,” some call them.  The Cranky PM calls it “PM-Obfusco-Speech.”  And here’s a “secret decoder ring” to let you translate it. WHAT WE SAY WHAT WE MEAN You should file a customer commitment. Your feature request is stupid. Please stop pestering me and go away. It’s on the long-term roadmap. While not stupid, your feature request is such…

• It Ain’t Happening. Sorry.

  The Cranky Product Manager

  6 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pm

  This is brief, because it hurts to type.  True physical pain. The Cranky PM has H1N1 – 0r as one reader termed it, “porkulosis”.  No doubt, it is some kind of cosmic retribution for her executing a near flawless product launch earlier this week, and then bragging about it on Twitter. Unfortunately, this means that the Cranky Product Manager will be unable to speak at Business of Software 2009.  She is SO sorry and very, very disappointed.  She had her wig and sunglasses all set to go, and had been working on her presentation for weeks.  (Maybe she’ll record it…

• Need Your Help (Biz of SW 2009)

  The Cranky Product Manager

  2 Nov 2009 | 10:36 am

  Hello, As you might know, the Cranky Product Manager is scheduled to speak at the Business of Software 2009 conference. In a crazy-ass wig and sunglasses. As if that really disguised anyone. Maybe the CPM should get one of those Scooby-Doo Villain masks…. Ack.  Focus, CPM! The topic: the Cranky Product Manager is gonna talk about the big dysfunctions that seem endemic to nearly all B2B software vendors: 1. Marketing lies – intentional and unintentional. 2. Ridiculously complicated licensing, option-itis, and near-malignant product proliferation. 3. Wrongly applying the 80/20 rule…

• The Cranky Product Manager Sez Go Big or Go Home

  The Cranky Product Manager

  20 Oct 2009 | 2:15 pm

  Oy.  Product managers create business cases and business plans all the time.  The Cranky PM has created and seen a bajillion of them in her day.  Lots. But, cripes, so many of them suck.  In particular, so many business cases use a device that is a major peeve of the Cranky Product Manager.  Oh yes, you know it.  You’ve probably done it yourself.  It’s the “one percent of the market” argument.  It usually goes something like this:  “The total market is $X.  If we manage to garner just 1% of that total market, we will have $Z in revenue per year.  $Z…

• 10 Things The Cranky Product Manager Has Learned About Product Management

  The Cranky Product Manager

  29 Sep 2009 | 4:23 pm

  Here’s some stuff the Cranky PM has learned during her (not that) long and (wicked) illustrious career. Readers, add your own “10 things” that you’ve learned about product management in the comments. 1. On overly-complex pricing models: If the sales force wants you to give them a training class on the pricing model, then your pricing model is too complicated.  If your price list is more than 6 pages, it is too complicated.  If you have more than 3 basic product configurations (example: Starter, Standard, Enterprise), it is too complicated for your Sales Droids, your…

• 
  ZIGZAG Marketing - Tips & Articles

• Out with Product Marketing 1.0 and In With Product Marketing 2.0

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:58 pm

• Your Product is Whatever Google Says It Is

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:17 pm

  Your positioning and messaging may be the only way to differentiate your products from the competition. Or is it?

• Market Requirements Document (MRD) - Great in Theory, Not So Great in Practice

  16 Oct 2009 | 2:46 am

  No one would argue the value of connecting product features to market needs, the primary objective of an MRD. Yet...

• Three Rules of Powerful Positioning

  16 Oct 2009 | 2:19 am

  The only way to differentiate in today’s hyper-competitive economy is your positioning and messaging.

• Five Sales Scenarios When Dead Air is Good

  14 Sep 2009 | 8:43 am

  Dead air is a broadcaster’s worst nightmare because it ultimately results in lost revenue. In sales however, dead air can be...

