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 […]
No One Cares About Your Product’s Features!
I invited several of my friends in the product management, marketing, and strategic consulting fields to provide a little guest content to mix things up here on the Clever PM blog. Today’s installment comes from my long-time friend and current growth hacking specialist Jason Pedwell, who blogs on his own website, LiftDad.com. He’s here today […]
The Unintended Consequences of Leadership
Almost by definition, leadership involves influencing people — whether that is through direct action and orders, or through indirect influence, the end result is that a leader convinces people to take action toward a particular goal or through particular means. Generally speaking, this is a good thing — a good, strong leader can create a vision […]
Understanding the Equal and Opposite Reaction
In prior articles, I discussed how one could apply the principles of Newton’s First and Second Laws of motion to their duties as a Product Manager. Here, we close the series by examining Newton’s Third Law — that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The fact is, this law applies as […]
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 […]
In Defense of Estimates
In the beginning of the year, the #noestimates movement gained some attention and traction in the software development world. It’s an interesting position, with some strong arguments in its favor — but personally I find it to be entirely development-focused and that it ignores the business and customer realities that we as Product Managers must wrangle […]
Products At Rest Tend to Stay At Rest
Everyone knows Newton’s First Law of Motion: An object at rest will stay at rest until moved by an external force. The same is true with products. I’ve been a Product Manager for about 15 years, working in a variety of markets, and primarily focused on B2B or niche B2C products and platforms. And the […]
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 […]
Take Some Time For Yourself!
I’m writing this post while sitting in a condo down at the Oregon Coast. The wind is blowing outside, the rain is pattering against the windows, and outside through the mist I can see the waves crashing against the rocks. The fireplace is glowing, and the moon is rising in the sky as I relax on […]
Curiosity NEVER Killed the PM
One of the primary predictors of successful Product Managers that I’ve seen in my time is the amount of curiosity that they are willing to express in their work and in their lives. This makes a lot of sense when you think about it, given that Product Management is all about having a broad swath […]
Your Opinion is NOT Always Irrelevant
The folks at Pragmatic Marketing have a popular saying in their training and materials — “Your opinion, while interesting, is irrelevant.” For the most part, they’re absolutely right — the point that they’re making is that, while you as a Product Manager may have knowledge of the market and of the users, you yourself are […]
Building Your Product Management Toolkit
One of the challenges that we have as Product Managers is managing our own career trajectories while at the same time running the products that we are tasked with keeping alive and breathing. A wise mentor once told me that we’re all consultants in this day and age, and that we should be sure that […]