My answer to this Quora question was originally published on 10/16/2013. My Answer: Yes, you should tell your child. Because he or she WILL definitely one day find out. Read the other answers for insight into how devastating…
Are 'Product Manager' and 'Consultant' Mutually Exclusive?
When I tell people I’m a Product Management Consultant, it sometimes throws them. “Product Management Consultant? I haven’t heard of that,” they say. Then, “how does one use a consultant to help with product management? Isn’t product…
Quora: What are the disadvantages of being a female in a male-dominated CS/engineering university?
My answer, originally published on Quora Q: What are the disadvantages of being a female in a male-dominated CS/engineering university? ##My Answer The other answers to this question are all spot-on and great. I will just add one more.…
How to get a results-focused testimonial from a former colleague/client
I got some questions about results-focused testimonials after my last webinar. In the last post, I gave a high-level template, but here is one at a much more granular level of detail. It can be daunting to give this template…
What I WISH I knew about client testimonials when I was starting out
While no one has ever hired me for a project based solely based on my collection of testimonials, my clients tell me it helped them pull the trigger and decide to go ahead with our first project. In their minds,…
Three Options in Your Proposals
When proposing a fixed-price project to a client, I nearly always present three options for doing the project: lowest price / lowest value medium price / medium value highest price / highest value If the client has a very small budget, then I’…
Quora: Why do parents adopt children from foreign countries rather than from their own country?
My answer, originally published on Quora. Q:Why do parents adopt children from foreign countries rather than from their own country? Foreign adoptions are more expensive, the process is more time consuming, and switching to a new language and culture…
James - First Words
Early - Starting August 2011 (13 months) At age 1 yr, 1 month, in the USA for just over 1 month) Dog / doggy (8/18/2011) Tickle Hi (11/24/2011) "Bucka bucka" - the name of his…
Product Managers and the Fear of Selling
Most product managers and product marketers I know have a fear of — or at least a strong dislike of — selling. They find selling unpleasant and often think they are bad at it. Especially the closing the deal part. Alas, this…
Quora: Can an adult be legally adopted?
My answer, originally posted to Quora My Answer I don't know about other countries, but yes, an adult can be legally adopted in many states in the USA, including California. The criteria for allowing adult adoption varies state to state.…
"Freemium" Business Models - How to Decide What's Free and What's Not
A colleague asked me this the other day: *If a company is pursuing a “freemium” business model, how should they determine the optimal mix of features to offer in free vs. paid software? * It’s a good question. Freemium – where…
Analogies that Demystify NoSQL
I love it when a gnarly technical concept can be elegantly explained via a good analogy. In fact, I have found myself searching for these perfect analogies throughout my career. I’ve been working on NoSQL projects of late, and…
What to Do When an Employee Dies
This post is about a serious topic - how a DECENT company deals with the death of one of its employees. My husband and I have both had some first-hand experience with this. Both incidents were long ago, but the…
Quora: What is the best way to visually present a product roadmap to executive stakeholders?
My answer, originally published on Quora. Q: What is the best way to visually present a product roadmap to executive stakeholders? What are some effectively ways to communicate a product roadmap to executives clearly and concisely? My Answer My facetious…
Quora: Should I finish a degree in CS if I don't really want to be a software engineer?
My answer, originally published on Quora. Q: Should I finish a degree in CS if I don't really want to be a software engineer? Some context: I started a degree in engineering, did well in it academically (marks wise, I…
Quora: Is there a market for fractional or part-time product management?
My answer, originally published on Quora. Q: Is there a market for fractional or part-time product management? Thesis: Early stage startups could use dedicated product managers, but often can't afford one or don't have the resources to support a full-time…
The Content Manager Product Pattern
Content Management is huge in enterprise software, and thus the Content Manager Pattern is one of the most important high-level Product Patterns. Content management is the primary function of most software described as a platform, server, or online service. It’…
Product Patterns: What is Content?
In my posts about Product Patterns, I’ve mentioned the word “content” a lot. I’ve even mentioned a few high-level product patterns called the “Content Manager” and “Content Authoring Tool.” This is an important product pattern because basically every…
Product Patterns: The big ones you see over and over in Enterprise Software
Since I’ve become attuned to Product Patterns (buckets of software functionality that appear in product after product), I’ve noticed dozens of them. Some are big, top-level patterns. And some are really sub-patterns, that exist in the context of…
Product Patterns Everywhere
Over the past 10 years, I’ve probably done hands-on analysis the functionality and usability of over 300 software products and online services (not including mobile apps). Why so many? Because playing with software is not just my job, but…
Why Sales bitches about Product Management & what to do about it
You've heard that old chestnut. You've seen it in a million articles. The big advice Sales Reps offer to Product Management is "Don't just talk about features. Tie the features to benefits." And whenever I see Yet Another…
Quora: What are some must-read books for product managers?
My answer, originally published on Quora. My Answer The Must-Read Books for Product Managers For product managers working on business-to-business high tech products and early technologies, the following are absolute must-reads: Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to…
Quora: Does Apple get too much credit for its UI design?
My answer, originally published on Quora. Q: Does Apple get too much credit for its UI design? Why does everyone treat Apple UI like god? My Answer Apple deserves the credit. First they discovered UI metaphors that are so intuitive…
Quora: Is a PMP certification good for a software engineer looking to transition into product management?
My answer, originally published on Quora. My Answer I've worked with dozens of software / online service companies and helped them recruit product management candidates. None of them care about the PMI certification, and in fact it might be seen as…
The 5 Types of Beta Testing Programs and Why 4 of Them Suck
We all know the supposed purpose of Beta testing programs: to get customers to actually use about-to-be-released software, in order to find and fix problems that would not have been found by internal-only testing. So why (why?!?!) do so many…