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Common Sense and Computer Analysis

"A prestigious advisory panel has just recommended that the Defense Department get permission from a federal court any time it wants to use computer analysis on its own intelligence files. It would be acceptable, according to the panel, for a human agent to pore over millions of intelligence records looking for al Qaeda suspects who share phone numbers, say, and have traveled to terror haunts in South America. But program a computer to make that same search, declares the advisory committee, and judicial approval is needed, because computer analysis of intelligence databanks allegedly violates 'privacy.'" from Common Sense and Computer Analysis (washingtonpost.com).

Collective Intelligence

"Success, most corporations assume, depends on the efforts of a few superlative individuals. As a result, they treat their CEOs as superheroes, look on most of their employees as interchangeable drones, and remain fond of command-and-control strategies that wouldn't have been out of place in the Politburo. In doing so, firms are neglecting their most valuable resource: the collective intelligence of the organization as a whole." From Smarter Than the CEO in Wired.

Product Management Organizations

Dan Lewis of Product Acuity, a technology product management consulting firm in Texas, recently posted this note on product management organizations: "Product management is not just a title or position; it is a critical business function. Think about how a start-up gets going. A few people with a product concept (and thus, defined requirements) start a business. Already having the product concept, their immediate needs are not product management but three critical functions: 1) someone to oversee funding, spending, and the legal aspects of structure, 2) someone to build the product, and 3) someone to sell the product. Everything else is luxury, and the founders serve as the product managers. Therefore, the product management function does indeed exist; that they simply do not need a specialized position dedicated to that role. "For product management to be successful, they need to be part of the overall team. When such collaborative environments and attitudes are truly achieved, issues with organizational structures vaporize."

Dan makes some good points here: the product management function exists in every company, and, if a dedicated product management role exists, it must be an integral part of the team. There is a belief in many managers that there must be one "right" way to organize. But, as Peter Drucker said, each company is a unique organism that needs to find an organization that generates the right results. Organization structure is not particularly relevant. Product management is effective (or not) regardless of the organizational structure. The product management function in small companies is provided by the president and the senior executive team. As a company gets larger, the senior executive team becomes embroiled in company-level issues and typically creates a formal product management role to watch the products at the product level. Medium to large companies achieve scalability by creating more staff roles. We expand Development to include project managers, QA, customer support reps, and others, so that developers can focus on product creation. We surround Sales with support as well. It doesn't make sense for all sales people to create their own leads and sales tools; one focused group of marketing specialists can do it right for the entire sales channel so that Sales can focus on getting products to the customer. And typically we charter product managers to look at the product horizontally across the organization, acting as the senior executive team's product-level champion.

Product Management and Marketing departments are about scalability--few supporting many. Instead of everyone "doing their own thing, " we use specialists in different areas to create tools for many to use.

Truth in Advertising

A Shell gas station owner put up this sign again in Menlo Park, Calif., Monday, May 17, 2004 as gas prices raise in the area. The owner put up the sign last year when prices climbed.
(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)(source: Yahoo! News)

Ten indicators that you may have been in Product Management for too long

Daniel Shefer reports these ten indicators that you may have been in Product Management for too long...

1. When your creative writing is limited to making up SKUs. 2. When your kids asks for a bicycle for their birthday and you have them write a business case and specs. 3. When you just know that Sales and Development are out to get you. 4. You request an MRD from your family before you can choose a restaurant. 5. Every social event becomes a marketing discussion. For example, "these cocktail napkins don't continue the theme set by the dinner table and neither incorporates a common logo." 6. You request more information from your place of worship so you can understand their positioning. 7. You have automatic replies to every question a sales person might ask. 8. When looking at a new text formatting feature, you think "hey, this is really hot!" 9. You know when to use "product management" and when to use "Product Management." 10. You start writing about Product Management. (Thanks to Ron Mironov and Rick Chapman for contributions.)

Where Should Product Management Report?

Where is the best place to locate Product Management in an organization? Bring it up at your company if you want to spark a lively debate. In the Pragmatic Marketing product management benchmark study: 27% report directly to the CEO 23% are in the Marketing department 15% are in Development or Engineering 10% are in the Product Management department It's a sign of the immaturity of the profession of Software Product Management that there doesn't seem to be a standard job function where Product Managers report. Companies are all over the map when it comes to which part of the organization is in charge of Product Management. So often Product Management is not viewed as a vital function at a company, since its purpose and focus is poorly understood. If you read about the management team of a startup, or even a larger software company, you would be shocked if it didn't include a Finance or CFO function. You'd be pretty surprised if there were no Marketing function. But I'm willing to bet that a large number of experienced venture capitalists and entrepreneurs wouldn't notice if Product Management weren't mentioned in the job descriptions of the management team. And because Product Management for software is as young as it is, you would find very little consensus in the industry about where the Product Management function belongs in the org structure. Yet if you take a systematic, consistent approach to Product Management, the answer to where the function belongs becomes clear. Read below for a discussion of the various areas where Product Management reports today, with the associated strengths and weaknesses, and where the function belongs in a well run organization. Read Jacques Murphy's analysis in Where Should Product Management Report?.

