Thursday, April 28, 2011

How to Get a Real Education at College

“Why do we make B students sit through the same classes as their brainy peers? That's like trying to train your cat to do your taxes—a waste of time and money. Wouldn't it make sense to teach them something useful instead?

Posted via email from Great article collection for Product Managers

Monday, February 28, 2011

Perfection

Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add,

But when there is nothing left to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Posted via email from Great article collection for Product Managers

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The best analogy to the Product Manager role

I met with Vladimir Bataev yesterday, and this blog post is inspired by him.

If you were asked "what's a Product Manager like?", can you think of a parallel or analogy that can help others understand the role and say "aha.. I get it."

A Product Manager is like a movie director.

Here's what Th

eFilmMakers.com says about the role of a movie director:

A good director makes sure that all parts of a film are creatively produced and brought together in a single totality. A director interprets the script, coaches the performers, works together with the montagist, etc., interrelating them all to create a work of art. According to Film Scholar Eric Sherman, the director begins with a vague idea of the entire film and uses this to help him determine what is to be done. He gains most when others are given their freedom to show what they know.

The position of the director in the traditional filmmaking process varies greatly and is extremely complex. The film director is seen as a leader of others, as providing a kind of guiding force. According to this view, the final outcome is more or less predetermined by requirements of the script, camerawork, acting, and editing; the director providing certain organizational context to the picture.

A good Product Manager makes sure that all aspects that is required of a product's success are brought together in a single totality. A good Product Manager interprets the vision, trends and requirements, educate the organization, works together with the stakeholders, etc., interrelating them all to create a great product.

Product Managers usually begins with a vague idea of how the product should serve its customers and uses this o help him determine what is to be done. He gains most when others (customers, stakeholders) are given their freedom to show what they know (instead of being autocratic and dictate directions).

The position of the Product Manager in the product development process varies greatly and is extremely complex. The Product Manager is seen as a thought leader, as providing a kind of guiding force. According to this view, the final outcome is more or less predetermined by requirements of the customer, technology, design and marketing; the Product Manager provides organizational context to the whole process and ensure all the departments are orchestrated to perform to the success of the product.

Thanks Vladimir :)

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The path to successful new products, according to McKinsey

According to a survey done by McKinsey in North America and Europe, the businesses with the best product-development track records do three things better than their less-successful peers:

They create a clear sense of project goals early on.
They nurture a strong project culture in their workplace.
They maintain close contact with customers throughout a project's duration.

I certainly find the 3 very relevant and agree that a business will be in peril of the 3 does not exist. My experience with the 3:

Keeping it Focused

I find that while it's easy (as a product manager) to get a small group of people (the product management or the development team) focused on the goal, but very challenging to get all the other stakeholders to focus on the same goal.
Key reasons - misalignment of interest or the so called "KPI". If the sales & marketing team have different KPIs, your product development might not get enough attention (unless it's a money making machine). If the customer service team has a different agenda in what they tell the customers, your product might not be used in the intended way...

Project Culture

The article says it all: "When people with critical skills become overburdened, they often decide on their own which of their many projects is the most important, a decision best made at the management level."
And I thought good project management is very much about making sure the project delivers the intended result, but often we see project teams merely aiming for "completion of project" rather than "getting the result" itself. How many "projects" created in your organization is actually geared towards the desired result? And does everyone agree on what is the desired result to begin with?

Talk to the Customer

"More than 80 percent of the top performers said they periodically tested and validated customer preferences during the development process, compared with just 43 percent of bottom performers."

Validated customer preferences during the development process? Wow.. that's pretty much unheard of in Malaysian context. Correct me if I am wrong.
I have personally done that - though one could argue that I actually released a beta version of the product to do market testing so it's not technically in "development" anymore. I can testify that it is indeed a valuable process to minimize risk and increase chances of success when the final product is launched.

Ref: McKinsey Quarterly - The path to successful new products