Identifying Non-Customers for “Customer” Interviews; UX in Minneapolis; ProductCamp St. Louis

Jeff Lash

Identifying Non-Customers for “Customer” Interviews
One of the challenges I frequently hear about from product management leaders is that they are trying to get their product managers to better understand market opportunities and customer needs. “Customer” is usually shorthand for a number of different audiences — including non-customers. One barrier to understanding the needs of non-customers is simply gaining access to them. In this blog post on the SiriusDecisions blog, I provide four often overlooked techniques worth considering to find non-customers to interview.

Read the blog post: Identifying Non-Customers for “Customer” Interviews

Minneapolis, April 15, 2015: Sorting Out Product Management and User Experience
I’ll be in Minneapolis on April 15 to present at a monthly meeting of the Minnesota Chapter of the PDMA (Product Development and Management Association) on the topic of Sorting Out Product Management and User Experience Here’s an overview of what I’ll be covering:

In recent years there has been recognition of the importance of user experience in the product development process. Often, job descriptions for user experience roles include elements that are very similar to those for product managers – understand customer needs, conduct research activities, define requirements – and this can lead to confusion and conflict between product management and user experience. In this presentation, we will discuss how product management and user experience differ and how they need to collaborate effectively throughout the innovation and product development process.

If you’ll be in the area, please register for the meeting and I hope to see you there!

ProductCamp St Louis: Saturday, March 28, 2015
March is always a busy month for ProductCamps, but one near and dear to my heart is our very own ProductCamp here in St. Louis. If you haven’t yet registered, sign up now — it’s less than two weeks away. This is the 4th Annual ProductCamp St. Louis and it promises to be bigger and better than ever (and still free). We are expecting over 400 registrants, and a full day of great programming. Visit the ProductCamp St. Louis web site for more information and to register.

What’s Hot on Twitter
Here are a few of my tweets that have generated the most interest recently; to get these in real-time, follow me at @jefflash: