tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29132159939550677412024-03-14T03:20:42.516+00:00All about Product ManagementInsights, tips, tools and techniques for Product Managers, especially Agile Product Managers, and all those organisations involved in any aspect of the Product Management process, especially if you’re involved in changing to an
Agile Product Management process: - Derek Morrison
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger90125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-15212285485487981922014-06-16T21:43:00.003+01:002014-06-16T21:45:57.827+01:00Product Managers trading in land mines for gold mines<div class="MsoNormal">
Is your product built on a gold mine or land mine?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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As a product manager I would like to ensure that my product
is built on solid technology so it can be maintained with minimal effort.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Scenario you’re a Product Manager, you work for a big
organisation. You inherit a product that
causes you a lot of frustration because:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Your development/engineering teams have been
diverted for a number of months to migrate legacy/unsupported databases across
the portfolio of products to new DBS.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Your product is being migrated to a new CMS or other
type of system.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">The platform is being rewritten from the ground
up because the legacy technology is on its last legs.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The frustration is caused because your product is in
lockdown meaning while development and engineering resources are being diverted
to address the above-mentioned issues, or similar, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>you can’t get the items on the top of your
backlog done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So what do you do?</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Firstly realise that in all probability your product will be
better off because of the technical work being carried out – especially if it’s
going to empower your teams to do regular releases with minimal effort,
therefore enabling you to create meaningful release plans, respond in a truly
agile way to a rapidly changing market and to competitors who are much smaller,
nimbler and don’t carry the overhead of a large company e.g. the checks and
balances of Saranes-Oxley. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<o:p> </o:p>Secondly appreciate that the engineering and development
teams would probably rather be developing and releasing features that are
customer centric and data driven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s
to say developers generally get job satisfaction in seeing the products they
build being used and appreciated by users as opposed to implementing technology
for technology sake. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<o:p> </o:p>Thirdly understand it’s a means to an end – it’s a case of
replacing the land mine you’re sitting on with a gold mine that if rightly
managed (identifying the right market opportunities, being customer led and
data driven, collaborating with technology, UX to discover the right product
blend…) will produce golden nuggets of user valued features for many releases
to come.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally take the time during lock down to do all those
things that you don’t usually have the time to do or would like to do more of,
including getting closer to the new technology that promises to enable a better
future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In my career I’ve been through four lockdowns – one lasted
for 9 months <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">L</span></span>
because my development team was deployed in migrating sites to a new CMS, whilst
painful at the time the wait was worth it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The alternative is to end up spending +80% of your sprints paying back
technical debt and fixing bugs (I’ve seen it happen and it’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>wasn’t a nice experience for the product
manager) or worst still going out of business because you’re not agile enough
to keep up with the demands of the fast pace changing digital world.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-71819544708662339412013-06-05T09:21:00.000+01:002013-06-05T17:52:52.318+01:00Product Management needs to tackle objections before they are raised at steering group meetings. <div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
As a product manager I need to tackle objections before they arise at the product steering group meeting so that key decisions are made in a timely fashion.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The smart product manager will have individually briefed the members of the product council prior to his/her presentation to learn of any issues and resolve them, so he's not caught by surprise." Marty Cagan<i> </i></blockquote>
<br />
The product steering group is designed to do exactly what is says on the can and that’s to give a steer to product management regarding the products direction.<br />
<br />
It therefore stands that all senior stakeholders (those that could delay or prevent the product from being launched or a release going out) should be part of the steering group. From time to time, if the agenda warrants it, others may attend to give input. For example, leading up to my last product launch the Head of Communications was invited to attend so we could discuss the communications plan.<br />
<br />
Ideally the product manager should chair the meeting, she/he needs to keep the group focused on the agenda, ensuring that the discussions don't go off on a tangent - if they do the product manager needs to pull the discussion back on track. One way to do this is to tactfully suggest the discussion continues when the group reaches the last agenda item: any other business. That said its part of the product mangers responsibility to preempt any objections or concerns, by being proactive and taking appropriate mitigating actions.<br />
<br />
Here are three examples of concerns that I've experienced from various steering groups I’ve chaired; along with the actions I took to mitigate them. Mitigating actions were often a result of previous lessons learnt.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: blue;">1. The Steering Group are not designers.</span></b><br />
<br />
We've all had experiences where the visual designs are being reviewed and a senior stakeholder says something like "can't we move that button over to the left and move the ‘most popular’ module so it sits above the fold" etc... Design by committee results in what I call a patchwork quilt. Product design is the responsibility of the product team (Visual Designer, UX Designer, Tech Lead and Product Manager). <br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><b>How the Product Management team can mitigate design by committee</b>.</span><br />
<br />
If they’re not already doing so I tend to get the design team to post hard copies of the designs on a wall (better still in a room) and then I, along with the Visual and UX Designers, will talk through the designs with stakeholders in an informal way. For example towards the end of a meeting I'll raise the topic of the designs and say "would you like to preview the designs" the fact that it’s a preview and done in an informal way helps mitigates against the stakeholder feeling that they need to make edits. Of course each stakeholder needs to be managed in a different way - some, for example a CEO, who has a design flare my need a slightly more formal showing. It’s wise to give this type of stakeholder one or two different options early on in the process before too much time is committed to producing wireframes or designs for every screen/page. The key is to show early and get feedback early. That way there are no surprises when designs are shown at the steering group meeting for sign off.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: blue;">2. The steering group should not aim to do the architectural design</span></b><br />
<br />
I've chaired steering groups before where there were a few stakeholders who had studied a technical unit or two on their advanced degree (MBA or MSc) or had a technical background. They could not resist showing-off their technical knowledge. That coupled with a previous migration project that was not future proofed, led to a level of distrust of the engineering team. This meant that steering group meetings became a platform for these stakeholders to air their frustrated technical views. (Note the company was in the process of looking for a CTO.) The result was diminished agenda items and therefore difficulty in driving through key decisions.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><b>How the Product Management Team can manage stakeholders with partial technical knowledge:</b></span> <br />
<br />
I called sub meetings a few days prior to the steering group meeting and got the Tech Team Lead to give an overview of the proposed architecture at a level where all the semi tech savvy stakeholders could understand. He sketched the design out on paper - and handed out photocopies to everyone. I believe the rough hand drawn sketches gave a sense that he was open to suggestions. The stakeholders were always satisfied because they felt their voices where heard and they had the reassurance that all technical aspects had been thought through and the solution was future proofed. The result was that the semi tech savvy stakeholders went into the steering group meeting with a high level of confidence in the Product Management teams - they were onside.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: blue;">3. The steering group should not determine how long development of features should take</span></b>.<br />
<br />
I've sat in meetings where senior stakeholders have strongly suggested how long a particular feature should take. This can be detrimental if either sales or marketing get the wrong impression which could lead to a premature sale or premature communications to external parties. The result is that the development team then gets put under pressure to drop everything in order to develop and release a feature so that the company does not loose credibility.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><b>How the Product Management Team can prevent the steering group from estimating features.</b></span><br />
<br />
Present well thought through release plans. Work hard outside of the meeting to determine the vision and priorities for each release and then present the release plans to the steering group for their sign-off. It also helps to circulate release notes so Stakeholders are able to compare what the product manager said would be released (in the release plan) and what actually got released. If there's a gap then give a brief explanation why. <br />
<br />
Product steering group meetings are critical if the product management team want to streamline the number of meetings that are often required to get decisions made. Steering groups are a good platform for ensuring that transparency is maintained through out the product life cycle. That said it’s important that the product manager leads out and identifies and tackles objections before they are raised so that the air is clear for key product divisions to be made in a timely fashion. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-18240756007448912222013-05-28T16:30:00.000+01:002013-06-07T10:07:03.988+01:00Product Managers need to help stakeholders define the problems as opposed to solutionsAs a Product Manager I’m responsible for ensuring that stakeholders express their requests in terms of business problems as opposed to a pet feature, so that their real needs are met and do not get lost sight of when backlog items are aggregated into common themes as the product team figure out the best solution.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span id="fullpost">Albert Einstein said <i>“If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it,” </i></span></blockquote>
<span id="fullpost"><br />Product Managers tend to spend a lot of time listening to internal stakeholder requests, from the business, as well as external stakeholders, customers and users. Ultimately product development needs to be driven by data: we know, from experience, that data beats opinions. <br /><br />Like all Product Managers I’ve experienced receiving pet feature requests from both external and internal sources.<br /><br />I’ve had external requests usually via the sales team for a customer special e.g.:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span id="fullpost">“If you add an additional ad format then I’ll sponsor a channel”</span></i></blockquote>
<span id="fullpost">and from internal stakeholder:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span id="fullpost"> “I want to display nonstandard content in the playlist player” </span></i></blockquote>
<span id="fullpost">With respect to the internal requests the Product Manager needs to be able to help stakeholders express their requests in such a way that the underlying problem/user need is articulated as opposed to a solution/ per feature request. <br /><br />This is how I helped one stakeholder change from a mind-set of requesting a list of pet features to identifying a list of business problems and user needs. </span><br />
<ul>
<li><span id="fullpost"><b><span style="color: blue;">Prepare the way:</span></b> </span><span id="fullpost">Before I’d received any requests I spent time understanding the stakeholder. I discussed, in an informal way (e.g. at the cooler fountain etc…) what their aims and objectives were for the year, what challenges they faced, what their past experiences were. In this instance the stakeholder was the web-editor and they were tasked with building audience and increasing traffic to the site. I would use a slightly different approach for a more senior stakeholder but still prepare the way as early as possible.</span><span id="fullpost"> </span></li>
</ul>
<span id="fullpost"></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span id="fullpost"><b><span style="color: blue;">Explain the problems with submitting a list of pet features</span> </b>as opposed to identifying the problem. I explained to the web editor (who happened to be a new hire) that there was a constant stream of requests from several sources. Therefore their feature requests would most likely get lost when the product team worked on combining individual problems, on the product backlog, into common themes ready for a resolution.</span> </li>
</ul>
<span id="fullpost"></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span id="fullpost"> </span><span id="fullpost"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Set the context of their input</b>-</span> I explained that a feature fulfills a need and problem for the user. We need to identify the users needs if we want to solve the right problems. I did this by quickly sketching out the ‘needs, feature, requirements’ pyramid. </span><span id="fullpost"> </span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span id="fullpost"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Assist in re-framing each request</b>.</span> I discussed each request in light of the web editors overall goal and helped him re-frame each one as a problem/user need, as opposed to a pet feature cum solution. I did this by using the card part of the user story: “As a <type of="" user=""> I <want able="" am="" can="" etc.="" need="" to=""> so that <some benefit="" reason="">.” After a few iterations we finally got there – there was a realisation that it would take a change in mind set. I then went on to explain that we were working at the Epic level which is akin to an individual scene in a film – as opposed to writing out the individual lines each actor would say in a particular scene. </some></want></type></span><span id="fullpost"> </span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span id="fullpost"><b><span style="color: blue;">Demonstrate the cases in point:</span></b> We eventually reversed engineered the list of feature requests into a list of business problems. I then picked a few problems and quickly sketched out 2 to 3 possible solutions to the defined business problem. I did this, in a humble way, in order to illustrate the point that there are many solutions to any given problem and that the product team would come up with the final solution based upon aggregated problems (the big picture) as opposed to an individual problem (an isolated instance). I also stressed the importance developing the product in such a way that the user has a consistent experience which would only be achieved if development was done with the big picture in mind at all times. Which is the job of the product team. </span></li>
</ul>
<span id="fullpost">Once the requests were properly re-framed they were entered onto the backlog ready for prioritisation. See blog post: <a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/process-for-prioritising-product-backlog.html" target="_blank">Process for Prioritising the Product Backlog</a><br /><br />It goes without saying that different stakeholders will need to be managed differently: depending on their pay scale, personality and knowledge of product development. <br /><br />Hopefully this blog post will serve as a catalyst to help you think how to best go about changing the mind-set of the stakeholders in your organisation. <br /> </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-12490513621952495842013-05-22T15:29:00.000+01:002013-05-23T14:52:17.459+01:00Process for Prioritising the Product BacklogI’ve spent the past year bringing a new product to market, as a consultant Head of Product for a start-up business unit that’s owned by a multi-national. I had the opportunity to pretty much start at the beginning: pulling together the vision, setting up a product council/steering group, talking to users about the initial concepts and shape the overall product direction.<br />
<br />
After launching V1 of the product I ran a number of prioritisation meetings with key business stakeholders.<br />
<br />
I’ve chaired and been involved in many different types of prioritisation meetings before. Somewhere there were up to 12 frustrated web editors (who managed sites where advertising was the major revenue stream) all had to bid for a slice of the scarce development resource. Prioritisation was done purely based on revenue: those sites whose demand for inventory was higher than what they were supplying won out.<br />
<br />
Other prioritisation meetings comprised of me (the product manager) having to present and persuade senior stakeholders of the validity of a pre-prioritised backlog and drive consensus.<br />
<br />
Recently I decided to use the following process to not only prioritise the backlog but to aid in building unity among a group of stakeholders and win their confidence and trust:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>We agreed on the goal for the next quarter – in this case it was to build our user base as opposed to driving revenue. A hard sell for an ad funded business. </li>
<li>We went through the backlog and as a group agreed on the category of every item: User engagement, revenue, contractual, audience, acquisition etc... Most where no-brainers, but the key was that the group felt that it had categorised the backlog. </li>
<li>By common consent a champion was assigned to represent each backlog item (represented in the meeting was: Heads of Marketing, Ad Operations, Head of Product, Tech Team Lead and the MD/General Manager of the business unit). </li>
<li>The champion would then give an elevator pitch on the importance of their backlog item followed by a brief Q&A cum discussion. </li>
<li>We would then vote (in the same way you play poker in scrum) on how the item would best fulfill the goal we all agreed on. Each score is then entered into the spread sheet. </li>
<li>When we get to the end of the backlog click ‘sort’ and hey presto we have a prioritised backlog.</li>
</ol>
Everyone embraces the outcome because: they participated, there was total transparency and we all bought into the goal for the coming quarter.<br />
<br />
Finally I would present the prioritised backlog to the product council/steering group – in general it’s well accepted because either those present participated in its prioritisation or one of their subordinates was involved and reported back to them.<br />
<br />
The quality of the prioritisation is directly related to the product manager’s ability to keep everyone on track, focused on the agreed goal as you vote on each backlog item.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-88414132471599711122010-10-24T16:25:00.000+01:002010-10-24T16:25:54.919+01:00Getting to the Top in Product Marketing and Product ManagementI came across this video on Youtube and found it quite inspiring so I thought it was worth sharing. The introduction on what is product management/marketing is quite succinct and bang on target. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Many of the points resonated with me especially the frequent referrals to the importance of the customer in developing your product offering. Hope you enjoy :-). </div><br />
<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pMG-VnsSwKs?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pMG-VnsSwKs?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-35021980074833424792010-07-29T22:41:00.001+01:002013-05-24T16:24:52.805+01:00Meet the Product Manager<span id="fullpost">What do you do when you’re a product manager (for web applications and tools) who has started a new job, assigned to an existing team who are just about to embark on the development of a range of new products and product features? We’ll whatever the correct answer is, this is what I have started to do. The first step I took was to review the situation and give the team the opportunity to voice their opinion. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
I soon realized in my first week in my new role as product manager that there was plenty of scope to improve a number of aspects of the product development process. We are currently using a hybrid of Scrum and waterfall (the logic behind this will form the basis of a later blog post). I waited for all the team members’ to return from their holidays before holding a team meeting that I tagged “<i>meet the product manager</i>”. <br />
<br />
I introduced myself as a product manager who ‘eats their own dog food’ – in other words I’m an active user of online tools, blogging platforms, social media and networking sites. <br />
<br />
I also took the opportunity to let them know the things (from a professional perspective) that I’m passionate about: <br />
<ul>
<li><span id="goog_446825389"></span><span id="goog_446825391"></span>All things to do with Product Management/Marketing.</li>
<li>Working with engineering/development teams and cross functional teams.</li>
<li>Agile software development particularly, scrum.</li>
<li>Creating strategy and visions and driving them through all the stages to completion. <span id="goog_446825392"></span><span id="goog_446825390"></span></li>
</ul>
The things that I’m not passionate about – in fact the things that we should, as a team, avoid at all cost. See the familiar cartoon strip below. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/TFHxUb0U8zI/AAAAAAAAAf8/bfMv_R_Bjto/s1600/software_development.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/TFHxUb0U8zI/AAAAAAAAAf8/bfMv_R_Bjto/s320/software_development.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
I followed this with a case study: comparing two redesign projects that I was the product manager for. One using waterfall which had a shared test resource and the other using scrum with a dedicated test resource. The results were alarming. The waterfall project took +60% more man hours and went live with 100 plus small and medium bugs, whilst the redesign, that was developed using scrum, went live with 4 known minor bugs. I used this experience not only to demonstrate my active involvement in scrum but to illustrate the type of transformational product development we can achieve if we work closely together and use the scrum frame work wisely. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/TFHy78r6TEI/AAAAAAAAAgE/ICkLjTEU_4M/s1600/Srum+casestudy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/TFHy78r6TEI/AAAAAAAAAgE/ICkLjTEU_4M/s320/Srum+casestudy.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
I highlighted that as the scrum product owner I would initially be spending a lot of my time and energy over the next 4 to 8 weeks, developing: in conjunction with the business owners, commercial owners and other senior stakeholders, the product strategy, product roadmap and release plan - the end result being a backlog with at least 6 to 18 months worth of work in it. Naturally the backlog would need constant grooming as coarse grain items become high priority. I would also naturally be on hand on a day to day basis to support the team and work with the scrum master to remove impediments<br />
<br />
I then handed out post-it notes and ask the team to write on each note their likes and dislikes and also to introduce themselves e.g. where they've previously worked, what they’re passionate about, hobbies and interests…<br />
<br />
One of the key messages message that the scrum training drummed home to me when I was first trained on the scrum framework was that scrum does not solve problems it only identifies them. However scrum, if practiced appropriately, will make change and tracking and tracking the results of change much easier. Here are the top three likes and dislikes the developers highlighted. <br />
<br />
<b>Dislikes:</b> <br />
<ol>
<li><span id="goog_446825397"></span>No dedicated full time test analyst, not using automated test tools; the team failing to carry out unit testing and code reviews.</li>
<li>Changing requirements /scope creep causing work to be either wasted or having to be reworked.</li>
<li>Opinions of the team not always being embraced when it comes to decisions on functionality.<span id="goog_446825398"></span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<b>Likes:</b><br />
<ol>
<li>Knowledge sharing among the team – experience and ideas are traded freely.</li>
<li>The fact that we use scrum/agile – the team liked all aspects of scrum especially the ability to select tasks on a daily basis. </li>
<li>Product Manager being part of the team as opposed to being absent (note complement was aimed at the interim contract product manager cum technical team leader). </li>
</ol>
My job as product owner aka product manager in conjunction with the scrum master aka technical team lead – is to ensure that the team is empowered to change those things that we have the power to change. Understand and communicate the reasoning behind the things that we can’t change and be patient with the things that will take time to change. <br />
<br />
I said to at the beginning of this blog post that the first thing was to review the situation and give the team the opportunity to share their thoughts – the second thing I’ll do (and publish the results in a future blog post) is to survey the team to see how mature they are with regards to practicing scrum.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-65524730236984720322010-07-25T18:56:00.000+01:002012-04-26T12:19:26.051+01:00Combining Classical and Agile Product ManagementI was asked to present, at an interview, on how I see the role of the product manager working in an agile scrum environment. The key areas that I highlighted were:<br />
<ul>
<li>Scope and responsibilities of the product manager in scrum</li>
<li>Typical product management activities in scrum</li>
<li>A typical day in the life of the agile product manager</li>
<li>The agile product management framework</li>
<li>A case study – the benefits</li>
</ul>
See full presentation below.<br /><ul>
</ul>
<span id="fullpost">However since the interview/presentation and starting in the new role the company has decided to change direction and combine waterfall with scrum. The idea is that we start off in waterfall mode move into scrum and then finish in waterfall. </span><br />
<br />
<div>
</div>
<div>
Since joining the first thing I noticed was that the current scrum team is being led (as opposed to the team self managing itself) by a contract technical team lead cum product manager who spends part of his time being the scrum master and part being a business analysis. <br />
<br />
In order to bring clarity and set expectations from the start I went about working with the head of development and head of product management to define, at a real granular level, the scope of the product manager aka product owner and that of the scrum master who is currently the technical team lead.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The end result was a list of 90+ activities: starting off with documenting the product vision and ending in the release of a sprint. The activities combine classical product management with agile product management – a real hybrid taking the best of both worlds. The roles and responsibilities matrix was signed off by both heads – now the journey begins. <br />
<br />
Next week I meet with the development in order to explore the journey we’ll take together in developing the products allocated to us. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<div id="__ss_4701971" style="width: 425px;">
<strong style="display: block; margin: 12px 0px 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/morrisond/cdocuments-and-settingsderekmodesktophow-i-see-the-role-of-product-management" title="C:\Documents And Settings\Derekmo\Desktop\How I See The Role Of Product Management">How I See The Role Of Product Management</a></strong><object height="355" id="__sse4701971" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=cdocumentsandsettingsderekmodesktophowiseetheroleofproductmanagement-100707103827-phpapp02&stripped_title=cdocuments-and-settingsderekmodesktophow-i-see-the-role-of-product-management" />
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<div style="padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">
View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/morrisond">Derek Morrison</a>.</div>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-89891215541957865482010-07-09T12:42:00.003+01:002012-04-26T12:26:22.138+01:00Product Management interview question on strategy and tactics<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/TDcKYMN804I/AAAAAAAAAfw/W0fw8WYtIQ0/s1600/product+guys+will+sink-or-swim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/TDcKYMN804I/AAAAAAAAAfw/W0fw8WYtIQ0/s320/product+guys+will+sink-or-swim.jpg" /></a></div>
<span id="fullpost">I was being interviewed for a Product Managers position by a Chief Operating Officer (COO) who used to do the job that I was interviewing for. The company has adopted and really embraced scrum so naturally expects the Product Manager to take on many of the Product Owners responsibilities. I ask the COO to broadly split the role down into three aspects. His reply was:</span><br />
1. Vision and Strategy <br />
2. Execution and delivery<br />
3. Stakeholder management and collaboration <br />
<br />
I jotted the above answer down on my note pad. He then asked me “what percentage of my time I think I would spend on each of the above three activities.” I paused for a second – gathered my thoughts and jotted figures next to each one:<br />
<br />
1. Vision and Strategy – <strong>20%</strong><br />
2. Execution and delivery – <strong>40%</strong><br />
3. Stakeholder management and collaboration – <strong>40%</strong> <br />
<br />
Fortunately for me he agreed. <br />
<br />
I often hear and read of Product Managers and Product Marketing Managers stressing at their yearly appraisals that they get too bogged down with the tactical and have no time for the strategic and visionary part of the job. The problem is that if you don’t use it (the visionary and strategic thinking) then your loose it. <a href="http://static.ow.ly/docs/The_Competitive_Imperative_of_Learning_Harvard_15M.pdf">Amy C Edmondson in HBR</a> puts it this way:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
“Execution is difficult to sustain – not because people get tired of working hard, but because the managerial mindset-set that enables efficient execution inhibits employees’ ability to learn and innovate. A focus on getting things done, and done right, crowds out the experimentation and reflection vital to sustainable success”. Harvard Business Review July – Aug 08</blockquote>
Correct implementation of the Scrum process aims to solve the problem where the Product Managers/ Product Owners gets burned out due to “<strong>efficient execution</strong>” and a sharp focus of “<strong>getting things done</strong>” and “<strong>done right</strong>”. A Product Manager/Owner knows the cycles of the team and can therefore plan his/her work in advance. The key is to ensure that there is a well balanced Scrum team. I like the way <a href="http://www.svpg.com/moving-from-an-it-to-a-product-organization/">Marty Cagan</a> puts it:<br />
<blockquote>
“You will need product managers to represent the needs of your target users and lead the product discovery effort. You probably already have project managers (<em>aka Scrum masters</em>), but if not, you’ll need product managers too; just don’t make the mistake of trying to hire one person to cover project management and product management.” (<em>italics supplied)</em> </blockquote>
It’s important for each product person to deliberately carve out time for themselves to do activities that will be the catalysed for strategic and visionary thinking. Such activities would include (but not limited to): visiting customers, researching the marketing and competition, discussions with the development team on the latest and greatest technologies as well as discussions on how existing technologies can be used in an innovative way, looking at how other industries (current and past) have solved problems. When I led a team of product managers – I gave them one day a month to spend out of the office in order to research what ever they wanted – all I asked in return was for a one line explaining what they had discovered. The key is not to get distracted by too many tactical things – hence the one day out of the office: <a href="http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/product_managers_are_working_on_wrong_things/q/id/45046/t/2">Tom Grant Forrester analysts</a> expressed it this way:<br />
<blockquote>
“Product Managers need to focus on the strategic inbound tasks instead of being distracted by too many tactical demands… companies need to hire or cultivate product managers who have the skills and experiences necessary to produce high-quality product management deliverables – not something that anyone can do with out training”</blockquote>
Tom continues by identifying the benefits of ensuring that Product Managers spend quality time on vision and strategy activities:<br />
<blockquote>
“Companies that make these product management reforms will be more competitive and better able to use product management deliverables to make better strategic decisions.</blockquote>
In short it’s a win: win situation for both you and the company. So we product people need to take the time to develop ourselves and companies need to give us the time and ensure we have the band width to do it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-23872377878625920082009-08-27T17:16:00.011+01:002012-04-26T12:27:46.303+01:00Interview with a Pure Product Manager<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SpbFmKVApKI/AAAAAAAAAek/og1jEmmkx0U/s1600-h/Aziz+Musa.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374700464711443618" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SpbFmKVApKI/AAAAAAAAAek/og1jEmmkx0U/s320/Aziz+Musa.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 80px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 80px;" /></a>In this audio interview I speak with the author of the blog <a href="http://puristproductmanagement.blogspot.com/">Purist Product Management</a>: Aziz Musa. I had the opportunity to work with Aziz for a year at Reed Business Information and found him to be an inspirational and focussed product manager. During the interview I review Aziz’s: <br />
<div>
<br />
<div>
<ul>
<li>academic and professional background before becoming a Product Manager; </li>
<li>his experiences at Last Minute.com; </li>
<li>the strategic element of the job; </li>
<li>how best to interact with the customers; </li>
<li>the optimum number of products a typical Product Manager should manage;</li>
<li>how to keep up with the latest trends and technologies and </li>
<li>the top 3 attributes needed to enter the Product Management arena. </li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
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</object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-4233190019950279522009-07-01T21:01:00.007+01:002010-06-21T12:08:42.731+01:00Presentation on the Agile PM framework<div class="MsoNormal">I wrote a blog post about an <a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2009/03/agile-product-management-framework.html">agile product management frame</a> work that I had put together in order to give guidelines to the product team and help improve the quality and accuracy of the information on the product roadmap, backlog and release plans. The blog post dealt mainly with the creation of the roadmap. The presentation below gives a high level view of the other elements of the framework.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><br />
<div id="__ss_1668799" style="text-align: left; width: 425px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/morrisond/framework-for-agile-product-management" style="display: block; font: 14px Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; margin: 12px 0px 3px; text-decoration: underline;" title="Framework For Agile Product Management">Framework For Agile Product Management</a><object height="355" style="margin: 0px;" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=frameworkforagileproductmanagement-090701104757-phpapp01&rel=0&stripped_title=framework-for-agile-product-management" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=frameworkforagileproductmanagement-090701104757-phpapp01&rel=0&stripped_title=framework-for-agile-product-management" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br />
<div style="font-family: tahoma,arial; font-size: 11px; height: 26px; padding-top: 2px;">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/" style="text-decoration: underline;">documents</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/morrisond" style="text-decoration: underline;">morrisond</a>.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-78400007480326632542009-06-30T21:33:00.015+01:002012-04-26T12:43:55.089+01:00Advice for up and coming Product Managers<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/Skp6CNCjjPI/AAAAAAAAAec/tUFFLbSmgs4/s1600-h/309720b~Silhouette-of-businessman-climbing-up-ladder-Posters.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353225285361962226" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/Skp6CNCjjPI/AAAAAAAAAec/tUFFLbSmgs4/s320/309720b~Silhouette-of-businessman-climbing-up-ladder-Posters.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 240px;" /></a><br />
