Welcome to Product Management Challenges!

02003 Product Research in Today’s Tough Times

I don’t think there is even one Product Manager out there who doesn’t know deep down that the very first step to creating successful software is research. Those Product Managers who concentrate on the marketing side have even less of an excuse to ignore the axiom that before you write a single line of code, make sure you find out what your customers really want.

So why is it that Product Managers everywhere fail to follow this cardinal rule? Too many of us in product management approach research into what potential customers want from our software with the same dread as a root canal. You’re not sure exactly how to carry it out. What’s more, you’re sure that you could never justify to the management team the effort and expense required to conduct that research right.

Fortunately, there’s a middle ground between full-blown research using focus groups observed behind mirrors, interviews of thousands of people, statistical sampling, — and doing nothing. There are a few simple efforts you can undertake, aided by recent technology, to get a good reading on what customers and prospects want, in order to ensure that you invest your development dollars wisely. Here are a few ideas.

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02002 Requirements: From Hype-ful to Helpful

Software requirements are arguably the single biggest source of heartache for Product Managers and anybody else working to move a software product forward. Requirements definition is every Product Manager’s dreaded opportunity to wrestle with all the contention, politics, and conflicting viewpoints an organization has to offer.

Not only is formulating and prioritizing requirements the essential starting point of any effort to improve software, but there’s almost always a major disconnect between how requirements are expressed by sales reps, marketing, prospects, or customers and how those same requirements need to be stated in order to pass along clear, complete guidance to developers and other technical teammates.

So here’s a little bit on what I have learned to change requirements from “hype-ful” - straight from the mouths of sales reps and marketing types - to helpful, in three basic steps.

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02001 The Two Types Of Product Managers

Although most of us in the software industry use the term Product Manager like any other job title, positions that go by this name actually involve two separate flavors, or types, different enough that in any other area you would find two distinct job titles. Both flavors of Product Manager involve a considerable amount of overlap, yet each one fulfills aspects of product management that the other does not.

Because all functions provided by both these types are required for the success of your software product, it is critical that you understand which flavor your product managers are delivering at your company so that your organization can fill in the missing pieces.

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