This Framework Gives You Product Management Super Powers

Breakthrough! The Secret Product Management Framework

Finally writing down the Secret Product Management Framework was a revelation for me. It put all the activities I do as a product manager into perspective.

We find and validate market problems for which customers will pay for a solution. We then guide the creation of solutions to the problems. And then we take the solutions to market.

One test of a new framework is how well it explains “previous observations.” In this case, the previous observations are the articles I’ve been posting on the blog. In this article, I tie the older posts to the framework.

Finding market problems

Over the years I’ve written quite a bit about finding and validating market problems. From rules of thumb about the characteristics of good market problems to solve, to a series on how to be “badass” at finding market problems:

• How To Find And Validate A Market Problem
• How Badass Are You At Finding And Validating Market Problems?
• Finding and Validating Market Problems – Key Themes
• You Might Be Surprised Which Product Management Activity Is Most Important
• Love the Problem, Not the Product
• Product Management Rules of Thumb 1: The Order of Magnitude Rule
• Product Management Rules of Thumb 2: The Three Boxes Rule
• Create A Compelling Product Vision By Writing The (Amazon) Review First
• The Secret To Successful Products That Users Love From Day One

Creating and guiding the creation of solutions

Of course, a huge amount of our time and energy is taken up in the “solution” area – writing requirements, prioritizing, agile development, roadmaps, working with developers, and ensuring quality.

• This New Template Helps You Write Better Product Requirements
• How to Prioritize: Top 6 Techniques
• Prioritizing Features – The Simplest Possible Example
• How To Talk To Your Executives About Agile
• The Best Way To Understand Agile
• Good Metaphors Improve the Usability Instincts of Your Developers
• Product Management Rule of Thumb: Revenue To Developer Ratio Should be About One-to-One
• To 10x Your Profits Start With Retrospectives
• How To Make Meaningful Estimates For Software Products, Part 2, Part 3
• The Challenge of Roadmaps
• How To Share A Roadmap Without Driving Into A Ditch
• There Is No “Product Owner” For A Commercial Software Product
• 5 Tips For When Your Release Is Running Late
• What Should Product Teams Optimize?
• Performance Problems And How To Think About Them
• Is Your Product Like A Well-Run Restaurant, Or A Dirty Dive?

Taking the solutions to market

Taking your product to market means finding the people who have the problem you solve, making sure they know you have a solution, and convincing them that your solution is a better option for them than any other way they can spend their money.

• What Is Marketing, To Product Managers?
• Don’t Just Use Social Proof: Make Sure It’s Personal
• The Value Inequality – The Real Meaning Of “Customer Value”
• 5 Ways Product Managers Can Make More Money
• A Weak Value Proposition Is A Symptom, Not A Disease
• “Creating Value” Means Eliminating A Problem Completely, Not Making It 5% Better
• The Best Way To Engage Your Audience Is To Help Them Kick Ass
• Revenue Up-And-To-The-Right – That’s The Goal

The other layers

The core product management activities are finding market problems, creating solutions to the problems, and taking the solutions to market. But those all happen in the context of the organization’s strategy, the skills of the team, the tools the team gets to use (or has to use), and the management of the product management function.

Skills

Product management requires skills like writing, technical knowledge, and problem solving.

• 10 Writing Tips For Product Managers
• A Toolset For Getting Unstuck When Your Creativity Is Blocked
• Product Management And Fear – Three Tips For Overcoming Creative Blocks
• Product Management And Fear – Three More Powerful Creative Blockbusters
• Two Good Articles on Decision-Making For Product Managers
• Start With The Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work
• Requirement Chaos – Don’t Make Me Think

Infrastructure

Of course, the tools we use are critically important. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have that many good choices.

• Selection Criteria for Product Management Tools
• PM Tools Should Help Us With The Hard Things We All Do
• Our PM Tools Are Pencils Fastened To Bricks
• The Importance of Tools To Product Managers and Other Humans

Management and Strategy

I haven’t written much about the management of product management teams, or about strategy (although I mention it in a few posts, including those on prioritization, where it has the most impact on product managers). I’ll put some focus on these areas going forward.

Call To Action

Let me know if you find this categorization useful. And of course, if there’s a topic you want to learn about that I haven’t covered, please let me know.