We’ve all been there — we’re talking about our upcoming projects, discussing possible timelines and resource allocations, working to align our tactical work with the company and product strategy, when it hits you like a brick thrown through your living room window in the middle of the latest Game of Thrones episode: So, where’s the […]
Harnessing Newton’s Second Law in Product Management
In a prior installment, I discussed how the concepts of Newton’s First Law of Motion might be understood and adapted to the world of Product Management. Since writing that piece, I thought it would be interesting to create similar pieces for the other two Laws that Newton originally expounded. While this sounds kind of easy […]
Show & Tell Isn’t Just for Kindergarten
Over the course of my career, I’ve had the chance to work with a wide variety of tools and methods to document how something should work, what user goals are, what the workflow should be, and generally how a user gets from point A to point B and beyond. Throughout all that time, I’ve noticed […]
Scope is King – The Fallacy of the “Pyramids”
There’s not a Product Manager alive who hasn’t seen the traditional project management pyramids or triangles — it’s a very common trope of the business, focusing on Time, Scope, and Resources as the “pivot points” for hitting deadlines, or the common line of “Good, Fast, or Cheap — pick two.” The simple fact is, in nearly […]
Managing Technical Debt
It’s one of the more frustrating parts of being a software Product Manager – you inherit a product that’s been around for awhile, and every time you want to start a new project to change and improve what’s already there, some nasty little issue crops up and takes the spotlight. Maybe the platform was never […]
Breaking Down the Agile Manifesto — Collaboration & Responding to Change
Earlier this week, I discussed the common misunderstandings related to the first two statements made in the Agile Manifesto — Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools, and Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation. In that discussion, I focused on how important it is to remember that the Agile Manifesto itself was written largely in response […]
“Agile” Does Not Mean “Without a Plan”
A very common, and very dangerous misconception about Agile development — whether you’re using Kanban, Scrum, XP, DevOps, or any other flavor of the week — is that it “requires” or “expects” that you can operate quickly, efficiently, and effectively without necessarily having an overall strategic plan. Bullshit. There certainly are teams and companies who […]
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, […]
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 […]
Accept Ambiguity — Then Drive it Out
I’ve worked in a lot of companies where the direction or vision that we were shooting for was in question or even in transition. And, when that happens, the natural result is a lot of chaos and uncertainty. I recall in one very contentious meeting regarding a new direction one company was taking, a very […]