Mind the Product

MAY 9, 2019

In March last year, my colleague and Mind the Product’s Director of Training, Rosemary King, wrote about how the company departments working alongside a product team could better work together to meet their common goals and to improve working practices. All product managers love a good test. Test Everything.

Product Research 157

Product Research User Testing Weak Development Team Embedded Analytics 157

The Product Coalition

APRIL 2, 2018

Product Management can be an intimidating role. Traditionally Product Managers come from a design or development background, find they are good with people, and evolve their role into a Product Manager position. Team orientated. A Product Manager is the Swiss army knife of the team.

Travel 60

Travel Feedback Software Weak Development Team Product Management 60

Usersnap

MARCH 19, 2019

As a product manager or a SaaS company owner, what is your main drive in building new products? Should the Voice of Customer influence product development? Why Voice of Customer Should be Included in Development Process. Let your customers make product development decisions for you!

User Testing 76

User Testing Feedback Software Data Visualization Research Software 76

Mixpanel

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

However, they don’t meet everyone’s data needs—particularly product teams’ BI tools are great at visualizing any data that can be queried from a data warehouse. The relative strengths and weaknesses can be summarized as follows. Analysis depth vs. breadth. Implementation. Implementation.

Data Visualization 111

Data Visualization Analytic Tools Differentiation User Testing 111

The Product Coalition

JUNE 4, 2018

Failure to enforce the current process and blaming the sales teams. There’s much research to be found on pricing strategies, especially for SaaS products, so I won’t write about it here. Now, imagine if there was a product/tool that allowed you to: 1. See which customer in your pipeline is likely to buy the product.

Feedback Software 60

Feedback Software Research Software Weak Development Team User Testing 60

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 1, 2020

Sales, marketing, finance, support, and R&D all use the roadmap for different thing. Sales want to sell it, marketing needs to plan for it, finance needs to model it, support needs to be able to explain it, and R&D needs to be excited about it. Getting this right allows your teams to work in lockstep together.

Roadmap 165

Roadmap Feedback Software User Testing Reporting Tools 165

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 1, 2020

Sales, marketing, finance, support, and R&D all use the roadmap for different thing. Sales want to sell it, marketing needs to plan for it, finance needs to model it, support needs to be able to explain it, and R&D needs to be excited about it. Getting this right allows your teams to work in lockstep together.

Roadmap 165

Roadmap Feedback Software User Testing Reporting Tools 165

The Product Coalition

MARCH 9, 2020

A pattern I’ve seen 4 or 5 times seems worth describing, since other folks may be experiencing it: a very early-stage B2B/enterprise company brings on a full sales team before finding product/market fit. First, let’s recapping the basics of why we hire enterprise sales teams and what they do.

User Testing 78

User Testing Enterprise Weak Development Team Product Research 78

Mironov Consulting

MAY 18, 2024

Let’s imagine a Director of Product responsible for a portfolio, with 5 product manager direct reports matched to 5 stable maker teams.    Some are top-down command-and-control, others are freewheeling or consensus-driven or chaotically leaderless or run by a CEO who had a bad childhood. 

Technical Advisors 59

Technical Advisors Technical Review Weak Development Team Product Research 59

Mironov Consulting

MARCH 4, 2020

A pattern I’ve seen 4 or 5 times seems worth describing, since other folks may be experiencing it: a very early-stage B2B/enterprise company brings on a full sales team before finding product/market fit. First, let’s recapping the basics of why we hire enterprise sales teams and what they do.

User Testing 69

User Testing Enterprise Weak Development Team Product Research 69

Business of Software Conference

FEBRUARY 16, 2021

So, this was focused on software developers, specifically, for dotnet software developers, this very small ad network, I ran those ad networks for a couple years, and realized that that was a terrible business. And I was a software developer before. The Good and the Bad of Taking Money. 2:43 Mark: Yeah.

Feedback Software 59

Feedback Software Weak Development Team Customer Communications Customer Experience 59

Mironov Consulting

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

Over the last three decades, across 10 full-time jobs and 150 consulting clients, I’ve headed up product teams 18 times (mostly as interim VP ) and helped another dozen companies choose their Head of Product. Here are some patterns I’ve seen in picking successful Heads of Product.

Reporting Tools 145

Reporting Tools Analytic Tools Onboarding KPIs Data Visualization 145

The Product Coalition

FEBRUARY 26, 2022

Why have Product Managers stopped speaking to customers? Very sadly, most product managers I meet today no longer talk directly to customers regularly. I ran a survey with industry insiders and at least 50% of all product managers who responded haven’t spoken to a customer recently.

User Testing 170

User Testing Weak Development Team Customer Experience Customer Feedback 170

Mironov Consulting

JULY 27, 2023

 This post lays out a related challenge: finding a scalable way for product management to support sales organizations rather than individual sales opportunities.  Sales teams inundate us with urgent-but-repetitive ‘does product X do thing Y?’  There’s something more systematic here.

Information 98

Information Weak Development Team Reporting Tools Technical Review 98

Userpilot

DECEMBER 6, 2022

Can marketing resource management help streamline your product marketing processes and workflows? The marketing department is one of the most crucial in any company. Notion – a digital asset management tool to help centralize brand assets and provide clear SOPs to guide your marketing teams and professionals.

Analytic Tools 98

Analytic Tools Feedback Software Reporting Tools Customer Experience 98

ProductPlan

MARCH 10, 2023

So much of what can go wrong with a feature release is related to poor execution of the broader feature launch process. Product teams find a never-ending opportunity to improve on what came before. However, the exception occurs at the end of the lifecycle when the team sunsets the product.

