Awhile back, I answered a question on Quora about behaviors that indicate that someone may be a bad PM; since I’m in all-day sessions this week in a sales kickoff, I thought I’d re-share these thoughts here on the Clever PM blog… Dictators, not Facilitators This behavior shows up across the board, from the sprint […]
When is a Product Manager Not a Product Manager?
The title of “Product Manager” seems to be a rather vague descriptor in the current world of technology. It’s become so useless, in fact, that some companies have decided to make things even more convoluted by creating even more useless titles such as “Product Editor” (how, exactly does one “edit” a product?). Because of this […]
The Importance of Continuous Improvement
Most of the “Agile” and “Lean” product design and development practices that we follow in the modern age can be directly linked to the lean manufacturing movement from the 1940s and 1950s, largely attributed to the work of W. Edward Deming and his influence on the post-war Japanese manufacturing culture. Deming relied on a “Plan-Do-Study-Act” methodology […]
Anatomy of a User Story
Ironically, one of the most fundamental tools that Product Managers use every day to communicate requirements, expectations, and user goals to their development teams also sometimes seems to be one of the most difficult things to get right. Maybe it’s because many of us are used to the bad, old days of waterfall requirements, maybe […]
Getting Shit Done is Job #1
As a Product Manager, sometimes we get so caught up in either the macro or micro concerns of our day-to-day lives that we forget that getting shit done is our primary job. It does no good whatsoever to have our product remain in a constant state of development, with projects that get put on the shelf […]
Don’t Be Overly Defensive
As a Product Manager, we all have very close ties to our product — in some ways it’s our metaphorical baby. And like any parent, we tend to focus on the good parts of our product — the problems it solves, the efficiency that it provides, the benefits that everyone who uses it gets to […]
The Biggest Mistake Any PM Can Make
Every so often, the question comes up in conversation or online — “What’s the biggest mistake that a PM can make?” And it’s actually a hard question to answer, because there are so many possible candidates: Thinking you’re the customer; Not validating your proposals or approaches; Relying only on anecdotal “data” when making decisions; Dictating priorities […]
The “Power Trio” – Balancing Market, Product, and Technical Needs
One of the biggest challenges facing nearly every Product Manager is the lack of a clearly-defined role in the organization. Even in companies that have “rigorous” organizational structures, the Product Manager often becomes everything to everyone – the hub around which all the other business processes operate. And for the most part, this isn’t necessarily […]