Found this really interesting video on how smart executives in established companies do not see the winds of change and see their companies lose their market leadership. It is one hour long, but one every product manager should watch. Even when the product is doing well, don't rest on your laurels or get complacent - always keep looking out for the winds of change.
It had been a while since I had traveled on United Airlines. I am a frequent flyer on American, primarily because of the good connections they offered from Boston to Japan (plus once I was a Gold member, I had to keep flying them just to keep my status). So here I was flying back from the Community 2.0 conference from Vegas on Ted via Washington. I was very happy when the flight attendants reminded us about Channel 9 - the channel on IFE where we could listen to the communication between ATC and the pilots. I was suddenly like a kid in the candy store, putting my iPod away and putting my headsets on and tuning onto channel 9. It made my day. The 3+ hour flight to Washington and then the short hop from Washington back to Boston was so much more enjoyable (forget the crammed up seats or the food they serve - I really did not care).
It felt so good to know what was going on - requests for higher altitudes because of light chop, transfers from one ATC tower to another as we headed east, clearance to land and take offs, turns to make etc.
I really wonder why other airlines have not followed suit (hey, product managers are you listening?) and made this available on all flights for flyers like me. United has been doing this at least for the last 15 years that I know of. Interestingly, on the plane I was reading the book Citizen Marketers by Ben McConnell and he mentioned that Microsoft named one of their online communities Channel 9 after the very channel on United flights. Cool !!
I am already looking forward to my next flight - I may consider United just for this perk if I can, even though rest of their service has a lot to be desired. I don't care about DirectTV, give me Channel 9 and I am a happy camper (oh, but keep those flights on time though :-))
As a product manager, you are the product's CEO. You have the responsibility and accountability for everything related to the product. In your role, you have to work with and depend on multiple internal or external groups (none of whom report to you). Hence you essentially are the team's cheerleader - you have to make sure your team's morale is high and that their contributions are recognized and appreciated.
In my decade long experience working with development teams, here are some things that I have done that keeps things moving in the right direction
- Encourage all team members to come up with ideas to improve the product
- Invite your team members to join you at each customer touchpoint - this could be a conference call to discuss a product issue that the customer is faced with, a conference call to interview the customer or when you are planning to visit a customer for understanding their pain points. More your team members are in tune with your customers, easier it is for the entire team to come up with an effective solution to solve the customer's problem. You will no longer have arguments about what is important, what will appeal to the customer etc. However, it is important that you as the product manager own the customer engagement. Involving your team does not absolve you of this duty - you cannot delegate this to anyone else.
- Ask your team members to review customer communications, customer surveys etc. before you send it out. Your team starts to feel that their opinion matters - "pride of product ownership" is what you want to cultivate in your team.
- Have a weekly one hour team meeting where the team gets to discuss the important aspects of your product - major issues, progress made, any slips in schedule etc. This puts everyone on the team on the same page and you will avoid any last minute surprises.
- Keep your team abreast of conferences you may come across that may be helpful for your team - maybe a conference for developers on the latest technology, a conference for product testers on latest best practices of test automation or your marketing team on search engine marketing. It is important that your team keeps abreast of new industry trends so that your product keeps pace with new trends or industry best practices.
- Take your team out for lunch or dinner from time to time - not just at the end. It is important you do this during the product development cycle and not wait for the product to ship - take them out when the alpha milestone is met, after Beta is launched, after the product is shipped etc.
- Share the goodies (T-shirts, coffee mugs, laptop bags etc.) that you pick up during customer visits, conferences etc. with your team. Trust me, these go a long way especially with developers who do not get as many chances as you do to get out of the offices.
- Forward good and bad things customers tell you about your product to your team. When you reply to a customer who may have send you great feedback about a feature in your product, copy the developer who worked on the feature in the reply. In the reply, do mention to the customer that you are copying the developer whose hard effort made the feature a reality. You want to share the successes with your entire team. In a separate email, forward the email to the entire team and again recognize the developer/tester/whoever made this a reality.
Again, none of this absolves you of your important role as a product manager - owning the customer engagement process.
Found this very interesting blog on what makes a good product manager. Very interesting read. Enjoy!!
http://www.goodproductmanager.com/
I attended my first Web Innovator's group meeting held at the Royal Sonesta hotel in Cambridge on Wednesday. It was a packed audience of about 200-300 people ranging from startup companies seeking funding to networkers to VC's looking for the next best thing. The meeting is organized by David Beisel of Masthead Venture Partners.
There were three presentations (six minutes each with only two questions per presenter) by
- Virtual Ubiquity which claims to make the real web based word processor. The demo by Rick Treitman was very impressive, but it will be interesting to see if the world needs another word processor in an already crowded marketplace. Their claim for product differentiation is the great text fidelity, ease of use (and what I saw did make this very clear) and ability to collaborate with anyone since all you need is an Internet Browser. The application is built upon Adobe's Flex 2.0. When I talked to Rick later, he said that their objective to give it away for free, build a strong customer base. If they do succeed, in my opinion, Adobe will probably get to buy what looked like a really cool word processor and then compete against the powers of Microsoft and Google.
- MyDesignIn showed an online application that allows users remodel their rooms. Seemed very easy to use. I know the Founder Ramsay Hoguet since he used to work at SolidWorks. Once you sketch the 2d layout of your room with some very easy to use sketching tools, you could drag and drop any image that you find for items such as appliances, faucets, kitchen sinks etc. into the 2d layout and a 2d block of the inserted image of right dimensions would be automatically inserted into the layout sketch. This would allow you to move things around and ensure that the remodeling project fits your exact needs and desires. This is again a startup at this time looking for funding. This application has a lot of promise and if the plan is well executed, this could represent the next generation of remodeling design tools used in the mainstream.
- Cardvio showed a web application (another one built on Flex 2.0) that allows you to select existing greeting cards for various occasions or to design your own card, insert your own pictures and then have it mailed (yes, postal mail) to the right person in three easy steps. This was the only company that had a business model among the three. They mentioned that they are also hooking up with charitable organizations. It is definitely worth a look because it saves you the hassle of having to go get a card, write your words, sign it and then remember to mail it after affixing the postage stamps. I would use them this Holiday season. I have never felt that the eCards have the same personal touch as a mailing a card the old way. So I think Cardvio is going to fill a very good need in the marketplace.
