04001 Influence: It’s Under Your Control

It seems that one of the quintessential traits of most Product Manager positions is that you are required to manage by influence. You're trying to make things happen through people who don't report to you and don't have to do what you want. Product Managers end up using a combination of charm, psychology and prodding to ...

03028 Clarifying the Why of Requirements

(Today's issue has a fun challenge question that demonstrates just how much the software industry has changed in the past 20 years. See Can You Answer This? below.) Requirements are the fuel that Product Managers produce to feed the company's software development engine. As part of refining the quality of those requirements, it's helpful to understand ...

03021 Product Champion: What Does That Mean?

You often see job listings for Product Managers that describe the role as "product champion." It sure sounds interesting, but what exactly does it mean? Just what do you have to do to be the champion of a product? Product Managers are also often described as the "owner" of the product, or the "product CEO" (that's ...

03008 How Can Product Managers Help Marketing?

Whether you as a Product Manager report into Marketing, Development, or another group, you play a critical role in helping Marketing position and explain the product so that the message resonates with your product's prospects. The Marketing folks are the experts at taking an image of your software product and polishing it until it really shines. ...