Category Archives for "Product Management"

Step 0: Don’t Freak Out – How To Get Started In Market Discovery

It’s easy to say “Get out of the building.” We know we need to do more market discovery – talking to more customers (and non-customers, and lost prospects, etc.) to find their problems. But for some of us that’s just not actionable advice. In fact, a friend just starting out in product management, asked me Read More

3 Proven Ways To Help Your Sales Team Beat Quota

Co-opting product management into sales My good friend Geoffrey Anderson (@ganders2112) recently wrote about a situation we product managers sometimes find ourselves in. When sales are not going well, company leadership might ask product management come in to help hit the numbers. This can be a bad thing or a good thing. As Geoff said: Read More

“I Have An Idea” – How I Evaluate Product Ideas

People are always asking me “Hey, I have a product idea. May I run it by you and get your input?” Of course, I say yes. They tell me the idea, and it’s usually “a technical thing for some kind of team.” And my response is, “Well, that sounds neat, but….” And then I ask Read More

Persuasion Tips: Pre-Handle Objections

(This is the third article in my Persuasion Tips series.) “Pre-handling objections” is about showing empathy for your audience. You put yourself in your audience’s shoes, figure out what they’re going to be worried about, and make sure you have answers to some of those worries. Sometimes the worries will surface as questions if you Read More

Persuasion Tips: Have A Goal

Understand and articulate what you’re trying to achieve (This article is a follow-on to my overview article on persuasion tips for product managers.) Every presentation or opportunity for persuasion has a goal, or possibly a few goals. Are you trying to get some executives to make a decision in your favor? Are you aiming to Read More

Persuasion Tips For Product Managers

After a few well-received presentations to senior executives, some colleagues at my new company asked me, based on the positive effect I got, “Can you give us some tips on persuasion?” I’ve been doing product management a long time. Over time my presentation skills have naturally gotten more polished as a result of a lot Read More

Mental Models Applied: Using A 2×2 Chart For Handling Competitive Objections

In some earlier articles and in a talk I gave at a local product management meetup, I’ve shared about the importance of having a toolkit of mental models. They help with decision making, problem solving, communication, plus every other thing we do as product managers. As an exercise for myself, I decided to take a Read More

The Secret Truth About Your Methodology and Processes

What are your goals? A product organization has three overarching goals: Deliver great value to our customers. Do it quickly, efficiently, and with high quality. Do it better over time. A product organization that achieves those goals is much more likely to be successful. Your methodology must be in service to your goals What practices Read More

Storytelling For Product Managers – The TL;DR Version

In my last article, I covered a powerful storytelling technique in great detail. This article is the summary (the TL;DR) version. Do you hem and haw when asked talk about one of your accomplishments? Do you stick to a “just the facts, ma’am” approach when telling a story? Are your stories falling flat and failing Read More

Get People Talking! How To Use Open-Ended Questions For Market Discovery

In my last post I talked about the importance of “talking to customers.” In that post I focused especially on what you do with the market discovery knowledge you get from customers once you found it. (The “product management system of record,” I called it.) In this post I’ll be more to the point: How Read More