Archives for the 'Development' Category
Ankle Biters: Project Management
This is the first post in a new series I’m entitling Ankle Biters. Ankle Biters are the little tactical things that you need to do to keep the lights on, but aren’t strategic to Product Management and consume resources from the most important job, being the Vox Mercati. I’ll use this series to talk about [...]
Problems of Estimation
If you are PM at a startup you will often find yourself being the “go to” person for all G2M activities up to and including coordinating from requirements through First Customer Ship (FCS). Even though the Product Manager isn’t/shouldn’t become a Project Manager, you will often find yourself “owning” the date. Lots of [...]
Greasing the Wheels
You are a Product Manager, and you are in complete control. You write out requirements, and development builds the product. 100% of what development does is the result of your unique insights into the market. Only…it’s not working out that way is it?
Every company has limited development resources. In order to efficiently utilize those resources, [...]
Unintended Consequences
When developing requirements for a new product or service, it is common to create personas that define the user and buyer of your products. A “Joe” persona might define a 30-year old IT contractor who floats between multiple job locations and communicates heavily using SMS texting and needs mobile web access. The Apple iPhone might [...]
The Challenges of Overseas Manufacturing, Part III of III
This is the 3rd of a three part cross-post between Product Beautiful and Product Global about the challenges of using overseas manufacturing and design. To catch up, read Part I and Part II.
In our first two discussions about using overseas manufacturing and design resource, Aston Udall of Product Global and I talked about the [...]
The Challenges of Overseas Manufacturing, Part II of III
This is the second of a 3 part cross post between Product Beautiful and Product Global.
In Part I, we discussed an overview of the problems a company faces when using overseas manufacturing and design. In this post, we will show some specific tactics that Product Managers can use to overcome these problems. Note [...]
The Challenges of Overseas Manufacturing, Part I of III
In light of the recent toy recall, the special challenges faced by companies when working with overseas contract manufacturers is coming to light again. Earlier this summer, I had several conversations about this topic with Ashton Udall, partner at Global Sourcing Specialists and blogger at Product Global.
Ashton and GSS specialize in helping companies succeed [...]
When Everyone Agrees with an Idea, Shoot it in the Head
The scenario usually unfolds like this: You’re in the break room, hallway, or meeting with a group of Executives and a developer, development lead, or VP of Development. It’s 2-weeks, a month, some period of time between feature lock and your ship date, and the VP of Engineering or programmer perks up and says [...]
Developer: “That Works Fine on MY Computer…”
The inconsistently repeatable bug is the Product Manager’s nemesis. One of the worst things I can hear from a developer is the phrase “Gee, that works fine for me.” Usually followed by “We’ll continue to look into that.” Which is code for “I’m deleting this bug report from my queue until someone screams [...]
