Eating your own dog food; aligning sales, marketing, and product; ProductCamp season

Jeff Lash

Happy 2013! Hope you had a happy happy and a merry merry, and best wishes for the new year. Now, let’s get on to the product management fun…

Why eating your own dog food may be hazardous to your health
You may have heard the expression “eating your own dog food,” meaning that you should use your own product or service. After all, if you don’t believe in what you’re selling, why should anyone else? Unfortunately, eating your own dog food (or, as I prefer to say, tasting or eating your own cooking) may not be the best thing for your company or your product.

So, when does it make sense to taste your own cooking? When does it make sense to eat it? And when does it make sense to do neither? Over on the SiriusDecisions blog, I present a simple quiz and some suggestions.

SiriusDecisions Summit 2013
Speaking of SiriusDecisions, we’ve announced our SiriusDecisions Summit 2013, our annual unique three-day conference where SiriusDecisions analysts and top sales, marketing, and product management leaders from leading organizations share how b-to-b organizations are solving critical issues that hinder predictable growth.

I’m very excited about this year’s theme — Aligning Sales, Marketing, and Product — and I will be presenting a on few product management topics. The Summit has become a legendary event in the world of b-to-b sales and marketing, and this year we’ve added even more content, including a break-out track focusing on product management and product marketing, plus presentations of our own original research on related topics like innovation and portfolio management.

Learn more about the SiriusDecisions Summit 2013 and see the full agenda. If you’re interested, register soon — early bird pricing ends January 15 and the Summit will likely sell out.

ProductCamp season

Speaking of conferences — or, in this case, unconferences — with 2013 comes a whole new crop of ProductCamps. ProductCamps are participant-driven “un”conferences for anyone involved in designing, developing, managing, or marketing products. All participants are encouraged to present a topic or run a group discussion, and all attendees cast their votes for sessions and presentations they’d like to attend. The most popular sessions get on the schedule — it’s a conference for the attendees, by the attendees.

There were over 25 ProductCamps last year, ranging from places you’d expect (like Silicon Valley and New York) to places you wouldn’t (like Kiev, Ukraine). Already on the calendar for this year are two for Saturday, February 2 — Vancouver and Chicago. I’ll most likely be attending the Vancouver ProductCamp, so make sure to say hi if you’re there. I would recommend you register if you’re interested, but it’s already sold out (though there is room on the wait list). Check the global ProductCamp schedule to see if there’s one in your neighborhood.

What’s hot on Twitter

Here are a few of my tweets which have generated the most interest over the past few weeks; to get these in real-time, follow me at @jefflash:

  • Eliminating #prodmgmt from your company b/c of financial problems is like selling your car’s engine to pay for gas. (permalink)
  • New on my @Pinterest #prodmgmt comics board: “Software bloat” is not a feature j.mp/TYETLP (permalink)
  • Four Reasons Why Social Media is Not Research j.mp/SclFUZ from @LauraVEM; relevant for #b2b #marketing #prodmktg #prodmgmt (permalink)
  • How Thinking Like a Designer Can Inspire Innovation; 4 simple, practical tips j.mp/VOtOub #innovation (permalink)
  • Thanks for the personal and heartfelt holiday greetings, companies whose email newsletters I tried to unsubscribe from months ago (permalink)