Product Management Role

Job stories, backlog items, workshop ideas, roadmap features… it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale of potential directions you can take a product in. And it’s natural to want order in this chaos. Prioritisation is a core part of Product Management, and it’s the topic I most commonly get asked about by other Product Read more »

There are some important differences between managing a solutions vs a platform product, in terms of providing product value. One of the key differences is in how you determine and track valuable key performance indicators (KPIs). This post focuses on the differences for managing KPIs not just for platforms overall, but for content management systems Read more »

You want to get into IoT product management, but where do you start? What skills do you need? Which companies are working on IoT today? Start with these five essential steps. According to analyst firm Gartner, there will be over 20 billion connected devices by 2020. This trend is fuelled by companies around the world Read more »

When it comes to successfully implementing a data-informed approach to product analytics, it’s easy to find lists of tips and tactics. It’s much harder to put together a strategy you can return to time and again. Every product is different, of course. There’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. But we do have common methodologies for framing Read more »

Once upon a time, I met a product manager of a company who was leading a freemium model product, with some success. He regularly interviewed users to work out their needs, he gathered and analyzed usage data of the product to extract new requirements, and he defined new features with a high level of detail. Read more »

In a world where the pace of change is constantly increasing and becoming more complex, can you really afford to stay still? Living and working in the United Arab Emirates, with its blindingly rich cities and unbelievably luxe lifestyles, I see that the value of innovation is obvious. After all, how does this crazy-wealthy region Read more »

Has anyone ever really created the perfect piece of software? I’d venture that the answer is a resounding “No!” Every product has its flaws, whether in user experience, feature set, bugs, or technical debt. And I think we all know and accept that. Most product leaders are realists. Perfect to a product manager usually means Read more »

When should a start-up hire its first product manager? What responsibilities should this role include? These are common discussions, with many views, and no right answers – it depends on the founding team, current funding situation, industry focus, and product offering. But it’s likely there will always be a fair bit of product management work Read more »

Product managers and their more recent Agile brethren, product owners, hold one of the most demanding positions in an organisation. As the crucial nexus in the product development framework, their plate is all too often full with business demands, technical requirements, and marketing concerns. Product management in this context can feel like chaos, the type Read more »

As a product manager it’s not uncommon to feel pulled in a million different directions as you work to meet the needs of your customers, developers and company stakeholders. While there are a large number of tools which claim to help you to create value, for me, quite frankly, it boils down to only a few secret weapons Read more »