Many companies struggle with the challenges of reconciling the need for strategic planning and the desire to execute in an “agile” or Agile fashion. Generally speaking, this is because they’re stuck with the perspective that a “roadmap” must be a set of promises regarding what’s to be delivered, and not merely a strategy that will and must change over […]
Solving the Mystery of Latent Customer Needs
The single most powerful tool that Product Managers have to make products that amaze and delight their users is to figure out what problems their customers have that they don’t even realize are causing them pain. Most people didn’t understand the benefits of 1,000 songs in their pocket when Apple first introduced the iPod back in […]
Why Isn’t Agile Working for Me?
It seems that lately Agile (and Scrum in particular) have become the latest targets of non-stop complaints and criticism in the Product Management and Development worlds. I’ve read articles that talk about how “Agile is destroying the business” or where “Scrum is a career-limiting methodology that only creates generalists.” Neither of these are necessary conclusions […]
Fail Fast, Fail Cheap, and Fail OFTEN!!
In the world today, it’s no longer efficient or effective for a Product Manager in any company to devote months of time, effort, and expense in designing and developing new products or new product features. The market moves faster than that, and even in traditionally slower markets like B2B customers are increasingly exposed to the […]
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 […]
Lessons from a Business Growth Consultant: How Dial Soap Got Cleaned Out
I’ve invited my old friend and former co-worker Molly Lindblom to provide some content on the Clever PM blog; Molly is an exceptional product strategist, and was instrumental in the success that I had creating the LexisNexis Market Intelligence product so many years ago. My experiences working on that product have informed much of what […]
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 […]