Is Your Marketing Message Missing The Point?

If you were going fishing, how much luck catching fish do you think that you would have if you didn’t use any bait on your hook? Sure, there are probably some either dumb or near-sighted fish that might still bite, but you’re going to be doing a lot of sitting around waiting. Is it possible … Read more

Learn To Read Your Customer’s Mind In 3 Simple Steps

Just shut-up and buy my product! In fact, while you are at it, buy a lot of my product. If only we could really tell our potential customers this then life would be so much simpler. However, try this little verbal outburst just once and then you’ll have a chance to sit back and spend … Read more

Product Manager Why Aren’t You Doing A Better Job Of Managing Your Sales Team?

I don’t care if your product turns lead into gold, if your salespeople don’t go out there and do a good job of selling your product then you won’t be a product manager for long. I’ll agree that you are not running the sales department, in fact you are probably not even part of the … Read more

Too Much Choice Is Bad: Customers Don’t Want To Do Your Job For You

Shopping for groceries is a pain. Being forced to do a grocery store’s job for them is a bigger pain. The U.K. supermarket chain Asda (owned and operated by Wal-Mart) is #2 in their market and they want to be #1. Their product managers have come up with a truly horrible plan to get there. … Read more

Product Manager Would You Sleep With Your Customer If They Offered You $1M Order?

Would you sleep with your customer if they offered you a million dollars to do it? That was the question that was asked in the blockbuster movie “Indecent Proposal” with Robert Redford, Demi Moore, and Woody Harrelson. Sure Demi Moore wasn’t a product manager, but the situation was similar to the one that we often … Read more

How To Build A Mentor Network For Your Product Management Career

I’ve got a quick question for you: what is the next step in your career? What do you want to get promoted to? In fact, as long as we are talking about that, what comes after THAT promotion? In product management the career ladder generally goes: product manager, director, executive director, VP of marketing, Sr. … Read more

Your Product Costs Too Damn Much

The part of being a Product Manger that I hate the most is pricing. How am I expected to come up with just the right price for my product? Who am I – Goldilocks: my product’s price is supposed to be not too high, not too low, just right? That’s a tall order. Now I’ve … Read more

Sexy Advertising: How To Get Your Product Noticed

Just how many ads for products do you get hit with each day? 10? 100? 500? No matter what the number is, the end result is the same – you shut down. Something in your brain switches off and you stop “seeing” ads because you are in overload. This is bad news for a product … Read more

Can Product Managers Drive Product Innovation & Boost Quality At The Same Time?

How are you at walking and chewing gum at the same time? It’s sorta a classic challenge – do two different things simultaneously and do them well. Product managers are facing the challenge today – cut the cost of their product and simultaneously use innovation in order to make their product more competitive. How hard … Read more

How Yahoo Product Managers Are Kicking Google’s Butt

If you had the choice of being a product manager at either Yahoo or Google, which company would you choose? I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most of us would choose to work at Google. The press is filled with glowing stories about how great everything that Google touches is. … Read more