Jeff “SKI” Kinsey, Entrepreneur and Author, spoke at the weekly Global Product Management Talk on Twitter Monday, December 19, 2011 using the hashtag #prodmgmttalk  

A1 Product, price, promotion, placement

Brianna @brainmates 

they're teaching the 7P's to MBAs

Jeff @consultski  

Jeff would ask the professors, how many P’s are enough? Is it 7, 8, 27?

Brianna @brainmates 

I guess the 4 or 7 for the foundation. I found it more appropriate to use the 4 C’s, a more customer centric approach, especially in services marketing.

Consumer wants and needs (vs. Products)

Cost to satisfy (vs. Price)

Convenience to buy (vs. Place)

Communication (vs. Promotion)

Jeff @consultski 

To me, marketing is all about the customer, so no need to draw a distinction with the 3 or 4 C’s.  I would ask, Is Geoffrey's Moore book 'Crossing the Chasm' on the MBA reading list?

Brianna @brainmates 

No, its not.

Jeff @consultski 

G.Moore says "market" doesn't make the buying decision - focus on individuals & their motivation to buy.  He was talking about tech startups, but its relevant regardless of the product or channel, B2B or B2C.  He talks about referencability. G. Moore says forget about target customers or markets, focus on individuals and try to understand them. That is the key.  Is the product something that one customer could reference to another?

Cindy @cindyfsolomon 

#prodmgmt need to stay attuned to referencibility – listening to customer, audience, being connected to the market.  Please speak more about this.

Jeff @consultski 

G Moore wrote book in 80’s, still relevant. In the first edition (worked with Regis McKenna and Apple) if you invented something like a sonar device that could be used both in medical and a deep sea salvage implementation, must be careful because any time spent shifting sales into different markets, hurts forward progress.  If you developed a medical device that could be used in another market, you might try to call on customers in 2 different markets – you must focus on one market/channel at a time. 

“Avoid the left turn”

The more narrow the focus, the better the results. Look past what might be a slam dunk into another market because that customer cannot reference the other market.

I work mainly with startups – must not waste resources or lose focus. 

G Moore said “forget about target markets” it’s an individual that makes the buying decision. You need to understand that person and their motivation.

Brianna @brainmates 

Does that limit a biz ability to grow and expand?

Jeff @consultski 

No, not at all.  Many people wrote off Apple many years ago, but now look at Apple – they own the smart phone market (even if Androids are selling more) Apple perfected the environment. Steve Jobs borrowed many ideas from Sony to control the entire process from start to finish, then expanded to iPod. Used the most unlikely tool -  iTunes became link from MacOS to the iTunes device, then could port to PC.  Sitting on $80bil. Cash.  Once you have some victories and success, you can look for more.  Must establish a beach head and narrow the focus - book "The Long Tail" until you own something worthwhile – perhaps its counter-intuitive.

Think of the mission of the company and how the product defines you in early days.

Take Twitter – how many different Twitter clients and how many markets have grown up around Twitter?  Take @stocktwits piggybacked on Twitter, then created their own proprietary protocol.  Twitter is branching out – but first they solidified the base.  Like Facebook – college was their exclusive domain before expanding.

Brianna's class found 4P application easier to understand in B2C context. In B2C about customers who care more

about networking and relationships.

Jeff @consultski  

I wonder if that’s the reason for your interest in the 4 C’s.  I see them interchangeably – depending on one’s background & experiences whether B2B or B2C.  

Jeff @consultski  

The “new 4 P’s” is a joke – there’s nothing new. If you understand the 4P’s you can expand into as many as you want.

One of my heroes is  Dr. Eli Goldrat, Israeli Physicist: wrote the best selling business book of all time, The Goal.  He recently passed away. Here’s where we might get into the Purple Curve Effect. The Goal is a management-oriented novel by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt 

http://t.co/IPmlua3H

In the Goal, he basically said every system is like a link chain and every system has one weakest link or one link silo. 

http://t.co/IuPcx6I3  When you look at the 4Ps from my perspective, it’s a matter of figuring out which of those 4Ps hold the breakthrough, the thruput that the business needs to generate.

As I’ve said many, many times, I never, ever want to be the low cost provider. Very difficult to compete in a commodities market. To me, that’s where understanding the mix and the 4P’s really pays dividends.

If you understand that for every market, if you can truly segment it and recognize that there’s a different price that they’re willing to pay for your product. 

You may not know J Walker who created Priceline.com

Priceline started out as a science experiment – what price would people be willing to pay for an airline ticket?  He wanted to look at the elasticity of demand – gets into the Long Tail.  He found out that somebody would buy an airlpane ticket at almost every price point and if you could figure out a way to segment the market so that one market’s not offended by the price another one is paying –then you’ve created a gold mine which the airlines did for a number of years.  Everyone on the plane has paid a different price for their seat and very few people are upset about it.  That to me is the power of the 4 Ps. 

When you understand that the way you promote the product is different to somebody who’s getting married and maybe someone who’s going to a wedding, or somebody who says we’ll go when we get a good price.

It goes back to understanding the consumer and figuring out how to segment the market.

Everyone in manufacturing wanted the margins that Apple was getting back at the beginning of the Mac.

John Scully said if the Mac is going to change the world, we need $500/ machine to market it for $2495.  They made a killing –

When you eat, sleep & drink those 4P's, you know how to gauge price – at the very least.

That conversation comes up with everybody every time a new product’s introduced. The question of “what are we going to sell it for?” In my opinion, your answer has to be absolutely every price somebody’s willing to pay for it. I’ve had this argument so many times with startup CEOs. They want to price their product at “X”, it doesn’t matter what X is. I did a 90 day project a few months ago. When I came in, they had one offering and when I left 90 days later, (I’m a fan of organizing everything into a 90 day project) they had 9 offerings with some as many as 3 price components.  We more than quadrupled the business in 90 days because we understood what the product was and the price points they were willing to pay for it.

I’ve seen some white papers from Intel – they’ve done things on a 90 day basis – it has nothing to do with quarterly numbers.  I’m such an anti-fan of publicly traded companies having to hit those quarterly numbers. I just want to make it clear, Intel didn’t come up in my opinion with the 90 day timeline for various projects to meet quarterly numbers – its just when you assemble a team – look at the U2 spyplane – its probably about 90 days of concerted effort to create that plane and within 5 or 6 months it was flying over Russia – it was Kelly Johnson’s Skunkworks back in the day.

