Product Management 2.0

2009 Product Management Benchmark Survey (280 Group)

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:13:00 +0000

Please help us advance the Product Management profession by participating in the 280 Group 2009 Product Management Benchmark Survey. (note: this is different that the "Doing More With Less as a Product Manager" survey we ran last month. Those results will be published shortly.)

The 2009 survey (http://tinyurl.com/mcrbgz) is VERY BRIEF and will help us all learn more about ACTUAL product management practices in the field. Your answers will provide meaningful insight into today's high-tech product management environment. We are also looking to evaluate market maturity and establish comparative benchmarks. All responses are confidential.

The survey should take you LESS THAN 10 MINUTES to complete. What's in it for you? Following the survey, the 280 Group will publish a report complete with analysis. The result will allow you to compare your product management practices with those of the broader market. The survey will close July 3rd and the report will be released before July 31st.

Additionally, participants will be eligible to win one of several prizes:

- Grand Prize: 280 Group's PM Office Pro ($400 value). Includes over 150 templates and five self-paced training modules for product management and product marketing tasks. Details at http://tinyurl.com/2r5yyf.

- Three copies of the ebook version of Expert Product Management. Details at http://tinyurl.com/n4e665.

- Four Amazon.com gift certificates ($50/each).
Thank you in advance for making this survey a success. We appreciate your participation!

Take the survey at:
http://tinyurl.com/mcrbgz

Brian Lawley
CEO & Founder, 280 Group
Author, Expert Product Management

The Original Computer

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:42:00 +0000

Memory was something you lost with age
An application was for employment
A program was a TV show
A cursor used profanity

A keyboard was a piano
A web was a spider's home
A virus was the flu
A CD was a bank account

A hard drive was a long trip on the road
A mouse pad was where a mouse lived

PM 2.0 Newsletter June 10th

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:27:00 +0000

PM 2.0
The Product Marketing & Product Management Newsletter
June 10th, 2009

The Boston PM Fast Track course (June 22) is almost
full. Sign up today if you want a seat! The course covers
the entire product lifecycle, includes certification exams
and a copy of the award-winning Product Manager's
Toolkit. In just four days you will become an expert
product manager or product marketer.

This issues includes a guest article by Kristi Royse
on "How to Play to Your Strengths," an article by Peter
Cohan on "Why a Demo Should Be Like a News Article,"
and an article on "Team Autonomy vs. Common Process
- Solving the Conflict" by Douglas B. Boebinger.
Also, you can become a fan of the book Expert Product
Management on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/lklnzr.
Have a great June and let us know if you have questions
about our training, toolkits or consulting...
Brian Lawley & The 280 Group Team

To read this issue click here.

CONTENTS
* BECOME A FAN OF EXPERT PRODUCT MANAGEMENT ON FACEBOOK
AT http://tinyurl.com/lklnzr.

* PM FAST TRACK(tm) TRAINING BOSTON, MA JUNE 22
Reserve a spot now - become a certified expert in
just four days!

* HOW TO PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS
By Kristi Royse

* CERTIFIED PRODUCT MANAGER (CPM) SELF-STUDY COURSE
Increase your income, get a great new job and beef
up your resume by earning the AIPMM CPM certification.

* WHY A DEMO SHOULD BE LIKE A NEWS ARTICLE
By Peter Cohan

* TEAM AUTONOMY VERSUS COMMON PROCESS
By Douglas B. Boebinger

Product Management Survey: Doing More With Less

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:26:00 +0000

We are conducting a survey regarding how Product Managers are doing more with less during the economic downturn. Please take 10 minutes to fill out the survey - results will be posted on this blog and in the Product Management 2.0 newsletter.

Fill out the survey at:
www.tinyurl.com/prpzhk

Small Marketing Changes Can make a BIG difference

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Mon, 04 May 2009 01:56:00 +0000

I read a clever marketing line on a half gallon of milk this morning and it reminded me of a story.

In the shampoo industry a smart product marketing manager was able to double sales in a very short period of time. It turns out that you really don't need to wash your hair twice each time, as most people do. People used to only wash it once. The marketing manager decided to change the instructions and simply added one word. The old instrutions said lather and rinse. The new instructions said lather, rinse and repeat.

The result? Sales nearly doubled.

By the way, the marketing line on the milk was "Shake well. Buy often."

Are you reminding your customers to use your products?

Facebook for marketing survey!

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:08:00 +0000

Quick survey: Is it okay to use Facebook for marketing or promoting your business?

http://tinyurl.com/c3zf2h

Product Management 2.0 Newsletter April 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:35:00 +0000

PM 2.0: The Product Marketing & Product Management Newsletter
April 9th, 2009

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT MANIFESTO
A stake in the ground about what product management is and why it is critical to a company's success.