<div>
I received a phone call at the beginning of the year from PM magazine. They wanted to interview me on my thoughts on how young members of a product team could grow in their careers. The questions they asked along with my answers are as follows: </div>
<span style="color: #000099;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #000099;">1. What can young project team members do to climb the learning curve, make an impact and stand out in the eyes of their managers?</span><br />
<div>
<div>
Make sure that you deliver your tasks on time. If you have any doubts or are not sure on any task be sure to get clarification well before the deadline. Develop a thirst for understanding what drives the business and what the technical drivers are for the projects and/or products that you are assigned to. Be sure to ask for feedback, analyse it and immediately and act on your findings.</div>
<br />
<div>
<br />
<span style="color: #000099;">2. What's the best way to "sell" yourself and your abilities to higher-ups?</span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: black;">Ensure that you have a proven track record for delivering.</span> </div>
<div>
Read good website and blogs on topics that your line manager is interested in – participate in forum discussions – use tools like Yahoo answers and the Q&A sections of Linkedin. Use applications like google alerts or an RSS reader to automatically capture articles on relevant topics – then periodically send your line manager links to articles that they are interested in along with your analysis on the topic and how it can help the products and projects that you are both involved in. Be sure to be able to demonstrate that you can converse confidentially and in an informed way on the topics that matter to them and their career. </div>
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #000099;">3. What should you look for in a mentor? Any downsides to being part of a mentor-mentee relationship?</span></div>
<div>
Look for someone with good people skills and that has your interest in mind – someone who likes to help people. Be sure that they are an experienced professional and understand human nature. It’s also important that your mentor has a successful track record. </div>
<div>
<br />
<span style="color: #000099;">4. When is the right time to ask for new duties, more responsibility or even a promotion? How do you let them know you're ready?</span></div>
<div>
Ask for new and additional duties once you have proved yourself with your current responsibilities. Be sure to let your line manager know that you are seeking for additional challenges that will stretch your abilities. Create you own personal roadmap (that clearly identifies your career aspirations) show it to your line manager at the beginning of the year and ask for their input and advice on how to progress. Most companies have periodic reviews – use this as a time to discuss where you see yourself in 2 to 3 years time and the steps you plan to take to get there. Based on this be sure to let them know where you see yourself in the next 12 months. </div>
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #000099;">5. Under what circumstances is it wiser to be patient and wait for another time to seek greater opportunity?</span></div>
<div>
When things are not going well – at times projects will not be going well and the reasons may be outside your sphere of influence – it’s best to get a number of wins under your belt first before seeking greater opportunities. Whatever the situation your request should not come as a surprise to your line manager.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #000099;">6. If applicable to your situation, how do you handle being younger than people you're supervising or leading?</span></div>
<div>
I think that capabilities and experience are more relevant than age. I manage those who are just as capable as me more as a peer as opposed to a subordinate – however I always reserve the right to make the final decision as and when need be.</div>
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #000099;">7. What is the best way to "speak truth to power"? In other words, how do you tell your boss he or she is wrong?</span></div>
<div>
A lot depends on the relationship you have with your boss and the type of character s/he is and the situation you find yourself in. In general people do not like to be told they are wrong – so try presenting the truth by pre-fixing it with something like “another way of doing XYZ is to…” or pose it as a question – “is there any merit in us taking such and such a course instead of XYZ”. However if your line manager will be making a decision based on the incorrect information and the facts are not subjective then it will be best to present the raw facts and evidence – be sure not to do it in a conceited or pompous way – nobody likes a smart alec. </div>
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #000099;">8. What is the best way to find companies with the best career paths for you?</span></div>
<div>
You could use social networking sites like LinkedIn and search for companies you have in mind and then people who have or are working for the company in question and see how their career path has developed. </div>
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #000099;">9. What advice would you have for someone just entering the job market and wanting to chart a career path similar to yours?</span></div>
<div>
Be sure to read good books on both business and technical topics. Take extra classes either correspondence courses or evening classes. Develop interests outside of your immediate career – do some community or charity work – it’s amazing what you will learn from doing this type of work. Keep your mind sharp by learning a musical instrument or a foreign language. </div>
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #000099;">10. What is the best advice you've received in the workplace that you'll someday pass down to someone else?</span></div>
<div>
Never be afraid of a challenge – if possible do not stay with an organisation that does not offer you a good career path or an opportunity to grow and learn.</div>
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: #000099;">11. Is there anything else you think it would be important for our readers to know?</span><br />
Every set back is an opportunity for a come back – calm seas have never made a good sailor. There will be times when things will go wrong – ensure you do a personal lessons learnt (preferably at the end of each day). Be robust ensure you have a vision for yourself (a wise man once said: without a vision the people perish) and the vision will drive you on to succeed in your career. </div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-4075376570453381172009-03-01T19:17:00.023+00:002012-04-26T13:33:40.344+01:00Agile Product Management Framework<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SarqFi5vjBI/AAAAAAAAAdY/n35d2jJAOco/s1600-h/Product+Management+Framework.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308312491798793234" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SarqFi5vjBI/AAAAAAAAAdY/n35d2jJAOco/s320/Product+Management+Framework.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 175px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 275px;" /></a><br />
<div>
There are many good product management frameworks available - however, I thought I would create an agile product management framework that is broad enough to be applicable to any product management groups that is practising agile/scrum. Each activity has an associated document that is vital for communicating to the various stakeholders. The first activity in the frame work is:<br />
<span id="fullpost"><br />
<strong>Product Road Mapping </strong><br />
<br />
I recently did a presentation on roadmaps at our monthly product manager’s forum and highlighted the following regarding product road maps:<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>A Roadmap is not:</strong><br />
<br />
1) A random list of features handed down to the product manager to document.<br />
2) A roadmap is not a static document that stays at version 1.0 all year.<br />
3) A secret hid away on SharePoint or some other document management system.<br />
<br />
A road map is according to Marty Cagan of SVPG (product strategy in an agile world):<br />
“A product roadmap is what describes your current plan of how you will get from where you are today, to the vision described in your product strategy.” Marty goes on , in the same article, and states that “The product strategy analyzes the market opportunity and the technology and describes a vision of what the product can be.” Therefore “The product roadmap describes the sequence of product releases to make the product strategy a reality” (the article goes on to say). The product strategy feeds into and delivers on the company’s business strategy.<br />
<br />
Taking the above into account means that product managers need to have a firm understanding of the over all strategy of the businesses that they work in. The involvement in the business strategy will vary depending upon the company that you work for, but overall every product manager needs to have a clear understanding of the businesses they are operating in.<br />
<br />
<strong>How to Create a Product Roadmap</strong><br />
<br />
• Understand the business strategy.<br />
• Collaborate with commercial owners, sales, marketing, engineering and business development on developing product strategies to fulfil the business strategy.<br />
• Research and come up with ideas and present to stakeholders and arrange a brain storming sessions.<br />
• Collate the ideas and work up a strategic roadmap.<br />
• Show the roadmap around and get buy-in from budget holders.<br />
<br />
Using the roadmap as a communication tool.<br />
It is absolutely necessary that product managers constantly communicate – the roadmap can be used as a good communication tool to commnunicate to:<br />
– Developers, Test Analyst and the wider technical team.<br />
– Your line manager and heads of departments<br />
– Managing Directors and Chief Executives<br />
<br />
Communicating the product roadmap demonstrates that the product has a clear vision of where it is planning to go and therefore goes a long way to building confidence at all levels. </span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Related Articles:</div>
<div>
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2007/06/1-implementing-agile-sales-framework.html">Implementing an Agiles Sales Framework</a></div>
<div>
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2007/08/role-of-product-manager-in-scrum.html">Part #9 The role of the Product Manager in Scrum </a></div>
<div>
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-job-of-typical-on-line-product.html">What is the job of a typical on-line Product Manager?</a><br />
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2008/05/whats-product-management-like-year.html">What’s Product Management is like a Year after Implementing Agile</a> </div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-23607310534501940972009-02-01T22:16:00.010+00:002012-04-26T14:16:18.776+01:00What causes Product Managers to become disorientated?<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SYYixsJCFgI/AAAAAAAAAc4/dM82nvYoexk/s1600-h/disorientated+product+manager.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297960248705947138" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SYYixsJCFgI/AAAAAAAAAc4/dM82nvYoexk/s200/disorientated+product+manager.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 150px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a> Agile development gives the software product manager a good sense of orientation. Therefore it’s no surprise that when the development team steps away from using scrum or their preferred agile techniques things get a little disorientated. I've observed this on two occasions over the past few years.<br />
<span id="fullpost">
<br />
<span style="color: #3333ff;"><strong>Totally moving away from scrum/agile<br />
</strong></span>The first time was in the summer of 2007 when we where planning a major redesign of a B2B website. It was decided to take advantage of the redesign and upgrade our technology at the same time – in fact it was deemed pretty much a 'must have'. The development team had to carry out a number of research tasks and experiments on moving from .Net 1.1 to 3.5 and also on how to best build a reclassifying engine to automatically reclassify all the legacy content (some 50,000 articles) and then every new article that the editorial team would create from that point onwards. In hindsight it was a big mistake to allow the research to go ahead with out formally sizing and scoping it in pre-sprint planning. I had no way of knowing how things where progressing and when the research would come to an end.
