The roles product people play
This post explores the product roles and titles of business analyst, product owner, and product manager and how they relate in both internal and external settings.
Discovery sessions help you focus on the problem, not the solution
If you’ve been reading InsideProduct for a while, you’ve probably picked up by now that I focus on solving the right problem and ignoring everything else. I’ve found that one, or a small series of discovery sessions are an excellent way to identify what that problem is and also understand the constraints you have on …
What is an Impact Map?
If you build your product roadmap based on outcomes, you have an idea of which problems you’re planning to tackle now, next, and later but you probably don’t have clarity on exactly how you’re going to solve those problems. And that is perfectly ok. You need to be able to identify different options for solving …
Impact Mapping
What Is Impact Mapping? Impact mapping combines mind mapping and strategic planning to help a team explore what behaviors they should try to influence in order to reach a particular objective. Teams use impact maps to discuss assumptions, align with organizational objectives, and develop greater focus in their projects by delivering only the things that …
Product Management Job Description
One of the interesting (challenging?) aspects of product management is how every organization seems to have its own interpretation of what a product manager actually should do. It gets even more jumbled in those organizations that are trying to adopt product management for internal products and in their IT organizations. I don’t think you’re ever …
An Overview of Sense And Respond
A company I’m working with right now has a periodic product management book club meeting. For the last meeting, we discussed Sense & Respond, How Successful Organizations Listen to Customers and Create New Products Continuously by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden. I suggested Sense & Respond because it provides a great explanation of what organizations …
From project management to product management
When organizations go through some form of transformation, they inevitably end up with people who they aren’t sure how they fit in the organizational structure. In other words… Move out or move over Sometimes, especially when organizations get transformation help from accounting firms turned consultancies, they get rid of just about everyone in a particular …
How To Be Your Bosses “Get Back” Coach
I’ve heard it said that the main purpose of managing up is to make your boss’s life easier. Sometimes, making their life easier means making your own life more difficult, at least temporarily. One of those times is when you need to say “no” to your boss. You’re probably thinking “I can see where saying …
It's both the stuff and the stories.
This newsletter is a little late this week because I’m with friends in Napa, celebrating my wife’s birthday. (It’s a significant one). As you might expect, we’re visiting wineries while we’re out here, and we’re trying to visit small, family run wineries. The experience is unique; the wine is pretty damn good, and stories of …
Analysis Techniques for Product Owners
Analysis Techniques for Product Owners is a video training course explains how product owners can use business analysis techniques to be more effective.
Working with designers on internal products
I suspect if you asked a collection of people who work in IT, you’d get just as many people who say that designers aren’t necessary as you do people who say they are. I’d suggest the former group is wrong. I’ve always had the impression that internal products can gain a great deal from the …
Business Analysts Can Be Product People
Product management roles offer a viable career path for business analysts, especially those who work on custom software development efforts. Here are the stories of four people who made the shift.
Product management is for more than just tech companies
When you read an article on software product management, do you immediately think “that’s a great idea, I’m going to try it out right away!” Or do you think “that’s great for that type of product/company, but it will never work where I’m at?” If you frequently have the latter reaction, chances are you’re reading …
Does product theater indicate a failed digital transformation?
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a couple of interesting posts from some of my connections on LinkedIn. A large grocery store chain had suddenly laid off over 100 people in their communications and IT staff. While those types of layoffs are not unusual, some details in this story made me take a second …
How to use examples to understand your product
I’ve talked before about how helpful creating examples can be to build a shared understanding of how your product should behave – example mapping. This week I had another reminder about how helpful examples can be. This time it was getting things back on track when I didn’t put examples together earlier. The team I’m …