Jeff @consultski

says 80% of #prodmgmt time should be spent on marketing mix.   That’s unrealistic, but you have to have a goal – if you spend 20%, then I don’t think its getting enough focus.  We’re all familiar with the 80/20 Rule – to jump over to sales for a minute - 80% of company's sales made by 20% of sales force.  20% of the sales people that are the best of the best.

So if you want to manage your product, if you’ve got a product that you’re excited about – how are you going to make sure it gets accepted?  It kind of leads into Q6 with social media so popular today where you have to understand the 4P’s – what is that product that you’re working on And how can you promote it where? Where are you going to place it? And the more focus you spend on that, I think the easier the rest of your job becomes.

Jeff @consultski  

Einstein said it best: complex problems require simple solutions.  I’m always about bringing it back to “What’s the weakest link?”  I’m going to suggest that if you spent 80% of your effort on, asking the right questions – asking questions relative to the 4Ps – the answers you’ll get will get the right product into the right hands at exactly the right moment in time.

Cindy @cindyfsolomon 

Brianna’s getting an excellent education in this discussion!

Brianna @brainmates 

I am – better than my marketing class for my MBA!

Jeff @consultski 

Marketing was one of the few B’s I got in college – I don’t think it went deep enough.  When we talk about the 4 P’s I love analogies and metaphors.  Dr. Goldratt told this great story about duck hunting – he said, if selling is the same as shooting sitting ducks while they eat corn by the side of the lake, then advertising is spreading the corn for the ducks to see and come ashore to eat – so then marketing is figuring out that ducks eat corn in the first place.

Although he missed emphasizing something that I stress, although it’s the place or the placement – it’s the actual lake – he didn’t talk about the lake.  Anyone who’s worked with me on a marketing project understands that’s 80% of my focus because the ducks are already visiting lakes – they’re already eating somewhere – you need to get your product in front of your ducks. The best way to do that is to find out where they’re already going and that’s why I think social media is so powerful.

Brianna @brainmates 

That’s kind of like having your finger on the pulse. If you follow the 4P model strictly I think you could miss the cultural aspects – you need to stay abreast of whats happening in the world around you.

Jeff @consultski 

Exactly, there’s so many disciplines that are so focused on the trees they can’t see the forest or vice versa. That’s why I love the story telling.  Goldratt’s book, The Goal, is written as a business novel and what’s so funny about this here’s this best selling book since 1984 and people say – he turns around a manufacturing company in 90 days – imagine that. People say, well that’s great when you write a story, you can make that happen – problem is based on a real incident. All the other books he wrote, the sequel, Its Not Luck, Necessary but not sufficient – all these biz novels – all the cases inside the book are real companies that he turned around – and a lot of people miss that. 

Brianna @brainmates 

Besides Apple, are there any other companies that are good at being ahead of trends or actually creating them?

Jeff @consultski 

Steve Jobs said you can’t go interview customers and ask them what they want because you’d never build a Macintosh because they don't know what's possible.  Guy Kawasaki was the evangelist at Apple when the Mac rolled out – he said "everything's impossible right up until the time that the entreprenr makes it happen. To me, that’s an art and that’s different from the 4Ps in my mind.  There are people that just get it.  Before he was publicly disgraced, Jesse James who was a custom bike builder, he just knew what cool was. He had a television show called, Monster Garage – amazing project. That’s an inate ability that I don’t think you can teach. Spotting trends, in my mind, is an artist – you can’t teach it to someone.

But the 4Ps can tell you that when you understand something – take Intel:

"Intel understood the consumer to brand "Intel inside" That’s brilliant marketing from someone who understood the consumer when there where so many choices out there for what’s a good computer to buy – Intel took the guesswork out of it. I don’t know how it came about, but in my opinion it came from somebody studying the 4Ps and applying them to the situation.

We all like to talk about Ries & Trout when we talk about marketing.  One of them worked with PapaJohn pizza – the pizza field was already drowning with competition.  They came up with a simple product management approach  "better ingredients = better pizza" Then they had to get out and sell it, and they did.

We can have endless supply of smart product marketers, but people that are inventing the future are few and far between.  There was a mindset inside Intel – their focus was on "safety first" I like to quote – first do no harm.  They would look at projects and determine if this is going to be a safe thing to do – safe for the people. The way they were taught to begin to problem solve around was to ask, What’s safe?  What’s it take to build a safe lab? Started problem solving by what's involved to build safely... Intel's example of focusing on 'safety first' highlights the importance of brand and business values that guide/set parameters 

Core values, culture is huge – as Brianna mentioned earlier. Its something that when I wrote "Purple Curve Effect" big debate on including Martha Stewart's brand because she had just gotten caught up in her legal issues but hadn’t yet gone off to prison.  I argued that we had to leave the example in the book because you cannot argue with somebody who builds a billion dollar company as fast as Martha Stewart does – which as I recall was 5 years.

Cindy @cindyfsolomon 

Questioned the amount of time – hadn’t she been working a long time on that brand?

Jeff @consultski 

She said “you always go with the A team” Some startups don’t get it – don’t hire someone who’s “good enough”  A great programmer or UX person will outperform the average person 20 times over – we’ve seen it in all different industries. 

When you  make a hiring decision – another great book, The Dream Manager, another business model set in the janitorial industry – the cleaning services business where they pay almost minimal wage. They say, This model of respecting the individual works even down at minimum wage – so how much more is it going to work at an Apple, an Intel, a Twitter – the right person – that’s part of my email slogan “the right person first”.  If you don’t make that step, the rest of them will be trouble…but I digress

Cindy @cindyfsolomon 

The Dream Manager written as biz model set in janeteurial industry http://t.co/8lGevPkf  "Hire the right person first" 

Jeff @consultski

starts every morning & goes for a cup of coffee with a book & iPhone like Bruce Willis in Armegedon- he thinks things up and he’s willing to outwork every1 in the room 

The reason people misunderstand marketing because 80% of the time marketing is mentioned on the internet, they really means advertising and that’s a disservice.  Social Media marketing is not advertising – it’s the best tool, the most affordable tool in the world today to figure out what your ducks like to eat – so if you’re not using social media to figure out what your mix should be, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

Brianna @brainmates 

Says Key Resources in MBA school – didn’t focus that much on social media & always the age old debate on ROI. 

Jeff @consultski 

Google Adwords was greatest tool for metrics, for measuring the mix – try a variety of  testing keywords - can be done today w/Social Media

Brianna @brainmates 

4C's consumer, cost, communications, & convenience. I think it helps when you’re dealing with Internet and social media & things like that because obviously with websites they’re free – so price becomes redundant and you’re looking at more the opportunity costs for consumers or for your audience to be looking & observing the information on your page rather than somebody else’s or getting that information in a different way.

