Alyssa Dver on Great Product Managers

Alyssa Dver tells us what distinguishes a great product manager from a good one. Great product managers:

1. Know their product but also know their own limits.
2. Listen first.
3. Ask why, not what.
4. Are decisive.
5. Are responsive.
6. Communicate frequently, concretely, and concisely.
7. Manage passion.

For details, read the rest of Dver's piece.

Comments

Alyssa @ CPLC said…

Roger - thanks for the post on my article. I thought I would mention that I have delivered that content in presentation form a lot - recently at the Software Marketing Conference and prior to that via webinar with the FeaturePlan group. Anyone intersted can listen to the archive of that webinar at: http://www.featureplan.com/elqNow/elqRedir.htm?ref=http://www.featureplan.com/forms/Requirement_management_07_03_14_dver/Requirement_management_07_03_14_dver.mp3

There is the same presentation also archived on the Boston Product Manager's Association website. I delivered it to that group in April.

I am also presenting (a similar but more performance measurement view) at the AIPMM confernece in Tahoe next week - anyone interested in coming - contact me for info on how to save $300! Obviously hurry though - the conference starts next Wed.

I hope its OK, too, that if anyone is intersted in more of this type of content, they might be interested in my book, "Software Product Management Essentials". I just did a major update in honor of the 4th anniversary printing and with teh 10,000th book sold back in Nov 06. The book can be bought on Amazon or B&N.com but if you order from my website, you get free access to the online templates ($17.95 value). The website is: www.swproductmanagement.com.

Thanks again for your post! All the best, Alyssa Dver; info@swproductmanagement.com

Mon Jun 04, 10:08:00 AM 2007

What Product Managers Can Learn from the Apple iPod

The Story When Apple unveiled its iPod digital music player back in October 2001, I dismissed it as a parity product . I already owned the Cowon iAUDIO CW100 MP3 player, loaded with my favorite tunes. There was Apple, generating great hype over the iPod as if it were a breakthrough product. The idea of a portable digital music player was nothing new. The first mass-produced MP3 players came out in 1998. In late 2001, the concept may have been new to a lot of Apple customers, but it wasn't new to me. I proudly showed my MP3 player to friends when they gushed about the iPod. Thus Apple's iPod was not an innovative product in and of itself. Years later, however, I realized the significance of ecosystem of which the iPod was a part. Apple had released iTunes (with technology purchased from SoundJam MP ) and created the iTunes Store for finding and downloading music. Unlike Napster , it was a safe and legal way of distributing and acquiring music. The prior way of playing

Why Spreadsheets Suck for Prioritizing

The Goal As a company executive, you want confidence that your product team (which includes all the people, from all departments, responsible for product success) has a sound basis for deciding which items are on the product roadmap. You also want confidence the team is prioritizing the items in a smart way. What Should We Prioritize? The items the team prioritizes could be features, user stories, epics, market problems, themes, or experiments. Melissa Perri makes an excellent case for a " problem roadmap ", and, in general, I recommend focusing on the latter types of items. However, the topic of what types of items you should prioritize - and in what situations - is interesting and important but beyond the scope of this blog entry. A Sad but Familiar Story If there is significant controversy about priorities, then almost inevitably, a product manager or other member of the team decides to put together The Spreadsheet. I've done it. Some of the mos

Interaction Design: the Neglected Skill

Your product development organization has a big, gaping hole in it. (Be prepared to feel defensive as you continue reading.) One of the most important roles in product development is the role of interaction designer. An interaction designer designs how the users will interact with the product and conceptualize the tasks they perform. He decides whether, for example, the user interface will be command driven, object oriented (clicking on objects then specifying what to do with them), or wizard based. The interaction designer decides the individual steps in the use cases. Every company has one or more people that play the interaction designer role. Usually, those people have little or no expertise in interaction design. Sadly, they typically don't even realize how unqualified they are. Let's see who typically plays the role at companies. Engineer . An engineer is an expert on building what is designed. Yes, an engineer may know how to design the internal structure of the hardware

Cauvin

Search This Blog