Step 0: Don’t Freak Out – How To Get Started In Market Discovery
The Secret PM Handbook
FEBRUARY 21, 2019
The Secret PM Handbook
3 Proven Ways To Help Your Sales Team Beat Quota
The Secret PM Handbook
OCTOBER 9, 2018
Co-opting product management into sales. My good friend Geoffrey Anderson ( @ganders2112 ) recently wrote about a situation we product managers sometimes find ourselves in. When sales are not going well, company leadership might ask product management come in to help hit the numbers. This can be a bad thing or a good thing. As Geoff said: …when the bookings are light, often product management is diverted to “fix” the problem.
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The Path to Product Excellence: Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Enhancing Communication
Peak Performance: Continuous Testing & Evaluation of LLM-Based Applications
From Developer Experience to Product Experience: How a Shared Focus Fuels Product Success
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Beyond the Basics of A/B Tests: Highly Innovative Experimentation Tactics You Need to Know
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Start Doing These 10 Things Today To Be A Better Product Manager
The Secret PM Handbook
SEPTEMBER 7, 2018
Take Action Today With These Product Management Tips. I love lists, and the Internet loves lists. And I love immediately actionable product management tips that I can start using today to become better at my job. It just so happens that I include tons of immediately actionable guidelines in my articles on this site. There are over 50 at last count. 10 of the most powerful actions you can start doing today to become a better product manager, get your sales people to love you, win more deals, and
Webinars
The Path to Product Excellence: Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Enhancing Communication
Peak Performance: Continuous Testing & Evaluation of LLM-Based Applications
From Developer Experience to Product Experience: How a Shared Focus Fuels Product Success
Understanding User Needs and Satisfying Them
Beyond the Basics of A/B Tests: Highly Innovative Experimentation Tactics You Need to Know
“I Have An Idea” – How I Evaluate Product Ideas
The Secret PM Handbook
AUGUST 27, 2018
People are always asking me “Hey, I have a product idea. May I run it by you and get your input?”. Of course, I say yes. They tell me the idea, and it’s usually “ a technical thing for some kind of team.”. And my response is, “Well, that sounds neat, but….” And then I ask some questions. The answers to those questions tell me if the idea is any good.
Persuasion Tips: Pre-Handle Objections
The Secret PM Handbook
AUGUST 17, 2018
(This is the third article in my Persuasion Tips series.). “Pre-handling objections” is about showing empathy for your audience. You put yourself in your audience’s shoes, figure out what they’re going to be worried about, and make sure you have answers to some of those worries. Pre-handle objections: Put yourself in your audience’s shoes, figure out what they’re going to be worried about, and make sure you address those worries.
Persuasion Tips: Have A Goal
The Secret PM Handbook
AUGUST 7, 2018
Understand and articulate what you’re trying to achieve. (This article is a follow-on to my overview article on persuasion tips for product managers.). Every presentation or opportunity for persuasion has a goal, or possibly a few goals. Are you trying to get some executives to make a decision in your favor? Are you aiming to protect yourself from potential blowback from something that went wrong?
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Persuasion Tips For Product Managers
The Secret PM Handbook
JULY 30, 2018
After a few well-received presentations to senior executives, a few colleagues at my new company asked me, based on the positive effect I got, “Can you give us some tips on persuasion?”. I’ve been doing product management a long time, and over time my presentation skills have just naturally gotten more polished. A lot of it seems like second nature to me.
Mental Models Applied: Using A 2×2 Chart For Handling Competitive Objections
The Secret PM Handbook
JULY 20, 2018
In some earlier articles and in a talk I gave at a local product management meetup , I’ve shared about the importance of having a toolkit of mental models. They help with decision making, problem solving, communication, plus every other thing we do as product managers. A good mental model can help you see things in a different way. Click To Tweet.
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The Secret Truth About Your Methodology and Processes
The Secret PM Handbook
JULY 13, 2018
What are your goals? A product organization has three overarching goals: Deliver great value to our customers. Do it quickly, efficiently, and with high quality. Do it better over time. A product organization that achieves those goals is much more likely to be successful. Your methodology, your process, is a means to an end. It's not the end in itself.
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Storytelling For Product Managers – The TL;DR Version
The Secret PM Handbook
APRIL 18, 2018
In my last article , I covered a powerful storytelling technique in great detail. This article is the summary (the TL;DR ) version. Do you hem and haw when asked talk about one of your accomplishments? Do you stick to a “just the facts, ma’am” approach when telling a story? Are your stories falling flat and failing to have the effect you hoped?
3 Simple Steps To Make Your Customer Stories 10x Better
The Secret PM Handbook
MARCH 28, 2018
How To Accelerate Sales With Great Storytelling. In my articles about go to market , I always mention the importance of “customer stories.” These stories are a critical component of the knowledge that product management can provide to sales and marketing and sales engineers to help ensure sales success. But, if you’re like me, maybe you aren’t so comfortable with “storytelling.
3 Simple Steps To Make Your Customer Stories 10x Better
The Secret PM Handbook
MARCH 28, 2018
How To Accelerate Sales With Great Storytelling. In my articles about go to market , I always mention the importance of “customer stories.” These stories are a critical component of the knowledge that product management can provide to sales and marketing and sales engineers to help ensure sales success. But, if you’re like me, maybe you aren’t so comfortable with “storytelling.
The Secrets of Highly Successful Sales People: Objection Handling
The Secret PM Handbook
MARCH 9, 2018
How to use better stories to overcome sales objections. During the sales process, the prospect may – and usually does – mention obstacles to getting the deal done. Reasons they might not want to do the deal. They might say “It’s too expensive,” or “your competitor has feature X that you don’t have, and we really need feature X.”. This is a normal part of the sales process.
The Secrets of Highly Successful Products: The Sales Discovery Call
The Secret PM Handbook
FEBRUARY 20, 2018
When the sales team has the right product knowledge, they will be much more successful. Which means they sell a lot more of your product. This starts from the first call with the prospect. If a sales person asks the wrong questions during that first call…. … then even a good prospect can turn into total loss. But, ask the right questions …. … and the chances of closing them go way up!
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What Successful Companies Do To Get Better Leads
The Secret PM Handbook
FEBRUARY 9, 2018
(This is the second post in my series about using product knowledge to create better sales enablement and jumpstart a repeatable sales process. Read the first post, on the overall topic.). “I Need Better Leads!” Does your salesforce complain “We don’t get enough leads from Marketing, and the leads we get aren’t any good?”. I’ve heard this a lot from sales teams.
Sales Team Missing Quota? It’s Not Their Fault
The Secret PM Handbook
JANUARY 15, 2018
Successful customers, quality product, but bad sales. When I started as the Director of Product Management at my last company, they had a lot of successful and enthusiastic customers, a product that worked – although a bit long in the tooth – and a good lead pipeline. But they had one big problem. The sales team was missing quota, every quarter!
Demo 71
71 “Compact, Immediately Useful, and Enough Depth” – The First Review
The Secret PM Handbook
JANUARY 7, 2018
It’s exciting to see the first review of The Secret Product Manager Handbook ! Geoff Anderson says: “While it isn’t strictly targeted at newbies, or folks who are interested in joining the ranks of Product Management, it is both a great introduction, and a guide that even very experienced members of the Product Management community can find value in, even if it is just to re-focus them on the basics.”.
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170 To 10x Your Profits Start With Retrospectives
The Secret PM Handbook
JUNE 16, 2017
20% is boring. As many of you know, there’s a technique called a “ retrospective ” in scrum, or you might call it a debrief. After each sprint the team spends a short amount of time reviewing what went well, what could be improved, and what they should stop doing. The goal is for the team to learn quickly from each sprint. So, let’s say I really wanted my team to start doing retrospectives, and the team is unwilling.
A New Focus On Product Management Opportunity
The Secret PM Handbook
AUGUST 4, 2017
Looking through to the next stage. A long work in progress. This blog has been going for a long long time. It started as a site to share ideas and lessons I’ve learned in my career as a product manager for enterprise software products. Recently a bigger theme has started to emerge and coalesce. It’s more ambitious than my initial (lack of) vision.
This Framework Gives You Product Management Super Powers
The Secret PM Handbook
AUGUST 4, 2017
Breakthrough! The Secret Product Management Framework. Finally writing down the Secret Product Management Framework was a revelation for me. It put all the activities I do as a product manager into perspective. We find and validate market problems for which customers will pay for a solution. We then guide the creation of solutions to the problems. And then we take the solutions to market.
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How Are You Going to Fix Onboarding?
The Secret PM Handbook
AUGUST 11, 2017
You have a team of engineers and a three month runway – how are you going to fix onboarding? That’s a question I actually got in a product management job interview a while ago. My answer was, “that’s a really good question but I have no way of answering yet.”. Operating room or aspirin? This is the same question as “Here’s a team of surgeons, and I’ve booked an operating room.
