The Productologist

Getting It Done by Roger Fisher and Alan Sharp

I picked this book up based on some positive reviews on Amazon and the fact that I recognized one of the authors from a popular sales/negotiation book that I was familiar with. The book covers a topic that is a common challenge for all types of Product Managers–how to lead through influence rather than hierarchy.

I mentioned late last year that I was planning to add some new features to The Productologist. Book Reviews is one of those new features.

My motivation is somewhat self-serving (isn’t it always that way?) in that I wanted to spend more time reading about topics that appeal to me professionally and this is the carrot/stick that I am using to accomplish that goal.

I do a good bit of reading already, online and off line, but most of it falls into two categories:

• Escapist fiction (primarily science fiction, but I’m also prone to political or societal farce, too)

I was in a meeting a few days ago where we were discussing the schedule for the upcoming release of my product. To my knowledge, everyone in the room already knew what the schedule was, but we have an internal wiki that we use to track release dates and that page had TBD in several slots, hence the meeting. What was really driving the meeting was that members of the exec team had different dates in their heads and when this came to light, there was an immediate scramble to get everything reconciled.

One of my goals for this year is to establish Product Councils for my products. Product Councils, or Product Advisory Boards, as they are sometimes called, are made up of people who are familiar with your product and/or the market. In most cases, they are external, meaning that the members are customers or industry experts who can provide strategic guidance or provide feedback on tactical implementations, but they can also be made up of, wholly or in part, internal members.

I plan to have two; one made up of internal team members and one made up of customers. Both are necessary to help me grow the product to meet the needs of the market.