Archives for the 'Personal' Category
The Perils of Over Engineering
Up late and unable to sleep, I’m doing one of my favorite veg-out activities - watching one of the endless Military Channel documentaries about WWII. I am fascinated by WWII; in hindsight there were so many decisions made by the Axis powers that were strategically and tactically wrong, that I shudder to think what [...]
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 [...]
Burnout in Product Management
My wife is a Licensed Specialist in School Psychology (LSSP). For her trouble of a four year undergraduate degree in psychology plus three additional years of graduate level study, she works with the most difficult children the school system has to offer - the severely emotionally disturbed and mentally retarded. She is paid [...]
How Product Management is like … StarCraft?
I anticipate that this post will bring out the PM old-guard. This may come as a shock to those of you over 30, but many of the skills necessary to be a successful Product Manager can be learned by playing video games. Lots of games could be applied to this analogy, but [...]
How to Kill a Product Management Team’s Morale
As a Product Manager, you can have:
An effective process
Market feedback
A viable financial model
A well written MRD
But none of these things matter if your Executive team subverts or ignores the process or market data that the Product Management team brings to bear.
As an example, I was once in a product planning and strategy meeting and had [...]
Open for Business
My name is Paul Young, and this is the inaugural story for Product Beautiful. Product Beautiful is a concept I’ve been running in my mind for the last few years but never unleashed - a blog about high technology Product Management and a place to exchange ideas with others about what works and what doesn’t [...]