PRODUCT NAMING GUIDELINES
Naming a product is difficult. These guidelines will help you choose a compelling name that makes your product more successful.

WHAT MAKES A DEMO TRULY REMARKABLE
By Peter Cohan

Read the newsletter here.

Brian Lawley
CEO, www.280group.com
Author, Expert Product Management

Product Management Manifesto Final Version

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:02:00 +0000

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the creation of the Product Management Manifesto! If you have ever felt the need to explain the role of product management and why it is SO critical to a company, the manifesto should be a great help.

Product Management Manifesto

Please pass this along the other product managers!

Product Management Webinars

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:33:00 +0000

Our entire series of Product Management Webinars is available on-demand here: PRODUCT MANAGEMENT WEBINARS

Topics include the following:

How To Run A Successful Beta Program
How To Get Phenomenal Product Reviews
How to Recession-Proof Your Product Management Career
How to Work More Effectively With Your Sales Team
How to Work More Effectively With Your Engineering Team
How to Build a Compelling Product Roadmap
How to Accelerate Your Product Management Caree
PM Productivity: How To Get Twice as Much Done in
How to Run a High-Impact Product Launch

Please let other product managers know about these.

Mastering Twitter in 10 Minutes or less

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:40:00 +0000

I found this booklet to be very helpful in quickly learning all about Twitter.

Download a copy compliments of the 280 Group here.

And follow me if you want to hear what I think is interesting and new:

http://twitter.com/brianlawley

Product Manager's Dream - Sony's new product :-)

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:50:00 +0000

Pardon the cursing in this video but you have to check this out.

How would you like to be the product manager for this?

Product Management Manifesto

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:09:00 +0000

I get asked all the time what the role of a Product Manager is and why I think it is a great profession, so I have written the Product Management Manifesto.

Feel free to share it with your team and others when they ask you about what you do for a living. :-)

Product Management Certification Self-Study Course

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:31:00 +0000

We are excited to announce a new product - the CPM Self-Study Course!

The course allows you to study for the industry-standard AIPMM Certified Product Manager (CPM) and Certified Product Marketing Manager (CPMM) exams. You can study at your own pace using the 10 narrated training modules, study guides and practices tests. When you are ready you can then take the exams from anywhere in the world.

Full details are at http://www.280group.com/productmanagementcertification.htm.

This is the only course of its kind available. If you want to move your career forward, get a new job/promotion or get a raise consider getting certified.

Beta test for a fellow PM and win a Wii or Kindle

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:57:00 +0000

Datacastle contacted me and is looking for beta testers.

If you think you can find a few bugs you could win a Wii or an Amazon Kindle!

Details and signup at:

http://www.datacastlecorp.com/site/beta/

Webinar: How to Work More Effectively With Your Sales Team

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:01:00 +0000

I'll be doing a Webinar on How to Work More Effectively with Your Sales Team. To sign up click here.

Here's an overview:

Salespeople can be a Product Manager’s best friend or their worst nightmare. If they are on your side, believe in your product and are given the tools and information to succeed they can be the difference between a winning product and a failing product. However, if you don’t provide them with what they need or nurture the relationships they can inundate you with questions, make unreasonable demands or even ignore your product or refuse to sell it. This webinar will talk about how to get your sales people on your side and get them excited and properly armed to sell your product. Brian Lawley will share the tips, techniques and strategies for leveraging your sales force that he has learned during his 20+ year product management career.

Along with Brian, David Dersh will also be participating in the Webinar. Dave spent the last twenty years of his career as a top sales rep for Apple Computer, Intel and Sun Microsystems. He will share experiences about the best and the worst product managers he has worked with and what they have done to maximize the product management and sales relationship.

Speaker Bio: Brian Lawley is the CEO and founder of the 280 Group, which provides consulting, contractors, training and templates. During the last twenty years of his career he has focused on Product Management and Product Marketing and has shipped more than fifty successful products. He is the former President of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association, won the 2008 AIPMM award for Excellence in Thought Leadership for Product Management and is the author of the best-selling book, Expert Product Management. Mr. Lawley has been featured on CNBC's World Business Review and the Silicon Valley Business Report and writes articles for a variety of publications including the Product Management 2.0 newsletter and Blog.

Amazon, Brian Lawley, Bugs, an Angel and the Devil

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:14:00 +0000

If you are putting together your test matrix and wondering about which "corner cases" to test for you might want to read this article.

