ProductMarketing.com

Most annoying blog posts: 2011

It's almost 2011 and many bloggers will start the year with their resolutions including:

• I haven't been blogging lately but will post more often in 2011
• What I plan to blog about in 2011
• What do you want me to blog about in 2011?
• I'll have a new look in 2011

Who cares? Don't tell me what you're gonna do; do it. Don't tell me your plans; show me through your actions.

Your readers don't care what you plan to do; they care what you're doing. It's not like most of us start the day on your blog. Instead we use a blog reader and read what's out there. We can't read what isn't posted. And we don't notice when you don't blog.

It's like the marketing team who argues that they should go to Geekworld because people will notice if we're not there. Wow! How's the center of the universe working out for you?

You're the only one that notices your absence.

"Do, or do not. There is no 'try'."--Yoda, Jedi philosopher.

 

30 years experience

I once had an employee who claimed to have 30 years experience. But instead, he had 3 years of experience repeated ten times.

What are you doing to stay current... with today's issues and today's technologies?

Use the Right Tool For The Job

First, let me speak to my fellow product managers:  You are not the right tool for finding solutions to problems!  Your job is to find the problems people are willing to pay for to solve.  You need to define what constitutes an acceptable solution and let the experts get to work.  If you're not talking to the market and finding out what your company should do next, who is?

via pmblog.perryzoo.com

Use the right "tools" and you'll be delighted with the results. Developers are problem-solvers; product managers and CEOs and sales people aren't. Nice post from "Tim The PM."

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

Market Authority | On Product Management

My pal Jim Holland has a nice post on getting started--and maintaining your relevance--in product management. You have responsibility and accountability. But market knowledge is the source of authority.

I recommend product management start with Market Authority.

Market Authority is the foundation of sustainable product vision and all the moving parts that follow. While I placed Product Vision first in my post, I stated, “Product management has a great influence on product vision. Driving strategy as a leader begins with knowing your markets.”

via onproductmanagement.net

 

Seth's Blog: What are you working on?

If someone asks you that, are you excited to tell them the answer?

I hope so. If not, you're wasting away.

No matter what your job is, no matter where you work, there's a way to create a project (on your own, on weekends if necessary), where the excitement is palpable, where something that might make a difference is right around the corner.

Hurry, go do that.

via sethgodin.typepad.com

Opportunity is everywhere. Hurry. Go do that.

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

Designed by Apple in California - (37signals)

There is an adage in graphic design that goes something like this:

If you want to make something stand out in your design, make it big. If it needs to stand out even more, make it bold. Still not enough? Make it red.

Big and bold and red epitomize the lazy designer because it always works but shows no imagination. Marketing is usually full of big and bold and red.

via 37signals.com

If you have to shout, then you don't really have the buyer's attention.

"Subtlety is not a virtue of our culture, but it appeals to me and always has."--Robert Redford

You should change your password

The two most popular passwords used today are '123456' and 'password.' Scary.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/12/13/the-top-50-gawker-media-passwords/

If yours is in this list, maybe you should start 2011 off with a stronger password.

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

Is Yahoo Shutting Down Del.icio.us?

In some kind of weird founder solidarity, the slide was originally posted on Twitter by MyBlogLog founder Eric Marcoullier.

via techcrunch.com

Roadmaps and other internal documents have a way of getting out. Here, Yahoo accidentally announces the end-of-life for some acquisitions. As I point out in our Roadmapping seminar, confidential documents, particularly roadmaps, easily escape the building, so I try to write all documents as if they will not remain private. (Thanks to Jeff for the link).

survey: I wish I knew more about...

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

Mobile Opportunity: What's really wrong with BlackBerry (and what to do about it)

RIM's real problems center around two big issues: its market is saturating, and it seems to have lost the ability to create great products. This is a classic problem that eventually faces most successful computer platforms.

via mobileopportunity.blogspot.com

A comprehensive analysis of RIM makes a good primer for the rest of us. My feeling is that RIM has tried to take a B2B product to the masses rather than build a B2C product. They've done "one size for all" instead of really understanding the new personas and their problems.

