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This Founder Built Startups in 2008, 2016 and 2018. Here’s What He’s Learned About Resiliency

First Round Review

Bob Moore's first brush with life as a founder started in 2008—three days before Lehman Brothers collapsed. Since he cut his teeth as a first-time founder in turbulent times, he's gone on to build two other companies.

Startups 144
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What Product Managers could do differently in 2008.

All About Product Management

What you would do differently in 2008 Harvard Business Review went out on the streets of Boston and interviewed a number of individual and asked what they would do differently next year. The full video interview can be seen at 2008 workplace resolutions. Listed below are the key points that managers in the Boston area said. Stop procrastinating and be more efficient with their timelines.

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Larry Ellison on ‘The Cloud’ in 2008

Business of Software Conference

This is a recording of an analyst call in 2008… “The technology industry is the only industry more fashion-driven than women’s fashion.” The post Larry Ellison on ‘The Cloud’ in 2008 appeared first on The BLN.

Events 52
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Interview Questions for Product Managers

All About Product Management

Several months ago I spent a lot of time interviewing potential Product Manager and Lead Product Managers to head up a product team. Listed below are some common interview questions along with some that I hand crafted for the particular PM job s being advertised at the time. There are no right or wrong answers for most of the questions. The purpose is to find out how a person will operate under different scenarios.

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How do you demonstrate that you can manage products

All About Product Management

Product Management interview question: Tell me about a project you have run or a product you have managed through its life cycle? This is an interview question that gives you the opportunity to: a) Demonstrate that you have a practical experience in the product development process. b) That you have considered the user by developing a product that utilises technology to solve a problem and therefore meets the customer’s needs.

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A book for all Product Managers: The Art of Product Management

All About Product Management

Lessons from a Silicon Valley Innovator by Rich Mironov This book compiles some of Rich's most popular columns from 2002 to 2008. It includes thoughts on building and maintaining product organizations, understanding how customers think, ideas for how to price new products, and ways to motivate people who don’t work for you. Collected into a single volume, it paints a picture of a typical interrupt-driven day.

Books 48
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How to Create Products Customers Love

All About Product Management

Product Management View Webinar Series – Marty Cagan, of SVPG, presents “How to Create Products Customers Love. A webinar that is well worth half an hour of your time - where Marty highlights 10 Techniques for discovering products that are: valuable, usable and feasible - taken from his book inspired. 1# Make sure you know what problem you’re trying to solve and that it’s worth solving. 2# Create a product strategy so that you know what you are trying to solve – even if you’re using agile!

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Product Strategy of Microsoft, Yahoo, and FAST - BUT war declared on Google

All About Product Management

Bill on Business comments that: Microsoft has laid its cards on the table early in 2008 with its $1.2 By the time you read this blog post the announcement that Microsoft has put in a $44b bid for yahoo will be yesterday’s news. But have you taken a minute to think what this takeover means for the Group Product managers of MSN and Microsoft, the Product Strategist at Yahoo. It goes with out saying that.

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Innovative Product Managers

All About Product Management

In his article, Innovating in Large Companies , Marty Cagan highlights the fact that many successful companies allow their engineers to spend 20% of the time on innovative projects of their choice. Marty encourages companies to allow Product Managers as well as engineers to spend 20% of their time innovating. Why is this a good idea? Because many successful products come from the bottom up rather than the top down.

Article 48
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How to be a better Product Manager

All About Product Management

Graham Jones co-founder of Lane4 an international performance development consultancy gives several tips, in his recent article “ How the Best of the Best Get Better and Better ”, published in this months addition of Harvard Business Review, on improving your management performance – many of the tips are applicable to Product Managers. The article draws several parallels between successful sports and athletics personal. The tips are very applicable to Product Managers.

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What’s Product Management is like a Year after Implementing Agile

All About Product Management

It’s been over a year since the product management team went on a series of agile/scrum training courses. The transformation and associated challenges over the past 14 months have been quite interesting. Here’s a report on the journey, progress, issues encountered and experiences to date. Product Management Prior to Scrum Before agile working practices where adopted the Product Managers role consisted of a lot of short term tactical wins coupled with continual fire fighting.

Agile 48
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The Need for Product Managers Continues to Grow.

All About Product Management

Traditionally when I think of the job of the product manager I think of someone who is half marketing and half engineer – someone who is 50% orientated towards business needs and 50% orientated towards technology. People who have this mixture hold a number of different job titles: product manager, product marketing manager, product development manager… and so on.

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Where will the product manager be in 3 years time?

All About Product Management

Where do you, as the Product Manager, see yourself in three years time? I always find this question challenging: the pace of product management and technology is moving so fast that it would be quite difficult to predict where or what today’s product manager would be doing in three or five years time.

