Three Tips for Getting More Value From Product Enhancements
Many product teams – especially those working on software-as-a-service offerings – spend most of their time and energy enhancing existing products. Unfortunately, randomly adding features to products without a plan for making sure users know about and get value from them is a common mistake I see product managers make. My post on the SiriusDecisons blog — Three Tips for Getting More Value From Product Enhancements — provides some simple recommendations to make sure that all of the hard work to add enhancements is worth it to your customers and your business.
Minimum Viable Products: I Do Not Think They Mean What You Think They Mean
I’ve said this before here and I’ll say it again — minimum viable product (MVP) is one of the most misused and misunderstood phrases in product management. Many product teams apply the term MVP incorrectly, leading to confusion and frustration from colleagues and customers, as well as missed opportunities. My post on the SiriusDecisions blog — Minimum Viable Products: I Do Not Think They Mean What You Think They Mean – describes what distinguishes good MVPs from bad ones, and how product managers can structure MVPs appropriately to get better results.
Product Management Events in the Next Two Weeks
The end of April and beginning of May is a busy time for me — here’s where you can catch me live and in person…
- Monday, April 29: Twin Cities Product Conf. At this one-day conference in Minneapolis, MN, I’ll be presenting “How Can Product Managers ‘Be More Strategic’? Foundational Behaviors of Strategic Product Management.”
- Sunday-Wednesday May 5-8: SiriusDecisions Summit. Our big annual event (in Austin, TX this year!) is coming up soon and there’s still time to register! It’s the must-attend event for 3500+ b-to-b product, marketing and sales leaders in the most well-respected, high-performing companies in the world today. We have a ton of great content for product management leaders and you can learn more about Why Product Management Leaders Should Attend SiriusDecisions 2019 Summit.
- Thursday, May 9: ProductCraft The Conference. I’ll be heading to San Francisco for this first-year conference, where my presentation The Maestro: What Orchestra Conductors Can Teach Us About Product Management will offer up an alternative to the analogy of “product manager as CEO of the product” and highlight the parallels between orchestra conductors and product managers.
What’s Hot on Twitter
Here are some of my tweets that have generated the most interest recently, including one that is my most popular Tweet to date! To read more, or get these in real-time, join the 9600+ others who follow me at @jefflash:
Understanding needs is more than just randomly talking to customers or “doing a survey.” To truly understand buyer/user/customer needs, identify the outcomes a persona cares about and the value they get when those outcomes are realized or improved.#prodmgmt #prodmktg #ux #b2b pic.twitter.com/56t0JI0k5G
— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) April 17, 2019
Schrödinger’s opportunity: (n) A potential sale that may or may not still be alive because the sales rep hasn’t heard anything from the prospective buyer.
— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) March 26, 2019
Here’s a preview of some new research I’ve been working on related to using #agile not JUST in #prodmgmt/#productdevelopment, but how it can help improve alignment in #b2b orgs across #marketing & #sales (and other functions!) too. https://t.co/AYtefPqyS2
— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) March 27, 2019
Great tips from @bethcaplow for #prodmktg (and #prodmgmt!) — 3 Ways to Avoid the Tug of War Between #Agile Development and #Product Launches https://t.co/YGjRHcTDl1
— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) April 1, 2019