In my last article I talked about the importance of the one on one coaching sessions between a manager and her product manager. That technique is about providing an ongoing mechanism for helping the product manager to reach his or...
I’d be surprised if you haven’t at least heard about the coaching technique known as the “one on one” (aka “1:1”). And you’ve probably experienced some version yourself. But judging from my discussions with literally thousands of product managers and...
Last year, my partner Marty Cagan wrote a blog post called My Favorite PM Interview Question which asks a candidate whether or not they believe the product manager is the CEO of the product. This question gives an interviewer great insight...
UPDATE 2: Another name for this article could be “Product Teams vs Delivery Teams”. That’s because since this article was published, I wrote articles describing the difference between product teams vs feature teams, and product teams vs project teams. And...
Nearly a year ago, one of my all-time favorite Agile coaches, Henrik Kniberg, published an article that I believe does an excellent job at explaining how engineering teams can leverage the concept of an MVP and ensure they are getting the core value out...
If you’ve had a chance to read the new edition of INSPIRED, you hopefully noticed that in this version I decided to focus quite heavily on the principles underlying modern tech product management: I want to be clear as to...
One of the most enduring myths in the product world is that great products result from listening to your customers (or prospective customers). But just as Jeff Bezos said in his latest Shareholder Letter, “No customer ever asked Amazon to...
I’ve been working with several companies that are experiencing rapid growth, and there’s a role in these growth-stage product organizations that I find especially effective. The role is titled “Group Product Manager,” usually referred to as “GPM.” The role has...
In my last article on Discovery Sprints I mentioned the concept of Discovery Coaches and several people asked me about that, so I thought I’d describe more about what this role is and when it’s helpful. For many years, as...
To continue on the series on team autonomy (see autonomy vs. leverage, autonomy vs. mission and autonomy vs. ownership), I wanted to add one more important dimension to this discussion which concerns the practical implications of working on large, multi-team initiatives....
In my last article I discussed the trade-offs between the sometimes conflicting goals of team autonomy versus leverage. Quite a few of you wrote to me and said this was a hot topic at your company, and several asked about the...
There are of course many ways to come up with significant new product ideas. Historically, the two main approaches have been: 1) to try to assess the market opportunities and pick potentially lucrative areas where significant pain exists; and 2)...
I should have written this article many years ago. Starting around 2004 and 2005 I began seeing an increasing number of teams moving to Agile, and of course the first thing they needed was training and often some coaching. However,...
One question that’s come up several times recently is the difference between an Opportunity Assessment, and a Business Model Canvas (or its popular derivative Lean Canvas). While it is true you could try to use each to serve the purpose...
People approach creating products from many different perspectives. Some seek out customer pain and dedicate themselves to solving their problems. Others follow the technology and strive to deliver solutions that are just now possible. Some like to follow competitors and...