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How to keep Product Management Simple and Effective

All About Product Management

Tackling the constant flood of e-mails that consumes much of my working day is one of the things I aim to do better in 2008). Product Managers who work in organisations where needless complexity tend to be less efficient than those who work in companies who have simplified processes, procedures and best practice.

Banking 48
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7 things the Product Manager needs to consider when bypassing processes

All About Product Management

Wikipedia , states that: Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal. Therefore it is important that the product manager believes and supports the processes that the company has implemented. However are there ever situations when it is acceptable to break an agreed process? The answer depends a lot on the industry and products you’re managing.

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If you want to get into Product Management - then ask a good Product Manager.

All About Product Management

Many ask the question “How do I get into Product Management” well here are a few links to Q&As, on the topic, on Jeff Lash’s new website ‘Ask a Good Product Manager’ How can a software engineer become a product manager? View my answer to this question - hopefully it will help not just the asker but many more software engineers who want to make the transition from software engineering to product management. How can I become a product management consultant?

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How do Product Managers Keep up with Technology?

All About Product Management

In general Product Management and/or Technical Product Management is about orientating between business and markets trends and needs and being able utilise technology to define product features and enhancements. Marty Cagan, in his article Are You Technical Enough? States that: "When I interview product management candidates, I’m looking hard at these two points.

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Product Manager adopting web2.0 agile software development

All About Product Management

In the world of web development online product managers have two choices big bang (probably using waterfall) Vs incremental redesign (and empower product development ) of the websites their responsible for.

Agile 48
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Interview question on under performing

All About Product Management

What would you do if your boss called you to a meeting and informed you that your team has been complaining about your lack of leadership and management? You would or course be surprised even shocked because you would have put things in place to ensure that you where leading and managing the team well. Once you express that you would be surprised you could then: 1. Ask if their where any particular examples.

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From Technical Support to Product Management

All About Product Management

Mark Barnes has extensive experience in facing customers, initially as a customer support engineer and then later in his career as a product manager. Continue reading to learn more about his transition and views about product management. What’s your academic background/training? BEng in Electronics Engineering from Sussex University. Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from Chartered Institute of Marketing. What did you do before you where a product manager?

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Interview Question: How Do Product Managers Handle Success?

All About Product Management

The interviewer poses the folloing question: "You, and your team, were involved in a successful launch of a new product that exceeded business expectations during its first phase - what would you do?" First I would Celebrate [with the team of course] and then…. Follow Brian Lawley’s advice which is stay humble and give credit to the team. Following that it would be critical to analyse all the activities that led to the success launch of the product.

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Where do you see your product in two years time?

All About Product Management

Looking into the future and knowing what the competition, the market and your product will be like is probably one of the most challenging tasks that any product manager has to undertake. This can be a tricky question to answer at a job interview. Where do you see product x in y years time ”? How a product manager answers this question gives the interviewer an insight as to how much of a visionary they are and whether or not they keep a keen eye on technology as it progresses.

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How others have moved into Product Management

All About Product Management

How do I become a product manager? There is no one right answer to this question however one thing we do know is that very few if any people enter the realms of technical product management immediately. I have interviewed a number of Product Managers who have shared their background, experiences, likes, dislikes and given tips on how to succeed.

Travel 48
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From Marketing to Product Management

All About Product Management

Ivan Chalif is author of th eblog The Productologist. He is also a founding member of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association ( SVPMA ). In addition to creating the original logo, and managing the website and forums, Ivan was instrumental in organizing early SVPMA events and establishing the organization’s charter. What’s your academic background/training? Both my undergraduate and graduate degrees are in Psychology and Counseling.

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Welcome

Sachin Rekhi

As a new year's resolution this year I decided to finally start blogging to share some of my thoughts on technology, entrepreneurship, and product management. I'll be writing mainly to help collect my own ideas, but I hope that some of you may find it interesting as well. I'm also often asked similar questions about my experiences from colleagues, so I plan on using this as a public forum to answer some of them. Along the way I hope to hear from you on any topics you find interesting.

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How Product Managers can estimate business value using agile techniques

All About Product Management

We recently finished a scrum sprint; during the sprint review the technical team gave a demonstration, to senior business owners, of the newly developed functionality and bug fixes they had done during the sprint. It was noted at the sprint retrospective and subsequent discussions, that followed, that the demonstration gave equal weighting in terms of the time spent demonstrating each user story.

Agile 48
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How to improve your Product Management career and grow in your job

All About Product Management

I have recently been interviewing Product Managers about their jobs and writing interview Q&As for those who may be going for a job in Product Management. Refer to 'Your Career' for a list of articles). The aim is to provide individuals who want to get into Product Management with ideas, insight, inspiration and encouragement – one common thread that spreads across all the interviews is that everyone had a different role before they entered the world of Product Management.

