Today we have a guest post from Scott Sehlhorst, product management consultant extraordinaire and author of the tasty-good Tyner Blain blog. Although he is contributing this "Cranky Test for Agile Product Managers," Scott may be genetically incapable of true crankiness. One of his co-workers once accused him of having excess »
Hadoop is starting to come into mainstream consciousness. As a result, a lot of people are grappling with understanding the relationship between Hadoop and traditional data warehouses, and how ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load technology) fits into the picture. On one of the “Big Data” forums on LinkedIn, someone asked »
I received an email from a reader regarding this blog's recent guest post, The 7 Types of Engineers. To Whom I May Concern, I have attached a picture of the real Veteran Engineer that works with me. I saw your post, the description of Mike, and bought the mug for »
A few weeks ago, I went to the pharmacy to purchase the most womanly of accoutrements. Yep, maxipads. Now, before you click away, be assured this post does have something important to say about product management. Please sit tight and bear with me. Anyway, I walked into the store aisle »
I’ve had a lot of conversations lately with product managers who are wrestling with the appliance question: Should they create a software-only product, or should they deliver an integrated hardware-plus-software appliance that contains all the underlying hardware and software needed to run the product? It’s an important question »
In our coupious spare time, Product Management bloggers just LOVE writing haikus. Check it: here (Pivotal PM), and here (my previous post), and here (Product Management Meets Pop Culture), and here (Tyner Blain), and here (On Product Management). The fun just never ends. Anyway, here's some brand, spankin' new haiku. »
1. Don't visit customers. If customers want to talk to you, ask that instead they put their list of enhancement requests in an email or a spreadsheet. Take said list and cut/paste it into Jira. Don't bother to find out WHY the customer wants any of this stuff. If »
(I originally published this article semi-anonymously on the Cranky Product Manager blog in October, 2010. The post received a lot of traffic from reddit and other sources. At the time, I received some criticism for hiding behind an anonymous persona and for not naming names, so I'm updating and republishing »
I had the pleasure of attending Business of Software 2010 last week. It was a fascinating conference, chock full of interesting speakers and lots of learning. Seth Godin was there. He's wicked awesome! The attendees were mostly technical founders of small software companies. Many were pre-venture financing, but many (most? »
I am a big fan of anything that will get quality, innovative, market-killing products out the door more quickly. Sincerely. I would even trade in my extensive work wardrobe of jeans for a pile of business suits if it would improve product quality. I would even stop swearing if it »
Oh goodness. This April Fool's send-up of technology analysts has been creeping around the Internet for some time. But this is the first time I've seen it. Please read. Very funny stuff. It's about Harvester Research's launch of ForceSales.com, the industry's first Analyst-as-a-Service (Aaas) offering. I especially like their »
I am on vacation, but posting in my stead is a WICKED AWESOME guest blogger: an extremely talented writer/product manager/mom with the nom de plume "Another PM." Her post is below, and it is so good and so TRUE... The Identification, Care and Feeding of Engineers on Your »
I have recently become obsessed with the TV Show Hoarding: Buried Alive. If you are unfamiliar, it is a reality show that profiles people who hoard stuff -- tons of worthless artifacts and even unsanitary crap (literally crap! think rotten food! old diapers! full cat boxes!) -- until the point »
Hey congrats! You landed a new product management job! But before you accept it, consider whether you really WANT this position. Here are some tell-tale warning signs that this new product management job is gonna suck. Warning Signs Product managers are not allowed to talk directly to customers. Sales people »
In my last post, I mocked Crypto-Descriptions of companies and products. Microsoft and Oracle were the targets of my crankiness. Anyway, inspired by the ensuing discussion, I figured it might be fun to see if I can create the Worst. Positioning. Statement. Ever., but still have it be believable as »
These days I’m feeling more inspired to blog about the emerging “Big Data” technologies than about generic Product Management or Product Marketing. I am naturally interested in this sector because half my career was spent in the Business Intelligence sector of Enterprise Software. And I really liked it for »
I wish I could start a vendetta against the Marketing Cryptospeak that is so prevalent in the software industry. You know... those meaningless, boilerplate-ish, hyper-generic, jargon-oozing, designed-by-committee, ridiculously cryptic descriptions of what a product (or company) supposedly does? Those nonsense-filled sentences that leave readers so confused about what type of »
Remember this? The Product Management Haikus (originally inspired by Pivotal PM)? I am inspired to once again dust off my quill pen and write some more poetry. Poetry that no one but you, a reader of a product management blog, could possibly understand. If you are similarly inspired, post your »
Inspired by the fine folks at Pivotal Product Management, here are some enthralling and inspirational haiku I whipped together. Join in the fun! Submit your own haiku in the comments. Only bad PMs Don't install or even use The products they own. Their go-to excuse: "Technically impossible," Code Boyz and »
OK, true confessions. I lust after real estate. When it comes to gawking at beautiful homes and all the fantabulous things in them, I am totally into it. And when I go away for the weekend, I am prone to fantasizing about buying a vacation home or even just flat-out »
Today we have an excellent guest post from an anonymous IT Industry Analyst! I'm not naming names, but this person is from a firm that sounds kind of like Gardener or Forest Rangers or something similar. Enjoy this article. As you would expect from someone who writes "planning assumptions" and »
Once upon a time, long, long ago, TypicalEnterpriseSoftwareCompany had a simple little price list. It could be described in a paragraph. Buy our server and pay $XX,XXX per machine. Buy our companion client-side tool and pay $YYY per instance. Simple. And then came the inevitable. Prospective Customer A started »
OK, you know you have to do Win-Loss Analysis. It’s one of the best ways to make sure you correctly understand the market and its problems—upon which you based, well, everything. But unfortunately, it is very difficult to get these customers/former prospects lined up for Win-Loss interviews, »
At most companies, everyone agrees that Win-Loss Analysis is very important. After all, without understanding why you are winning deals and why you are losing, how are you to know what you’re doing right and what you need to change? For example: Are your sales people blowing it by »
Earlier, I posted my thoughts on how to run an effective Customer Advisory Board (also called Customer Advisory Groups, CAGs, or CABs). Many readers of my post then contributed their own thoughts and advice... very good stuff. I've compiled their tips and tricks below. "Keep Customer Advisory Boards small if »
Two questions from readers triggered this post: "What is your opinion of the effectiveness of Client Advisory Groups, and do you think that PMs should organize and facilitate them?" and "Assuming you have an existing CAG, how do extract useful feedback and integrate it with the development process? A ‘rate »