You know the drill… a key customer wants you and their Account Manager to show up and present your latest roadmap, so they can see when they’ll be receiving their long-awaited products or enhancement requests.  Of course, you did that nine months ago, promising said enhancement requests would be delivered… um… last month.  Ahem.  “Yes, well, ...

With an economy that’s shifting toward expansion, many of us will have opportunities to propose new business cases in the coming months.  If you’re working on one now, or will be soon, be sure to avoid these common mistakes that can cause your business case to fail: 1. Forgetting the customer’s problem and current solution –  When ...

A colleague recently voiced frustration that their divisional strategy is far from clear, yet they are accountable for following it and delivering results against it.  Does this problem sound familiar?  Here are a few good ways to cope: 1. Look for “breadcrumb trails” – Find a presentation from the last divisional or company meeting, or a recent email ...

A regularly scheduled product retrospective is an important part of the product manager’s job. As we close out the calendar year, it’s a good time to complete this work. What’s the best way to to it?  Some take a “rear-view-only” pragmatic approach: report on release delivery, revenue and units sold. Here are our best tips for a more ...

The November Pivot Point Newsletter survey asked you how you get focused on the product strategy and the overall company strategy. Most of the Product Managers who responded to the survey say they start by looking at information from the market. This approach was chosen by 71% of respondents. Says one PM: “One of my favorite ways ...

Thanks to Jeff Lash for the opportunity to answer this question on his “Ask A Good Product Manager” blog.  You can see the question and the reply here.