Jeff @consultski 

When we who are fans of Goldrath and Constraints Management hear the word “cost” we have a meltdown because the "cost world mentality" has destroyed as many businesses as any other single event. 

Zig Zigler, one of the world’s greatest motivational speakers, said "Is it cost you're worried about or is it price? Because they’re 2 entirely different concepts – we could spend hours on that debate but cost is very, very misleading.

I believe in return on investment; One of my heroes talks about “you should get at least a minimum of 4 times return on investment” and so you have to measure it.

Jeff @consultski 

One of the things I’ve had come up, and it surprises you when you hear it outloud – I’ve had CEOs of startups, guys that are really intelligent & have made a lot of money in other arenas – they’ll acquire a 10K name mailing list & want to send the same one email out to all 10,000 names immediately and you could do nothing worse for your business than that one thing – because you now know what you could have learned in 100 emails and you just blew your whole list. 

You know you say, geez, I’ve got this great product, I’ve figured the marketing out – I’ve figured out the mix and now we’re going to blast it out to 10,000 people and we’ll have 2,000 orders before the end of the day. Yeah – I’ve never seen it happen.

I teach them – if you’ve got 10,000 names, lets send out something to 100 and get a reaction, then send out something different to the next 100. It takes time to test & differentiate. Within 90 days, we’ll get to the finish line but lets don’t think we’re going to do it within 2 days of the product launch.

There are so many home runs out there, I do not believe in the zero sum game mentality that says for somebody to win, somebody’s got to lose.  I think we’ve proven that’s not true.

Paul Zane Pilzer economist "Unlimited Wealth" can be win/win.  somebody does not have to lose for someone else to win http://t.co/UiN3SWrK Unlimited Wealth: The Theory and Practice of Economic Alchemy 

What happens if there’s an island, and everyone’s fishing – then someone invents the fishing net.  Now the guy with the fishing net can produce more fish than everyone on the island could before – he’s created wealth and he’s entitled to it – but not everyone else has to lose.

Jeff @consultski 

It is very important to revisit the 4 Ps even for mature products. One of my favorite examples is here in Northeast Ohio: the Canton Company, Timkin, used to be Rollerbearing but have gotten into steal and other things. They had a bearing & revisited the tolerances to take an existing product to make it work on the Shuttle. Here’s a product that you might have thought was passed its prime, had been written off – but they were able to recoup and generate profits.

We do this in software development – when you come out with Version 2 - you might rename Version 1 as the “light Version” since the cost is already written 0ff – you can sell it for maybe a 10^th of its original price and its pure profit.

I constantly think the 4Ps, as I wrote in my book, The Purple Effect, I’m studying to be the absolute best marketer in world - 8 yrs later, I know absolutely nothing about marketing, however, I think I know more than most people who claim to be marketers. Because the more I study it, the more I find out how little I knew yesterday.

That’s the great thing about teaching – I taught computer science for 10 years – you want to explore a subject – you need to teach it. That’s when it really becomes alive and you can explore its depths.

Cindy @cindyfsolomon 

You spoke to the reason why I love doing this – so I can learn!

Jeff @consultski

 We’re all motivated by enlightened self interest.

Cindy @cindyfsolomon 

One of the things I’m excited about Twitter Chats for refreshing content that exists within companies and using social media to refresh the relevancy of that content that they spent investment on creating.

Jeff @consultski 

Absolutely – I used to sell advertising for newspapers.  Newspapers throw away all this research because so little of the research for the story goes into the newspaper, or the magazine or online.  Maybe it was Jay Walker that was talking about trying to figure out how to monetize because there are a lot of people that would pay money to have the research that ends up on the cutting floor.

Cindy @cindyfsolomon 

Years ago I started a newsletter for Boardroom Reports, before the internet they were doing sound bytes for executives. We spent months on research – but they only wanted 3 lines about each subject.  It hurt my ego that all my precious work was NOT included in print…

Jeff @consultski 

That’s the great thing about the Long Tail in what Chris Andersen talks about and what Priceline does – there is a price point that somebody would pay for that material they were throwing away if somebody could figure out how to get it to market.

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Prabhakar Gopalan, Strategy Consultant, spoke at the weekly Global Product Management Talk on Twitter Monday, December 12, 2011. Each week, The Global Product Management Talk features an expert guest speaker who asks questions of the participants on Twitter. The speaker and co-hosts broadcast their comments during the event. Tweeters use the hashtag #prodmgmttalk and follow @prodmgmttalk

NickCoster here tweeting as @brainmates from cold Sydney, Australia to co-host Global Product Management Talk to discuss Product Strategy.

CindyFSolomon your co-host checking in from foggy San Francisco Bay delighted to welcome speaker @PGopalan, from Austin, Texas and @NickCoster as co-host today!

johnpeltier Hello all from Atlanta - Product manager, marketer, strategist here catching a few tweets in between bites!

rcauvin Hello from Austin, I'm a product strategist & manager. I'll be here for a few minutes before a meeting

hanneshelander Ni hao from Shanghai. Product Director at StarryMedia, developing marketing tools for Chinese social media.

cindyfsolomon In Startups, the CEO/founder owns product strategy and is also the #prodmgmt and everything else
rcauvin A1 The *team* owns the product & product strategy. No single individual does.
brainmates A1) Once it has been defined everyone should be able to 'Own' it. But who defines it?
rcauvin A1 A product manager informs product decisions w/ market knowledge & strategic insights. pgopalan not a one person effort, @rcauvinis right: every1 should own & be able to define. Easier in startup/social org
rcauvin @cindyfsolomon My experience! Unilateral product decisions don't stick.
pgopalan "most of us work in large orgs - looking at strategy team w/biz units have indiv biz unit strategy teams - overused" "Remove bottlenecks to let people experiment to get to solutions..."
rcauvin A1: On a related note, see my latest blog entry, "Who Owns the Product?" http://t.co/gMHexle4
brainmates One of the challenges is that strategy is being developed by "strategy people" independently to the "doing people" @PGopalan johnpeltier A1) Current org - PM team along with CEO/ownership.
rcauvin A1: Now I do believe the #prodmgmt role brings skills to the table ideally suited for helping to define strategy.
hanneshelander A1) Important to distinguish ownership from involvement. My experience says collective ownership is not easy.
pgopalan "Large orgs have to disagregate themselves to think like smll orgs - more effective" #Prdmgmt have 360 view
rcauvin @hanneshelander Agree collective ownership isn't easy. But it's often the only way to run a truly effective product effort.
PGopalan "lrg orgs silo out strategy into long term: tactics short term/strategy long term...NO! Must do right in short term"
brainmates #prodmgmt is best placed to influence the direction of Product strategy - @PGopalan
PGopalan "What are your goalposts? Remove them! Let customer determine what the success metric is!" "all just accounting gimmicks - must always work to customer satisfaction."

