Archives for October 2006
Paul’s 2nd Postulate of Product Management
The 1st Postulate of Product Management dealt with Development. The 2nd Postulate involves Sales:
The feature that Sales needs to make their number is always the next feature on your roadmap.
Salespeople are tactically focused. They hate losing deals and are frustrated by growing quotas. When their VP asks them to make reports on [...]
Ford’s Use of Personas
Personas are an excellent tool that Product Managers can use in conjunction with requirements and use cases. A persona is an abstraction of a prototypical customer, including details like age, gender, education, income, number of children, and other details. Personas can be invaluable when explaining use cases to Development - they enable the [...]
Scheduling Accuracy
Release dates are driven by two factors: Internal and External. External examples would be a tradeshow - you need to release by August 25th because the tradeshow starts on the 30th. Internal factors also apply - Development will usually come back to you and say “There’s no way we can meet August 25th [...]
What Does the National Football League have to do with Product Management?
I’ve been asked why I have the NFL logo on the header you see above. Not many people think of sports leagues when it comes to Product Management. The NFL does offer us a product: to entertain us on Sunday and Monday. They do a damn good job of it too.
The NFL [...]
High-Tech Services Product Management
You hear a lot about Product Management for software and products. You don’t hear a lot about product management in high tech services. I wonder why?
Imagine an assembly line in a factory. Rolling down the line are chocolates that you have to wrap, only the line is moving too fast for you [...]
Intelligent Design, it’s Not Just for Religion
There are three predominant modes of bringing products, software, and services to the market today. The first is the “Extension Method,” which is used at commodity based companies. The second is what I call the “Divination Method,” which is used by most startups by people who believe they have cracked the code of [...]
Software, Product, and Services: The High Tech Trio
Most high technology Product Management revolves around one of three models: Software, Product, or Services. As a Product Manager, I believe it is essential to have experience managing all three. I have personally managed several services, and am currently managing a growing portfolio of products. Software has been a component of both [...]
The Game
Every PM plays The Game. Every Development organization plays The Game. This time it’s not StarCraft.
As PMs, we listen to the Market and define requirements. Requirements are a sticky thing, too loose and we create variability in the product that may not meet the customer’s need. Too tight and we risk edging into design (”How”), [...]
Something for Your Office
A picture speaks a thousand words right? Here is a cartoon that every Product Manager should print and keep posted in their office at all times. Then, when someone asks “what is it that a Product Manager does again?” You can point to it and say “I solve that problem.”
Hallway Conversation
Here is a hallway conversation I had recently that sums up a difference in approach between Development and Product Management:
Paul: “Mr. Executive, did you see the latest updates to the MRD for the new product?”
Exec: “Yes, and you keep adding these requirements that are going to add at least $30 to the BOM. You [...]
