3 posts tagged “product management”
As a marketer, you are often asked to make presentations to many executives on topics ranging from product strategy, state of the business, new pricing models etc. When I have been asked to make such presentations especially to a large number of people, what I have found very effective is what I call "Meetings before the meeting". This is a great concept that my present boss has taught me over the years.
The concept is very simple - before the "big meeting", you have many "small meetings" one-on-one with the stakeholders that will be at the "big meeting" to get their point of view and concerns on the topic you are to present. You ask them specifically what they expect to get out of the upcoming meeting - "is there anything you specifically want me to address in my presentation?" If you have created your slides, run it by them and see if they agree with you or raise some concerns or offer a different perspective that you had not considered.
The advantage of doing this is that you are building consensus among them before the actual meeting, instead of risking yourself getting ambushed in front of an important audience. The fact that you reached out before the meeting to hear each individual's concerns/perspectives/ideas goes a long way in making them believe that you value their input (Yes, they are executives and sometimes even their points of view are not heard) and also helps you build relationships.
If you do this right, the actual meeting where you present should represent a nodding of heads agreeing with your presentation - there should be no surprises. Even if you do get an odd ball question from someone who you had met with, it is likely going to be a soft landing for you, than being thrown a complete curve ball.
Credibility is important especially in front of an executive audience and if someone throws you an unexpected curve ball that takes you completely by surprise, everything else you have researched on would probably be called into question. The trick is to minimize the chances of such curve balls.
Meetings before the meeting is the way to go !!
I have been wanting to write this post since I saw the video of the keynote address by Steve Jobs at MacWorld. But being busy at work, busy watching the Pats win this weekend and then flying to San Francisco for training at Cooper kept me from getting this done.
I cannot wait to lay my hands on an iPhone to make sure what we all saw is not just hype. What I saw is so good that I don't think I have ever said Wow! repeatedly while watching the demo of any product in the recent past. But being a recent Apple convert (I now own a iMac and an iPod Mini), I don't think I am going to be disappointed when I do get to see and play with the iPhone.
Now putting on my product management hat, here is what impressed me the most about Steve's keynote.
1) It was all about problems for the first 10 minutes - by then he probably had everyone nodding their heads about the problems with current phones. He won the crowd.
2) Then it was all about the innovative, revolutionary solution that they came up with to solve the problem on a device that few thought could be made better.
3) It was never about technology. Other than a brief mention about the user of an accelerometer, I did not hear anything that the technology. It was all about problems and solutions. Problems that everyone could relate to and agree are painpoints and then talk about the most elegant, innovative solution to solve those problems.
His presentation was so impressive that it is a lesson in my opinion for all product management professionals. It is all about problems, solutions and benefits for the customer. It is not about features and technology. Because customers don't care about the technology - Steve gets its right again.
I cannot still believe what I saw and it almost sounds like a dream. Come June, I know where I am going to end up to look at this new toy. I cannot wait.
When looking to hire a person, you are likely to have to make tradeoffs, since it is very unlikely that you are going to find the ideal candidate that meets all your requirements. I work in the Mechanical CAD industry, where finding a candidate that meets all of our requirements is remote. So when I have had to make hiring decisions as a manager in the Product Definition group or when asked to interview candidates for Product Management position, I have had to make tradeoffs.