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A Better Approach To Demoing Can Turn Sales Around
The Secret PM Handbook
AUGUST 18, 2017
A Sales Demo Challenge. At one of my previous companies our new logo sales – that is, new customers – were tanking. The account reps were not hitting quota on new logos. The sales engineers felt this was due to a large degree to our “story” on agile. Our product was not as strong as some of our competitors for managing agile projects.
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How To Say “No” To A Feature Request
The Secret PM Handbook
SEPTEMBER 1, 2017
No (picture credit at the bottom). Sometimes No Is The Right Answer. Can you talk to me about a time when you had to say no to a customer? Why did you have to say no? How did you handle it? Customers often make feature requests that seem obvious on the surface, but which in fact are misguided or a bad idea. My goal is to be able to tell them that we won’t implement that feature, and have them thank me for that answer.
Should You Be A Product Manager?
The Secret PM Handbook
OCTOBER 1, 2017
Have you built something? Have you led a team? Product management is a hot, hot profession right now. It’s one of the most important roles in a product company , especially in high tech. But is it right for you? If you’re wondering about this, or want to scope yourself against a basic set of guidelines for product managers, this post is for you. What I’m looking for in a new product manager.
Visiting Customers? What?
The Secret PM Handbook
OCTOBER 21, 2017
Nothing Important Happens In The Office. We product managers are always told that we need to spend a lot of time with customers, and with the market, to create successful products. This advice, while good, is not actionable. It’s vague and aspirational. And, indeed, you might even ask “ why is this good advice?”. It’s challenging to find the signal – market problems – in the noise – our conversations with customers and prospects.
Hello Product Managers!
The Secret PM Handbook
NOVEMBER 11, 2017
Empathy is very important! You have to be willing and able to put yourself in the shoes of your customers. And since "your customers" is actually everyone in the organization, as well as the people who buy and evaluate your product, you have to be very flexible, and be able to hold multiple viewpoints in mind at the same time. Along with this, you need to be very flexible, mentally.
Get People Talking! How To Use Open-Ended Questions For Market Discovery
The Secret PM Handbook
NOVEMBER 29, 2017
In my last post I talked about the importance of “talking to customers.” In that post I focused especially on what you do with the market discovery knowledge you get from customers once you found it. (The “product management system of record,” I called it.). In this post I’ll be more to the point: How do you actually have these conversations?
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150 Announcing The Secret Product Manager Handbook
The Secret PM Handbook
DECEMBER 12, 2017
I’m excited to announce The Secret Product Manager Handbook is available for pre-order ! When I started in product management, there were no classes, books, or online resources for product managers. I always wanted the “secret handbook” – so I wrote it. The Secret Product Manager Handbook i s all the things I wish someone had told me. I wrote a book for people like me (and you?).
Announcing The Secret Product Manager Handbook
The Secret PM Handbook
DECEMBER 12, 2017
I’m excited to announce The Secret Product Manager Handbook is available for pre-order ! When I started in product management, there were no classes, books, or online resources for product managers. I always wanted the “secret handbook” – so I wrote it. The Secret Product Manager Handbook i s all the things I wish someone had told me. I wrote a book for people like me (and you?).
Get People Talking! How To Use Open-Ended Questions For Market Discovery
The Secret PM Handbook
NOVEMBER 29, 2017
In my last post I talked about the importance of “talking to customers.” In that post I focused especially on what you do with the market discovery knowledge you get from customers once you found it. (The “product management system of record,” I called it.). In this post I’ll be more to the point: How do you actually have these conversations?
Product Research 170
170 Visiting Customers? What?
The Secret PM Handbook
OCTOBER 21, 2017
Nothing Important Happens In The Office. We product managers are always told that we need to spend a lot of time with customers, and with the market, to create successful products. This advice, while good, is not actionable. It’s vague and aspirational. And, indeed, you might even ask “ why is this good advice?”. It’s challenging to find the signal – market problems – in the noise – our conversations with customers and prospects.
Should You Be A Product Manager?
The Secret PM Handbook
OCTOBER 1, 2017
Have you built something? Have you led a team? Product management is a hot, hot profession right now. It’s one of the most important roles in a product company , especially in high tech. But is it right for you? If you’re wondering about this, or want to scope yourself against a basic set of guidelines for product managers, this post is for you. What I’m looking for in a new product manager.
The Secret Product Management Framework
The Secret PM Handbook
MAY 5, 2017
One of the most challenging questions about product management has been – in my experience – “What is Product Management?”. In this post, I share a simple model or framework to answer this question. I talk about this model with lots of people, but I’ve never explicitly written it down in a post. I’ve found the model to be very powerful in my career, and I hope it’s helpful to you.
