2018

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Report templates for less status meetings

Folding Burritos

In my previous post , I described a way to think about our internal product communications, and how that can help us optimize our time and make us more effective as Product Managers. The main goal was to show that by thinking about what , when and to whom we need to communicate , we can find different ways to get the message across without spending so much time on it.

KPI 397
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Stop Validating & Start Co-Creating

Product Talk

Meet Sally and Pam. Sally is a product manager, Pam a user experience designer, and they are working on a new mobile app. They’ve conducted customer interviews , defined their MVP , and are now working through the initial designs. Even though their MVP will only include a fraction of their near-term vision, Pam wants two weeks to work through the design of the near-term vision, as she’s worried if they build piece by piece, they’ll end up with a Frankenstein user experience.

Vision 242
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Technical Debt and Product Success

Roman Pichler

Why Technical Debt Matters for Product People. As the person in charge of the product, you may not be terribly concerned about how clean and well-structured the code is. But the quality of your product matters: It directly impacts your ability to achieve strategic product goals and make your products successful: Technical debt makes it hard to experiment with new ideas, release new features, and quickly respond to user feedback. [1].

Vision 250
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Business Leaders look to Product Culture

bpma ProductHub

By Bruce McCarthy – I was completely wrong about the Business of Software conference. Friend and Co-Founder of Sense and Respond Press, Josh Seiden, told me it was great, but when I went the first time last year I think I was expecting an event for the CFOs and financial analysts of large companies all… Product Marketing

Events 391
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Unlock Product Growth

Building a foundation for growth begins with the right analytics solution. That’s why we’ve identified 5 key pillars to guide you through the process of comparing product analytics tools and help ensure your organization’s success.

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The impact of poor leadership in an organization

Lead on Purpose

Guest post by Jennifer Birch In business, being a leader doesn’t just fill a job title. You must have the capacity to motivate your team to enable them to deliver their tasks in a timely manner and in line with … Continue reading → Leadership Team Building Communication expectations morale responsibility

More Trending

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Understanding Customer Needs: Problem vs. Solution Space

280 Group

This is the first article in a three part series on navigating the Problem vs. Solution Space with a focus on understanding customer needs. Understanding Customer Needs “Well, we could…” I stopped myself quickly. I had fallen into the most common of traps. I had stopped paying attention to the customers’ needs and started working on a fix. Product Managers and the teams of developers they work with often tell me that Product Managers have problems writing good requirements. continue reading].

Article 267
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Forecasting – A Product Management Task

The Product Bistro

The role of Product Management brings many responsibilities, some great, some awful, and many that are just “there” One of the “there” responsibilities is forecasting. Being at the center of the organization, Product Management is the logical focal point for this activity, even though it requires input from groups outside their control. i.e. Sales and […]. product management essentials

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Podcast: How to Think Like a Product Manager

Melissa Perri

I was very excited to be on Roadmunk's podcast talking about Product Institute and how we teach Product Managers to think. The key takeaway is: it's not a linear process. Product Management involves a lot of assessing and analyzing before acting. Every project surrounding the improvement or creation of a product or feature will look different. Good Product Managers know how to evaluate where they are, then choose the right tools and processes to act.

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How Warby Parker Makes Every Point In Its Employee Lifecycle Extraordinary

First Round Review

Warby Parker is known for being a wonderful place to work. Here, Co-founder Dave Gilboa breaks down exactly how they've constructed this culture. Continue reading at First Round Review »

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The Definitive Guide to Dashboard Design

Why does dashboard design matter? Because it can be the difference between users embracing your product or ignoring it altogether. Avoid common pitfalls by mastering these dashboard design best practices.

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“I Have An Idea” – How I Evaluate Product Ideas

The Secret PM Handbook

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. The 5 questions to ask to determine if a new product idea is worth building. prodmgmt Click To Tweet. What questions do I ask?

Marketing 218
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Optimizing internal product communications

Folding Burritos

A lot of our time as PMs is spent communicating with other people in our organization. There’s high-level communication and discussion, and there’s low-level interaction with stakeholders about the day-to-day of the product’s development and operation. Since the majority of our communication time is typically spent on the tactical, let’s talk about that. It seems that we’re endlessly providing (or seeking) answers about anything related to the product.

Outbound 347
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Why Engineers Should Participate in Discovery

Product Talk

Are you inviting your engineers to participate in discovery with you? If yes, do you get pushback from them? Does your organization prefer that your engineers only write code? Marty Cagan , in Inspired , argues, “If you’re just using your engineers to code, you’re only getting about half their value.” I couldn’t agree more. But too often we equate the value of an engineer with the code that she writes. This is a huge mistake. And, sadly, many engineers make this mistake themselves.

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Why Product People Should Care About Business Strategy

Roman Pichler

Business Strategy vs. Product Strategy. A business strategy describes how a company wants to achieve its overall aspiration and create value for its users, employees, and shareholders. It’s distinct from the product strategy : The business strategy states how the company will be successful, whereas the product strategy describes how a product will achieve success, as the following picture illustrates.

Strategy 258
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The Definitive Guide to Embedded Analytics

Data-driven decisions are no longer reserved for the few. Everyone needs data insights from the applications they use every day. Learn how embedded analytics is boosting user adoption, creating apps people love, and changing the game for software and SaaS providers.

