Software development organizations struggle mightily with planning their development efforts and sticking to the plan. Some Development departments fail to plan at all, other than following constantly changing, seat-of-the-pants estimates, much to the chagrin of the rest of the company that depends upon their output. Others have solid plans that they can follow and use ...
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Recent Posts by pmc
23Aug 2005
05016 Pushed and Pulled: Development vs. Production
Companies, in the drive to produce new capabilities in their software product and roll them out to the market, run into conflicting priorities. One priority is to keep Development producing new features, where the key is meeting announced dates and moving on to work on the next version. The other priority is for Production to ...
05Aug 2005
05015 Degrees of Ability: Hiring Into Product Management
Product Management is not a job that people can go out and get a degree in. You can get a degree in Computer Science that covers the knowledge you need in order to start out as a programmer. You can get a degree in Marketing that gives you the basic foundation to get started in ...
19Jul 2005
05014 Striking Gold: Polishing Your Marketing Message
The effort to first define and develop the marketing message for your product usually takes place with a limited amount of research and input from customers, especially for new capabilities. For the many organizations that don't have the luxury, either in terms of time or money, to spend all they want on market research to ...
07Jul 2005
05013 Software Design: Seeing vs. Thinking
Product Managers find themselves at the center of their company's debates and decisions on product design. They understand how crucial it is for the software to be well designed, so that it not only does what the market wants it to do, but does it in the way the market wants it to. Good product design ...
22Jun 2005
05012 Focal Point: Adding to Sales Discussions
Product Managers provide a unique role in a software company, something that may include skills in Sales, Marketing, and Development, but reaches well beyond the scope of any of those three functions. It's a role nobody else fills. Yet because of their in-depth understanding of the market and the reasons people want and need their ...
10Jun 2005
05011 Hit or Miss: Meeting Promised Development Dates
If you have worked in or with the software industry at all, you have lived through some dramatic delays in product development. For instance, Product Guernsey, originally announced last year, was due in January. It's now the beginning of June, and it's announced that the product, now called Providence, won't be out until September. Or ...
24May 2005
05010 Well Equipped: Giving Sales a Complete Toolkit
In small and large software companies alike, Product Management is usually the critical factor in creating an effective sales toolkit. That's because Product Management marries the strategic goals coming from the management team with the level of detail needed to support the sales team. Product Management takes its understanding of everything from the business model ...
10May 2005
05009 The Real Ideal: Strategy to Tactics and Back
Product Managers, because of the nature of their responsibilities, carry out the unique function of making strategies real and turning realities into strategy. Since they are often called upon not only to view the product from the perspective of management and competitive strategy but also to apply the software tactically, and with great mastery, Product ...
26Apr 2005
05008 At Each Other’s Throat: Handling the Competition
For any of you who have been closely involved in a sale where your product was competing directly against another product, you know that selling against a competitor is tough. Product Managers, as part of supporting the sales force, need to provide guidance and support in selling against the competition. But there is no formal body ...
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