Below you’ll find a list of topics related to product management that may be of interest to you.
1. How I came to be a Product Manager
A bit of background about my own path to product management. Like many other PMs I started as an engineer. But then came my MBA studies and opened my eyes to a whole new world.
2. What is Product Management?
The role of a PM is all too often loosely defined. In many organizations it is a “catch-all” position with no clear responsibilities. Let’s take a look at what a PM role should be.
3. Skills, Experiences and Roles
People arrive at a PM role from multiple directions. Some came from engineering; others from customer support; and there are those who came from sales. Here’s a list of skills a PM should have, or develop over time.
4. Gathering Product Requirements
How do you identify “customer needs”, or market trends? Rely on analysts reports? Evaluate requests from sales people? Adopt new ideas that came from engineering? Gathering requirements is one of the most critical PM tasks. Done right – and the product is a success. Done wrong – well, let’s not talk about that.
It is easy to generate a long, detailed list of requirements – often referred to as the “laundry list”. But you can’t have it all. Your development team can squeeze only so many features into the next product release. So how do you choose the ones to focus on?
6. Negotiating with Engineering
A PM may perhaps define requirements, but engineers are the ones who implement them. Surprisingly, those engineers have opinions and priorities that sometimes conflict with yours. So how do you “cut a deal” with your engineering partners – the ones who actually build the product?
7. Daisy Systems: an anatomy of a blunder [anecdote]
Success is not guaranteed forever. Here’s an example of a company once successful, who failed to interpret a key customer requirement – and paid a heavy price for it.
Nobody in their right mind likes “politics”. But unfortunately where there are people – there are politics… As a product manager, you should master the “rules of the game” and learn how to steer decisions your way.
9. Pricing – Your Path to Profits
There are few decisions a product manager can make that influence profits more than pricing. Let’s discuss approaches to determine the ‘right price’ for your product or service.
10. Actona: pricing a new product category [anecdote]
How do you price a new product category? Especially when there are no similar products, or any market history to learn from? This is a case where “value-based” pricing strategy came in really handy.
Product managers should help craft the ‘messaging’ for their product, and influence its positioning – i.e. customers’ perception of it.
12. Words that Make or Break your Positioning [anecdote]
Choose your words carefully. A single word in the marketing message can influence the success, or failure of your product. Here are two examples where this actually happened.
Naming your company or product is crucial to your <verbal> branding strategy. Treat naming as a process, not a momentary inspiration. Start early and work in earnest to select a proper name.
Whitepapers are powerful marketing collateral. Done properly, they effectively integrate value proposition, competitive positioning and messaging. They may be challenging to write, but are often a must.
15. The Whitepaper that Bridged the Gap [anecdote]
Whitepapers can be much more than just sales tools. They can help shape the strategy and determine the fate of a product. This whitepaper did…
16. Getting Analysts on Your Side
In many industries, analyst firms carry much influence over customer choices. Learn effective ways to get analysts to support and promote your product or service.
17. Have the Media tell your Story
Building awareness for your product/service requires your story to be told by trade publications, websites, blogs, etc. This is what public relationships (PR) is all about.
Social media can be used for both inbound and outbound marketing. Augmenting your marketing strategy with social media is important, yet resource consuming.
19. Building Customer References
Customer references can be critical for your product or service. Treat it like a true program and don’t leave it to chance.
Unfortunately not all customers are happy, all the time. Effectively handling critical customer problems is an important task. Make sure you are prepared to do that.
21. The Customer who “Loved” me [anecdote]
A couple of real-life stories about customer crisis and their outcome. Some were managed better than others, but all resulted in useful “lessons learned”.
22. Quality is Free
Spending time and resources on new product features is important, but don’t forget to pay attention to the ‘Q’ word. Ignoring quality is a risk you shouldn’t have to take.
23. Facing Customers Defection [anecdote]
There’s nothing like the “school of hard knocks” to teach you important lessons. This one has to do with tradeoffs between media fame and product quality.
The Art & Science of Product Management 
One of the most helpful blogs ever! Thank you!
Have you ever thought about creating an e-book or guest authoring on other sites?
I have a blog based oon the sane ideas you discuss
and woul love to have you share some stories/information.
I know mmy audience would enjoy your work. If you’re even remotely interested,
feel free to send me an e-mail.
מצטרף
Thank you Baruch!