Competitive Analysis for M & A

Another important use of competitive analysis is to gather valuable information for Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), to find companies that would make good potential acquisitions for or purchasers of your company. This same activity can have a different outcome from an actual merger or acquisition. It could be 'M&A lite,' such as a strategic alliance or partnership that strengthens your product in a new sales channel or adds competitive functionality. And looking for new functionality, then figuring out how to put it in the product, whether by developing it internally, embedding another company's technology, or partnering, falls right smack into the area of responsibility of a Product Manager. Read Jacques Murphy's Competitive Analysis for M&A.

Decker Marketing: Warning Signs

Sam Decker writes, "In marketing, it's as important to decide what not to say as it is what to say. As a professional speaker, my father always suggested to me that the audience does not know what you didn't tell them. And, they will remember more if you tell them less."

The Prisoner Of Routines

John Porcaro writes in The Prisoner Of Routines: "Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge for Business Leaders published a great article called 'The Trap of Overwhelming Demands.' In it, they warn that being habitually too busy leads to preventing managers from taking the time to notice opportunities. 'Feeling under the gun,' these managers never find time to ask themselves, 'Am I busy with the right things?''" Remember, no one gets promoted for doing good email or good meetings or good voice mail. These are the urgent interruptions that prevent us from doing important work. Are you doing your job, or are you just jumping through hoops?

What is RSS?

Have you been wondering about the orange link on some web sites? It's a link to an RSS feed. RSS is a way to publish and distribute content on the Web without using email. Subscribers receive new content whenever they want it, without worrying whether your e-newsletter will make it through their corporate spam & virus filters. RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. It is what it claims to be: a quick and easy way to create and use "syndicated content" such as news headlines and announcements. Some websites (like this one) use RSS to deliver blog updates and article previews to readers who are simply too busy to browse to our site and dig up the content they are interested in. Other sites use RSS to alert customers of new products, updates, or upcoming events. Want to start subscribing? I use NewsGator to pull RSS feeds into Outlook and Blogger to manage this blog. Learn more about RSS here.

Everyone needs to know what we do here

Technology marketing and product management requires domain expertise. People who tell you otherwise probably aren't very effective in working with developers and engineers. Domain expertise helps product managers connect with buyers and users to truly understand what they need and not just what they want. Domain knowledge steers marketing communications to effective programs with a clear message for the buyer. Likewise developers and engineers. When a judgment call is necessary--and this is often--a developer who understands the customer profile is more likely to make the correct choice. Gone are the days when we could have "coders" who programmed to someone else's design. At least, those days are gone when businesses investigate outsourcing. In Cooper's May newsletter, Dave Cronin writes, "Everyone's talking about outsourcing and offshore development these days. It's been on the cover of major newsweeklies, featured prominently on the West Wing television show, and a topic of conversation around boardrooms and discussion groups. Regardless of your personal position on trade policy, globalization looks like it's going to be a fact of life in the software industry." Read his article Designing products for offshore development.

In particular, Cronin emphasizes the increased importance of complete product design in the context of outsourcing. And firms sending good, complete designs offshore will achieve good results. Good design = good result. Jobs not requiring knowledge of the market and products are ideal candidates for outsourcing. There are outsourcing firms in all aspects of technology including development, marketing programs, and for that matter, sales can be outsourced too, can't it? If a job at an ERP (or tools or whatever) vendor can be done by anyone without knowledge of that space, why do it internally? Our developers, engineers, and product managers embody a terrific collective of domain knowledge... or should. We can allow more freedom and creativity in the design and implementation if the team members understand the customer problem. We can communicate in shorthand when both sides know the domain. Employees cannot be ignorant of their business. Product managers are learning to be more business-oriented. Marketers and developers need this too. Read your company's annual report. Make sure you understand your company's business strategy and challenges. Be able to participate in a strategy conversation. Otherwise, if you say "just tell me exactly what you want, " you're competing with outsourcing firms saying the same thing... at a fraction of your cost. Don't get so caught up in technology that you lose sight of the business.

Cooper May Newsletter

From Cooper.com: "As businesspeople continue to use industrial age practices to manage product development in the information age, they continue to set up programmers for failure by not giving programmers sufficient time, clear enough direction, and adequate designs. In this excerpt from the new foreword in the 2nd edition of The Inmates are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity, Alan Cooper describes how well-meaning decision-makers are being foiled by their outdated tools." Read more...