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Lessons Learned in 33 Years in the Software Industry

bpma ProductHub

Seth Godin on Making Software Seth Godin spoke at Business of Software Conference USA last year to share some of the many lessons that he has learned in his 33 years in the software industry. You can watch the talk or read a transcript here. This year, Business of Software Conference USA is in Boston,… Product Marketing Community Product Management Resources Feedback research Usability Design Communication Innovation Product Strategy B2B B2C Software

B2C 300
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The Link Between Sleep and Effective Leadership

Lead on Purpose

Guest post by Jenn Clark A survey revealed that out of 180 business leaders, four out of 10 do not get enough sleep at least four nights a week. If you catch yourself yawning at your desk or nodding off … Continue reading → Leadership business focus health performance productivity relationships

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Social Media has the “Exact Same Negative Effect on Depression” as Eating Potatoes

Nir Eyal

It feels impossible to tell if the technology our kids use should be celebrated or feared. A few years ago I wrote a book, Hooked, about how technology can be used to change our habits. I intended the book to teach startups how to build healthy habits, but now I’m not so sure. With headlines […]. The post Social Media has the “Exact Same Negative Effect on Depression” as Eating Potatoes appeared first on Nir and Far. Digital Distraction

Books 279
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Why IT Teams Benefit from a Product Management Viewpoint

280 Group

Refocusing the Lens. Yet another call from an IT team asking if we can help them transition from a project-focused view to a product-focused view of their work. I’d love to meet the person who started going across the world letting their IT professionals in on the biggest secret to getting amazing business support products out the door. OK, well, besides transitioning to Agile for product management.

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Digital Trends Report 2020

As part of our goal to continue helping our community during these times, we wanted to share with you this critical data on the state of digital products across industries and provide context on how businesses are responding to the changing winds.

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The “Miss”

The Product Bistro

Revenues are softening, some long term decline is suddenly accelerating, and you are missing plan. Senior management wants to know why, and – more importantly – what are you doing about it. They point their fingers to Product Management to right the ship. The Problem – Product Management has many tools in its bag that […]. PM Tales product management tales

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Live chat for business: everything you wanted to know about live chat but were afraid to ask

Intercom, Inc.

A great customer experience today is about meeting people where they already are. And today, there’s one channel where more potential customers are than any place else: messaging and live chat. Think about the way that you talk to people every day.

Messaging 239
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How to become a product manager: Five questions for would-be Product Managers

Product Management Unpacked

Product managers are made not born. If you’re thinking about how you might become a product manager, start by asking yourself these five questions first: For more information visit ms-product-management.cmu.edu. Product Management Questions how to become a product manager questions for product managers

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3 Simple Steps To Make Your Customer Stories 10x Better

The Secret PM Handbook

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.” It was a big challenge for me once.

Demo 207
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Monetizing Analytics Features: Why Data Visualization Will Never Be Enough

Five years ago, data visualizations were a powerful way to differentiate a software application. Today, free visualizations seem to be everywhere. Two trends are forcing application providers to rethink how they offer analytics in their products.

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What’s Your Core Competency?

Clever PM

I’ve always been a big fan of the concept of a “core competency” or “distinctive competency” — the one thing that you, your product, or your company does better than anyone else, and that is difficult to easily replicate. Unfortunately, I find that far too few organizations really understand, at a deep level, what this […]. Product Management Authority Culture Definitions Influence Interactions Learning PM Psychology Trust

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6 Guiding Principles for Effective Product Discovery

Product Talk

I’m co-teaching a design course at Northwestern with my friend Jeff Merrell. We are teaching business leaders and change agents how to prototype their way to viable solutions. In this context, solutions aren’t product solutions, but rather internal programs and processes that effect change within the organization. Our students work on challenges like improving employee engagement, encouraging knowledge sharing between teams, making meetings more effective, and so on.

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Sprint Planning Tips for Product Owners

Roman Pichler

Come Prepared. Make sure you carry out the necessary prep work prior to the sprint planning meeting. Be clear on what you want the sprint to achieve, ensure that the product backlog is appropriately refined (or groomed) , and have its high-priority items ready. This is necessary for the following two reasons: First, if you start sprint planning without a properly prepared product backlog, you are likely to perform backlog and planning work in a comparatively short, time-boxed meeting.

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Am I a Product Manager or a Product Owner? Part 2

bpma ProductHub

By Ellen Gottesdiener Part 2: 5 Ways to Untangle the Mess In part 1 of this blog, I outlined the confusion between what a Product Manager does and what a Product Owner does. The difference and overlaps between product management and product ownership work illustrated how activities span both strategic and tactical product management. With… Product Strategy

Blog 278
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Product Analytics Playbook: Mastering Retention

Why do your users churn? In this guide you'll learn common product pitfalls and how to fix them.

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3 Ways To Stop Sleep Walking Through Your Leadership Legacy

Lead on Purpose

Guest article by Glain Roberts-McCabe “She was completely whole and yet never fully complete” ?Maquita Maquita Donyel Irvin One day, I was having lunch with John, a successful CEO of a national retailer. Like most executives in highly pressured sectors, John feels … Continue reading → Leadership intentional legacy vision

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How Bad is Tech Use for Kids, Really?

Nir Eyal

It feels impossible to tell if the technology our kids use should be celebrated or feared. A few years ago I wrote a book, Hooked, about how technology can be used to change our habits. I intended the book to teach startups how to build healthy habits, but now I’m not so sure. With headlines […] The post How Bad is Tech Use for Kids, Really? appeared first on Nir and Far. Digital Distraction Distraction Indistractable Relationships

Books 279
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Women in Product Management: Jennifer Lyons, Product Management Consultant

280 Group

For our next installment of the Women in Product Management Series I interviewed Jennifer Lyons, a Product Management Executive who has focused the last twelve years of her career in healthcare. To read the entire series on Women in Product Management make sure to sign up for our newsletter. How to Balance Strategy, Sales Requests, and Roadmaps Those were just some of the topics shared by Jennifer Lyons as part of our Women in Product series. Jennifer started her career.[continue