Archives for the 'Theory' 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 [...]
Vox Mercati
How do you know when you’ve arrived as a Product Manager? When you’re in a planning meeting with your Executive team and one of them makes a statement about the Market, or what product you should make next, or what they think your customer base needs - and you stare them straight back in [...]
Interviewed!
Derek Morrison is running a neat series of interviews with other Product Management bloggers. I was his 4th interview, and as usual I wrote too much for just one post, forcing him to break it into three parts. That’s what I refer to as brute force marketing - overwhelm your audience with content until they [...]
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 [...]
Just Demo It!
Pragmatic Marketing asked me to participate in their first BlogFest on the topic of demoing at trade shows, which Steve Johnson kicked off with his article Why Demo at Trade Shows?
What is a trade show? Breaking down the word, a trade show is the place where you show your trade. If you [...]
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 [...]
Triumph’s Product Development Process
I’ve been out of pocket for awhile and unfortunately too busy to post! As I try to get back in the swing of things, I’ve begun to look at the products from companies I most admire. Triumph is British manufacturer of classic cruisers (think: Harley’s), tourers, and crotch rockets (if the Japanese companies [...]
Positioning Tools
Positioning is a funny thing. Something about that word makes people roll their eyes as if to say “there go the marketing people again…” Those people are wrong - positioning is not fluffy marketing-speak. It is important, and as a product manager you are CEO of your product, so you had better [...]
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 [...]
Trading in Secrets
While you are waiting for The New Rules of Marketing & PR, you can sink your teeth into another great e-book that David M. Scott and my favorite team over at Pragmatic Marketing collaborated on, The Secrets of Market Driven Leaders, How Technology Company CEO’s Create Success (and why most fail) (PDF).
First of all - [...]
