Category Archives: Product Management

art and science of getting tech products imagined, built, shipped and successful

‘Getting Promoted’ Talk at SV ProdCamp

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svpcampThis year’s Silicon Valley Product Camp (the fourth!) drew the largest crowd ever of product managers and product marketers to share, network, learn and have fun! Estimated at almost 600 and hosted at eBay’s Paypal/San Jose location, it pulled attendees from around the continent for nearly 40 sessions.  It also included a job fair with a dozen local companies.  I was honored to be emcee and event coordinator emeritus, having passed PCamp management to new leadership.

I ran a session on Understanding the Next Job Up and Getting Promoted…

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Does Your Product Suck?

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lemonIt’s been a tough week on the technical front, with a variety of products failing to perform their core functions for me. Which prompts a somewhat emotional question for those of us who oversee products (or services) for a living:
Does your product suck? Does it #fail to do the one thing that customers buy it for?

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A Journey of 1000 Miles is Still 1000 Miles Long

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ConfuciusIt’s easy to confuse actual progress with intentions to make progress.

Why point out the obvious? I’ve just come out of another agile conversation where prospective clients confused “we want to build better software faster” with “we hope that some new processes will instantly catch us up on years of slipped deadlines and missing features.”

So paraphrasing Confucius, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but is still a thousand miles long. Even at twice your normal walking speed, be prepared for a very long slog.”

For context, nearly every software development team would like to be more productive, ship better product, and be innovative. Almost by definition, though, those with the biggest productivity issues are the furthest behind – with months (years) of unmet customer requirements and technical debt. Continue reading →

Where Does (Should) Strategy Live in Your Company?

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Rich Mironov gave a talk at SDForum’s Marketing SIG on where/how to build strategy in (young) tech companies. SDForum

What:  Where Does (Should) Strategy Live in Your Company?
Where: Marketing SIG @ DLA Piper,  2000 University Ave, Palo Alto
When: April 12, 6:30pm – 9:00pm   event page
PDF of the slides

Where does/should strategy live in your company?

Technology companies tend to break strategy into functional pieces: the CTO is responsible for a technology strategy, Marketing has a lead generation strategy and a customer/segmentation strategy, product managers each have a product strategy, Sales drives a channel/partner strategy.  Often there’s a disconnect between these groups and their various strategies.  This is even more frequent among software companies deploying agile development practices, since Engineering often sets up its own customer showcases and gathers some product requirements.

So what are the necessary elements to a company/business unit strategy, and who should participate?  Some companies create strategy departments, which risk losing touch with product groups.  Others form ad hoc teams pulled from various functions.  Rich talked through some of the ingredients for good strategy, who needs to participate/collaborate, and some organizational models for making it work at start-ups and small single-product companies.

Where Should Strategy Live? (SDForum)

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Third Annual Silicon Valley P-Camp

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The third annual Silicon Valley P-Camp was the largest gathering of product managers ever!  550 product managers got together for a Saturday of discussions, talks, panels, networking, fun, food, t-shirts and surprises.  Under the leadership of SVPMA and with Yahoo! generosity.  34 sessions, talks and panels were chosen from 70 proposals, for a long day of collaboration and participation.  A wiki was set up to capture presentations, comments, photos and other information.

P-Camp ‘10
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A great SVPMA talk: “How To Get That Next PM Job”

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Last Weds (March 5th), Shreyas Doshi had the SVPMA podium for a talk on “How To Get That Next PM Job”

SVPMAThis was an astonishingly wonderful talk: crisp, funny, and relentlessly on-point.  When I wasn’t applauding and smacking my forehead, I was jealous. Continue reading →

Kindle version of “Art of Product Management”

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Rich Mironov’s “Art of Product Management” has been converted to Amazon’s Kindle format, and is now available for download.

Get the Kindle version here or the paper version here.

From the original book summary:

“The Art of Product Management takes us inside the head of a product management thought leader. With color and humor, Rich Mironov gives us a taste of Silicon Valley’s tireless pursuit of great technology and its creation of new products. He provides strategic advice to product managers and tech professionals about start-ups, big organizations, how to think like a customer, and what things should cost. He also reminds us to love our products and our teams. The Art of Product Management brings together the best insights from more than seven years of Product Bytes, Rich Mironov’s long-running series on product strategy, technology companies, and how the two interact. This collection is for everyone who builds or markets the next new thing. This is more a how to think about products book than how to templates. Product managers (and others who are deeply committed to great products) will recognize themselves and their daily process struggles. How do I think about customers and solutions? Why does my organization behave the way it does? Can I help others to think long-term, or do I need to think for them? This book captures the inner life of product champions.”

Santa Clara MBA Lecture on PM, Pricing and Roadmaps

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Prof. Kumar Sarangee of Santa Clara’s Leavey School of Business invited Rich Mironov to be a guest lecturer for his Product Market Planning and Strategy class.  SCU’s Evening MBA program attracts some of the brightest students from the Valley, with a tradition of providing leadership back to technology companies.

What: Lecture and discussion of technology product management, software pricing, and product roadmaps.
Class: Product Market Planning and Strategy (MBA / MKTG 572).
Where: Lucas Hall, Santa Clara University
When:  Thursday, January 7

This talk included a quick overview of what product managers are (what they do), how to think about pricing for software and non-physical goods, and an introduction to roadmapping.

PM Essentials: Roles, Pricing and Roadmaps

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Course Description:
New product development (NPD) is critically important for the successful performance of all organizations. However, NPD is a risky endeavor and many new products fail in the marketplace, despite a huge expenditure in money, time and resources. Hence, managers need to develop a comprehensive understanding of the design, development and marketing of new products and services.

In this course, Prof. Sarangee focuses on both quantitative and qualitative tools and techniques associated with researching and analyzing new product opportunities and then designing, testing, and introducing new products and services. It is especially tailored for professional managers who are interested in innovation, new product development and entrepreneurship.

Celebrating Product Management (webinar)

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Rich Mironov joined a Product Management View panel for a 2009 end-of-year webinar:

What: “Celebrating Product Management – Looking back, pressing forward”
When: Wed, Dec 23, 2009
Listen to the webcast

Jim Holland moderated a special Product Management View holiday discussion with Rich Mironov, Scott Sehlhorst and Michael Hopkin. We reviewed 2009, made some predictions for 2010, and took questions from attendees.  “In this season of friendship and relations, we bundle up from the cold and let our thoughts of gratitude move toward the shared experiences of Product Managers everywhere.”
Product Management View