I almost named it "How to lose $250 per sale" by Amazon.com. :-)

Webinar: How to work more effectively with your engineering team

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:40:00 +0000

Webinar: How to work more effectively with your engineering team

Wed. July 3oth 9AM PST.

OVERVIEW:

Working effectively with your engineers is one of the key factors in product management success. To build great products you have to understand how to influence, motivate and collaborate with them orall of your other efforts may be wasted. This session will cover how to establish yourself as themarket and customer expert, how to increase credibility with your team, how to read and interact with different personality types andhow to subtly influence your engineers to getthem to help you achieve your objectives. Drawing on over twenty years of experience working with dozens of teams (many good, but some horrible), Brian Lawley will share the tips, tricks, storiesand best practices he has learned that will help you to be a better product manager.

Hope you can join us!

Webinar: How to work more effectively with your engineering team

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:02:00 +0000

I'm doing a webinar about how to work better with your engineers. Here are the details:

Summary

Working effectively with your engineers is one of the key factors in product management success. To build great products you have to understand how to influence, motivate and collaborate with them or all of your other efforts may be wasted. This session will cover how to establish yourself as the market and customer expert, how to increase credibility with your team, how to read and interact with different personality types and how to subtly influence your engineers to get them to help you achieve your objectives. Drawing on over twenty years of experience working with dozens of teams (many good, but some horrible), Brian Lawley will share the tips, tricks, stories and best practices he has learned that will help you to be a better product manager.

Date: Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT

Register Here!

Product Management Productivity Tip

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:27:00 +0000

For those of you who watched my product management productivity webinar you know that I use Outlook to its full extent.

Here's a blog and tip (very useful if you work with people in other time zones) that you'll find saves you some time in Outlook.

Let me know what other productivity tips you have!

PM Fast Track Seminar, San Jose CA and Boston MA

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:38:00 +0000

There are still a few spots left in our San Jose (June 2-5) and Boston (June 23-26) PM Fast Track Seminars.

The PM Fast Track course covers the entire product lifecycle and will turn you into an expert in just four days. Highly interactive small classes teach you the skills that you need. You also receive a copy of the Product Manager's Toolkit, which includes 30 templates covering the entire product lifecycle (Business cases, MRDs, PRDs, Marketing Plans and more).

To reserve a spot or find out more click here...

New articles: SW Still Stinks, Chaos strategy, How to write benefits

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:33:00 +0000

We have posted three new articles:

- Why so much software still stinks

- Chaos does not a successful product make

- Writing effective benefits statements for your features

You can read them at:
http://www.280group.com/insider/5.20.08.htm

Webinar: How to Accelerate your Product Management Career

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:30:00 +0000

I'll be doing a webinar on "How to Accelerate Your Product Management Career" on Friday May 30th. It covers strategies and tactics for rapidly advancing your career and moving up.

You can sign up for it at:
http://www.aipmm.com/html/events/webinar.php

Seminars: High-Impact Product Launches

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:42:00 +0000

I'm doing two seminars on Tuesday the 15th of April covering How to Plan and Execute a High-Impact Product Launch. The material is based on the Product Launch Toolkit(tm), and every attendee receives a copy of my book and a discount on my new Expert Product Management Toolkit Bundle.

Here are the details:

Mid Peninsula Professional AllianceMorning meeting at Scott’s Seafood Restaurant, Palo Alto, CA7:30 AM to 9:00 AM. Preregistration price/deal: $31.95 includes breakfast, presentation and FREE book, “Expert Product Management” by Brian Lawley. More info and sign up here.

Silicon Valley Business MeetupEvening meeting at Apple Computer, Cupertino, CA5:30 to 8:30 PM. Preregistration price/deal: $20 until April 13, ($25 after April 13th). Includes autographed copy of the book, “Expert Product Management” by Brian Lawley. More info and sign up here.

Announcement: Expert Product Management Toolkit Bundle

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:07:00 +0000

We are very excited to announce the availability of a new product, the Expert Product Management Toolkit Bundle! The bundle is based on the best-selling book, Expert Product Management, by Brian Lawley, CEO of the 280 Group.

Included in the bundle are a copy of the book (either ebook or printed) and four of the corresponding 280 Group toolkits that cover the content (Product Roadmaps, Product Launches, Beta Programs and Product Reviews). In all there are four narrated on-demand training presentations (one for each topic) and over 130 templates for the corresponding tasks.

You can check it out here or you can buy it on Amazon.com.

Let it Beep: Sosumi

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Lawley) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:50:00 +0000

Here's an amusing story about the MacOS System 7 beep sound (by the 280 Group's own Jim Reekes). Talk about a creative way to get a feature your realy want into your products. :-)