Priorities for Product Management Leaders
There’s something I hear a lot when talking with product management leaders about challenges – some variation of, “We can’t be the only ones having these issues… are we?” Product management leaders are often curious about how their priorities compare to those of their peers and wonder how many or what types of companies are facing the same challenges. As part of ongoing research we’re doing at SiriusDecisions to help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of b-to-b product management organizations, we are conducting a short survey of product management leaders to gather more data on their challenges and priorities. The survey only has 4 questions and should take less than 5 minutes to complete. Everyone who responds to the survey will get a summary of the results. If you’re someone who leads product management for a product line, business unit or organization, please fill out our short 4-question survey.
Recap in Tweets: Product Management Festival 2014
I was thrilled to be in Zurich last week for the second annual Product Management Festival. This was a great two-day gathering of hundreds of product management leaders and product managers from across Europe and around the globe. In addition to my presentation on Effectively Communicating Product Roadmaps, I participated in two panel discussions and tried to take in as many of the other presentations as I could. As is always the case, one of the best things about the conference was the informal discussions that happened outside of the sessions, and it was gratifying to (finally) meet blog readers and Twitter followers in person.
There was a lot of activity on Twitter (using the #PMF14 hashtag), so rather than writing a separate summary, I thought I’d provide a (very very condensed) recap of my experience through some selected tweets/retweets:
"The biggest nuisance I have with founders is that they come to me with a feature, not a product." –@uhrenbacher #PMF14 #prodmgmt #startups
— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) September 17, 2014
MT @EmbeddedTester: #PMF14 @jefflash powerfull speech on effective communication, roadmaps. Room is packed! pic.twitter.com/A54SJYVdlK #prodmgmt
— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) September 17, 2014
Roadmap milestones should describe benefits not features. #obviousinretrospect @jefflash #PMF14
— Michael Smith (@myksmith) September 17, 2014
Two benefits of conferences in Switzerland: sessions start & end on time; bowls of Swiss chocolates in all the session rooms #PMF14
— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) September 17, 2014
Dominating a market begins with dominating a segment #PMF14 #prodmgmt
— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) September 17, 2014
Love the term I just heard from @pgopalan: "Anec-data" (not robust enough to be data, but more than just random anecdotes) #pmf14 #prodmgmt
— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) September 17, 2014
Audience feedback via laser pointers at #PMF14 – neat idea http://t.co/XiZhWbgnDA
— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) September 18, 2014
Selected US #prodmgmt Twitterers at #PMF14 @ttorres @jefflash @Pgopalan @s_m_i @kennethn @RichMironov @specialLi1972 http://t.co/tfHhsGbDu9
— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) September 18, 2014
Technical skills can be learnt but a deep empathy for customers is the foundation of every good product manager #PMF14
— Brainmates (@brainmates) September 18, 2014
Product/market fit: When u stop worrying abt whether anyone will buy & worry about HOLY CRAP HOW WILL WE SCALE THIS?!?! @kennethn #PMF14
— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) September 18, 2014
Product manager as conductor, not CEO: “If the conductor doesn’t show up, the orchestra can still perform.” @kennethn #PMF14
— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) September 18, 2014
Early adopters are not the same thing as power users. They may be correlated but could be very different. @kennethn #PMF14
— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) September 18, 2014
Make sure to look through tweets using the #PMF14 hashtag for a lot more details and context.