• 
  Web Ink Now

• Making stuff up

  David Meerman Scott

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:48 am

  How do you market your company, products, and services? Are you sitting around your comfortable offices with your colleagues just making stuff up? Or do you really understand your buyer personas and what problems they have that you can solve? I share my thoughts on making "stuff" up in this short video. Thanks to Stacy Melillo Spognardi at Cisco for asking the question that prompted this answer. I spoke with Stacy in my office (yes that's my junk you see in the background of the video). The six-part series resulting from our discussions called “Social Media Marketing for Telcos” will be…

• A surprisingly fun and interesting B2B ebook from CareerBuilder

  David Meerman Scott

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:09 am

  Most B2B communications is dry and boring. Most B2B content offers send buyers to a squeeze page requiring an email address. As a result most buyers just can’t be bothered. I really enjoy when I find a B2B ebook that surprises me by its originality. Here's one from CareerBuilder. Once you get to the landing page, you can punch that big, sweet Download Now button to get the ebook right away. Better Recruitment Starts with Better Search CareerBuilder's Search Smart eBook: The insider's guide to better resume database search (with tips and tricks for finding the best resumes) The purpose of…

• Online video as lead generation

  David Meerman Scott

  16 Nov 2009 | 12:17 pm

  Video has been available on the Web for years and with YouTube it is simple for anyone to create and post a video online. However, a legitimate criticism of video (especially from B2B marketers) has been that it is tough to do lead generation. Sure you can have a URL mention at the end of a video or you can embed a video within a landing page with some lead offers, but that's not fully integrated. My friends at VisibleGains have developed a video application that solves this problem. Here is an example program we created from the four videos I shot at GM a few weeks ago. The VisibleGains…

• Hey B2B marketers: It's okay to have fun!

  David Meerman Scott

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:14 am

  Why is so much business-to-business marketing dreadfully boring? I think it's because the marketers involved think "business" as in "I am marketing to a business" and this results in an overly serious tone. After all, if you are marketing to, say, technology companies that’s different than consumer marketing, right? Wrong. B2B marketers seem to forget that what all marketers need to do is communicate to people. People want to do business with people and the companies that understand that in the B2B world develop a following. National Instruments is a B2B supplier of measurement and…

• Eugene Mirman is on television, is very nice, and likes seafood

  David Meerman Scott

  9 Nov 2009 | 10:33 am

  "There is no middleman between me and an audience," says Comedian Eugene Mirman, known for his work in Flight of the Choncords, his book of satire The Will to Whatevs: A Guide to Modern Life, and appearances on Comedy Central and Late Night shows. He has a blog, a Facebook page and is on Twitter. "I want to be entertaining on the web," he says. "That's what's fun for me. While there is a store on my Web site, the push is to provide things to entertain people." And entertain he does, Eugene's Twitter bio reads: "I am television's Eugene Mirman. I am very nice and like seafood." Sample tweet:…

• 
  Product Management Meets Pop Culture

• Attention PMs: Your Alleged Concern For The Environment Does Not Justify Charging Customers Extra To Receive A Paper Statement

  Christopher Cummings

  15 Nov 2009 | 8:18 pm

  This December, Virgin Mobile begins charging customers a $2.20 Paper Bill Charge. That’s right: If you want to continue receiving a paper bill from Virgin Mobile, rather than switch to electronic billing, you’ll be charged $26.40 extra per year for the privilege of receiving your bill by mail. After considering a number of factors, including rising costs for paper, printing, and postage, the environmental impacts associated with printing paper bills, and the wishes of our Dark Master, we’ve decided to charge customers who would like to receive a paper bill… Electronic…

• Today’s Product Management Haiku: Launch Disaster

  Christopher Cummings

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:58 pm

  No clear goals for launch No cross-functional launch team Blamestorm imminent New Around Here? Subscribe to the feed to receive future updates; follow me on Twitter to keep the discussion going! For Tips On Avoiding Product Launch Disasters… Check out 10 Ways to Identify an Impending Product Launch Disaster by Dave Daniels and Preparing for the Perfect Product Launch by James P. Hackett. Tell other people about this post:

• Great Apologies Product Managers Can Learn From (Plus, One Of My Own)

  Christopher Cummings

  2 Nov 2009 | 3:11 am

  Last time we looked at three truly terrible ways businesses have apologized to customers. Today, we’ll discuss the elements of truly great apologies–with examples. And see what we can learn from the experience I had recently apologizing to thousands of confused, angry, and irritated customers… Apologies Ranked Seth Godin’s blog ranks corporate apologies on a 1-10 scale, with #1 being “You can always take your business elsewhere” (ouch) to #10 being “We’re so sorry… we’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again… how can we make it up…

• Terrible Corporate Apologies Product Managers Can Learn From

  Christopher Cummings

  29 Oct 2009 | 7:05 am

  “I’m sorry.” Two tiny words. Two tiny words that said the right way can help repair broken trust, and said incorrectly can burn bridges forever. Brought to you by the marketing department at Pepsi Business school didn’t teach me the art and science of how to apologize appropriately and effectively. (That’s something life and server outages have drilled into me.) Judging from some of the corporate apologies we’ve seen recently, we all have a lot still to learn. Today, we’ll look at three examples of truly terrible ways to apologize. Next time,…

• Celebrating One Year Of Product Management Meets Pop Culture!

  Christopher Cummings

  20 Oct 2009 | 7:55 pm

  Exactly one year ago today, Product Management Meets Pop Culture officially debuted on The Internet with the post What Does A Product Manager Actually Do? — and 105 Posts later, here we are! 105 posts. One hundred. And five. That’s roughly 2.02 posts per week, which exceeds the minimum posting rate I’d set for myself (1 post/week) but falls short of the max I’d set (3 posts/week). That feels like success. But what’s way more gratifying are the 716 Comments and 3,143 In-Bound Links those posts have generated. For a blog started to help me muddle through my own…

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  spatially relevant

• Relevant Reading – November 17th

  Jon Gatrell

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:02 am

  Sharing the the things I found for the day: Translation of The Cranky Product Manager How I Made it Here- Overnight Success Product Marketing for an Agile World Guest Book Review: “User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development” Jason Brett Are You Different Enough? The Road To Unprofitable Growth Is Paved With One Dollar Fajitas

• Publication: The Strategic Product Manager and the CFO

  Jon Gatrell

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am

  So you can read the latest piece in print in Pragmatic Marketing’s The Pragmatic Marketer which I co-authored with John Mecke, take a look. Give your CFO an opportunity to contribute, participate in the day-to-day workings of your product as a business, and you may just get a business partner who can help you and your product be more successful in the marketplace. Read More on the Strategic Role of the product manager and the CFO... Many thanks to the folks at pragmatic for being able to write it and to have it published. Related articles by Zemanta Product Launches Don’t need to…

• Greenwashing isn’t just for marketers, it’s going operational

  Jon Gatrell

  13 Nov 2009 | 4:36 am

  The Future of Green Business Strategy View more presentations from futurethink.

• Let’s get down to business!

  Jon Gatrell

  12 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

• Attitudes, Latitudes and Boundaries: A fractured reality

  Jon Gatrell

  11 Nov 2009 | 12:10 am

  Pew research’s pulse presentation on attitudes on capitalism and democracy post the berlin wall collapse has some interesting insights by geography and cohort groups. The change in attitudes and opinions are expected for the most part, but interesting nonetheless to look at. Pew Global Attitudes – Public Opinion Two Decades After the Fall of the Berlin Wall View more presentations from Pew Research Center. Related articles by Zemanta Capitalism and democracy a disappointment to people of former communist countries (dvorak.org) Why was Berlin the key to the Cold War? (slate.com)

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  Effectivus: Product Management and Marketing

• Rotten to the core?

  Chris

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:51 am

  One of the concepts I learned about during my MBA that really resonated with me was that of the Psychological Contract.  This is the unwritten, and largely unspoken, contract between an employee and their employer.  The idea is that during the recruitment process discussions will give rise to a set of expectations about how each will behave and what they can expect of one another.  This is further developed as the employee becomes part of the organisation and learns “how things are done around here”.  If those expectations are not met, there is a breach of the psychological contract…