rcauvin I'm interested in what @pgopalon has to say about positioning as a battle for the mind & as the root of strategy. A2: In my opinion, positioning of the product drives all product decisions & lies at the root of strategy. I know @pgopalon has some concerns about the military analogies. But I think Ries & Trout were dead on when they characterized marketing as a battle for the mind.
hanneshelander A2) I write them occasionally. The writing process helps me clarify strategy issues, but mostly the document is useless.
PGopalan Porter's 5 forces are dated - MBA schools shld stop teaching irrelevant to today's environment
brainmates @PGopalan: "Curent Strat Docs use 3 main tools. Porters 5 forces, SWOT, and Roadmaps. These ore outdated and irrelevant" "SWOT has a dangerous confirmation bias"
saeedwkhan A2 I find writing a strat doc helps to clarify thinking & brings focus. It's not abt what U do but why you're doing it
PGopalan: "Does Facebook consider Porters 5 forces when they design product strategy? Unlikely"
saeedwkhan @pgopalan Yeah but you can't disprove by citing one example. :-) What do you propose as alternative to Porter's 5F?

saeedwkhan A5 For some products 3 years is not possible, for others 3 years is the bare minimum. Depends on market, maturity etc.

PGopalan "strategy should be about innovation..."

saeedwkhan @pgopalan -- or should innovation be central to strategy? :-)

PGopalan "Example: product w/500 customers - can't have goal oriented strategy....you have to keep experimenting"

nickcoster "strategy comes before objective - once decide on biz goal, what biz objectives?"

PGopalan says if you truly want to be innovative (drives creative/destructn) look at ways to solve problms - not just $..."can't use spreadsheet to predetermine where you might end up... customers don't react based on models..."

liz_blink A5 road map helps to not lose track at every request or brushfire. Reminds you to backburn. Aussie reference there!

PGopalan must incorporate customer behavioral - not static, not rational - customers more dynamic/not predictable

cindyfsolomon @nickcoster discussing evolutionary strategies w/ @PGopalan - trying to work out biz strategy to pre-empt wastage

PGopalan "stop wastage by iterating/pivoting w/out planning too far ahead"

johnpeltier Per @PGopalan strategy s/b experimenting in steps [like lean startup], more than 3-year plans. PGopalan "Agility will determine direction and cut down on wastage: Ex. Boeing http://t.co/ZweDbpHZ

PGopalan Conway's law http://t.co/5oNb3hDN

nickcoster I am disagreeing with @PGopalan about the importance of having a strategy before planning Actions.

saeedwkhan @pgopalan can U define strategy from your perspective. A lot of what UR mentioning sounds more like execution than strat.

PGopalan strategists should be systems thinkers: i.e. Agile dev applies to all types of product develop

saeedwkhan @nickcoster How do you define strategy?I want to compare yours with @pgopalan's

nickcoster Strategy defines the direction for all actions to follow. Objectives (eg financial, measurable) are way of measuring progress

PGopalan "strategy is about rethinking how we approach prod development - its not 1 thing, its a lot of related ideas" Strategy is typically emergent - in retrospect you see how it occured... "Don't ignore serendipity" Successful entrepreneurs say they're lucky (they're humble & its true)

nickcoster (Product) Strategy: What outcome does the product aim to deliver to the market? What problems will it solve and for who?

PGopalan people want definiteness, clarity & exactness of things - But we don't live in world of absolutes - no pure B&W

liz_blink @cindyfsolomon @PGopalan cust behavior not rational - no reason for roadmap to entirely reflect customer madness! PM sanity check

saeedwkhan @nickcoster 4 me strategy is a frmewrk to guide decisions. What to do but also what not to do. It can change w/ new info.

PGopalan very "Descartian approach - but there are too many variables in more than 2 dimensions..."

hanneshelander Agree. “@nickcoster: Prod Strategy: What outcome does the prod aim to deliver? What problems will it solve and for who?

brainmates #prodmgmt needs to be able to embrace uncertainty. This applies to strategy and all product decisions. The is no '100% right'.
PGopalan @saeedwkhan is a true pragmatist and not an extremist like me…" strategy should reflect diversity - strategy is not a differentiater - its a model to be copied" "look to customer to learn from experimental process"
johnpeltier A7: Experiments are dangerous if co. expects time sensitive market release.
nickcoster "you start with a hypothesis to test with the customer"

PGopalan A10: try to do simple things - a little (incremental) change, to see if has affect....

johnpeltier A10 A/B testing on my product if I had the infrastructure in place!

brainmates Experiments should be initiated to test a hypothesis. Along the way other insights will be unearthed. http://t.co/oR6RHJ1X

Brioneja @johnpeltier Far more dangerous to do full scale launch and get it wrong

saeedwkhan A10 - one experiment tomorrow? pricing sensitivity on my year end bonus! :-)

PGopalan "hypothesis limits what is tested and what outcome"

hanneshelander For me, strategy is how to focus our actions to achieve an specific outcome. Simple, actionable, moldable and evolving.

Brioneja time for experimentation needs to be built into roadmap. Include "soft launch" and "hard launch"… use small scale/regional/overseas launch as experiment

saeedwkhan @pgopalan -- when building a product, how do U know how little to make it before releasing to market?

PGopalan FB would not have been created in a large org using hypothesis...

Brioneja Orkut was launched by Google at the same time as Facebook, failed due to lack of experimentation… Now Google is desperately trying to catch up to FB… When history is written, Google's decision to discard Orkut will be up w saying no to the Beatles

saeedwkhan @Brioneja So I'm not clear, but how did FB out experiment Orkut. IMHO FB has done a lot to alienate users & still succeeds.

Brioneja @saeedwkhan I became a member of Orkut at launch b/c of family reasons, so I followed it very closely. FB now is radically different from 2004. Orkut looks practically the same. FB has continuously incorporated new features, changed UI/UX, co-opted other social media sites, most recently G+

saeedwkhan @Brioneja OK...so is that more "adapt" than "experiment"?

