Cauvin

Join me Saturday, February 15th, 2014 for ProductCamp Austin 12. By now, if you're a product management, marketing, or technology professional, you've probably heard of ProductCamp. ProductCamp is an "unconference" where product management and marketing professionals teach, learn, and network. ProductCamp depends on volunteers to organize it, propose and lead sessions, provide lively conversation and debate, set up and tear down the day of the event, and recruit sponsors to keep it free. Participants can propose sessions prior to the event, and participants vote the morning of the event to determine which sessions they will have the opportunity to attend throughout the day. As I write this blog entry, registration for ProductCamp Austin 12 is open. If you're ready to commit to participating in the product management and marketing conversation, I suggest you register  now. The slots usually fill up quickly. If you'd like to present or lead a conversation ...

Join me Saturday, July 20th, 2013 for ProductCamp Austin 11 .  ProductCamp is an "unconference" where product management and marketing professionals teach, learn, and network. Two years ago, John Milburn, Scott Sehlhorst , Paul Young , and I led a session on "The Future of Product Management". We noted that the "lean startup" movement was on the rise and would soon become a focus of product management discussion and debate. Sure enough, "lean startup" is all the rage these days, or at least talking about it is. Yet to the extent product managers have embraced lean startup concepts, most of them have barely put them into practice.  They've done little more than compose a business model canvas or used the "minimum viable product (MVP)" buzzword a few times.  How can product managers move beyond these basics, put lean startup methods into practice, and derive real value from them? I've proposed a session called "Let...

Join me Saturday, February 16th, 2013 for ProductCamp Austin 10 .  ProductCamp is an "unconference" where product management and marketing professionals teach, learn, and network. I've attended almost every ProductCamp Austin event since I and others helped founder Paul Young organize the first one, which took place June 14, 2008. I'm looking forward to seeing some fresh faces such as Hilary Corna, Jessica Tunon, Chris Hample, as well as catching up with old friends like Colleen Heubaum, John Milburn, Prabhakar Gopalan, Scott Sehlhorst, Joshua Duncan, Elizabeth Quintanilla, Devin Ellis, Mike Boudreaux, and Amanda McGuckin Hager. This time, I hope to lead a session called "Trouble with Tribbles: The Dos and Don'ts of Prospect Interviews": Prospect interviews are a critical part of product management and lean startup methods. But most people take the wrong approach, leading to unreliable or misleading market learnings. In this session, we'll e...

Join me Saturday, August 6th, 2011 for ProductCamp Austin 7 .  ProductCamp is an "unconference" where  product management and marketing professionals teach, learn, and network. Along with a team that included John Milburn , Scott Sehlhorst , and founder Paul Young , I attended and helped organize the first ProductCamp Austin .  This time, assuming our proposed session makes the cut, we'll be leading a panel discussion on the future of product management. You've heard the traditional challenges product managers face ( basing product decisions on market problems , leadership without formal authority , getting buried in tactical tasks).  But product management has grown up, and there are new challenges we face.  What is the future of product management, and how will it address these new challenges? Austin's "Gang of Four" product managers will lead an interactive conversation on such topics as: 1.  We've gone agile.  Do we still need product man...