• Get Lucky

  Chris

  11 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  My favourite columnist in The Economist, Schumpeter, had a little rant last week about “The three habits of highly irritating management gurus”.  What caught my cynical eye was towards the end of the piece when he points out how frequently corporations cited in the gurus’ books as model, end up in trouble a few years later.  He cites a piece of research[i] by Andrew Henderson of the University of Texas in which Henderson looked at the firms cited in “success studies” like “In Search of Excellence” and “Good to Great”. “We evaluated 287 allegedly high-performing companies…

• Engineering accuracy

  Chris

  4 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  On the 31st of October the Oasis of the Seas passed under the Great Belt Bridge as it sailed for the first time out of its birth waters of the Baltic and into the North Sea.  At 360 metres long, 64 metres wide and 65 metres high it is the 40% larger than any other cruise ship.  This extraordinary vessel can accommodate over 6,000 guests, supported by over 2,000 crew.  Amongst its many superlatives it has 24 elevators, a beach pool, a Broadway show and a bar that moves slowly up and down by 3 decks.  But what really attracted me to the story of the Oasis of the Seas was none of this glitz,…

• We don’t make that sort of product here

  Chris

  30 Oct 2009 | 11:45 am

  We were relaxing after a dinner in a busy restaurant on the waterfront in Stockholm.  We had been with the product designers all day, thrashing through the issues of the physical design of our new product.  It was tough and we’d filled wipe boards, notebooks, cut stuff out and mocked up prototypes.  We’d walked through user scenarios and talked about different personas.  We’d discussed materials and components and littered the tables with samples of them.  We’d talked ergonomics, about comfort, about how your hand met the product and what it would be like to use the product for…

• Has Dyson lost his way?

  Chris

  24 Oct 2009 | 8:38 am

  I know it is an act worthy of excommunication amongst the congregation of inventors, innovators and technology entrepreneurs to criticise Sir James Dyson.  All those stories of success in the face of huge challenges, the amazing 5,126 prototypes that it took to develop the Dual Cyclone™ technology (vacuum cleaner) and “15 years of frustration”, makes criticism heresy. The latest product to come from the legendarily inventive stable of James Dyson is the “Dyson Air Multiplier”™.  This is a £200 ($300) desk fan. The website shows people being amazed by the fact that air is coming…

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  Launch Clinic

• How to prevent your whitepaper from being read

  David Keith Daniels

  6 Nov 2009 | 7:23 am

  You spent a lot of time and effort to create a new whitepaper. Assuming the goal of a whitepaper is to build thought leadership and help drive sales velocity, would you put a big fence in front of it and force people to provide a bunch of information that isn’t needed at this stage? How many people would just skip it and move along? If the goal of a whitepaper is to build thought leadership shouldn’t you make it easy for people to read it and share it? Running the whitepaper gauntlet I know why you put a registration form in front of your whitepaper. You think that visitors will place so…

• FUTURELAB: Why Thought Leadership is Your Most Valuable Asset

  David Keith Daniels

  22 Oct 2009 | 8:03 am

  Jon Miller posted on his blog about thought leadership over at Futurelab and he really nailed it. Many marketers focus so much on doing “stuff” (my technical description for deliverables) from a menu item of tactics when they should be focusing much, much more attention on (my term for this is “obsess over”) thought leadership. Why? “In down economies, prospects conduct even more research leading up to the purchase. This means B2B marketing professionals must help educate prospects in the early stages of the buying cycle; doing this well can help frame their buying process and…

• Don't forget about internal communications

  David Keith Daniels

  21 Oct 2009 | 7:36 am

  One of the things we talk about in our Effective Product Marketing seminar is how to roll out a new message. We recommend starting out internally first before rolling it out to the market. In your rush to get the product launched are you failing to roll it out internally first? I caught a post that talks about internal communication over at BrandCentralStation in a blog post titled Why internal communications may provide the highest marketing R.O.I. of them all Internal communications programs that get employees on board when it comes to spotting new business opportunities can also result in…

• Sales velocity webinar October 16

  David Keith Daniels

  15 Oct 2009 | 11:13 am

  I’m delivering a webinar on Friday, October 16 at 10am Pacific time titled “Product Launch Readiness: Planning for Sales Velocity”. Click here to register. Hope you can make it – I’m expecting lots of good questions!