XP identifies time boxed research as s<a href="http://blog.agilebuddy.com/2009/11/what-is-a-spike-in-scrum.html">pikes </a>. <br />
<br />
<strong><span style="color: #3366ff;">Partially moving away from scrum/agile<br />
</span></strong>The second deviation from scrum occurred this year. At the beginning of 2008 we implemented a radical restructure that effected product management, test analyst and developers. The newly formed team had inherited a newly implemented platform, moved to a new floor and adopted new tools. Initially the new floor did not have the multitude of white boards that our previous floor had. This brought about a lack of visibility. Previously I could walk past half a dozen white boards and get a really good idea on the progress of four scrum teams with in my portfolio of products by looking at the list of impediments, the location of sprint tasks on the white boards and most of all the updated burn down charts.<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="color: #3366ff;">Lesson Learnt<br />
</span></strong>Irrespective of the work being carried out ensure you stick to your scrum cycle, estimate each task and keep track of progress using burn down charts. Failure to do so could cause you to become disorientated.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.agile-software-development.com/2007/09/how-to-implement-scrum-in-10-easy-steps.html"></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 0px;"></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-57182610222668036592008-12-10T21:31:00.010+00:002012-04-26T14:18:59.651+01:00A book for all Product Managers: The Art of Product Management<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SUA4vPAz7qI/AAAAAAAAAao/Wca13WeY2eE/s1600-h/The+art+of+product+management.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278281147413163682" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SUA4vPAz7qI/AAAAAAAAAao/Wca13WeY2eE/s200/The+art+of+product+management.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 132px;" /></a> <strong>Lessons from a Silicon Valley Innovator by Rich Mironov</strong><br />
<br />
This book compiles some of Rich's most popular columns from 2002 to 2008. It includes thoughts on building and maintaining product organizations, understanding how customers think, ideas for how to price new products, and ways to motivate people who don’t work for you. Collected into a single volume, it paints a picture of a typical interrupt-driven day.<br />
<span id="fullpost"><br />Rich Mironov is a software product strategist and veteran of four high-tech startups. He is currently Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Enthiosys, a product strategy consultancy headquartered in Silicon Valley, where he advises technology companies ranging from F100 to pre-funded startups. Rich is considered an expert on software product management and marketing with a focus on business strategy, pricing and market analysis.<br />The five key section are:<br /></span><br />
<span id="fullpost">1. Falling in Love<br />2. Organizing your Organization<br />3. The almost New – New thing<br />4. Getting into the Customers Head<br />5. What Should Things Cost<br /><br />Rich draws analogy between being a parent (and at times a first time parent) and product management – an analogy that I used to describe the <a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2007/03/project-manager-or-product-manager.html">difference between product management and project management.</a><br />The book promises to be a good read for product managers who are working for start ups and for large corporate organisations – click <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439216061?ie=UTF8&tag=enthiosys-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1439216061">here</a> to purchase the book from Amazon or <a href="http://www.enthiosys.com/insights-tools/art-of-prod-mgmt/">here</a> to read more about Rich and his book <a href="http://www.enthiosys.com/insights-tools/art-of-prod-mgmt/">The art of Product Management.</a></span><br />
<span id="fullpost"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-50167256219244938782008-12-09T20:44:00.011+00:002012-04-26T14:26:04.525+01:00Product Managers Need to Show Engineers “What Good Looks Like”<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/ST7aj7RxvEI/AAAAAAAAAag/Ebfx6pKDYXU/s1600-h/what+good+looks+like.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277896124067331138" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/ST7aj7RxvEI/AAAAAAAAAag/Ebfx6pKDYXU/s200/what+good+looks+like.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 108px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
<div>
Much has been written about how product managers can get along with the engineering teams – however the converse is also just as important – engineers need to get along and deliver for product managers.<br />
<span id="fullpost"><br />
<br />
<br />
Delivery should not be confined to the production of working software at the end of a sprint or project but delivery should also be expanded to day to day issues: technical, scheduling and timing, releases, scope creep and additional demand, unit testing etc… What the product manager need is <strong>solutions</strong> and <strong>options </strong>in order to aid them in making an informed quick decision. This is particularly pertinent in this time of global credit crises – <strong>quick decision</strong> making could be the difference between releasing those crucial features ahead of the competition - which could be the difference between account managers reaching or missing their monthly sales targets – which could be the difference in the business unit either making a profit or loss – which could be the difference between the organisation achieving their yearly profit margins organically or being forced to down size.<br />
<br />
It is therefore incumbent upon product managers (and technical team leaders) to help the developers and engineers, who are accustom to communicating just a problems, to change their behaviour and stop – think for a while and offer a solution to the problem(s) they encounter. Each solution put forward (as opposed to a problem) helps the company get a step closer to reaching its revenue targets.<br />
<br />
Changing habits can be hard so it could be useful for the product manager and/or team leader to identify someone in another team who posses the good attributes I’ve identified above – an engineer who when communicates a problem offers a number of options to solve the problem. This way we will help them identify <strong><span style="color: #3366ff;">“ What Good Looks Like”.</span></strong><br />
<br />
<br />
</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-66810156127132480582008-09-07T17:17:00.004+01:002008-09-07T17:31:34.352+01:00How to Create Products Customers Love<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SMQAcZk9FdI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/yYVvK2s8pFo/s1600-h/Inspired.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SMQAcZk9FdI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/yYVvK2s8pFo/s200/Inspired.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243316354068321746" border="0" /></a>Product Management View Webinar Series – Marty Cagan, of SVPG, presents “How to Create Products Customers Love. A webinar that is well worth half an hour of your time - where Marty highlights 10 Techniques for discovering products that are: valuable, usable and feasible - taken from his book inspired.<br /><span id="fullpost"><br /><br />1# Make sure you know what problem you’re trying to solve and that it’s worth solving.<br />2# Create a product strategy so that you know what you are trying to solve – even if you’re using agile!<br />3# Create a prioritized set of product principles so you know the nature of the product you’re trying to build.<br />4# You simply won’t get great products by asking customers what they want – customers don’t know what’s possible – customers won’t know what they will like until they see it and use it. However this does not negate your responsibility to be close to your customers.<br />5# Don’t try you define /design by committee – empower the key three stakeholders: product manager (function/value) – user experience lead (form/usability) – engineering lead (technology/feasibility).<br />6# Realize that function (requirements) and form (design) are completely intertwined – forget the old waterfall model of “requirements followed by “design”.<br />7#If mostly what you do is race to add features, you’re probably: not actually improving the product - no really making a difference.<br />8# As important as the engineering is, the user experience design is even more important, and usually more difficult – make sure you have skilled user experience designers, especially interaction designers.<br />9# High-Fidelity Prototypes: gives you something realistic to test on users – force you to think through the product – illuminates the true product requirements – helps you narrow down to minimal product – communicates product to the team.<br />10# It’s all about trying out your ideas on real users – before you build anything – test with real target users and customers – test early and often, throughout discovery.<br /><a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.svpg.com/inspired">The book</a>: www.svpg.com/inspired<br />Click<a href="http://rymatech.fileburst.com/%7Emarketing/recordings/webinars/marty_cagan_8-27-8/marty_cagan_8-27-8.html"> here </a>for the webinar<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-22323787511329363102008-06-03T21:47:00.009+01:002012-04-26T14:32:39.232+01:00Innovative Product Managers<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SEW4FiGulbI/AAAAAAAAATw/gGIVlO8bjdk/s1600-h/innovation.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5207770949317727666" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SEW4FiGulbI/AAAAAAAAATw/gGIVlO8bjdk/s200/innovation.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /></a>In his article, <a href="http://www.svproduct.com/blog/files/innovating_in_large_companies.html">Innovating in Large Companies</a>, Marty Cagan highlights the fact that many successful companies allow their engineers to spend 20% of the time on innovative projects of their choice. Marty encourages companies to allow Product Managers as well as engineers to spend 20% of their time innovating. Why is this a good idea?<span id="fullpost"><br />
– Because many successful products come from the bottom up rather than the top down.<br />
<br />
Tim Brown, in his Harvard Business Review article, stresses that innovation comes through observations, observing how people use current products - what products could help them do their jobs better.<br />
<br />
Marty in the same article reminds us “that innovation is rarely about solving an entirely new problem. More often it is solving an existing problem in a new way. So watching people struggle with their existing solutions is a great way to highlight innovation opportunities.”<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.goodproductmanager.com/2008/05/06/stop-gathering-requirements/">Good product managers</a>, according to Jeff Lash, do not just gather requirements — they understand unmet needs, existing problems, and opportunities for improvement, and they then use that information to determine the requirements for the product.<br />
<br />
So what are the characteristics of innovative Product Management? Tim Brown identifies five attributes that can be applied to a Product Manager:<br />
<br />
1. The Product Manage has <span style="color: #3333ff; font-weight: bold;">EMPATHY</span>: that’s to say they have the ability to image the world from multiple perspectives, they put people first, they notice things that others miss and use their insight to inspire others.<br />
2. The innovative Product Manager is an <span style="color: #3333ff; font-weight: bold;">INTEGRATIVE THINKER</span> they use analytical processes along with their ability see all the key points and the things that seem to contradict aspects of a problem. They use novel solutions to solve existing and/or emerging problems.<br />
3. Product Managers must be <span style="color: #3333ff; font-weight: bold;">OPTIMISTIC</span> they have an inbuilt believeth that there will be a solution to any given problem.<br />
4. <span style="color: #3333ff; font-weight: bold;">EXPERIMENTALISM:</span> The Product Manager understands that significant innovations don’t come about from small incremental tweaks.<br />
5. <span style="color: #3333ff; font-weight: bold;">COLLABRATION</span>: Product Mangers work along side many people with different disciplines. They also have more than one discipline themselve.<br />
