112 Search Results for agile

Recently I was asked by a very smart CTO: “I understand the need for a great product designer, but if we have a strong designer, and that person is paired with a strong technology lead, do we really still need...

Earlier I expanded on the notion of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and I promised a series of articles that explores aspects of MVP Tests that often cause product teams confusion.  In this article, I’d like to discuss the relationship between...

Recently a friend of mine sent me a link to this short video from totally outside of the technology field.  The video is called “Why You Need to Fail” and it’s by Derek Sivers.  Even though the examples are from...

Readers of my book and articles know how much I value a strong project manager.  I’ve written earlier about the positive impact to velocity a great project manager can have (see https://svpg.com/ebay_secret_weapon/ and https://svpg.com/product-management-vs-project-management/.  And one of the reasons I...

I’m not the first person to come to this conclusion, but over the years, I’ve really come to dislike the entire concept of a “requirement.” I’ve learned that so many things that look like “requirements” really are just a perception,...

In my last article I discussed the top reasons for slow product, and here I wanted to highlight the top reasons for weak product.  I am defining weak product here as product that fails to meet its objectives and provide...

I work with quite a few product teams, and after a while you start to see patterns.  Many organizations are frustrated because they believe that it takes far too long to move from concept to delivery.  They often just blame...

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m all about true collaboration, where product leaders, designers and engineers work together to discover products that customers love.  Mostly I talk about the process and techniques involved in this, but today I...

In my last article I talked about the importance of knocking down walls, especially the wall between product management and engineering.  In this article, I want to describe a technique that helps achieve this, along with several other significant benefits....

As readers of these articles know, I am a big fan of high-fidelity prototyping and user testing on current or prospective customers.  These techniques form the basis of Product Discovery; it’s the key to discovering the minimum viable product –...

I can¹t tell you how many times product managers have shown me their sophisticated spreadsheets and algorithms for prioritizing their long laundry list of feature requests (weighting various factors like cost, complexity, risk, customer impact, projected sales impact, documentation, dependencies,...

Many of you probably saw that eBay recently had a lay-off, and given the condition of the economy they are not likely to be the only one doing so. What I wanted to talk about in this article was what...

I picked up this phrase “left of the line” from my friends at the e-commerce site kbb.com. At the highest level, creating software products involves figuring out what to build, and then building it. This line distinguishes those two fundamental...

In several earlier articles I have talked about aspects of prototypes. I’ve talked about using them as the basis for your product spec, and how to use them to test out your ideas on target users, and why I prefer...

In a recent article (The Best Product Management Model) I discussed the notion that there is no single best product management model, and that the most effective model for a given company depends on a wide range of factors. I...