Part 2 of 3

Apple is the undisputed leader among technology companies for creating products that border on art. They create products that are not only a delight to use but also provide a strong visual and emotional attraction. How do they do this? By making the customer experience a top priority. This article continues the discussion from Part 1 - Innovation Lessons from Apple – Finding Market Gaps.

Bridging Concept to Solution

A recent search on Monster.com for similar job title openings nationwide yielded about 800 Product Managers, 150 Product Marketing Managers, 1,000 Project Managers and 1,000 Program Managers.    What’s a Program Manager?

The role of Program Manager in many industries acts in the capacity of super-project-manager - coordinating multiple interrelated projects towards a common goal and often from a business manager perspective.     In high tech, the Program Manager role has evolved along very different lines, especially in software development.   This article explores this product development role, how it differs from other Product Manager roles, the value it brings to the development process and where things can also go wrong.

Part 3 of 3

With the release of the first iPod, Apple had an immediate hit on its hands. They repeated this with iPhone. What activities did they engage in on each of these products to ensure continued success? The primary method was to compete with themselves, and before their competitors did. Two key activities were continuous improvements and line extensions. This article continues the discussion from Part 2 - Innovation Lessons from Apple – Obsessing on Customer Experience.

Establishing Credibility & Building Relationships

The PM roles (Product Manager, Program Manager, and Project Manager) all need to lead cross-functional product efforts without having direct control of resources.   A common phrase heard is “I have all the responsibility but no authority”.   Last month at the Seattle ProductCamp, brainstormed in a session titled “Responsibility without Authority” to get ideas on how to establish credibility and influence your organization.   Here’s a quick discussion of those notes generated from about 25 attendees.   It includes identifying the major stakeholders, the roadblocks to influence, and suggestions for gaining credibility and the ability to influence. 

I admit it.  I’m an online shopaholic.  My addiction started over a decade ago when Amazon delivered my first book right to my doorstep, painlessly and effortlessly.   From there I progressed to flowers, gift baskets, electronics, shoes, travel and practically everything else.   The major reason I got hooked was due to my overall positive customer experience.    The web has come a long way since then and my expectations on the level of service delivered to me have increased, largely due to some innovative companies raising the bar.   This discussion is about paying attention to your customer’s full lifecycle experience, not just product features, to develop true loyalty.

An online poll was conducted in early May 2009 asking Product Managers to select their biggest challenges from a list or providing their own selections. The poll ran for just over a week and a total of 24 Product Managers responded and provided 63 different selections. The aggregated results are provided in this article.

An Overview of Product Management Roles

What do your product managers do?   Are you aware of all the things they could be doing?

This paper gives a brief overview of the typical activities that product managers get involved in and some potential issues that can crop up. The goal is to provide awareness of the possibilities to product leaders and product managers for assessment of your situation and opportunities.

Assessment & Ideas for Improvement

As a product manager, do you know how you impact the bottom line or major objectives of your company or division? Do you even know how your activities are tied to objectives? As an executive, do you feel your product managers are delivering high value to the organization? Do you even know what they are doing?

Product Management has such a broad definition and set of responsibilities within a company that it can be difficult to assess which activities are truly delivering value. It can also be difficult to determine how to measure product management since their actions may not directly affect the core business metrics of revenue, costs and profits. This article presents a high level means of assessing whether your product management team is delivering all of the value it could, some reasons why it may not be, and some suggested steps to take towards maximizing your team’s contribution.

Prioritizing Strategic and Tactical Activities

A major challenge for many companies is realizing the full value of Product Management within the organization. The reason this is challenging is due to product management not being a clearly defined role with specific activities and responsibilities across the industry. This makes it very easy to have product managers performing the wrong or incomplete set of activities, limiting your product's potential.