The innovative Product Manager adds value through observation, insight and understanding.<br />
<br />
Related articles:<br />
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2007/11/successful-product-mangers-collaborate.html">Successful Product Managers collaborate to ensure innovative product development</a><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-product-managers-can-avoid.html">How Product Managers can avoid innovation traps #part 1</a><br />
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-product-managers-can-avoid_04.html">How Product Managers can avoid the innovation trap #part2</a><br />
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2007/10/innovation-value-chain-and-product.html">The innovation Value Chain and Product Management</a><br />
<br />
</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-38943233971695295412008-06-01T22:10:00.006+01:002012-04-26T15:25:14.818+01:00How to be a better Product Manager<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SEMR1XRgQbI/AAAAAAAAATg/lqZMWkRoLXw/s1600-h/product+management+blast+off+to+getting+better.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5207025202648596914" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SEMR1XRgQbI/AAAAAAAAATg/lqZMWkRoLXw/s200/product+management+blast+off+to+getting+better.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /></a>Graham Jones co-founder of Lane4 an international performance development consultancy gives several tips, in his recent article “<span style="color: #006600;">How the Best of the Best Get Better and Better</span>”, published in this months addition of Harvard Business Review, on improving your management performance – many of the tips are applicable to Product Managers. The article draws several parallels between successful sports and athletics personal. The tips are very applicable to Product Managers.<br />
<span id="fullpost"><br />
The first point that Jones puts forward is that the real key to excellence in both the sports and business world is mental toughness and the ability to thrive on pressure.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #3333ff; font-weight: bold;">Loving Pressure</span><br />
Product Management by its very nature is a job that is highly pressurised. You may be at a trade show and all of sudden the (beta) product your demonstrating gives up the ghost. How do you cope? It’s not always possible to ship spare equipment to annual exhibitions – such a situation will call for the product manager to quickly think on their feet. Or suppose your release gets unexpectedly delayed, a senior stakeholder has promised a major client that new feature in order to secure a purchase order or sponsorship deal– the lucrative deal is under threat and your mail box and voice mail gets flooded by a host of complaints and questions. To add to the pressure your company is desperate for revenue, times are hard – competition is tough.<br />
Jones states that “You can’t stay on top if you aren’t comfortable in high-stress situations. Indeed, the ability to remain cool under fire is the one trait of elite performers that is most often thought of as inborn. But in fact you can learn to love the pressure…” The two tip that Jones gives is to: </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">a</span>) learn to compartmentalization – the sports person who loses a match on Monday must be able to put the defeat behind them walk onto the pitch the next day and play with the will to win.<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">b</span>) Have a secondary passion that you can switch to – a hobby or charity you support. The ability to switch will help you avoid burn-out and therefore <a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-product-managers-can-successfully.html">succesfully ride the storms of a commercail life. </a><br />
<span id="fullpost"><br />
<span style="color: #3333ff; font-weight: bold;">Reinvent Yourself</span><br />
I read a number of years ago that feedback was the breakfast of champions. Jones gives an example of Trampolinist Sue Shotton who reinvented her performance and as a result became world champion. One of the things that enabled her to achieve her ambition was her “insatiable appetite for feedback – according to Jones a quality he has seen in all top business performers his worked with. Product Managers who work in an organisation that values ‘<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2007/05/pain-with-out-gain-roi-or-pleasure-with.html">lesson learnt’</a> or ‘<a href="http://www.agile-software-development.com/2007/11/how-to-implement-scrum-in-10-easy-steps_20.html">scrum retrospectives</a>’ can solicit or create an atmosphere for honest constructive feedback.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #3333ff; font-weight: bold;">Celebrate the Victories</span><br />
It’s important to celebrate victories but according to Jones it’s vital to be able to identify how and why you were victorious, he says that “The very best performers do not move on before they have scrutinized and understood thoroughly the factors underpinning their success.” It’s important that Product Managers know how and why they’ve achieved success. This gives them a better chance of repeating success at a later date.</span><br />
<br /><br />
<br />Related articles: <a href="http://www.softwaremag.com/pdfs/whitepapers/Telelogic_wp2.pdf">Ten Steps to Better Product Management</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-81947049809383020842008-05-13T21:32:00.016+01:002012-04-26T15:34:08.818+01:00What’s Product Management is like a Year after Implementing Agile<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SCoB2ipIxaI/AAAAAAAAATY/ZkUE4dKSl6Q/s1600-h/agile+product+management.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5199970756276569506" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SCoB2ipIxaI/AAAAAAAAATY/ZkUE4dKSl6Q/s200/agile+product+management.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /></a> It’s been over a year since the product management team went on a series of agile/scrum training courses. The transformation and associated challenges over the past 14 months have been quite interesting. Here’s a report on the journey, progress, issues encountered and experiences to date.<span id="fullpost"><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #3333ff; font-size: 130%;"><strong>Product Management Prior to Scrum</strong></span></span><br />
Before agile working practices where adopted the Product Managers role consisted of a lot of short term tactical wins coupled with continual fire fighting. All this resulted in Product Managers being more reactive to situation as opposed to being proactive in delivering new products to market and improving on developing the feature set of their current product portfolio.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><strong><span style="color: #3333ff;">How Scrum was Implemented</span></strong></span><br />
The philosophy of agile was presented, by the IS Director and Head of Web Solutions Group - Kelly Waters (author of the blog <a href="http://www.agile-software-development.com/">'all about agile software development'</a>), over a 3 month period to various committees, steering groups and forums in order to get the by-in from Managing and Publishing Directors.<br />
<br />
External trainers where also brought in and presented, to the MDs and the heads of Business Development and e-Marketing, the issues that companies face with software development and how agile/scrum could address the challenges we were currently experiencing.<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="color: #3333ff;">Agile/Scrum Training</span></strong><br />
On-line Product Managers, Web Editors and Business Owners spent a few days on a scrum master and product owner’s training course. All Product Managers had a strong idea of the rudiments of scrum and a few where practicing elements of it. The training helped consolidate the principles of scrum within the Product Management team and helped gel a common high level theoretical understanding of the principles and vocabulary of scrum.<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="color: #3333ff; font-size: 130%;">Problems and Issues</span></strong><br />
The real battle started after the training. Whilst some business owners embraced scrum others where less than reluctant to adopt or get involved. A number of open meetings were set up, with the product management team, where business stakeholders were free to ask questions and engage in an open debate regarding the pros and cons of adopting the new way of working. Product Managers also worked on a 1-to-1 basis to evangelize the benefits and to secure and maintain buy-in. Fortunately the Managing Directors fully supported the principles of agile – so inevitably business stakeholders eventually freed up time in their daily schedules to attend the 10 to 15 minutes stand ups each morning and a few afternoons every 15 days to participate in pre-planning, planning, reviews and retrospective meetings.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #3333ff;">Identifying and Solving Problems</span><br />
Implementing scrum did not solve all the company’s problems but went a long way to identifying many of them.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #3333ff;">Problems with releases:</span><br />
Increase in the frequency of releases identified bottlenecks in the resources used/alocated to carry out releases.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #3333ff;">Managing the release problem</span><br />
The Lead Product Manager’s implemented a ‘scrum of scrum’ where releases are put on a white board and at 4.30 every afternoon a Lead Product Manager or the Development Manger meets with the Product Managers who want to release the following day in order to set the release priorities based on business value.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #3333ff;">Problems with Agile Testing</span><br />
Test Analysts found it a challenge adapting to agile – I ran a few sessions with the Web Solutions Group Management team and all the Test Analyst from across the department. Many issues where down to a change in test working practices. No longer did the Testers have a fully documented technical and functional spec to work with. Read <a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/search/label/Test%20Analyst">Part # 7 Points to watch out for when converting from waterfall to agile testing </a>for more details<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #3333ff;">Solving the Agile Test Problem</span><br />
The Test Analyst were sent on Scrum Master training courses, the analyst aspect of the test function was highlighted and the Test Analyst are now given the formal responsibility for gathering and documenting the test cases during pre-planning. The test cases are presented to the customer(s) during the planning meeting in order to get their formal feedback and sign-off. This has formed part of us adopting agile engineering practices and therefore a 'kind of' manual' test driven development.<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="color: #3333ff; font-size: 130%;">Return on Investment (ROI) and improvement in quality using Scrum</span></strong><br />
Just prior to implement scrum I had finished managing a project (re-design of a B2B website). Six months afterwards I worked on another redesign of a B2B website that was more feature rich and technically challenging. However this time I used scrum to manage the project the number of man hours was reduced by 35% and went live with 4 known minor/low bugs – with in 2 hours of launching we discovered 2 bugs that did no show up in our test or UAT environments – both bugs where fixed within a matter or hours.<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="color: #3333ff; font-size: 130%;">Product Management Post Scrum</span></strong><br />
Implementing scrum has resulted in Product Managers being able to be more proactive and think and act longer term. Sure there are still issues with fire fighting and predicting the exact date and time of a release - however the overall negative situation has diminished considerably since the organisation has embraced agile working practices. The profile and trust of the Product Management team has also increased – many act as proxy product owners and are involved in defining features and working along side business owners in making decisions, identifying opportunities to improve the product feature set and advising business stakeholders on a host of different tactical and strategic issues. See:<br />
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2007/08/role-of-product-manager-in-scrum.html">Part #9 The role of the Product Manager in Scrum </a><br />