User Testing 52

User Testing Product Research Research Software Feedback Software 52

Amplitude

AUGUST 30, 2017

At the Product Analytics Summit in Seattle this past March, we chatted with some of our customers about how they use Amplitude as part of their product development toolbox. It helps you stay in tune with user needs and helps you make product development decisions that cater to those needs.

User Testing 71

User Testing Analytic Tools Customer Feedback Feedback Software 71

Mironov Consulting

JUNE 28, 2018

I’m often asked by B2C product managers how B2B companies are different, or about switching between the two. Here are some thoughts on company-wide structural differences and how we product managers get our work done. It’s a more precise, if less emotional, version of a May talk for Lean Product/UX SV meetup.

Enterprise 105

Enterprise User Testing Data Visualization Product Research 105

svpg

SEPTEMBER 30, 2016

When I first decided to start The Silicon Valley Product Group, I had just left eBay and had some very strong opinions about what makes great product teams, and great product cultures, and while there were more than a few important thinkers and leaders on these topics, one area that I felt was under-represented was the role of product management.

Reporting Tools 160

Reporting Tools Analytic Tools Customer Experience Technical Review 160

Usersnap

JANUARY 12, 2022

In short, the CPO oversees all aspects of a product’s vision, design, and development. They are essential in creating a robust and helpful product that fills a void in the market while addressing customer feedback. How Much Does a Chief Product Officer Earn? What Is a Chief Product Officer? .

Research Software 52

Research Software Feedback Software Analytic Tools Fractional CTO 52

Mironov Consulting

DECEMBER 29, 2022

IMHO, software product companies are fundamentally different from software services/outsourcing/custom development companies.  Said  but not in consulting days or developer hours or use-it-or-lose-it prepaid service agreements.  There’s B2B software services companies work the other side of the problem.  The

Reporting Tools 111

Reporting Tools Data Visualization Software Review Technical Review 111

Mironov Consulting

FEBRUARY 6, 2020

Just as every organization needs a finance/accounting team that follows GAAP and tracks cashflow. So we should take the time to propose various metrics, review them with our teams, argue a bit, and consider our first choices as experiments rather than instant full-year commitments. But metrics aren’t generic.

B2B 118

B2B Enterprise Onboarding KPIs User Testing 118

Pragmatic Marketing

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

While software development teams have been moving toward agile methods for years, many product managers are only now becoming aware of it. An agile approach applies collaborative and continuous improvement concepts to software development. It seems that agile teams do everything in a new way.

Weak Development Team 70

Weak Development Team Agile Research Software Reporting Tools 70

Product Bookshelf

JANUARY 9, 2021

Strong product teams use a variety of product discovery techniques to identify and address risk. The best teams tackle the biggest risks first. What is Product Discovery. A key theme in Inspired is that strong product teams practices separate discovery and delivery activities. Inspired by Marty Cagan.

Product Research 62

Product Research User Testing Feedback Software Customer Experience 62

The Product Coalition

MARCH 21, 2019

From a stakeholder’s perspective, why should they defer a critical strategy decision to a product manager who doesn’t share their same goals and objectives? This is why product management exists?—?to Is the team delivering value every sprint? Is the team delivering value every sprint?

Analytic Tools 60

Analytic Tools Strategy Technical Review Customer Experience 60

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 29, 2020

Think about what you could be doing to bring more diversity into your teams and be more inclusive as a company, and go actively out of your way in order to achieve set goals. I usually do them with Paul or people from the product teams – it’s much more fun to be on a podcast with your boss. Be open-minded.

Feedback Software 209

Feedback Software Research Software User Testing Reporting Tools 209

Userpilot

JANUARY 15, 2021

Analytics is one of the most important ways for identifying and validating ways of improving product metrics, as we’ll discuss in the next section. Why is Product Analytics important? 51% of people will never return to a company that they’ve had a bad experience with. On how they feel about the product.

Data Visualization 90

Data Visualization Analytic Tools Onboarding KPIs Feedback Software 90

Business of Software Conference

MARCH 24, 2021

So before we get into product, and I think there are two or three things that keep coming up in in questions. One is that some stuff around product and team and building a new, a new breakout, very different product to the one that you’ve got. There are some questions around marketing. That’s great.

Feedback Software 40

Feedback Software Research Software User Testing Data Visualization 40

Andrew Chen

JUNE 25, 2019

Hi readers, The growth teams at Uber and Airbnb occasionally met over the years to share best practices, brainstorm ideas, and share observations on the startup world. I’ve had folks over to 1455 Market St, the headquarters of Uber, and I’ve reciprocated with visits to the Airbnb offices too. Impact on Airbnb supply growth: Medium.

User Testing 111

User Testing Customer Experience Research Software Feedback Software 111

Andrew Chen

JUNE 25, 2019

Hi readers, The growth teams at Uber and Airbnb occasionally met over the years to share best practices, brainstorm ideas, and share observations on the startup world. I’ve had folks over to 1455 Market St, the headquarters of Uber, and I’ve reciprocated with visits to the Airbnb offices too. Impact on Airbnb supply growth: Medium.

User Testing 48

User Testing Customer Experience Research Software Feedback Software 48

Business of Software Conference

OCTOBER 23, 2019

In this talk Product guru Bruce McCarthy arms you with his battle-tested approach to prioritizing your most critical initiatives that will increase your organization’s focus by increasing confidence in your prioritization decisions. I’ve been a product guy for a long time, for most of my career. Maybe I’m a Renaissance man.

Customer Experience 61

Customer Experience User Testing Onboarding KPIs Research Software 61

Intercom, Inc.

MARCH 29, 2022

Paul Adams shared three incredible new products that will take your Intercom experience to the next level: Surveys, Switch, and our next-generation Inbox. We are dedicated to building the best, most innovative products on the market to drive the most impact for you, our customers. We’re here for you.”

Feedback Software 118

Feedback Software Customer Communications Reporting Tools Events 118