Brioneja @saeedwkhan It is experiment b/c they have also withdrawn a lot of the features they have introduced along the way

johnpeltier @saeedwkhan Re How little: Greenspace or launching with established competitors?

saeedwkhan @johnpeltier existing competitors #prodmgmttalk Is there ever a real greenspace product? ;-)

noshamecreative What would be your best tool of influence if yr hypothesis contradicts current process or ideas?

cindyfsolomon I propose we experiment w/video chat & other tools for future Global Product Management Talks! Will try Google hangouts...Many beta offerings to test...

johnpeltier @cindyfsolomon May I also suggest experimenting with a time that doesn't conflict with the hour my wife prepares dinner? :)

prodmgmttalk You can view Recaps http://t.co/0YoiXgYs and Podcasts http://bit.ly/sTecZ3

PGopalan wow! that was an enjoyable experience. thanks for the opportunity to speak at #prodmgmttalk @cindyfsolomon

Thank you @PGopalan for SPEAKING today! Thank you @nickcoster of @brainmates for co-hosting! 

Thank you! @brioneja @rcauvin @johnpeltier @errandmanagers @saeedwkhan @joshua_d @kmbrantley @hanneshelander @pgopalan @brainmates @nickcoster @noshamecreative @liz_blink

Global Product Management Talk^TM is a weekly mini-product camp Socratic discussion of pre-posted questions with live audio of thought leader and co-hosts commenting. 

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Matt led the weekly Global Product Management Talk on Twitter Monday, August 15, 2011 at 4:00 PM Pacific Time. Each week, The Global Product Management Talk features an expert guest speaker who asks questions of the participants on Twitter. The speaker and co-hosts broadcast their comments during the event. Tweeters use the hashtag #prodmgmttalk and follow @prodmgmttalk

ABOUT MATT HOWELL
With 15+ years experience in product development, design, and strategy for industries ranging from healthcare to online gaming, Matt Howell adds dynamic, hands on knowledge to the Product Management discipline. Matt recently joined Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment in Boston, MA. Prior to WBIE, Matt drove the product roadmap for the VoxOx.com consumer VOIP service, and was a Producer on Sony Online Entertainment's Platform team, supporting the Everquest, Everquest II, Planetside, and Facebook game development teams. Matt studied at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he received a Bachelors of Business Administration, with a double major in Computer Information Systems and Business Law. 

• @mhowell  A3:  we tend to resort to excel
• jidoctor Q3 -doesn't it matter what audience is receiving it? talk with your audience, not AT them 
• @mhowell A3 "always resort back to excel, no matter what expensive tool is implemented- # reasons (excel viewed on ipad)" 
• mhowell Q3: Excel has the added bonus of being viewable on an iPad  for execs
• jidoctor q3 - format is less relevant than content, if it's right; if content is wrong, format never matters 
• pete_dudchenko A3: PPT for us. Better for external presos too .

ProdMgmtTalk Thank you @mhowell for speaking today! Everyone's participation appreciated! 

mhowell Thanks to @prodmgmttalk  @cindyfsolomon @brainmates for putting together another great discussion 

Thank you @nickcoster @lmckeogh  @SonnyJohns @pete_dudchenko @baltomel  @jidoctor  @saeedwkhan @ErikaLAndersen  @jurylady @rkelly976 @bdoctor @Ycnt_ibdonlyjen @ibagrak  @PSJournal  @ElizINTUIT @crizzcoxx @pete_dudchenko @JamievdH  @MindMapTweets @pmfoundations @wapolanco @haigtweets @clivelam

Today's stats: 285 tweets generated 321,558 impressions, reaching an audience of 25,426 

Next week: No Mabushi: 8/22 Product Marketing w/a Laser w/Tim Johnson @johnsontc http://bit.ly/n6eXxH

Global Product Management Talk^TM is a weekly mini-product camp Socratic discussion of pre-posted questions with live audio of thought leader and co-hosts commenting. 

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Elizabeth Quintanilla, Marketing Gunslinger, spoke at the weekly Global Product Management Talk on Twitter Monday, December 5, 2011 using the hashtag #prodmgmttalk

brainmates Hello Everyone. Its Adrienne from Sydney.

ErikaLAndersen Hi all! Erika Andersen checking in from Salt Lake City, UT

dustinlevy A1 Dustin Levy, product manager for technology products in the security industry, CT USA.

cindyfsolomon This is Cindy from the San Francisco Bay area your co-host Great to see everyone

errandmanagers A1: Hello Everyone,Eunice from Atlanta, a product manager for small businesses

equintanilla Hi! I'm speaking today and checking into #prodmgmttalk from Lakeway, TX.

Q2 Are you familiar with the bar camp format? http://bit.ly/uNWXDi 

ErikaLAndersen A2: Know of BarCamp only due to ProductCamp.
brainmates A2: Very familiar with bar camp format. We run Product Camps for Product Managers #pcampsyd and #pcampmelb in Australia
cindyfsolomon Discussing SXSW and pcamp Austin w/ @equintanilla who has attended Drupal camps in San Diego

Q3 Have you attended a product camp? Where? How many?  http://t.co/d1LfXf7X

dustinlevy Have attended Boston and NYC. Great experiences.
cindyfsolomon I've attended the past 2 Silicon Valley pcamps, recent pcampSF as well as past Silicon Valley Code Camp http://t.co/aFVTqtLV
saeedwkhan Have attended several - NY, Boston, Toronto. Helped organize the ones in Toronto.
ErikaLAndersen I attended 2011 PCamps in Silicon Valley and Utah
dustinlevy Boston and NYC product camps were definitely different (not suprising if you know anything about the NorthEast states)
brainmates Acc to @cindyfsolomon @equintanilla each Product camp is different in the US.
ErikaLAndersen Read *many* PCamp recaps from around world. Agree w/ @cindyfsolomon each has diff flavor
errandmanagers Hope to attend the next one in Atlanta,@pcampatl
JohnsonTC A3: Attended pcampsv and pcampsfo and they were diff. MANY more #prodmgmt than #prodmktg folk. There were also more people looking to accumulate info/learning than those who wanted to provide info/learning
dustinlevy @JohnsonTC Good balance in Boston and NYC, just the right amount of 'accumulators' and 'providers'.
Brioneja @cindyfsolomon Pcamp Austin is in my opinion the best one of the PCamps that I have attended

Q4 Have you managed an event? What kind; product launch, product event?  

saeedwkhan @cindyfsolomon A4 - Yes, Yes and Yes. :-)
@equintanilla: Organizers put pcamps on to build #prodmgmt community, networks, credibility of profession
brainmates A4: We run quarterly product talks, annual product camps in Melb & Sydney & Product breakfasts for executives
cindyfsolomon Discussing stats of how many people RSVP vs actually show up... Sydney 50% Austin 60-70% SF seemed like 30%
ErikaLAndersen For #pcamputah, we had about 65% attendance.
cindyfsolomon We're discussing other types of events, such as monthly Product Talks (Sydney, Australia, New York, SF)

Q5 What is unique about product camps vs. typical conferences, especially in terms of planning? 