• PDFs are great but not a substitute for content

  David Keith Daniels

  14 Oct 2009 | 6:04 am

  I find it really annoying when companies put minimal content on their web sites but feel like they’re doing visitors a favor by providing links to PDF documents. This is lazy, pure and simple. Even worse is when they’re too lazy to optimize the PDF for online use and I have to endure downloading a 10MB 1-page brochure. Bad form. We’re in the 21st century now and this kind of stuff should be outlawed. The real question I have is “Is all that wonderful content you have in those PDFs may getting indexed by the search engines?” After getting some conflicting answers to this question I…

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  Strategic Product Manager

• Guest Book Review: “User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development” by Mike Cohn

  Stewart Rogers

  2 Nov 2009 | 5:37 am

  by Jason Brett As a <type of user> I want <some goal> so that <some reason>. Whether you are new to story-driven software development or have been managing products or development with user stories for a decade, “User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development” (Mike Cohn) is a great read. I’m personally new to writing user stories, so I dove into Cohn’s book from a relatively fresh perspective, and found the entire book highly digestible. Mr. Cohn makes no assumptions about the readers level of expertise or familiarity with Agile methods. At the…

• November… already? And Random Bits

  Stewart Rogers

  1 Nov 2009 | 2:53 pm

  Next thing you know it has been 23 days since your last post. Oddly my subscribers have risen. Thanks for reading! There is lots going on in my life and reading and writing has sadly slipped below my capacity to process. I am hopeful that will change in November, but my travel schedule for the month is already pretty full. We shall see. Generally when I am lost for blog ideas I have a book review to do, but the current book (How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer) is a bit heavy and proving to be a slow read. The upside, I am learning lots about brain activity. Random Bits: 1. I want to acknowledge a…

• Roadmap Discussions

  Stewart Rogers

  7 Oct 2009 | 6:39 am

  Seems to be a hot topic this week, there has been many discussions about strategy and roadmaps. Is it roadmap update season already? Steve Johnson said: “Roadmaps are evidence of strategy. Not a list of features.” OnPM said: “re:Roadmap: R a hi-level *plan* based on what is known today. May include strategy (good or bad) but may not.” OnPM also offered up a couple posts to read: What’s the deal with Product Roadmaps? and Agile/Scrum and Product Roadmaps. It seems from the discussions and comments that the general consensus is that if you open PowerPoint, plot out a…

• Authority vs. Influence

  Stewart Rogers

  24 Sep 2009 | 8:15 am

  Leadership is a frequent topic of discussion within the product management community. You won’t find much of a debate on the topic of whether product management is a leadership position, but you will find much discussion on the depth of the leadership. The discussion will span across whether product management should have people management responsibilities, whether they can be accountable for key performance indicators or just generally how to be a better leader. In a recent webinar , David Locke suggested he though the product manager role was more accurately as titled as Product…

• Repost: Use Cases vs User Scenarios

  Stewart Rogers

  21 Sep 2009 | 8:06 am

  This is a repost of a post that I did on the Product Management View. There were some interesting comments on the original. Finally, documented clarity around the difference between use cases and user scenarios. Let me summarize the difference. A use case is a step-by-step account of system behaviour associated with one or more actors. A user scenario is concrete description of a very specific interaction, but one that is chosen to be typical or representative. OK, now what does that mean? Use cases are very detailed and typically define the actors, a brief description, pre-conditions, the…

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  A Girl's Guide to Project Management

• Book review: Friends with Benefits

  Elizabeth

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:50 pm

  What a great title for a book about social media marketing.  No Starch Press has a habit of turning out great books – I’ve recently reviewed Growing Software: Proven Strategies for Managing Software Engineers: Big Strategies for Managing Small Software Companies for The Computer Journal and that was also a fabulously produced, attractive and interesting book.  Anyway, more on Growing Software another day – today’s review is Friends with Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook by Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo. Barefoot and Szabo define social media marketing as “using social…

• BAs and PMs working together (part 1)

  Elizabeth

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:21 am

  About a month ago I spoke at the Business Analysis Conference about how project managers work, and how business analysts and project managers can work together more successfully.  As you can imagine, telling a room full of BAs that project managers don’t want to hear all that detail and analysis paralysis was received with a few sucking-on-the-teeth moments.  There was a heated discussion at the end of my presentation. If you weren’t there, don’t worry, you can be part of the debate here!  Over the next four weeks I’ll be writing about the key things I discussed in that…

• Vote for me!

