Note: I am pleased to announced that I am a nominee for the 2006 Excellence in Product Management award for Thought Leadership given by the AIPMM. I will be at the AIPMM conference this April 19-21 (see www.aipmm.com) and hope to see some of you there.

Every culture has its blind spots and weak points that can trip it up despite its strengths and clear-sightedness. So, too, every industry struggles with common shortcomings that seem to grow out of misperceptions and failings learned at many companies and steadily spread across the industry.

For a Product Manager, who is usually deeply involved in all the major workings of a company, from sales and marketing to product development and the business model, it can be a sobering experience to try to overcome widespread weaknesses with few positive examples for guidance. Like personal failings, a company’s flaws, especially when typical of the whole industry, can prove fiercely resistant to improvement.

Today’s issue is an ambitious – perhaps overly ambitious? – discussion of common pitfalls that I have seen in the software industry when it came to attitudes towards and understanding of product requirements.

Read on below for a discussion of how to better understand software requirements - and how to misunderstand them a little less.