Author Archive
We built it but no one came
Posted by: | CommentsTechnology-driven companies still believe, “If you build it, they will come.” Out of the brilliance of the engineers comes good fortune. After all, customers don’t know what they want, so why listen to them? But the thing that engineers love most about their technology is precisely what prevents them from making money. Money is in AOL users, and yet high-tech firms want to provide high-speed DSL with static IP addresses for web servers from my home. No, home users don’t need all of that. They simply want to get on email instantly.
If you understood the market, you would know that.
Worth Repeating – Product Management has always been “Agile” | On Product Management
Posted by: | CommentsI can’t believe it’s been over 3 year since I first wrote this piece. It was intended as a counterpoint to all the agilists that were decrying how Product Management wasn’t “agile” or “Agile”. I found and still find the whole argument somewhat baseless, but it still persists amongst agilists look at this example of what “Product Owner” is turning into, and unfortunately, even within the Product Management community.
Read more in Worth Repeating – Product Management has always been “Agile” | On Product Management.
That is, good product management has always been agile.
Everyone needs to know what we do here
Posted by: | CommentsThe fastest way to lose credibility in a technology company is to say that you don’t understand technology. It’s okay to say that you don’t understand a new idea or a new implementation but to be effective in technology marketing and product management requires domain and technology expertise. People who tell you otherwise probably aren’t very effective in working with technical products.
One Voice of Priority
Posted by: | CommentsFor NASA space flight missions, from the Mercury program of the 60s to today, the Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) is generally the only person who communicates directly with a manned space crew. During much of the U.S. manned space program, NASA felt it was important for all communication with the astronauts in space to pass through a single individual in the Mission Control Center. That role was designated the Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) and was filled by another astronaut, often one of the backup crewmembers. If you watched the movie “Apollo 13,” you saw the importance for clear, consistent communication from the ground to the flight. It’s important to communicate with one voice.
The agile product manager is CAPCOM of your product, speaking with one voice to those on the product team.
Is Your Solutions Pricing “Good Enough”? – Boston Product Management Association
Posted by: Steve Johnson on March 14, 2012 | Comments (0)Too many companies leave money on the table because they price their solutions as a collection of piece parts. In contrast to a product, a solution is more than the sum of the (product) parts. In this presentation Jim Geisman explains which pricing model “levers” to pull to get paid fairly for your solutions – and your products.
via Is Your Solutions Pricing “Good Enough”? – Boston Product Management Association.
For those of you in the Boston area, the BPMA is hosting my friend Jim Geisman who is leading a talk on pricing that should be excellent. Sign up today as the event is tomorrow!