But a company's decline is rarely simple. This article examines the complexity of the issues.

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

6 rules to help ensure you’re asking the right questions | On Product Management

People wanted to know what questions (qualitative vs. quantitative) they should ask in order to identify requirements, and to ensure that what they are (or plan on) building is the right thing.

i.e. what was the shortest path to get the insight they needed to validate their assumptions.

via onproductmanagement.net

Nice post from Saeed on questions and questioning. "Just go ask some people" isn't as easy as it seems. But it's not really about a list of standard questions; interviewing is really about truly understanding the persona and their problems.

There's no short path to empathy. You need to spend quality time to get quality information.

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

On pricing: your company reputation matters

Product pricing is also company pricing

The Swiss army knife is not a good knife; it's not a good can opener; it's not a good corkscrew. It's not really good at anything. But for certain personas, like those lost on a desert island, a Swiss army knife might be just the thing.

How do you get visibility in a world of products and service? How do you make a business as a consultant or coach? You need a method or framework or skillset that can't easily be found elsewhere.

Sure, you can do the job. But can you prove it?

What makes you different? In the eyes of a customer.

Innovation. A new way to solve a problem.

Have you solved a problem or developed an approach that solves a real problem?

I used to really enjoy Mystery Science Theater 3000 (www.mst3k.com). The idea was that you could watch a movie with some funny friends who would make caustic remarks through the entire video. Some of the comments were lame; some were hilarious. But sadly, the business model was crippled by the movie industry's licensing methods. It just got too hard to embed these remarks in a movie, which is why some of the funniest ones were truly obscure films--the only ones that MST3K could license.

Now fast forward. With a little innovative thinking, the RiffTrax people have kept the tradition alive (www.rifftrax.com). Without bothering with licensing. RiffTrax offers the same funny commentary for many, many movies… in MP3 format. Download the track, sync with the DVD, and throughout the movie you can hear their audio remarks in sync with the video. The opening of each track tells you when to press "play" on your iPod. Voila! MST3K, alive again. Cool, eh? (I just bought RiffTrax for the original Star Wars trilogy. Take that, George Lucas!)

Expertise. Built into product or service.

Have you got a capability or experience that others don't? Maybe it's your framework, like Pragmatic Marketing has offered in product management since 1993. Maybe it's your understanding of a method, like using games to elicit customer requirements as Luke Hohmann does with Innovation Games (www.innovationgames.com). Maybe it's your expertise, as Alan Armstrong offers in win/loss analysis for complex software sales (www.eigenworks.com).

Years ago I was the product manager for a network management tool. We had developed it for our own use, as our original business idea was to manage company networks. And I'm talking big, far-flung, massive networks here. Our target customers were large sites that moved money on their network so uptime was critical. They loved our pitch but didn't have confidence that such a small company had the resources to handle their large-company needs. "But," they wondered, "what tool were you planning to use?" Turns out the tool that we developed to enable this service was unique in the space since it was designed for huge networks and the other tools simply weren't. We'd built our knowledge of handling large networks into a tool that could help a small team manage a large network. Our customers wanted the tool with its embedded expertise, not the service.

When pricing a product or service, then, you need to build a reputation, and continue to build upon it. A reputation is not a promise of what you want to be or what you promise to do. A reputation is a history of delivering on your promises. A reputation is the trust that people place in your expertise or innovation. And your brand results from that reputation.

What are some other ways that you build a premium priced product or service?

(Please don't say creative logo or clever marketing).

Friday fun: Pedantic Geeks

 

 

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via geekandpoke.typepad.com

Video Thursday: Cranky PM Interview #3

The Cranky VP of product management continues the interview. (Be sure to watch parts #1 & 2 too.)

 

via crankypm.com