Product Mangers Can Learn From The Past: The Story Of The Vasa

Oh man , do I have a story for you. How many times have we been in charge of a product when “higher powers” have come along with suggestions on how to make the product better? Or perhaps they suggest features that the product just must have before it goes out the door? These types … Read more

What Product Managers Can Learn From A $100,000 Mistake

As product managers we are generally quite proud of our products. We do our best to work with potential customers and collect requirements. We ride herd over our developers to make sure that a good product is developed and that it rolls out smoothly. What happens if there is then a flaw in how the … Read more

Product Manager Secrets For Dealing With Email

So here we stand together at the start of a new year filled with hopes and dreams that this year will be better than last. Now if we could just do something about that email problem that we’ve all been dealing with… I don’t know about you, but depending on what part of the product … Read more

How Quickly Do Product Managers Need To React To Bad Press About Their Product?

There is a saying that goes “Any publicity is good publicity”. It turns out that this is wrong. In fact, after having given birth to or adopting a product, a Product Manger can see the good name of their product  vanish almost overnight if they aren’t careful. A good example of this, on a very … Read more

How To Jump-Start A Stalled Product Manager

Ugh! It’s the 4th quarter, the financial world seems to be going to hell-in-a-hand-basket, a global recession appears to either be here or be looming, Microsoft’s Vista is still a dog, and all of those political TV commercials have now officially become annoying. Being a product manager is a tough job on the best of … Read more

How Product Managers Can Make Time Work For Them

Dang – just where does the time seem to go? I don’t know about you but as of late I seem to be running out of time or just simply running behind more often than in the past. I’d like to blame the current turmoil in the financial markets; however, that’s not the problem. There … Read more

4 Key Success Factors For Being A Service Product Manger

It’s hard enough to be a product manager for a “real” product, just imagine how hard this job gets when your company decides to switch over and start to offer service products. You’d think that a flexible product manager could just quickly adjust and that there would be no real difference between managing “hard” products … Read more

Let’s Go Visit The Customer, Product Manager…

So much has been written about how important it is to get in front of your (potential) customer that I am almost hesitant to add to the pile. However, in reviewing what’s out there, nobody really seems to have spent the time to lay out step-by-step what a product manger needs to do before and … Read more

Product Manager What Does Your Business Card Say About You?

So here’s a minor topic that might have some real significance for all product managers: what do you put on your business card? Yeah, yeah, I know that we’re living in the age of FaceBook and LinkedIn but business cards are still what we exchange when we meet people face-to-face. What this means is that … Read more