Where is the good advertising?

I was perusing print advertisements the other day, looking for good examples to illustrate key marketing principles in our Practical Product Management class. I skimmed a year's worth of PC and industry magazines. And found... not one good ad. Surely, someone in high-tech has a clue! Good ads? I found none. Read my rant on advertising.

Product Manager tips from "Coder to Developer"

I just finished Coder to Developer by Mike Gunderloy. It's really a book for developers but offers some great insights for product management. If you work closely with a development team, this book shows you some of the internal processes and best practices that they should be following. Interestingly, one of Gunderloy's first points is to nail down the product positioning--called "The Elevator Pitch" in his book--before writing the first line of code. The Elevator Pitch keeps you focused on what you're building lest you lose sight of the big picture.

This advice will be familiar to people who have attended Pragmatic Marketing's Practical Product Management class. Product managers will want to skim most of the book such as the specific programming practices in .NET and the sections of code for the sample application. The sections of most interest to product managers are: * Handling Requirements * Starting a New Project (discussing of Breadth-First Coding and Depth-First * Coding) * Scheduling Deliveries * The Testing Landscape * Risk Management (an excellent method for assessing and prioritizing the project's risks) Gunderloy is generous with references to other works. He points readers to Joel Spolsky's excellent article on Painless Software Schedules and to Karl Wieger's book on Software Requirements.

Your opinion...

Seth Godin writes, "The first rule of great feedback is this: No one cares about your opinion. I don't want to know how you feel, nor do I care if you would buy it, recommend it, or use it. You are not my market. You are not my focus group." Does this sound familiar? Product managers should use facts, not opinions, to drive consensus in the company. Developers love data--so product managers must use market facts to illustrate why one idea is better than another. "I think this feature would be neat" is not nearly as strong as "Last quarter, 62% of our losses occurred because we didn't solve this problem." Which sounds better to you? (From 'How to Give Feedback' at Fast Company.)

Using Caffeine The Wrong Way?

Researchers from Rush University Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School say they discovered low doses of caffeine throughout the day is more effective than the traditional method of having a large dose in the morning.

Commoditization as competitive strategy

Nicholas G. Carr writes: The way big IT companies are acting in the marketplace is actually accelerating the commoditization of their products and services. Commoditization lies at the very heart of their competitive strategies. Look at Intel. According to The Wall Street Journal, Intel is selling its Centrino Wi-Fi chips for its cost to fabricate them. Why? For one thing, turning Wi-Fi technology into a cheap commodity is a good way to crush would-be competitors. More important, making Wi-Fi chips broadly affordable encourages people to buy laptops, and selling laptop chipsets is far more lucrative for Intel than selling desktop chipsets. It's in Intel's interest to commoditize Wi-Fi as quickly as possible. Other companies are finding that commoditization is a great weapon to use against an archenemy. Sun Microsystems, for instance, is heavily promoting StarOffice, its inexpensive open source alternative to the ubiquitous Microsoft Office. Sun knows that if it can commoditize basic business apps, it can begin to break Redmond's stranglehold on the PC desktop. On a larger scale, IBM is also attacking Microsoft by spending billions to promote the adoption of Linux, rather than Windows, for PCs and servers. from Wired 12.05: VIEW.

The Mysteries and Future of Websites

Websites have just completed a full circle of a hard struggle, and somehow survived where other traditional marketing tools and old principals failed big time. Now the same sites and domain names must face harsher realities once again, all to ensure high visibility and exposure they so provide. Today without visibility, e-commerce, websites are simply doomed. While billions of web pages poised for the right match, only clashing into billions of surfing customers are simply flooding each other. Millions of splashy logos with billions of expensive web pages are all deeply submerged in this ocean of e-commerce. Customers all over the world are only amused as they watch the websites struggle to gain attention at a zillion choices per second. Their mysterious behavior on search engines and the role of alpha-structures of each and every domain name is now a very big question.

Why Americans pay more for software

Here's an interesting comment on product pricing. Rafe Needleman writes, "Microsoft, as it turns out, is not alone in having a tiered pricing structure for its software. Other software companies do the same thing. In fact, Digital River sells software on behalf of its customers (including Symantec and Autodesk) at prices that vary depending on not just who's buying the product but where they live and how much software piracy exists in their country."

from Joel on Software

Joel writes, "What drives me crazy is that most software developers don't realize just how little they know about software development." I'd extend that comment to include product managers, sales people, and executives at many sofware companies. This is your chosen profession; you really should know something about it. Read Joel's full article.