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This New Template Helps You Write Better Product Requirements
The Secret PM Handbook
MAY 12, 2017
“Communication” by Joan M. Mas. See below for image credit. Effective Communication is Challenging. Product managers tell me – and the people managing product managers tell me – that one of their biggest challenges is communicating with the development team. People complain about: Developers being poorly motivated, or having a bad attitude about what you want them to build.
People Don’t Buy Capabilities, They Buy Knowledge
The Secret PM Handbook
MAY 18, 2017
This guy might have too much knowledge. Knowledge is power. Most of our tools and applications deliver capabilities, but users and buyers are always hoping that what they’re buying is knowledge. Knowledge of how to do the job. How to do the job faster, or with fewer errors, or with better outcomes. If we don’t put the knowledge in, the our users have to figure it all out themselves.
How To Talk To Your Executives About Agile
The Secret PM Handbook
JUNE 2, 2017
People have asked me “How can I get my execs to support an agile transformation? They don’t like that they can’t predict anything.”. Reframe the Agile conversation around value. Orient the conversation around value, not around methodologies. (Picture credit below). This is never going to be an easy conversation, but I recommend reframing it from the outset.
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To 10x Your Profits Start With Retrospectives
The Secret PM Handbook
JUNE 16, 2017
20% is boring. As many of you know, there’s a technique called a “ retrospective ” in scrum, or you might call it a debrief. After each sprint the team spends a short amount of time reviewing what went well, what could be improved, and what they should stop doing. The goal is for the team to learn quickly from each sprint. So, let’s say I really wanted my team to start doing retrospectives, and the team is unwilling.
A New Focus On Product Management Opportunity
The Secret PM Handbook
AUGUST 4, 2017
Looking through to the next stage. A long work in progress. This blog has been going for a long long time. It started as a site to share ideas and lessons I’ve learned in my career as a product manager for enterprise software products. Recently a bigger theme has started to emerge and coalesce. It’s more ambitious than my initial (lack of) vision.
This Framework Gives You Product Management Super Powers
The Secret PM Handbook
AUGUST 4, 2017
Breakthrough! The Secret Product Management Framework. Finally writing down the Secret Product Management Framework was a revelation for me. It put all the activities I do as a product manager into perspective. We find and validate market problems for which customers will pay for a solution. We then guide the creation of solutions to the problems. And then we take the solutions to market.
Framework 150
150 How Are You Going to Fix Onboarding?
The Secret PM Handbook
AUGUST 11, 2017
You have a team of engineers and a three month runway – how are you going to fix onboarding? That’s a question I actually got in a product management job interview a while ago. My answer was, “that’s a really good question but I have no way of answering yet.”. Operating room or aspirin? This is the same question as “Here’s a team of surgeons, and I’ve booked an operating room.
User Testing 150
150 A Better Approach To Demoing Can Turn Sales Around
The Secret PM Handbook
AUGUST 18, 2017
A Sales Demo Challenge. At one of my previous companies our new logo sales – that is, new customers – were tanking. The account reps were not hitting quota on new logos. The sales engineers felt this was due to a large degree to our “story” on agile. Our product was not as strong as some of our competitors for managing agile projects.
Demo 150
150 
How To Say “No” To A Feature Request
The Secret PM Handbook
SEPTEMBER 1, 2017
No (picture credit at the bottom). Sometimes No Is The Right Answer. Can you talk to me about a time when you had to say no to a customer? Why did you have to say no? How did you handle it? Customers often make feature requests that seem obvious on the surface, but which in fact are misguided or a bad idea. My goal is to be able to tell them that we won’t implement that feature, and have them thank me for that answer.
How To Say “No” To A Feature Request
The Secret PM Handbook
SEPTEMBER 1, 2017
No (picture credit at the bottom). Sometimes No Is The Right Answer. Can you talk to me about a time when you had to say no to a customer? Why did you have to say no? How did you handle it? Customers often make feature requests that seem obvious on the surface, but which in fact are misguided or a bad idea. My goal is to be able to tell them that we won’t implement that feature, and have them thank me for that answer.
A Better Approach To Demoing Can Turn Sales Around
The Secret PM Handbook
AUGUST 18, 2017
A Sales Demo Challenge. At one of my previous companies our new logo sales – that is, new customers – were tanking. The account reps were not hitting quota on new logos. The sales engineers felt this was due to a large degree to our “story” on agile. Our product was not as strong as some of our competitors for managing agile projects.
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