tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36217277680710287272024-03-20T08:12:29.301-07:00SPM IntersectionsExploring the center and murky edges of product management.Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.comBlogger100125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-72082979628449172822018-05-21T00:37:00.002-07:002018-05-21T00:37:13.842-07:00What is the difference between a value proposition and positioning?Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-80602612392098525692018-04-11T06:55:00.000-07:002018-04-11T06:55:02.891-07:00Help keep the social in social mediaGreg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-22291768670846067272018-04-04T05:22:00.000-07:002018-04-04T05:22:00.899-07:00Your company's most important business processGreg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-80874979062635308882018-04-03T03:21:00.002-07:002018-04-03T03:21:42.365-07:00The future of product management: Part 1As a long-time product manager, I think it's only normal that I ponder the future of this fascinating discipline from time to time. I actually began this journey a few years ago when Prof. Dr. Alex Maedche and I wrote an article on the topic. Interestingly, we had trouble finding the right publication for the article. As far as I know, there are still no traditional publications, e.g., magazines,Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-2378795137551161852018-03-21T07:22:00.003-07:002018-03-21T07:22:32.766-07:00Is product management art or science?Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-52418609639418761162018-03-20T07:35:00.001-07:002018-03-20T07:35:48.076-07:00Are product managers confined to the problem space? PUH-lease...Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-52215810082823323062017-10-21T05:49:00.000-07:002017-10-24T04:21:50.966-07:00Your approach to validation is broken
There's been tons of buzz about "validation" in the past several years. Lean and design-centric approaches such as Design Thinking encourage entrepreneurs to build things and incrementally validate them, correcting course as necessary. When I think about how, at the beginning of my career, we worked for months before validating anything, this increased focus on getting feedback from those who Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-67707498236782129172017-09-28T07:32:00.003-07:002017-10-10T06:11:21.412-07:00An interview on orchestration with yours truly...Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-74527322558090609242017-09-26T07:25:00.002-07:002017-09-26T07:25:32.046-07:00Product Manager: Are you being DDoS'd?
There are lots of reasons that product managers aren't as effective as they could be. However, in my experience, the number one culprit by a huge margin is "operational overload". I usually describe it (somewhat euphemistically) as "lack of strategic execution" to my consulting clients. The syndrome is all too familiar to most of us: we're being pulled in so many directions by so many Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-74932492249405573552017-08-30T05:14:00.000-07:002017-09-11T02:53:51.746-07:00Why do we keep confusing customers and markets?
As a product management consultant and educator, I continue to be surprised by the conflation of the terms "customer" and "market". As anyone who has taken any of my courses knows, these terms are not synonymous! Let's start with some simple definitions:
market: the entities with the interest and means to buy your product
The term "market" is an aggregate concept. It is all the entities, Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-69158642149630729812017-06-07T23:33:00.000-07:002017-06-12T07:06:07.289-07:00Roadmapping: Your customers don't care about your team's development schedule
I continue to be surprised and somewhat disappointed in most of the roadmapping tools I see aimed at product managers. Working primarily in the enterprise space during my career, I created "milestone" style roadmaps that showed when the team would deliver new capabilities to the market. What I see in the tool market today are inward-facing Gantt style roadmaps which, I assume, help the team Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-44341858296070295792017-03-01T03:45:00.003-08:002017-03-01T03:45:42.451-08:00Managing Complex Solutions: When Product Management Begins Breaking Down
I've spent most of my career working as a product manager in huge software companies (IBM, Microsoft, SAP) and as a product management consultant and trainer with vendors that deliver complex solutions in the B2B space. Perhaps it's just me, but when I look at most of the content being generated in the field of product management, I can't help but thinking that something is missing. To myGreg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-77620101038625813932017-01-09T07:02:00.000-08:002017-01-10T02:26:52.132-08:00The fine line between an interview question and free consulting
Absolutely LOVED this article by Liz Ryan in Forbes. I too have been put in the ridiculous situation of being asked to do specific strategy work in the context of a job interview. Luckily, I've never been desperate for a job when it happened. Probing questions that help a hiring manager determine if I have a solid grasp of some part of the job she expects me to perform make sense. Asking me to Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-63675533838288650892016-11-14T11:02:00.000-08:002016-12-10T04:33:07.708-08:00Mortal PM Sins - Part 1
Let's face it: product managers are some of the busiest people on the planet. Perhaps more than many other disciplines, we can be lulled into a sense of false security or even apathy that subtly puts us on the road to failure. We've all heard that a relatively high percentage of products and product development efforts fail. We as a community talk far less about failing as a product manager -- Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-58672340979576382252016-10-26T02:01:00.004-07:002017-11-19T10:52:22.956-08:00Gentle Reminder Product Managers: Mind Your Network!
