Posts Tagged “risk”
Maybe it’s me, but there seems to be a lot more Product Management chatter going on than usual. Several of the articles below are coming from folks who are new on the Product Management scene, at least blog-wise. There’s a lot of consensus, but some new and engaging stuff, too.
- Product Management Roadmaps
[The Product Management View]
- Why Product Management is like Raising a Child
[Pentagonic]
- Enough With The Blades and Razors - Show Me Beard!
[Enthiosys]
- Adapt your Product Management Practice
[How to be a Good Product Manager]
- Product Management and Risk
[Silicon Valley Product Group]
- Product Management is heck
[Superconductor]
- Product and marketing in the start-up
[Azeem.Azhar]
- On Prioritizing Feature Development
[ParticleTree]
- Take the Chindogu Out of Your Products
[Brainmates]
- I’m Smart. You’re Smart. Whose Opinion Counts?
[SFGirl]
Disclaimer: Just because I include a link to a particular posting, that is not an indication that I agree with the original author. In fact, I may post topics that are the opposite of my views or at least somewhat controversial in order to provide a contrasting viewpoint to the one I present on The Productologist.
Popularity: 39% [?]
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Tags: Chindogu, consensus, feature development, Prioritizing, Product Management Practice, risk, roadmap, viewpoint
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 I saw a question on Linked In from a new Product Manager who is switching careers and wanted some pointers about how to make the transition smoothly. I answered the question with some suggestions. She is not a software Product Manager, as I am, so my response to her was not tied specifically to what I do as a software PM. I am re-posting a slightly modified version of my response here. Enjoy!
<original_response>
Welcome to Product Management. It’s a very challenging and rewarding field and provides a great opportunity to interact with many business functions.
I work as a software Product Manager, which is slightly different than what you are doing, but regardless, ANY Product Manager should be doing the following things to be successful:
- Learn about your product(s).
Even if you are already familiar with them, do whatever you can to learn more. Review documentation, go to user training, talk to any “experts” within your organization about what they know about the product.
- Listen to stakeholders.
Product Managers are the link between many different areas of the business. You will need to take those diverse and frequently conflicting interests into account as you make product decisions. Product Management is not a democracy, but it does require listening to, understanding, and synthesizing input from many different constituents.
- Listen to users.
Every product or service has a user. It may be an external customer or an internal one. The Product Manager is the proxy for that user and all users. To effectively be that proxy, you need to listen to feedback from users, both positive and constructive. Don’t let others (Sales, Support, Executives, etc) be a filter. You have to hear for yourself.
- Understand your business.
Beyond just making your own product successful, you need to know how your product fits into the overall corporate strategy and what the success factors for the company as whole are. Your decisions need to take those external factors into account.
- Make decisions holistically.
Product Management is a long-term process and you will be faced with making many decisions almost every day. As you weigh the details of each situation, focus on how that decision will affect your product over time. The shortest, easiest option may look appealing, but also consider what that decision means for the future. Also consider that each decision is not made in a vacuum. Try to see how those decisions are linked together.
- Take risks and embrace failure.
No one does everything right every time. Even with the best planning and analysis, things don’t turn out the way you think they will. Don’t be afraid to do something just because it might not work. If it’s not successful (or as successful as you thought it would be), figure out why and learn from it. A past manager of mine told me once that it is OK to make many mistakes, but not the same mistake more than once.
There is so much to Product Management that it is hard to sum up in short space and this is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should help make the transition a little easier. Some of the information you need to be a successful Product Manager only comes with experience and getting your hands dirty.
</original_response>
One thing I left off of my original response (because she was already doing it to some degree) is to talk to other Product Managers. Success as a PM in one organization does not guarantee success in another, but there is a lot of collective knowledge out there. Search out and use that knowledge to jump from rock to rock as you cross the river, rather than wading across on your own.
For starters, check out the other Product Management blogs I have listed in my blog roll on the right panel (look for the heading: BlogNation). They know a lot about a lot of PM topics. Just ask. They won’t bite.
Popularity: 61% [?]
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Tags: business functions, conflict, corporate strategy, Customers, Documentation, external factors, feedback, process, product decisions, risk, Sales, software, stakeholder, strategy, success factors, Support
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 In a previous post, I wrote about passionate customers, but before you have passionate customers, you have to have people inside your organization that are passionate about your product. And that starts with the Product Manager.Product Managers are in a position to evangelize, motivate, and energize their company about their products. They are the product champion. They speak out at Sales meetings about the product roadmap and upcoming releases. They provide in-depth demos and answer the complicated questions for prospects. They stand in the trade show booth and regale visitors with all of the capabilities and how the product can solve problems that are mission critical.
It’s a lot like being a cheerleader, but with less jumping and shouting. Actually, maybe that’s not true.
There’s a great post over at Creating Passionate Users from a couple of years ago about not being risk averse with your products (NOTE: while CPU is a great blog, it is no longer active due to some issues with commenters and threats. Historical posts and comments are still available and continue to make the blog a great resource). In the post is an image that sums up why passion is so important. The original image refers to customers, but the same concept applies to Product Managers.
If you passionately love your product(s), you will be able to communicate that passion to others and passion is contagious. If you are frustrated by your product(s), then you can channel that energy into making it better. That may entail elevating your concerns about the product strategy, implementation, technology or positioning or whatever you feel is amiss with the product.
Product Managers have to be passionate about their products in order to energize others about it. Passion can come in a variety of flavors, but no matter how you feel about your product(s), you have to be passionate if you expect others to be.
Popularity: 58% [?]
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Tags: creating passionate users, customer, passion, product champion, product roadmap, Prospects, risk, users
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