What really is Product Marketing?
On the heels of this post about What Really is Go-To-Market?, I have had a ton of discussions about the constant tussle between product management and product marketing, especially at later stage growth businesses or divisional teams at large companies. Between Kahuna (startup) and at SuccessFactors/SAP as GM (ginormous largeco) I’ve seen this play out […]
Epictetus and APIs
First page of Discourses by Epictetus Don’t set your heart on so many things,” says Epictetus. Prioritize. Train your mind to ask: Do I need this thing? What will happen if I do not get it? What if it all happens all at once? I return often to this quote, to the point of boring […]
SaaS Product-Market fit fools you into thinking that growth will come
Mark Andreessen coined the term product-market fit, defined as being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market. Whilst getting to product market fit is job #1 for a CEO at the early stages, product market fit alone leaves gaps that you need to fill to drive sales velocity. There are some fabulous perspectives about these gaps already. Brian Balfour […]
Combining functions in a SaaS business is a terrible idea
Ok, here is the punch line: No two SaaS functions should be coupled together. Any combination forces conflicts of interest and while you and the board are busy charting out your world domination strategy, this dysfunctional org design will eat the company from the inside out. The long form: Combining Product and Engineering Why it’s a […]
Roadmapping with the loudest guy in the room
Overcoming 🔮Shiny Object Syndrome with customer conversations and data You know the story. You’re the product manager and have worked hard to organize the quarterly product planning meeting with the leadership team and key stakeholders. You’ve engaged customers, worked with the dev team to estimate effort, combed through 1,000 support tickets. Tirelessly charted a thematic vision […]
Problems with Product Discovery
Working with Product Manager customers on product discovery, I’ve observed some interesting patterns. Teams move from problems to solutions too quickly, use MVPs for solution feedback, are biased on singular requests, and loose context across the process. If the following observations seem like common sense and aren’t problems with your team, good for you! Moving […]
Products are Conversations
Cartoon by Gapingvoid Products are Conversations We’ve lost our way in Product Management. When the biggest problem Product Managers face is setting roadmap priorities based on market feedback, it’s symptomatic of the underlying practices and tools. Simply put, Products are Conversations. How you orchestrate conversations with customers and cross-functionally in your organization is what makes […]
The Product Manager Problem
Ever since the Product Manager role was created to bring decision making as close to customers as possible, it has been an art and science of collaborating with stakeholders. The problem today is how to scale collaboration with your stakeholders, when the signal-to noise ratio is out of control: Customers overwhelmed with choice and information […]
Don’t Let Product Management Turn Into “The Roadmap Guys”
At many enterprise software companies product management (PM) ends up defaulting into a role that I can’t stand: The Roadmap Guys*. Like a restaurant with one item on the menu, the company defaults into ordering one thing from product management: a roadmap pitch. “The VP of PM is in Boston and Providence this week, can […]
A New Chapter In My Life; Google
When I decided to leave SAP to take a short sabbatical I didn’t really know what to expect. Six months later I am happy to report that it was one of the best decisions I ever made. These were some of the best weeks and months of my life. After this short period of disconnecting […]