and<br />
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-job-of-typical-on-line-product.html">What is the job of a typical on-line Product Manager?</a><br />
<br />
<strong>Ironically the few business stakeholders who where sceptical about embracing agile are now some of its greatest exponents .</strong><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-44214165844094543532008-05-07T12:24:00.012+01:002012-04-26T17:34:06.016+01:00The Need for Product Managers Continues to Grow.<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SCHDLrLSuzI/AAAAAAAAATQ/qWI-2WD27DA/s1600-h/product+management+entering+online.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197650050298329906" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SCHDLrLSuzI/AAAAAAAAATQ/qWI-2WD27DA/s200/product+management+entering+online.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /></a>Traditionally when I think of the job of the product manager I think of someone who is half marketing and half engineer – someone who is 50% orientated towards business needs and 50% orientated towards technology. <span id="fullpost">People who have this mixture hold a number of different job titles: product manager, product marketing manager, product development manager… and so on. There are many papers and blog post that explain the differences between these job roles and functions e.g. <a href="http://www.svproduct.com/blog/files/product-management-vs-marketing.html">Product Management vs. Product Marketing</a>. From my point of view your job title and function depends a lot on the type of company you are working for and the industry you’re in.<br />
<span style="font-size: 0px;"></span><br />
I wrote a blog post a few months ago about <a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2008/02/product-management-moves-into-itis.html">Product Management moving into IT/IS departments</a>. This should not come as a surprise since the Product Manager is essentially a bridge between business and market needs and technology – (be it hardware, software or a combination of the two) - and the talented individuals who dedicate their lives researching, designing and building technical products. Many SME and organisations e.g. Banks rely on information technology to gain the competitive advantage, hence the investment in product management to ensure that technology constantly delivers business value and therefore the competitive edge.<br />
<br />
Tim O'Reilly states that: "Technology is fundamentally transforming publishing." In the same article entitled <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/12/tools-of-change-conference.html">Tools for change conference </a>he continues by saying that:<br />
<span style="color: #3366ff;">"There is so much that publishers need to know: how to effectively apply new Web 2.0 concepts like harnessing collective intelligence, loosely coupled web services, tag clouds, and mashups; content generation technologies like blogs, wikis, and crowdsourcing; content management systems; production workflows for XML publishing; real time data analysis driving publishing decisions; new presentation layer tools like Ajax (and the latest from Adobe, like Apollo); search engine optimization...."</span><br />
<br />
Taking all this into consideration it’s no wonder that Product Managers have arrived at online media companies, bridging the gap between the publishing business and technology teams. Marie Griffen says in her article <a href="http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080404/MEDIABUSINESS/656218537/1105/mb-online">Product Managers Arrive </a>that:<br />
<span style="color: #3366ff;">“The Internet is a constantly evolving technology, not simply a delivery platform for content in electronic form. It requires the creation of new jobs within media companies, and one area that is on the rise is online product management.”</span><br />
<br />
The article goes on to say that: <span style="color: #3366ff;">"At Penton Media, the Product Manager function is well-developed. “Product managers marry market needs with the core competencies in our technology group,” said Prescott Shibles, VP of Penton Media "s new media group.</span><br />
<br />
I’ve been working as a Product Manager for Reed Business Information (the world biggest B2B publishing company) for 3 years – prior to that I had worked for in Project Management and Product Management for two different technology companies who designed and manufactured products for the broadcast industry. Comparing the two different Product Management roles I would say that the technologies, of course, differ. Also in the online world your loyalty is shared between at least 3 different types of customers: the advertiser and/or sponsor, the end user and the search engine/google(bot) as opposed to just a single customer who was generally the end user. Apart from that, the fundamental functional differences in Product Management are minimal. The key differences lie in the area of work flow and processes - however this can also vary between companies with in the same industry.<br />
<br />
So if your looking for a challenge and a change in your product management career I would highly recommend transferring your skill set and working for an online media company.<br />
<br />
The current transition the publishing world is experiencing is akin to the transition the broadcast industry went through when it moved from analogue to digital or to put it in consumer terms the transition from having limited TV channels with analogue to have unlimited channels with digital TV or the move from vinyl to CD – as with all changes some will embrace while other will get left behind.<br />
<br />
Product Management is not just here to stay its growing fast and gaining ground. Where ever there are business problems and commercial needs (be it B2B/B2C online publishing or re- purposing adverts in wide screen format for television or producing films in HD for the cinema) the product managers ultimate goal is to utilize technology to produce products to solve the problems and meet the market needs in a profitable way.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-5643344798896920982008-04-16T17:56:00.009+01:002012-04-26T17:39:31.274+01:00Where will the product manager be in 3 years time?<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SAYzaAjz6WI/AAAAAAAAATI/YZNPYzGiCW8/s1600-h/back+to+the+future.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5189892142510893410" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/SAYzaAjz6WI/AAAAAAAAATI/YZNPYzGiCW8/s200/back+to+the+future.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /></a>Where do you, as the Product Manager, see yourself in three years time?<br />
I always find this question challenging: the pace of product management and technology is moving so fast that it would be quite difficult to predict where or what today’s product manager would be doing in three or five years time. However here are a few thoughts that may help you answer the question and put you on track for a prolonged and fruitful career as a Product Manager <span id="fullpost"><br />
<strong><span style="color: #3333ff;">Stress on seeing yourself as a successful Product Manager</span></strong>I’ve always liked this quote from Allan R Cohen book “The portable MBA in Management”<br />
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“…the meaning of success has also changed for most people. No longer do people think of success in terms only in vertical terms (for example in terms of promotions). Increasingly, people define success in their own terms, measured against their own particular set of gaols and values in life. We call this psychological success. The good thing about success from the individuals point of view is while there is only one way to achieve vertical success (that of moving up), there are an infinite variety of ways of achieving psychological success.”</blockquote>
<br />
<div>
</div>
<strong><span style="color: #3333ff;">Applying horizontal success to Product Management</span></strong><br />
<div>
The Product Manager could apply philosophy of horizontal success by talking about:</div>
<ul>
<li>Becoming or continuing to master a range of technologies that are applicable to his/her market and product. </li>
<li>To be known as the Product Manager that successfully launched a number of innovative products into the market place. </li>
<li>Broadening your product portfolio and entering new markets. </li>
<li>Taking on more responsibilities and mentoring junior product managers</li>
</ul>
Achieving the above and being formally recognised for it is also known as lateral promotion acording to <a href="http://www.blogger.com/Promoting%20to%20a%20new%20employer">Promoting to a new employer</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The lateral promotion is where, because of your increased knowledge, skills or experience, you earn more pay but do not get a managerial position. Many companies have realised over the past decade that one way to keep their personnel happy is not to make them supervisor, manager, partner or vice president, but to pay them better for being good at what they do. It's a simple way of rewarding - and keeping - valuable employees without putting extra strain or a new life on them."</blockquote>
It’s important not to give the impression (or have the idea) that you’re using the company only as a stepping stone to becoming the “Head of Product Management” or promoted to being the “Group Product Manager.”<br />
Be sure to persuade the interviewer that you are able and ready to add value to the company and the product range(s) you will be managing before you give any impression on having a desire to climb the corporate ladder.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-57710386709168979502008-04-11T11:29:00.012+01:002012-04-26T17:49:14.274+01:007 things the Product Manager needs to consider when bypassing processes<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/R_9A1iO1_XI/AAAAAAAAATA/XEvX2_4Ebmo/s1600-h/BYPASS+sign.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5187936584220409202" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/R_9A1iO1_XI/AAAAAAAAATA/XEvX2_4Ebmo/s200/BYPASS+sign.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /></a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_Lifecycle_Management">Wikipedia</a>, states that: Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal. Therefore it is important that the product manager believes and supports the processes that the company has implemented. However are there ever situations when it is acceptable to break an agreed process?<br />
<span id="fullpost"><br />
The answer depends a lot on the industry and products you’re managing. Very early on in my career I worked as an Avionics Engineer – the company would periodically be audited (with little or no warning) by the CAA, FAA and internal QA department. For obvious reasons failure to adhere to and being seen to follow the laid down processes would be totally unacceptable. Other industries are bound by SOX or ISO 9001 etc…. So if asked, at an interview – it would be wise to demonstrate that you understand and embrace the appropriate processes and procedures. However it would also be good to demonstrate that you can think outside the box. Some industries are not heavily regulated and there will be times when bypassing a process may result in commercial gain. If you feel it is appropriate to bypass processes then by sure to indicate that you would consider the following 7 points:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666;">1. <span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">nform your line manager</span></span>. The last thing you want is for you boss to approach you if something goes wrong – ensure you keep her/him in the loop.<br />
2. <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">W</span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">eigh up the risk and rewards to the company and product</span>.</span> Are you sacrificing quality and therefore the company’s reputation for the sort term commercial gain? E.g. by shipping a product to a customer before it has been fully beta tested. On the other hand if you don’t ship first will your competitor ship before you and gain valuable market share?<br />
3. <span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Weigh up the risk and rewards to your career</span> </span>– in other words would you feel confident defending your actions to corporate management? How would you explain a lost commercial opportunity to the CEO or MD?<br />
4. <span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">K</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">eep a record</span> </span>of what was not done or who was not consulted.<br />
