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…
Product Management
A collection of 56 posts
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…
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: 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…
Pros and Cons of Pre-Announcing Upcoming Features
In general, I advise against pre-announcing upcoming product features until you are so close to releasing it that you can practically taste it. But your circumstances might differ, so here are the The Cons: Reasons to NOT pre-announce upcoming features…
Your Business Case: Go Big or Go Home
Product managers create business cases and business plans all the time. I've created and seen a bazillion of them in my day. Lots. But, alas, so many of them are weak. In particular, many use a device that is one…
Why the unique selling proposition (USP) of every technical product sounds the same
Almost every time I read about a new B2B startup or product, I get a sense of déjà vu. Alas, it's not a glitch in the Matrix. It's because pretty much every product pitch sounds exactly the same. Watered down,…
Q&A About Agile Product Management
Below is an online Q&A from a presentation I gave on Agile Product Management. Just wanted to share…. Q: How do you deal with a management team that is entrenched in the Waterfall method and a development team…
Guest Post: The Cranky Test for Agile Product Managers
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…
The Veteran Software Engineer: Hard Proof At Last
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…
The High Cost of Product Line Complexity
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…
To Appliance or Not To Appliance
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…
Product Management Haiku, Redux
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…
How to Become the World's Worst Product Manager in 9 Easy Steps
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…
Women in software & Frat house company "culture"
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…
Heresy Against the Church of Agile Software Development
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…
Harvester Research and Analyst 2.0
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,…
GUEST POST: The 7 Types of Software Engineers: Identification, Care and Feeding
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…
Product Line Hoarding: Don't let this happen to you
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…
Warning signs that your new Product Management job is going to suck
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…
Scrum THIS
Dear Release Manager, I appreciate that you're trying to do this Agile Scrum thing by the book. And that it isn't easy. Because before this Scrum tsunami came crashing down, you mainly tracked the progression of different release documents (Is…
Return of the Product Management haiku
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,…
Product Management & Product Marketing Haiku
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…