Open Source: Tree Museums
2005 was a great year for open source developers and solutions, with a dramatic boost in credibility, tools and respect.…
Market Thinking
146 posts
Sharks, Pilot Fish, and the Product Food Chain
When you’re launching a new venture, one of your hungry competitor earliest considerations is how your innovation might fit…
Girls Getting a Head Start(-Up)
Most founders of VC-backed start-ups tend toward technical degrees, MBAs and
forty-something gray hair – with a strong…
Risk-Sharing and Customer-Perceived Value
Whenever customers buy your product or service, there’s a leap of faith that they will get value from you.…
Insider Thinking
Product managers and other product champions spend a lot of their time driving internal processes and decisions — the daily incremental…
The Roadmap Less Traveled
Every tech start-up struggles to create a roadmap: that short set of PowerPoint slides which defines the next six…
The Strategic Secret Shopper
I’ve often played the “secret shopper,” hired to approach key competitors as a
customer or as a consultant to…
What’s Your Pricing Metric?
I’m often involved in pricing discussions, which are typically introduced as
“what’s the right price for my product?…
Mo’ Beta
At some time in every product cycle, the executive team wants to help product management “improve” its customer beta process.…
"Goldilocks" Packaging
Established companies in established markets generally have some standard ways to package and price their new offerings. Product extensions are…
So Your Product Wants to Be a Service…
Sometimes we take a fresh look at a product, with the thought of turning it into a service. This is…
Early Selling: Thoroughbreds and Explorers
Start-up selling is different from selling established products. It includes navigating new product waters and locating islands of early…