@equintanilla #pcamp Austin truly a community event, enabled free by sponsorships vs. technical camps which cost attendance fee
cindyfsolomon #Pcamps are catered to the audience, community and needs of participants and proposed topic areas & categories are suggested
ErikaLAndersen A5: PCamps are more flexible than traditional conference. Can change topics on fly to meet needs. i.e. Midway through #pcamputah, discoverd many consumer prod people. Some afternoon sessions changed to accommodate
brainmates Acc to @equintanilla Product Camps are 'shaped' - Camp Planners create categories & people submit topic for the diff category
cindyfsolomon Discussing #pcamp flavors, communities & distinctions on audio. Reason for PCamp Radio http://t.co/1GjZRYWm

dustinlevy Does anyone know of any other useful product management conferences other than PCamps? Are PCamps the best you've seen?
saeedwkhan @dustinlevy Haven't attended them, but the PDMA seems to have well attended conferences.
Answering @dustinlevy @equintanilla says follow brand managers to AMA events & brand camps
saeedwkhan Like anything, #pcamps R hit or miss. Some R better than others. Some speakers R better than others etc. No magic bullet.
cindyfsolomon Here are product events http://t.co/d1LfXf7X and @saeedwkhan list http://t.co/zIfm1mjR

cindyfsolomon For Q6 and Q7 - must trust the distributed team @paulyoung trusted/enabled everyone to do their job: all leads carried that

@equintanilla: Key to managing volunteers: Trust Team

cindyfsolomon Lots of people volunteer at #pcamp to learn & build skills - let them run with it to build success

@equintanilla: It takes many hats to produce events: logistics, marketing, sponsors, sessions coordination. Break down activities to grow

ErikaLAndersen For 5 weeks prior, we had standing weekly meeting all volunteers could attend. Same time, same place.

cindyfsolomon It is key to mentor volunteers to take over and run with vision to carry it forward

ErikaLAndersen From @equintanilla: Amazing how much ppl will give when given chance for growth

cindyfsolomon Pcamp Austin team leads hold their own independent meetings, had in total 400 of 500 volunteers who did something!

JohnsonTC many hands make small work!

cindyfsolomon #pcamp best way to learn from community, grow in leadership role, present as thought leader & learn new methods practitioner

ErikaLAndersen Total newbie to #pcamp? Put one on! Learn a lot. Meet tons of people. Have fun! #thisworks

Q8 How do you leverage relationships to sponsor, host and enable product camps?

@equintanilla a great venue elevates the perception of the camp, takes effort to identify & get one donated...
ErikaLAndersen Agree. We had a great venue sponsor
@equintanilla As Product people change companies, they promote pcamp at their new companies via social media & word of mouth. #pcamp Austin has a large planning committee, raised $17K in sponsorships, got local media coverage. Lunch is biggest expense.Companies came to recruit, network, promote with booths, direct sponsorship, or outreach partner - emerging biz tech community
ErikaLAndersen Some companies hesitant to sponsor #pcamputahv1.0. Now proven success, they want to sponsor v2.0 in Spring 2012
@equintanilla all presenters thank sponsors prior to starting presentation!
brainmates Like @equintanilla idea on offering recruitment roundup at #pcamp. Opp for comp 2 find ProdMgrs & job seekers to look for role
equintanilla PCamp attracts people from both big companies & startups to bring product people together in Austin

Q9 How do you build appeal for your (product) event so people will attend after hours/all day Saturday? 

@equintanilla great energy & positive personalities. Sell the 'FUN' factor
cindyfsolomon So great to have a Product Personality Rockstar to get word of mouth....Paul Young and Tom Evans!
JohnsonTC even new #prodmgmt or #prodmktghave value to share @ #pcamp. How to draw that out?
ErikaLAndersen AGREE! For #pcamputah, morning sessions voted online. Many of afternoon sessions suggested day of.
cindyfsolomon @JohnsonTC great question ! We're answering audio - re: improvisation & innovation games to inspire participation
equintanilla In Austin 3 dif types of events to build community: meet & mingle product party, 1 session pcamp on week night, all day pcamp
cindyfsolomon Pcamp Austin has done Power Point Kareoke!
ErikaLAndersen We kept things informal. Most AM session leads --> pcamp first timers. Reduced part. intimidation factor

cindyfsolomon Thank you @equintanilla for joining us today w/@brainmates - much value on audio podcast! 

Thank you! @errandmanagers  @erikalandersen @newcommglobal  @brioneja  @johnsontc @joshua_d @saeedwkhan @dustinlevy @deborah_gibbs @errandmanagers  @erikalandersen @newcommglobal  @brioneja  

Today's stats: 173 tweets generated 324,792 impressions, reaching an audience of 20,001

Global Product Management Talk^TM is a weekly mini-product camp Socratic discussion of pre-posted questions with live audio of thought leader and co-hosts commenting.

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Veronica Figarella, Product Management Expert, Leads Discussion About Effectively Managing Multiple Products

VFigatelix  A1: It is a dynamic process, characterized by uncertainty and changing information and dynamic opportunities

brainmates  A1 Portfolio Management is about balancing the inter dependencies of a company's set of products

ProdMgmtTalk  Reading definition of Portfolio Management: strategic resource allocation  http://t.co/aAJJOxGT

Jim_Holland : A1: Portfolio mgmt is owning vision, products, EOL and a horizon oriented view. Bus/tech/ Finance IMO

cindyfsolomon  Its the entire system involved in managing the products - step back from product centric focus

VFigatelix  A1:It includes periodical review of the total portfolio, Go/Kill decisions and developing new product development. its a big effort to align all stakeholders, i.e. financial planner vs. engineer vs. marketing differing views

VFigatelix many consequences of poor portfolio mgmt: 1. reluctance to kill new products or unprofitble ones, ineffective go/kill criteria, only adding to the "to do" list w/o strategy

brainmates A2: You can't make isolated product decisions when you have a number of products. Impt to manage portfolio

cindyfsolomon 2. lack of criteria to analyze w/in PLC spreads resources too thin - putting new product/ innovation dev at risk & fast track

brainmates A2: Poor portfolio management = cannibalization of some of your products in the market.

