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

What A Pastry Store Can Teach Product Managers

Product Managers all over the place are asking the same question: what should I be doing to boost my product sales during this extend economic downturn? If you read the papers and the trade magazines, there are no shortage of “experts” who are more than willing to offer their suggestions. I prefer to listen to … Read more

Product Manager Tactics: Bringing In A Price Fighter

Times are tough. Your product, your baby, is struggling. New competitors are showing up in your market with lower cost alternatives. Try as you might, your sales teams are just not having any luck convincing your customers to shell out the extra bucks for your Cadillac product. What’s a product manger to do? Lots of … Read more

Product Managers & The Secret Of The Color Wheel

So I’m just a little bit off the beaten path with this discussion, but I’ve recently had to sit through so many bad presentations that I’m feeling an overwhelming need to try to make the world a better place for Powerpoint slides to live in. We all live and die by Powerpoint. I can’t begin … Read more

How Product Managers Can Get Better At Creating Powerpoint Slides

Yeah, yeah I know that everyone says that they hate Powerpoint – “death by Powerpoint” and all of that. However, the reality of modern Product Manger life is that we end up using Powerpoint to communicate a lot of information about our products and the current status of our projects. Thank goodness you took all … Read more

How Product Managers Price Products For Irrational Customers

Who has to deal with irrational customers – isn’t “irrational” just another word for “crazy”? If you’ve ever had to set a price for your product, then you know what I’m talking about. No matter what price you pick (or how you pick it) people are always going to be telling you that it’s the … Read more

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

The Story Of The Mustang: A Fable For Product Mangers

Hopefully we all know about the Ford Mustang. This is the sports car that just about every male (and quite a few females) lust after in the heart at just about the same time that they are getting their driver’s license for the first time. It has been around in various forms since the 1960’s … Read more