  Elizabeth

  15 Nov 2009 | 3:49 am

  This is a shameless plug:  I’ve been nominated in the Computer Weekly IT Blog Awards again this year and I would love to keep the title I won last year in the project management category.  I have also been nominated in the ‘best female IT professional’ category, and it would be nice to give the other nominees a run for their money there as well. You might have noticed the badge on the right shouting about my nomination, and if you haven’t had a chance to vote yet it isn’t too late.  In fact, why not vote in all the categories?  You might find some other great blogs to explore. …

• Complexity in mega IT projects

  Elizabeth

  10 Nov 2009 | 10:01 pm

  “Everyone thinks they are the big boss,” says Laura Aziz.  “Everyone thinks they are managing the others.”  It’s one of the complexities that Laura is managing as part of putting the IT systems into a massive 7-star hospital in the Middle East: complete with wifi, electronic mediccal records and video conferencing.  It’s a multi-year, multi-phase project with a multi-layer matrix structure providing the chain of command.  The technology is complicated, but the people side of things also takes some managing.  “Technology alone is not enough,” she adds.  “Hopefully the…

• Book review (and giveaway): IT Enabled Business Change

  Elizabeth

  8 Nov 2009 | 9:22 pm

  “Change happens in organisations,” writes Sharm Manwani.  “Sometimes you have a choice – to be in the driving seat, ride as a passenger or not to get onto the bus.  At other times the choice is made for you.” IT-Enabled Business Change is a book about – surprise! – change in organisations.  But it’s a project book with a difference: it breaches that murky divide between IT and the ‘business’.  I hear this a lot, as if IT isn’t part of the business.  Manwani’s book is an attempt to bring the two areas together, in what he calls a ‘hybrid’ change:…

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  Ateala Management Inc. | Product Management Consulting | Ottawa» Ateala Management Inc. | Product Management Consulting | Ottawa

• Don’t Barf Your Message

  Peter

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:57 am

  Why do tech companies insist on barfing out their message. It’s like they have to spew out absolutely every competitive threat, differentiator, techo-wizardry, benefit, target customer in one single breath. No wonder nobody understands what they do and what value they provide. Just stop it! I’ve run into so many tech companies that have great intentions, but eventually end up with something that’s barfed out. They start with a short, crisp, well-articulated message and then they start adding in the prepositions (by, with, including, etc.). Each crisp message, when…

• Business-Driven Product Management Podcast from PCamp Toronto

  Peter

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:58 pm

  During ProductCamp Toronto in October I was interviewed by Donna Popacosta on Business-Driven Product Management. She turned this into a podcast which is now available on the ProductCamp Toronto website. Thanks to Donna for putting all this together.

• Product Marketing for an Agile World

  Peter

  14 Nov 2009 | 6:31 am

  At this month’s OCRI Zone5ive meeting I delivered a presentation entitled Product Marketing for an Ever-changing World. [The Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI) is Ottawa's leading member-based economic development corporation for fostering the advancement of the region's globally competitive knowledge-based institutions and industries.] The goal of this presentation was to educate the Zone5ive membership on how they can become more effective as the development team shifts to Agile development. This transition does not just impact the development team, it also impacts…

• Product Management and SaaS Security Issues

  Peter

  14 Nov 2009 | 6:03 am

  Earlier this week Scott Wright of Streetwise Security Zone and I got together and created a podcast exploring security issues that product managers wrestle with when they transition to a SaaS model to deliver their product. Scott in this podcast offers some great tips and advice on the following topics: Moving from isolated software products to offering them as a service Basic considerations for securing services, assurance for customers Separating data between clients who could be competing with each other User login security considerations Who administers users, and who administers the…

• Technorati Claim Code

  Peter

  1 Oct 2009 | 8:44 am

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