product manager

Why ROI Is The WRONG Way To Measure Your Product’s Marketing Program

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Ah the world of product marketing — it’s where artists dream up brightly colored logos and put together viral YouTube videos that nobody really understands but everyone has to watch and send to their friends. Well, as a product manager you may think that that is what goes on in the world of marketing, but … Read more

How To Market Your Product In 2010

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2009 is dead, long live 2009. Ok, so it’s not quite dead yet; however, even as your sales teams are running around trying to close the year out on a high note you as a product manager need to start to set your sights on what you’re going to do to get ready for next … Read more

Is Your Marketing Message Missing The Point?

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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

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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?

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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

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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?

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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

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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

Breakeven Analysis Is A Product Manger’s Secret Weapon

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Product managers know that how they price their products can be the difference between runaway success and total failure for their products. However, knowing this and knowing how to price well are two completely different things. In fact, there is often a great deal of outside pressure on product mangers to change their product’s price … Read more

Are You Cut Out To Be A Product Manger?

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  Jeff Vance over at Sandstorm Media talked with me to get some inputs for an article that he was writing for the Project Manager Planet site. Yeah, yeah – I know that we’re Product Mangers not Project Managers. However, Jeff did a very good job of capturing a lot of what makes our job … Read more