Startup Musings – An “Oh Crap” moment:

The product release was a textbook example of excellent teamwork and extraordinary efficiency in execution.  The fatal flaw was mainly my fault.  That kind of fatal flaw had happened before on a different platform.   The lead engineer on the project hasn’t seen it before, but I have.  I should have anticipated it and made sure SQA tested for the condition that would have triggered it. But I missed it.  I was colossally lucky someone caught it before it was released into the wild.

Strategic Product Manager – Value Add or Added Value:

If you follow the edict (yes, edict) that value determines prices that determines cost, then your add-ons have value (assuming the cost is greater than zero) and therefore have a price that is greater than zero. So why offer them for free?

Business Insider – Competition Is Overrated: Stop Worrying About It And Just Build A Better Product:

Suppose you have an idea for a startup, and then do some research only to discover there are already similar products on the market. You become disheartened and wonder if you should abandon your idea.  In fact, the existence of competing products is a meaningful signal, but not necessarily a negative one.

Spatially Relevant – Content, Content, Content

As you develop content and set it free, there are some key questions a marketer should ask since while content should be set free, it’s not free to develop:

• Is this intended for the buyer/Analyst/Partners/Sales/Others?
• How will this content influence your audience to do some?
• How does this relate to your existing content/strategy?
• Does this establish a new content theme, if not related to previous content and is it a sustainable theme?
• Is the content reusable?

Neuro Science Marketing – Why Stories Sell

Short testimonials are not a bad thing at all. Letting potential customers know that other real people used your product with success is always a good thing. But turning a testimonial into a personal anecdote will greatly increase its impact. Adding a name, a face, and story will play to the way our brains evolved, and will be both more convincing and more memorable.

This also explains why word-of-mouth is such a powerful tool: if the story is told not by a celebrity or paid endorser, but by someone we actually know, it will be even more potent.

The Experience is the Product - The Phrase That Should be Banned from Product Managers’ Vocabulary

“That’s the way it’s supposed to work.”  If you feel the need to say this, then you have screwed up.

On Product Management – Why I hate that Henry Ford quote!

You’ve heard it before haven’t you?  It gets used all the time. Even  Steve Jobs has used it in interviews.  Unfortunately, the people who use this quote most often seem to be people who think they have all the answers or want to quash any discussion about getting outside validation of ideas or plans.

Product Bytes – Magical Thinking and the Zero-Sum Road

That gives us Mironov’s Roadmap Theorem #1: you can’t put something new into the current development plan without taking out something of equal or larger size. When stated this plainly, it should be as obvious as the law of gravity.

Where the Product Management Tribe Gathers – Transparency isn’t Invisible:

However, in many organizations, product management is relegated to “hoarding requirements” and nothing more. Why? I believe it’s due to the fact that the team hasn’t built a level of transparency within its organization, product management leadership doesn’t effectively or consistently know how to get the right information into the hands of senior management and executives, there’s limited understanding as to the value of product management and finally, by human nature we often collect or horde information and hold on to it until we feel it’s time to share or someone asks to give the information. What can we do to improve transparency in product management?

Rocketwatcher – Presentation Skills Lessons Learned from SXSW

It was painfully obvious when folks hadn’t prepared and even some seasoned presenters blew it.  At one panel, Robert Scoble ran a laptop connected to the screens and we squirmed watching him search online for the hashtag (a way to reference the talk on Twitter) that was printed on the card in front of him facing the audience.   The hashtag was (ironically/appropriately): “twittertools”

AIPMM – Three Tips For Successful Product Management Today:

Let product development decisions be made by the people who have to do the work to make the product happen. Because products are so complex, and markets change so quickly, there is no longer enough time nor the right words to communicate clearly to anyone outside of the process all the nuances of a market opportunity. Key strategic decisions still must be made by upper management. But empowering the people executing the process is the most efficient way to ensure your product stays relevant.

Strategic Product Manager – Using the Roadmap for Planning and Selling

Prospects may want to see your vision. You’ll need to make everyone aware the risks with showing prospects the roadmap. It could delay the sales cycle if they wait for future features or set poor expectations if they believe the roadmap will not change (and it will change). There is nothing wrong with sharing your vision, but the appropriate expectations need to be set for the Sales team and the prospect

The Experience is the Product - 3 Marketing Mistakes You’re Probably Making

Talk to 3 power-user and 3 semi-novice customers and ask them “how would you explain to a friend how our product is different from [competitor]?”   Are their responses factually accurate?  Are their responses similar?  If so, you’re doing a great job.  If your power users can explain the difference but your novice customers can’t, you need to find the explanations that work.

Prospects may want to see your vision. You’ll need to make everyone aware the risks with showing prospects the roadmap. It could delay the sales cycle if they wait for future features or set poor expectations if they believe the roadmap will not change (and it will change). There is nothing wrong with sharing your vision, but the appropriate expectations need to be set for the Sales team and the prospect

Save B2B Marketing – Storytelling in Marketing

Not only are stories a powerful way of illustrating the value of your product, in many cases they are the way that your prospects and customers will explain what you do to others.

The Experience is the Product – Customer Development Interviews How-to: What You Should Be Learning

The important thing about these questions is that they set up an environment where the customer is the “expert”.  They avoid yes/no answers, and give people the opportunity to tell a story – one that may trigger them to think of related problems they’re having, or may trigger more questions from you to ask later.

Startup Musings – Positioning statements

To be honest, I’ve never actually seen a positioning statement generated outside product management.   I can’t quite grapple with outsourcing such a strategic deliverable to an agency who can’t possibly be as close to the target personas and the product benefits and feature sets as an in house team. More…

I stumbled across a gem of a book over the weekend, “It’s Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be: The World’s Best Selling Book“.

It was one of those books that you pick-up off the shelf and within minutes know you have to buy.  The book was written by Paul Arden, a famous creative director, as an advertising guide but has a lot of sage advice for business and life in general.

I put together a presentation with a few of the quotes that are worth sharing: