[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Review If there are two books that any tech product manager should have read at the very beginning of his career, then it is "Crossing the chasm" from Geoffrey A. Moore and "The innovator's dilemma" from Clayton M. Christensen. The first learns you how to walk through the product lifecycle and the second will warn you to be vigilant…
At the moment of this writing, our world is (hopefully) slowly exiting a turbulent period of coping with the Covid-19 virus. This had major impact on everyone’s personal life and on our economy. Most businesses slowed down, came close to a halt or in worst case stopped for more than a year. Obviously, all these businesses will now try to…
Let us be honest: most of the “new” products we deal with as a product manager are logical evolutions of the existing portfolio, product improvements to compensate for lacks in the initial design, answering unfulfilled customer needs that we missed the first time and so on. Innovation is an overrated hype word and companies that create mind-blowing concepts from basic…
As product management is a core function of your business, you may be convinced this should remain 100% internal to be effective. The opposite is true. Your business will benefit a lot from outsourcing certain product management activities or even the whole process of new product introduction. Here’s five reasons why: Outsourcing product management is cost-effective.Product management is a critical…
Should a product manager be tech-savvy? Some naysayers dare to claim that a product manager doesn't need technical knowledge. After all, engineers or other specialists are supposed to handle the technical nature of the product. In fact, interfering with R&D stuff as “an outsider” may even be considered as an insult. I believe that having a strong technical background, education…
As a new product enters the market, the need for training arises. People need to learn how the product works. They want to understand key features, how to install and operate the product, and how to maintain it. In this early stage of the product lifecycle, the product manager is one of the few people involved in every aspect of…
As a product specialist and being accountable for his product portfolio, a product manager is (or should be!) involved in the strategic planning of his company. It requires some disassociation from day-to-day product activities and an understanding of the bigger picture. One of the aspects in selecting strategic goals is the competitive strategy. A competitive strategy defines in what discipline…
“Launching” new products is probably a core activity for most product managers but what does it involve? If you think the launch plan is just a list of marketing collateral and a date when you will issue a press release or show the newborn product at an exhibition, think again. The launch plan should touch every single aspect of the…
My first book, “Practical Product Management” is now available for shipment to most European countries. Four years ago, I felt the urge to share the things I learnt through 15 years of product management in technology driven companies. Having read a lot on the various topics that make up product management and having experienced what works and what not in…
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Many authors have referred to product management as “the accidental profession." While the same might be said about project management, this is definitely a fair description for the art of managing a product - or a portfolio of products - and all the business-related processes that come with it. In my experience, most product managers never formally studied product management.…