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Transition from Web Developer to Product Manager

All About Product Management

People often ask the question – How do I to get into Product Management [from being a software engineer, project manager, business analyst etc…]. Patrick Jolley is a case in point of a web developer who recognised an opportunity to move into Product Management and took it. What’s your academic background/training? I studied Business Information Technology at University. When I started I intended to do the full 4 years and come out with a degree.

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From R&D Engineer to Product Manager

All About Product Management

Francois Abbe has had many years experience designing world beating hi tech equipment. He has had the opportunity to travel the globe both as an engineer and product manager representing the products he has designed and ( later on in his career ) that he product managed. What's your academic background/training? After graduating in France, I followed a B.Eng in Electronics and Communication Engineering. What did you do before product management?

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Product Management moves into IT/IS departments?

All About Product Management

The function and role of product management will become crucial as businesses expand and become more dependent on technology departments to asist them in gaining the competitive advantage. But what is 'Technical Product Management'? When asked to describe Product Management in one sentence Marty Cagan said: "This is the person responsible for discovering and defining a product that is useful, usable and feasible.”

Banking 48
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How to get into Product Management

All About Product Management

ProfSvcs has left a comment on my blog post "Moving from Technology to Product Management to increase business skills" ‘asking how someone gets into product management’. The answer became what I would consider too long for a comment so I’ve written this article that I hope will help him and others who what to move into product management. I must stress that this is my opinion based on my own experience and the experience of others I’ve worked with.

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Product Managers need to reduce and handle stress

All About Product Management

What type of situations cause you stress? How do you handle stress? Stress can be a killer and every Product Manager and Project Mangers would have experienced during the course of their career. I was asked the question “How do you handle stress?” when I was being interviewed for a Product Mangers job at my current company and I have made it a point to ask the question of every Product Manager that I interview. Here are the reasons why.

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Interview answers to questions regarding demands on development resource

All About Product Management

How would handle a senior business stakeholder that demands more than you can deliver with in a certain timeframe? If you have had experience in managing projects and products using scrum (or some other agile management frame work) then this would be your opportunity to demonstrate that you understand the benefits of scrum to manage stakeholders at all levels (see - Part #6 How Everyone Can Get Involved in Agile ).

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Moving from Technology to Product Management to increase business skills

All About Product Management

Bikram Gupta has been been in Product Management for over 3 years he has worked in various markets and technologies such as: Telecom/Wireless, Data Networking, and Security domains. Bikram describes himself as a “knowledge worker” at heart; he’s passionate about exploring different lateral business roles outside the sales funnel. Bikram used to authors a blog entitle "Thoughts on Product Management" #1. What’s your academic background/training?

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How Product Managers can push back at an interview

All About Product Management

Interviews are about persuading the interviewer(s) that you are the right person for the job. That you will be able to deliver the goods even when the going gets tough.

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From Software Engineer to Product Manager to Founder of SVPG - Interview with Marty Cagan

All About Product Management

Marty Cagan has worked for several leading Hi Tech companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Netscape Communications, America Online, and eBay. During his career he has performed most of the roles that are key to any technology company: product management, software development, product marketing, user interface design, usability engineering, technical writing, software testing, engineering management, and general management.

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Moving from Business Analyst to Product Manager to "Online Product Manager"

All About Product Management

Andy wicks has worked as a Product Manager in two different industries. He currently managers a number of on-line products and services across a number of markets such as road transport and Human Resources. What’s your academic background/training? I went to university to study geography, but somehow came out with a Combined Honours degree in Computer Science and Business Administration. How that happened is still a bit of a blur really. What did you do before you where a product manager ?

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Transition from Webmaster to Product Manager via Project Management

All About Product Management

Daniel has over ten years experience working with on-line products in various capacities. He currently works for Reed Business information as a Product Manager for the aerospace product range. What’s your academic background/training? I have a degree in politics - [which has got to be the ultimate qualification for a job in Product Management]. What did you do before you where a product manager? I was a Webmaster and then a project manager 3.

Agile 48
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Interview with a Director of Product Management

All About Product Management

The 4 th Interview in the series is with the Director of Product Management at NetStreams – Paul Young. Paul is also the author of the product management blog: “Product Beautiful” and has a proven track record in product leadership, thought leadership and problem solving. What's your academic background/training? I have a B.S. in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin. What did you do before you where a product manager?

Agile 48
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How to get along with the development team

All About Product Management

Paul Young shares his thoughts on how Product Managers can get along with the development team. You need what I call street cred. That means a couple of things: first, you have to speak the language of development. Developers love to needle anyone they perceive as " marketing " (note: as a marketer you are automatically one-step above a dung beetle in the eyes of most programmers) and often times, they try to bully you!