As 2016 comes to a close, I’d like to take a minute to look back at the accomplished year we’ve had. From the rise of new technologies and exciting advancements, to alternative product management methods, this year has truly been memorable. I compiled a list of my favorite articles published by the industry’s finest over the course of the year.
I hope you enjoy looking back at some of the most notable articles as we take the plunge into 2017.
Happy New Year!
The 11 Step Startup Launch Marketing Plan
Much of a successful launch is dependent upon your company’s marketing plan. No matter how essential or how flashy your new product is, if it hasn’t been marketed correctly it won’t succeed once it hits the shelves. This article provides 11 steps to creating and implementing a successful marketing plan, along with providing fascinating examples, to make sure that your product will have the chance to succeed.
6 Tips for a New Product Launch
Are you planning an upcoming product launch? Are you looking to ensure that your upcoming product launch is as efficient and effective as possible? Implementing these six uniquely helpful tips will definitely put you on the right path to an effective product launch your coworkers will be talking about by New Year’s.
11 Myths about IoT Engineering
There are countless misconceptions about IoT engineering, and I feel that it’s important to put these tales to rest. Join William Wong as he busts these myths and sets us straight about IoT engineering, and everything included the development process of an IoT product.
This is How the ‘Internet of Things’ is Changing the Business Model of the World’s Biggest Technology Companies
Matt Weigberger discusses the suspected effects IoT will have on some of the largest technological companies around. He states that they’re looking at a new and exciting opportunity, as the demand for IoT products rises, the demand for technologies to use these devices rises as well.
This article is a great resource to discover what the growing popularity of IoT products means for the market, especially if you are part of a tech company.
5 Lies Product Managers Tell Themselves
Set your team straight with Ian Geiger. Don’t allow your team members to narrow their views of the market, their customers or even their competitors.
Organize their perspective by identifying these five concepts and discussing why it’s important to remain focused on the bigger picture. Remind them to follow their intuition, for example, even if a survey is contradictory.
Four Work Habits You Need to Change At Each Stage of Your Career
Learning from others’ experiences is sometimes the most productive educational method. Danielle Merfeld shares her insights she gained from her various management roles throughout her career. She lists five work habits that should be implemented or removed, depending on which stage of your career you’re in.
Within product management teams each member is in their own unique stage in their career, so it’s important that every individual understands how to maximize their own potential.
How Product Managers Use Themes to Build Winning Products
Brian de Haaff provides some excellent insights as to how to make good products great. Based on his own experiences, he lists some key steps product managers can take in order to come up with great product ideas that focus on their product theme. With tips on brainstorming and teamwork, this article is a fantastic source of information.
Developing Your Product Dashboard and Reporting: Actionable Insight, Not a Magic 8-Ball
This article discusses the importance of measuring your product performance, and how to go about it in the most productive manner. Read about the most common reporting metrics, and what they mean in order to decide what to include within your product dashboard. Balance is key, and this article provides helpful insight as to how to successfully develop your product dashboard.
5 Amazing Things You Could Do With Customer Feedback
As product managers, our job is to identify what the customers want, and produce a product successfully from start to finish that fulfills those guidelines. Customer feedback is a very important tool which can be utilized by anyone from designers to managers in deciding what to include in a new product.
Wilson Peng delves into the topic of customer feedback in his interesting article, and discusses five things that feedback helps managers and developers alike accomplish.
Why Writers Should Manage Your Tech Projects
Read about why Adam Ghahramani thinks that writers make exceptional product managers. Whether or not you yourself are a writer, this article contains some great insight into the key characteristics and skills it takes to become a successful product manager.
Making Sense of Any Product by Abby Covert
Chris Massey’s article covers some important lessons taught by information architect Abby Covert. He lists three crucial points that all product managers should keep in mind during product design. I found this article very useful, as the lessons weren’t simply generic and repetitive, but contained original ideas with important messages.
How to Align UX with Product Management
There are so many steps to producing a successful product, and at times combining the various departments and making sure they are on the same page is challenging. Nick Kellingley discusses how to align UX and product management to create a seamless product development process.
Why Great Products Need Great Collaboration
When design and development work together the outcome is a more user friendly and successful product. This article lists all the perks to collaborating with design experts during the product development process. User experience is a key component to ensuring the product’s market success.
Garin Evans writes about some important issues that arise when there is a lack of collaboration among the different teams, and offers some helpful tips on how product managers can advocate for the success of their product.
How Product Management Can Lead to a CXO Position
The role of a product manager is all encompassing. Ranging from required business knowledge to developing market plans and strategic roadmaps, the product manager’s job is never quiet.
Due to the versatility of the position, Mary Shacklett suggests that product managers set themselves up for a road of promotions in their career. Because they are required to enter the job with a vast amount of knowledge in multiple fields, Shacklett states that product management is a great way to kick-start your career if you’re aiming to end up on the top.
New Feature: Who Changed My Roadmap? Find Out Now
Tired of events being changed in your calendar? Your color scheme changing on your desktop without your knowledge? Well, Maddy Kirsch is here to tell us about a new history feature that tracks changes made to bars and containers on your roadmap.
In her article, Kirsh discusses the various features that come with this new and exciting product. One of the most useful new features is that it allows your colleges to collaborate and make changes to your product roadmap, but now you’ll know who changed what so you can discuss the changes and improve your product.
3 Ways Product Managers Survive a Black Hole Backlog
Danny Archer hit such a realistic issue here that I had to share it. Backlogs, work you’ll “get to later”, quickly turns into a black hole you’re scared to start nipping at, kind of like going back to the gym after a few months off. Here’s a few tips on how to climb out of there.
What Huge Mistakes Are Companies Making in Product Management?
Take a look at this very interesting conversation between AJ Agrawal and Phil Tadros of Doejo about what mistakes companies make with their product managers. My favorite quote was “I think that too many product managers fail to solicit feedback from both their team and customers early enough in the development process.”
This is so true on so many different levels. There are also many more insights regarding product management that can be found in this conversation.
How to Choose the Right Product Management Leadership Styles
A product manager is ultimately a leader. You probably don’t have the best technical skills on your team, you may not be the ultimate salesperson, but you should be the best leader on the team. Study different leadership styles and you may find something that is the best fit for you.
Comparing the Product Manager and the Product Owner Role
I don’t have enough fingers to count the amount of times that people have confused the two roles. One of the toughest aspects of being a product manager is knowing your role as a manager and not the owner. Greg Cohen does an amazing job of distinguishing the two roles and will ultimately make your life easier.
Don’t Just Settle for being a “Good” Product Manager, Strive for “Greatness”
Reaching for the stars, or striving to become a great product manager takes years of hard work and dedication. Product expert Rich Mironov is a prime example of someone who took his years of experience and applied his knowledge to both become an excellent PM, and to design programs which help others achieve greatness.
What Mironov’s fascinating talk on how to become a great product manager.