The Productologist

I just got back from a trip to New York for a trade show. For those of you who have had the pleasure of staying in Manhattan on a restricted budget ($400+ for a room that in most places would qualify as a moderately-sized closet), my hotel was actually not too bad (it was still minuscule, but tastefully appointed and comfortable). As with most hotels, mine was stocked with a couple of local interest magazines that tell patrons what’s going on that month or what restaurants/shows/museums/stores to see while they are in town. While perusing one of them, I stumbled upon an advertisement at the back of the magazine for a gym. Most ads for gyms focus on the form and physique of some beef cake (male or female), but this one highlighted the equipment (although the ad does contain a rather lithe female figure).

As Product Managers, we spend a lot of time working with other groups—Prospects, Customers, Sales, Support, Engineering, Marketing, etc–to get our products up and running and out the door. Managing that diverse universe of contacts is an integral and frequently taxing function of the Product Manager’s role. But there is another group that many Product Managers that I know neglect to include in their universe of contacts: other Product Managers.

Popularity: 58% [?]

On my way back from a trade show, I spied an article in the airline magazine about how companies are starting to use the “novel” technique of Ethnography to understand how customers really use their products or to test out prototypes in real-world situations (this seems to be a hot topic, because after seeing the article in the airline mag, I also found a recent post about it at Requirements Defined, a blog from the folks at Seilevel and Experientia).

I usually only travel once or twice a quarter (which my BW really appreciates while not-so-secretly wishing that it was less), but whether its a short hop to LA or a cross-country jaunt to somewhere in the Eastern timezone, it used to be an ordeal to figure out what I needed to bring. Not clothes or sundry items, but what technology to lug along. Some things are easy; laptop, power supply, mouse, phone/pda, but there’s a whole host of supporting items that can make or break a business trip (trust me, I’ve experienced first hand what happens when you don’t have something you need).

I was stuck in Chicago on my way to a trade show recently, waiting for my connection to Miami get delayed more and more, so I pulled out the latest issue <12Mar2007> of BusinessWeek. Disclaimer: I have a love/hate relationship with Business Week. Some of the articles/columns are well-written, comprehensive and balanced, providing a unique look at a company or business situation.

Others read like they were written by a publicist or just skim the surface, failing to find out answers to deeper questions.