Archives for the 'Theory' Category
Resturant Service as a Metaphor for Product Management
Last night my wife and I hit our favorite tex-mex diner for some enchiladas (for her) and fajitas (for me). They’re a family owned and operated business so I cut them a lot of slack in their service since some of their kids work as wait staff. However last night everything seemed like a metaphor for Product Management.
Dell Outsourcing Product Management to Its Customers
Dell has made a habit out of bucking the system with their unique business model. They have made a lot of money driving the cost out of servers, PC’s and laptops by cutting out the middlemen like CDW and selling direct. Most of Dell’s major innovations have been in operational improvements like supply chain management, packaging efficiency, and squeezing suppliers. This is part of the reason their performance has been suffering.
Paul’s 3rd Postulate of Product Management
This is the 3rd in my series of The Postulates of Product Management. Closely related to an earlier post about accuracy in scheduling, this also deals with Development:
Development’s initial estimate of time to develop a product or feature will be at least 50% aggressive or 50% conservative.
The fun thing about Product Management is you [...]
Solving a Latent Need: Nike+iPod
As Product Managers, we know that what makes a product really powerful is when it solves a clear problem for the customer. We discover these problems through research and living in customers shoes as much as possible. If we do it right, it’s not hard to discover new features, product line extensions, and [...]
Biotech Product Management
I, as well as most of my readers, are in high tech: audio/video, networking, personal computing, etc. I don’t know any Product Managers in the biotech industry (yet). I would be very interested in meeting one, and find out how PM is different in biotech vs. high tech. For one it’s just [...]
What a Product Doesn’t Say
The next time you are watching TV, pay close attention when the commercials start to roll. Advertising is generally dependent on the viewer having their brain switched off and not thinking critically about whatever they are hawking, which makes for an interesting game. I’ll begin with the car dealership ads, because they’re the [...]
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 [...]
Roadmap versus Release Plan
Most people are familiar with the concept of the roadmap. The roadmap contains forward looking statements about your product direction, with new products and features listed usually on a per quarter basis. Roadmaps aren’t commitments, but once Salespeople see them, the dates become burned into their memories and they start to ask for [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