5. Send an email, in advance, to those you are asking to actually by pass the process (e.g. support staff) and be sure that you clearly indicate that you as the ‘Product Manager’ are prepared to take full responsibility for any unfavourable outcome.<br />
6. <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">After the event</span> (e.g. a release of a new online feature) be sure to backtrack – tidy up any loose ends and make sure that the records correctly reflect what actually happened and why. Or continue beta testing and offer the first customers a free upgrade etc…<br />
7. <span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">Review the process</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>that was bypassed and see if it could be improved to cater for any future emergencies. </span><br />
<br />
My final thought on the topic is never by pass a process if it involves compromising on <strong>health </strong>and <strong>safety</strong>, <strong>breaking the law</strong> or <strong>deceiving the customers/end user</strong> no matter what the commercial gains.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-81276044190529720982008-03-31T17:04:00.010+01:002012-04-26T17:53:13.936+01:00If you want to get into Product Management - then ask a good Product Manager.<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/R_ER3gKY9II/AAAAAAAAAS4/asSqXCnYkHI/s1600-h/ask+a+good+product+manager.GIF"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5183944291304141954" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/R_ER3gKY9II/AAAAAAAAAS4/asSqXCnYkHI/s200/ask+a+good+product+manager.GIF" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /></a> Many ask the question “How do I get into Product Management” well here are a few links to Q&As, on the topic, on Jeff Lash’s new website ‘Ask a Good Product Manager’<br />
<span id="fullpost"><br />
<br />
<a href="http://ask.goodproductmanager.com/2008/03/29/how-can-a-software-engineer-become-a-product-manager/">How can a software engineer become a product manager?</a><br />
View my answer to this question - hopefully it will help not just the asker but many more software engineers who want to make the transition from software engineering to product management.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://ask.goodproductmanager.com/2008/03/29/how-can-i-become-a-product-management-consultant/">How can I become a product management consultant?</a><br />
After being a product manager for a number of years you may want to change career and become a product management consultant. Read how Adrienne Tan of <a href="http://www.brainmates.com.au/?page_id=110">brainmates</a> answers this question.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://ask.goodproductmanager.com/2008/03/10/how-can-i-become-a-product-manager-without-any-experience/">How can I become a product manager without any experience?</a><br />
Saeed Khan of <a href="http://onproductmanagement.wordpress.com/">On Product Management</a> shares his views on how to get into product management.<br />
<br />
You can also read more of my thoughts on how to get into product management at:<br />
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-to-get-into-product-management.html">How to get into Product Management</a><br />
<br />
And read how other got into Product Management at:<br />
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-others-have-moved-into-product.html">How others have moved into Product Management</a><br />
<br />
</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-75645138470137235412008-03-25T19:33:00.012+00:002012-04-27T08:12:08.497+01:00How do Product Managers Keep up with Technology?<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/R-lrOQKY9HI/AAAAAAAAASw/AvB1n79hinM/s1600-h/business+Technology+product+management.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5181790738867352690" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/R-lrOQKY9HI/AAAAAAAAASw/AvB1n79hinM/s200/business+Technology+product+management.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /></a>In general Product Management and/or Technical Product Management is about orientating between business and markets trends and needs and <span id="fullpost"><br />being able utilise technology to define product features and enhancements. Marty Cagan, in his article <a href="http://www.svpg.com/blog/files/are-you-tech-enough.html">Are You Technical Enough?</a> States that:<br />
<span style="color: #666666;">"When I interview product management candidates, I’m looking hard at these two points. The candidate must convince me that they are capable of understanding and applying new technology, and of earning the respect of the engineering team."</span><br />
<br />
As such keeping up with new and emerging technologies and learning about technologies that could be new to you is not only a challenge but critical to being a good and well respected Product Manager. Marty in the same article gives a few tips on how to stay technically savvy or should I say technologically savvy.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666;">"There are many ways to do this. Books, articles, blogs, extension courses, experiment with the technologies or write software on your own, spend more time with your engineers, ask them about the technology topics they are exploring and tag along."</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="color: #000099; font-weight: bold;">'Technical Product Manager' or 'Technology Product Manager'</span></span></div>
In my book we should be careful not to get being technical mixed up with being able to apply technology to solve a problem – semantics one might say – let me explain – I view being technical as being the role of the Developer, Engineer or the Architect the person who is able to dig deep into the code, design the solution be it hardware, software, firmware or a combination of all three – they are also the people who are able to maintain the product, figure out work arounds (e.g. when chip sets all of a sudden go obsolete and purchasing are unable to source any more or a release of a new online feature causes performance issues not experienced in UAT or system test environments). The Product Manager needs to be able to have an appreciation for these issues but is not the person to offer up a detailed solution.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #000099; font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Things Product Managers do to keep up with Technology</span></span></div>
Here’s how a few Product Managers that I have interviewed keep themselves updated with new technologies:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2008/03/from-marketing-to-product-management.html">From Marketing to Product Management:</a> Ivan Chalif says that he<br />
"...typically let my Engineers bring new technologies to me, but I keep my eye open for new UI features and capabilities in other products that I think might be useful for my users. I also subscribe to a number of usability- and technology-oriented RSS feeds."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2008/02/transition-from-web-developer-to.html">Transition from Web Developer to Product Manager</a>: Patrick Jolley said "By using sites like TechCrunch and eHub. I also really like the ‘Movers and Shakers’ section on Alexa."<br />
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2008/01/4th-interview-with-product-manager.html"><br />
Interview with a Director of Product Management</a>: Paul Young says that he tries "... to read a lot. I make heavy use of Google Reader to keep up with RSS feeds from favorite tech sites like Engadget. I also regularly read the other Product Management blogs that I link from my site, Product Beautiful. I am always amazed and humbled by the great thoughts and posts that other Product Management bloggers are creating."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2008/01/3rd-interview-with-product-manager.html">Interview with an Ex AOL Product Manager</a>: Brunella said "By reading a lot on the Internet and getting the latest hints through friends and colleagues in the field."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2008/01/2nd-interview-with-product-manager.html">Interview with Jeff Lash: Author of How to be a Good Product Manager</a> "... I try to read as many blogs as I can manage, read general consumer and business magazines, and learn from colleagues. I try to use as many new web sites as possible -- I always sign up for the "notify me when this service is available" email notifications, since there's too many to remember. As much as I try to stay ahead of the curve, though, I can't keep track of everything. My feeling is that if something is really going to be important, I don't need to be the first to find out about it, since I'll probably hear about it soon enough if enough people are talking about it."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/2008/03/from-technical-support-to-product.html">From Technical Support to Product Management Mark Barns states</a> "Mostly through working closely with in house development teams on Product Requirement and Software Requirement Specs. Continuous customer engagement, Trade Shows and Standards bodies attendance also help."<br />
<br />
<i>Tony Bradley</i><i> in his article:</i><a href="http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2Fp2912%2F24p12%2F24p12.asp"><i> </i></a><a href="http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2Fp2912%2F24p12%2F24p12.asp">Keeping up with Tehnology </a>gives this advice:<br />
<span style="color: #666666;">"New technologies and improved technologies are emerging all the time. It can be daunting to try to keep up with them all. Remember to focus on keeping your business needs in mind and finding the technology that helps solve them rather than keeping up with technology just for the sake of keeping up with technology."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #3333ff; font-weight: bold;">How do you keep up with technology?</span> – Please feel free to share your thoughts and experiences.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913215993955067741.post-4497587688163826872008-03-13T20:22:00.016+00:002010-04-04T14:00:19.516+01:00Product Manager adopting web2.0 agile software development<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/R9mVHbk5L5I/AAAAAAAAASg/N2UX_kE_0vU/s1600-h/bbc.co.uk.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5177333201533218706" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Q1XR8xW2Eu8/R9mVHbk5L5I/AAAAAAAAASg/N2UX_kE_0vU/s200/bbc.co.uk.JPG" style="cursor: hand; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /></a>In the world of web development online product managers have two choices big bang (probably using waterfall) Vs incremental redesign (and <a href="http://www.cxotoday.com/India/Future_Technology/Empowering_Product_Development/551-83194-907.html">empower product development</a>) of the websites their responsible for. The world of online moves at such a fast pace that by the time you carry out your research, <span id="fullpost">then work with an analyst to document your findings in the form user requirements and then design and build your website (or online product) and then launch/re-launch it, the original research is in danger of being out of date or put another way superseded by some new online fad. This means that you’re in danger of being in decline before you’ve had the opportunity to experience growth and maturity. In my opinion a combination of adopting <a href="http://kw-agiledevelopment.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-to-implement-scrum-in-10-easy-steps.html">agile software development </a>(such as Scrum) along with <a href="http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html">web 2.0 technologies</a> and mindset (i.e. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_beta">perpetual beta</a>) coupled with taking a brave decision to develop a new home page whilst leaving the rest of the site as is and then asking for user feedback via your web site has got to be the way to go. The most recent site to do this is the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/">BBC.co.uk</a>.<br />
<br />
Opting for incremental raises a few questions for the online product manager.<br />
<br />
#1.Will changing and releasing just the home page of a site confuse the users?<br />
#2.Will internal stakeholders adopt the perpetual beta approach?<br />
#3.What do you do if the users make suggestions that go against your company culture for your online product?<br />
<br />
I’d value your feedback on this subject.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2