Not sure what's going on, but I've been pinged regularly in the last couple of weeks by folks either looking to fill PM positions or PMs looking for their next challenge. There's a single word that leaps to mind during all these conversations: network. For such a self-evident message, I'm fascinated at how few people actively manage their professional network. Here's the thing: You can't createGreg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-17031567821011266572016-10-10T03:29:00.002-07:002016-10-11T06:46:14.682-07:00The "New PM" Test
As a product management consultant, I've spent a fair amount of time trying to get myself up to speed on what an organization's goals and plans are, not to mention understanding what their products do and how they build them. When teaching or consulting on product manager, I encourage individuals and organizations to document their offerings and intent in a way that a new person to the team Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-75172117660672026062016-09-07T06:50:00.000-07:002016-09-08T00:23:13.368-07:00How to win engineering hearts and minds as a product manager
Influencing engineering is a critical skill for product managers in the tech field. It should come as no surprise that being influential is much easier when you are respected and liked. A question that new (maybe all?) product managers must ask themselves is how they can develop credibility with the technicians they depend on to implement their product ideas. In this post, I'd like to talk Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-81568609621120261992016-09-05T03:02:00.003-07:002016-09-05T03:02:38.162-07:00From Managing Techhttp://managingtechcartoon.blogspot.de/2016/09/ive-talked-to-customers.html
Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-49788748103530167552016-07-18T03:04:00.003-07:002016-07-24T23:13:19.747-07:00Recruiting (from Managing Tech)
http://managingtechcartoon.blogspot.de/
Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-78527564555156508582016-07-13T04:03:00.002-07:002016-07-18T03:06:22.518-07:00Managing Tech: The Dark Side of Social Media
http://managingtechcartoon.blogspot.de/
Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-61316185056593526322016-07-13T02:20:00.001-07:002017-03-14T22:46:22.046-07:00Biggest Mistakes Orgs Make When Establishing Product Management
Those in my homeland (USA) and from other mature software markets may find it difficult to believe that product management isn't well established in some corners of the world. I now live in Central Europe and can tell you with some authority that product management here ain't what it is back West. Many organizations in these markets are faced with the daunting task of implementing an effective Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-1667336922299362532016-07-04T06:18:00.001-07:002016-07-04T06:18:09.076-07:00Managing Tech: Prioritization Tools
http://managingtechcartoon.blogspot.de/2016/07/prioritization-tools.html
Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-15014314612086224302016-07-04T06:16:00.002-07:002017-11-19T10:54:02.789-08:00Value: A trickier concept than it seems...
I really enjoyed Ellen Gottesdiener's recent post on value. Although we throw that term around a lot in the product management community, it remains a bit of a tricky concept for many. The key problem is that the value we perceive is often different that the value our customers' realize. Here are a few examples I refer to in my product management classes. I'm not sure about the veracity of the Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-88477400648589030572016-06-29T07:49:00.003-07:002016-06-29T07:51:16.550-07:00PM Hell
http://managingtechcartoon.blogspot.de/2016/06/pm-hell.html
Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3621727768071028727.post-88517133272291366092016-06-22T06:27:00.004-07:002016-06-22T06:27:37.628-07:00Questioning Product Management TrainingAs someone who offers software product management courses (along with consulting and other services), I realize this post may seem a bit self-serving. Regardless, I'd like to address a few questions and even misconceptions I encounter frequently on social media and in person on this topic.
Q: Can PM training help me if I'm an experienced product manager?
A: Sometimes phrased as "Is training Greg Prickrilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13507451862450389892noreply@blogger.com0