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Recent Articles
05002 Getting Your Priorities Straight: A Twisted Path
January 27, 2005
A major challenge that faces every software product is determining the priority of the oh-so-many suggestions that come to Product Management as requirements for the next release. This is one of those areas that wind up containing a heavy dose of mystery masquerading as rocket science. Requirements get prioritized using a complex formula that is far from formulaic.
The path to well prioritized requirements may be narrow, but it’s not straight by any means.
One thing that even the most consistent and systematic Product Manager faces is the need to adjust his or her method of setting priorities to each individual company. Each company has different technical and business drivers. And each product has its own Development team with its own mindset. You must customize your methods to fit the thinking and personality of the Development managers and other management team members.
Read on for some ideas to consider when blazing your own trail to prioritizing requirements.
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05001 The Trophy Spouse: Partnering With Startups
January 13, 2005
Happy New Year! This is the first issue of the newsletter in 2005, and the 78th issue since December 2002. I hope you’ll continue to find this material helpful.
Two issues ago, I wrote about partnerships between companies, which are so important in technology and software, and how to make them successful. In the last issue I talked about the challenges facing a small startup which partners with a big company. This issue covers tips for large companies facing the opposite situation, where they have partnered with a startup.
Many staid, established companies look with envy at the sizzle, creativity and sheer sexiness of startups, and wonder about how much of a dent they could make in the market if they combined the startup’s cool product with their own marketing, sales, and operational riches. But two companies of such a widely divergent size and strength have just as widely divergent cultures, and happily marrying the two is not a given.
Read on below for tips on how a large company can work well with a startup to make their partnership a shining success.
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