There comes a time in every PM’s life (perhaps even daily) when someone will ask you a question that you honestly do not know the answer to. This question might be about the product, the process, the customer, future plans, or something else business related. And, all too often, we either wind up dodging the […]
Be careful what you put on your backlog…
We’ve all had the conversation…you’re working at your desk, just finished a call with a customer or prospect, and that random person comes around and taps you on the shoulder… “Where’s my feature?” “Huh? What feature?” “You know — the feature you talked about last week.” “Oh, that one! It’s on the backlog.” “I know, […]
What “Agile” Means to the Business
Agile development and its related methodologies and practices have long been viewed as something that “developers do” with no consideration given to the broader impacts of those processes on the organization as a whole. This, incidentally, is also the primary cause of failures on the part of organizations who attempt to implement Agile practices — […]
Hey, You! Go Innovate!! (aka Five Myths of Innovation)
Ah yes, that word — “innovation” — all too often when I hear it spoken, I want to turn into Inigo Montoya and remind people that it probably doesn’t mean what they think it means (or perhaps Vizzini and just yell “INCONCEIVABLE!” at the top of my lungs and run away laughing). And, unfortunately, this […]
Five Ways to Make Your Meetings Not Suck
We’ve all been there – sitting in our chairs around a table while various people opine about some topic that may or may not be related at all to the original reason you all got together, staring at the clock, hoping and wishing and praying that the pain will end soon so that you can […]
Break Down the Walls – Five Tips to Become a Product Manager
By far, one of the most common questions that I run across online and in discussions at events is how to transition into a Product Management role from outside. This can often be a challenge, since in most companies there are relatively fewer Product Management roles than there are roles of other kinds — even development […]
Are You a Leader or Just a Manager?
A very long time ago, I stumbled across a wonderful book entitled Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge by Geoffrey Bellman. While the entire book has great tips, tricks, and advice on how to lead and achieve through influence rather than position power (a challenge that all Product Managers face daily), one chart in […]
Being the Voice of the Customer is Something You EARN!
During a discussion with a UX designer and a development manager at a recent Product Management Consortium meeting here in Seattle, one of the topics that came up involved some of the things that Product Managers do or say that they find annoying, ridiculous, or just upsetting. And, interestingly enough, one of those was the […]
Top Five New Year’s Resolutions for Product Managers
As the clock turns past midnight, it’s officially a new year — out with 2014 and in with 2015! If you’re anything like me, 2014 was an interesting year, full of both challenges and opportunities, as is every year as a Product Manager. As we’re looking forward into 2015, I thought it was appropriate to […]
The Importance of Understanding the Whole Product
Product Management is often seen as a simple matter of inputs and outputs — we take information from the field, from the market, or from the users, and we create new products and features that meet their needs. If only it were that simple! Customers rarely know what they really want, although they can be […]
The Roadmap Conundrum
Roadmaps are a pretty popular topic whenever Product Managers congregate — whether that’s online or at events like ProductCamp. It’s also one of the things that new Product Managers or Product Managers moving into a new role in an organization often struggle with. It doesn’t help matters that different companies, different execs, and even different […]
Incremental Improvement – Why You Need to Change the Wheels While the Bus is Moving
There have been numerous situations in my career as a Product Manager where I’ve come into a project or product that’s so established and critical to client success that there’s a strong hesitancy on the part of anyone to dig in and muck with what’s “working”, even if it’s not really “working” in the eyes […]