Do you have strong working relationships with your director-level peers? Frequent, direct, honest communication builds up trust – which you’ll need during occasional crises.
A Director-Level Thought Experiment
Six Ways Product Managers Can Help Their Agile Development Teams (and vice versa)
A discussion on how development and product management can work better together… I like to start such sessions with unfiltered comments from development managers about their (good and bad) experiences with product managers. Typically, these include more disappointment than elation, which gives us a chance to recap the critical parts of the product job that development teams don’t see. And how we can focus on building and shipping great products, rather than title or roles.
Dog Whistles and the Myth of R&D Slack
There’s a dog whistle problem with critical phrases that Engineering VPs (and product managers) repeatedly speak but which can’t be heard by sales people or executives: “There is no slack in our development schedule. We’re fully booked.” …and… “If we make this new customer commitment, we will have to pull technical staff away from projects we have already committed to customers. That means slipping project ABC.”
Notes from the Unicorn Hiring Front
When opening up a new product management position (or any job), it’s easy to over-specify what candidates must have. We risk finding no candidates at all, or missing those with unique skills and backgrounds, so it helps to clearly prioritize our requirements.
Managing Product Managers (The Book)
Here’s an outline for my next book, focused on the people who run technology product management teams – Directors of Product Management, VP PMs, etc. As completed, chapters will be linked from this page. We’ll be encouraging comments, improvements and real-world examples from the PM community.
What Hiring Managers are Looking for in Product Management Candidates
We did an analysis of job requirements and qualifications for posted product management openings. Previous PM experience, segment expertise and great communication skills are at the top of the list. What if you don’t look like the typical PM hire?
4 1/2 Mac Productivity Products that Don’t Suck
I have a complex set of office productivity needs, and struggle to find products (services) that fit my particular situation. Even though my business assets live in the cloud, I’m often without a high-speed network connection – so also have to keep critical things stored locally. I juggle several email identities, keep two Macs synchronized, [...]
B2B SaaS Companies Need Behavioral Expertise
B2B SaaS are missing the opportunity to understand and model their user base: boosting satisfaction and revenue by identifying how successful customers behave during their revenue journey
Panning for Gold in the Input Stream
Sorting through the chaotic mess of customer input streams is like panning for gold. Big rewards when you find a nugget, but a lot of hard work sifting through tons of obvious, repetitive, incremental suggestions.
Managing the Unmanageable
I’ve had the great pleasure of reading an early copy of “Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools and Insights for Managing Software People and Teams.” Co-author Ron Lichty is a veteran Silicon Valley VP of Engineering, having done important work at Apple, Berkeley Systems, Schwab and Razorfish. I know Ron from his SVForum leadership and his [...]