I hung out last week with thousands of people, most of whom had never met and will never do so again. And yet there was a clear sense of community among these people, of shared values and ways of thinking, and critically of passion for making great products that make customers happy and businesses successful.
Read moreONE THING... Get out!
In successful product cultures, objectives change: no longer shipping on time and on budget, but solving customer problems in ways that meet the needs of your business. This change in approach puts a spotlight on the customer. How do you find out about customer needs? Get out of the building and talk to them.
Read moreONE THING... about New Zealand!
I spent the last 3 weeks in Auckland, Wellington, Queenstown and other locations in New Zealand for business and pleasure. I’m happy to report the product culture there is growing rapidly.
Read moreONE THING... "Why" is the job of leadership
Answering “why” is the job of leadership and, in the world of product, is the essential job of product management. Answering “how” is the job of management and is core to the project management role.
Read moreONE THING... Culture Conversations
When product people are considering a job at a new company, the thing they most want to know is whether the company has a good culture, including an appreciation of the role of product. And I am witnessing an increasing recognition among CxOs that product management is the sort of leadership role that can pull the right team together and get them moving in the right direction. This is Product Culture.
Read moreONE THING... Correcting Roadmap Course
You have to revisit your roadmap at intervals that match the pace of change in your market. Intel's public roadmap goes out 2 or 3 years. In contrast, many start-ups change directions every few months.
Read moreONE THING...the Adult in the Room
Execs at growing companies see product people as their surrogates, the "adult in the room," as I've heard more than a few say.
Read moreONE THING... Roadmap Tools: (Un)Helpful?
Product teams often use tools to communicate and collaborate as they flesh out their roadmaps. There is roadmapping software out there. Other teams use general products. What are these tools useful for in your organization? How are they not?
Read moreONE THING... Output vs. Outcome: Can you do Both?
Output vs. Outcome: The roles are complementary. Can you do both? Can you do both without going crazy? Does your organization know the difference?
Read moreONE THING on Dream Themes
Roadmap themes represent the underlying problems you really want to solve. It takes a savvy Product person to tease these ideas out of the noise of requests from every quarter.
Read moreONE THING... Ignoring Revenue!
"You want to put the customer at the center of everything. This is very unnatural for most product companies, because we're thinking, 'What are we going to do to make more money?'
Read moreONE THING... How Far Should You Go (for Roadmaps)?
The length of your roadmap is a function of how fast you are learning. An established product in a mature market may release new and improved versions one per year, and will have a correspondingly long roadmap. A start-up with new capabilities every week may have a roadmap of no more than a few months.
Read moreONE THING... How Far Should You Go (for Roadmaps)?
The length of your roadmap is a function of how fast you are learning. An established product in a mature market may release new and improved versions one per year, and will have a correspondingly long roadmap. A start-up with new capabilities every week may have a roadmap of no more than a few months. They may even abandon dates altogether and use buckets like, "Now, Next, Later..."
Read moreONE THING… Contest! Best Product Vision Statement!
"To give everyone a voice and show them the world" - YouTube. "A high efficiency, low cost space travel vehicle that can carry passengers to Mars" - SpaceX. A product vision is a statement of the problem you're solving, or the change you want to see in the world.
Read moreONE THING... on Roadmaps with no Dates
"I prefer to keep roadmaps dates as vague as possible in order to maintain flexibility. If I don’t have sufficient confidence an item on the roadmap will be delivered by a specific date, then I don’t want to commit to it.
Read moreONE THING… on Why Power Is Overrated
"I try to be the world’s least powerful CEO." That’s from game maker Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen. He gives decision power to his teams and gets out of the way. Supercell is valued at $12 billion.
Read moreONE THING... Grounding Your Vision
"You can’t just do top-down roadmapping because then you end up just blindly building towards some vision that may or may not be actually informed by what customers want...
Read moreONE THING...Take your Roadmap on the Road!
Do you show your roadmap to your sales and customer support team? You should. My friend Sam Clemens, founder of InsightSquared, tries to make his roadmaps open and clear.
Read moreONE THING... on Flexible Work Arrangements
"Happy employees = happy customers = happy shareholders." That’s Aaron Skonnard, CEO of Pluralsight, which just went public last month.
Read moreONE THING... Productize!
Software companies are most successful when they Productize. They build once, then sell again and again. Facebook, Microsoft, DropBox, etc. They are not one-off shops.
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