ProdMgmtTalk If you're managing data w/in Telco - need all features to fix data under build...managing all mobile, wireless, etc. inefficnt

VFigatelix A2: resources are spread too thin, quality of execution suffers, time to market gets bigger. Head of PMs has bigst resp. to maintain sanity of entire portfolio. no strategic criteria for project/product selection, wrong products/project being picked, new products don't strategy

ProdMgmtTalk Prod Port Mgmt req. judging new products on road map in real time w/market - need strategic view to bet on future

cindyfsolomon A3: Regardles of approach can only 1. add new products, 2. modify existing, 3. remove old products

brainmates suggest A3: 4. reposition products in other markets (market view)

VFigatelix A3: approaches: financial - more weight on NPV or ROI , strategic - more weight on betting on future 

cindyfsolomon @VFigatelix has an operational view because if you want to reposition prodct, you'll end up launching new one (1 of 3 things)

VFigatelix develop criteria to determine 1. strategic 2. difficulty to implement 3. financial rewards "What are goals?" 

VFigatelix A balanced portfolio should be both 1. short term wins and 2. long term fits

brainmates Its all about balancing

VFigatelix A4: 1. start at idea conception or 2. later stage when have forum/tested - preference 1. enter early

Should be an ongoing effort w/ board/heads of depts to discuss initiatives...w/PM looking at total effort 

The quest often not asked is "How does this fit with our current portfolio?"

nilsie Question: What tools do you use for doing product portfolio management?

ProdMgmtTalk Tools: visual aids - plot market segments against strategic intent - put all proj/prods in middle - see gaps in segments

nilsie Would you do that in Excel?

VFigatelix depends on group charged w/Portfolio Mgmt to identify criteria to display visually, incl time 2 mrkt

brainmates suggesting that @Accept360 and others develop tools for product portfolio management

VFigatelix these are key actions to design process: 

1. selection process or monitoring effort to bring every1 onboard 

2. are we using process to provide info or aiding model to make decisions? must take it seriously - not just nice visuals 

3. alignment on where info comes from, who gathers & analyzes it

Brioneja Key is the format/criteria chosen to classify projects

4. must agree on how flexible portfolio should be. successful examples: P&G does this well, GE, Verizon

key indicators - what are the criteria, net present value, ROI, satisfaction, net promoter scores? How measure success? 

5. How & Why decide to end product - what indicators to kill, end of life (not like Google Wave...)

6. How often do we revise the portfolio mix? Ev 6 mos, 3 mos, 1/yr, never? 

7. Are resources truly aligned with strategy? Linked back to adding strategic alignmnt to success of products in pipeline 

8. What is % of new products in mix? How successful are new products?

Brioneja the problem with % new products criteria is that w/o complementary criteria it is a sure path to incrementalism. minor variations are launched to replace existing products and keep upper management happy, gaming the system 

Maybe too much overhead in dif division - clouds perspective...org struct

hanneshelander How does portfolio strategy differ in a startup compared to a larger or more established company.

VFigatelix @hanneshelander in a #startup you need to focus more on products that provide initial cash flow  

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Please retweet: Recap 11/28 Product Portfolio Management w/ @VFigatelix #prodmgmttalk #prodmgmt http://bit.ly/svoRyn

Global Product Management Talk^TM is a weekly mini-product camp Socratic discussion of pre-posted questions with live audio of thought leader and co-hosts commenting.

Have you ever been in a situation where a company wouldn’t kill-off old, and possibly even unprofitable products? Or maybe you keep getting “product improvement” projects that must be completed for political or emotional reasons, rather than because there was a valid business reason for them?

If you’ve been in either of these situations, you know that this can result in too many products with few resources to support them, compromising quality of execution, and lengthening time to market. It’s also a clear sign of a muddled business strategy.

Your company is suffering from poor product portfolio management. And it most likely  means your company lacks proper processes to define and manage an ideal product mix.

But Product Portfolio Management (PPM) is more than simply allocating budgets and resources.

“It is a dynamic process… characterized by uncertainty and changing information, dynamic opportunities, multiple goals and strategic considerations, interdependence among projects and multiple decision-makers and locations. It includes periodical review of the total portfolio, making Go/Kill decisions and developing new product development process for the business that includes strategic resource allocation.” (Cooper, Edgett & Kleinschmidt, 1998).

PPM is a dynamic, complex process and one of its biggest challenges is having all stakeholders understand it’s purpose the same way. Unfortunately that is not always the case. For example, a financial planner typically sees PPM as an opportunity to allocate resources optimally and efficiently, while an engineer sees it as a place to pick the right projects and foster innovation. Meanwhile a Marketer’s priority are those products that enhance the brand and diminish time to market and address urgent sales demands. So it’s important to define the objectives of the PPM process upfront.

What should be the objective of Product Portfolio Management?

PPM should maximize the fit of products with customers and markets and return value to all stakeholders (customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, society, etc) with the optimal amount of resources invested. It should address the company’s strategic objectives and align products with corporate (short term and long term) goals.

What are the approaches to Product Portfolio Management?

Regardless of the approach taken to manage a portfolio of products, companies can only choose one of the following:

• modify existing products
• remove unprofitable/old ones
• add new products

Traditional approaches like the BCG (Boston Consulting Group) and the GE/Mckinsey matrices allocate resources to business units or projects according to market attractiveness and its possibility of success in a particular market. Although these models are great choices to allocate resources to existing products, they require additional analysis when new products are added as they need to consider the time frame of the opportunity for a new product. Remember that because market conditions changes, information to ponder new initiatives is most likely a wild guess.

Other valid approaches are financially driven models where products are measured mainly by their NPV, ROI or contribution to earnings. More complete approaches where qualitative and strategic benefits are considered into portfolio balance, despite their contribution to margins, are also popular since they consider a product’s lifetime cycle and market context.

Regardless of the type of approach your company uses, PPM process needs to be clear and communicated properly to all parties involved. It needs to be linked to corporate strategy and preferably managed by a Product Portfolio Analyst so Product Managers act only as users and are not overloaded with additional administrative responsibilities.

Senior Management needs to be closely involved in it, and not only to define where the R&D budget gets spent, but to understand the complete Product Portfolio Mix and how it is serving the company’s customers.

A PPM process needs to accommodate changes in decisions while products are being developed; it should allow a bit of chaos without compromising ’ integrity. The process has to reflect the degree of risk that the company is willing to manage.  In that sense, a risk adverse company should reinforce the investigation phase by implementing additional information requirements before entering a selection process or reinforcing product diversification to cope with expected market changes.

What are the key actions to design a Product Portfolio Management process?

To design a PPM process, stakeholders need to agree on:

W. Alejandro Polanco, Head of Product Strategies, Arise Virtual Solutions, Inc, Leads Discussion About Overcoming Limited Resources and Unrealistic Expectations to Ensure Product Success

lmckeogh A1: prioritization, in my mind, boils down to ROI. Reality has a way of interfering w/ that at times though

brainmates Do your top clients dictate, does the competition, or do org leaders win out on what should be built?

lmckeogh @wapolanco : dictate is a loaded term. A good PM has to hold some line or gets run over by number of stakeholders

lmckeogh a1: against executive priority, have to bring some data to bear. Against key customer reqs, have to ask how much is it worth

wapolanco @lmckeogh Depending on the exec, the priority may be "key customer" though.

brainmates Should you build for 1 customer? RT @wapolanco: @lmckeogh Depending on the exec, the priority may be "key customer" though.

lmckeogh @wapolanco : that is where data becomes important and not chasing the short term reward for the longer term payoff

roadmapwarrior A1: what's the best fit for the market & gives you most bang for your buck per your KPIs

brainmates Should it be about your KPIs or ROI? RT @roadmapwarrior: .... most bang for your buck per your KPIs

roadmapwarrior @brainmates In the KPI vs ROI debate I guess it depends how you would define each of those terms, it could be either

saeedwkhan A1 - Aren't Dev resources always scarce? Prioritization is based on aligning with objectives, addressing market needs etc.

wapolanco @brainmates It's an art. Must balance key clients' needs, your own prod vision, market trend and your org's vision/mission

brainmates Any other ways to prioritise?

saeedwkhan @brainmates Prioritization is subjective to be honest. Some based on $ (i.e. deal funnel) else based on longer term goals

roadmapwarrior @brainmates Prioritization can also be affected by whether you need your technology to be broader vs deeper to solve problems

roadmapwarrior When resources are scarce, so is sanity :)

brainmates That must mean we're insane all the time

saeedwkhan @roadmapwarrior Act. ppl w/ unlimited resources r usu the insane ones. Witness wealthy buying jewelry for their pets etc

lmckeogh A1: In addition to data, can make some tradeoffs by grouping enhancements by themes and cust. segments

wapolanco @saeedwkhan At the end of the day though it boils down to $$ unless you're in a non-profit.

lmckeogh A1: other ways to manage competing priorities is to turn the question back to the customer and have them chose x/y number

saeedwkhan @wapolanco $$ can't always be quantified. i.e. how to quantify $$ of good arch.. Sometimes, just need to do what's right.

saeedwkhan @wapolanco Agreed. Constraints force (good) decision making and tradeoffs. Helps focus on what really is important.

lmckeogh A2: use the roadmap and explain why items are on it. Can also through in cost of the pet feature they want. I'd try to be as upfront as possible. Can a compromise be worked out or another feature supersede request

wapolanco Does roadmap have deliverable dates? Clients will want to see/hear WHEN features are coming.

roadmapwarrior A2: Depends on whether "not coming soon" actually means "on the roadmap" or "this contradicts the product vision"

lmckeogh @wapolanco : roadmap dates become vaguer as you go out in time. I can tell you when for next quarter or 2 tops.

wapolanco There should be two roadmaps. One internal and one (high-level), customer-facing.

roadmapwarrior @wapolanco I have diff roadmaps for internal v external audiences, only bracket releases into a general part-of-year timeline

roadmapwarrior  @brainmates Depending on the type of prod & your targets, crowdsourcing can help balance internal objectives w custmr requests 

saeedwkhan @brainmates Can you give an ex. of the B2C feature request scenario? i.e. do B2C PMs have that level of interaction w custs

brainmates Through social media channels. People want more engagement

saeedwkhan @brainmates A2 - via SM -- OK, but is there an obligation to commit on futures in B2C to a spec. customer?

VFigatelix A2: #B2C from surveys/communities @saeedwkhan we can probably deduce what features they ask for lmckeogh @brainmates : in B2C types of situations I think it is what the company determines is important in the market B2C instances don't carry so much weight and too varied as opposed to B2B where 1 sales is large $$

VFigatelix @wapolanco @lmckeogh @brainmates but one good feature for the #B2C will generate lost of $$$

saeedwkhan @brainmates Agreed on "engagement". but does that mean B2C PM shd publicly commit (or not) to upcoming features in prods? 

saeedwkhan @brainmates A3 always abt prioritization & alignment to objctvs. if resources prevent reaching objctvs, then it's a prob

VFigatelix A3: Focus on quality, I mean just stick to the core product proposition.. keep prioritizing but keep developing

lmckeogh A3: have to get out of the office & step away. Could be a customer visit or attending a conference. Adjust perspective

brainmates A3 Customer interviews, visits... keeps you on focus & on track

VFigatelix A3: if resource restriction prevents product objective, maybe we have to kill the product?

lmckeogh @VFigatelix : agreed, focus, focus, ruthlessly focus on what matters.

roadmapwarrior A3: You may have to be reactive esp if your prod depends on other people's tech so budget a lil for it but focus on vision

wapolanco A3: Be surgical with your daily calendar. I plan my day with meetings and tasks and block out time to strategize.

saeedwkhan @roadmapwarrior But surgeries can be botched. :-) And let's not discuss the military oxymoron "surgical strike"

roadmapwarrior A4: another of the benefits of starting small is that you don't take too long to get to mkt & can keep finger on the pulse

brainmates @roadmapwarrior: A4 I like the start small and test concept. That way you can do it well

saeedwkhan @brainmates A4 by understanding what you are doing and why and ruthlessly gathering mkt intelligence to course correct

VFigatelix A4: OMG that's a tough one... wkly meetings and including front line staff on my GTM project - they hear my customer...it is so tempting to skip steps when time 2 mkt presses.. I'm guilty!

wapolanco The answer is DON'T skip steps in SDLC but between meetings, fire drills, etc. it's difficult not to.

roadmapwarrior @brainmates Agreed! Always Be Testing

VFigatelix A5: 15 - 20% I would say it's what I try to do... TRY

saeedwkhan @brainmates A5 -- completely depends. Also, should not assume single PM does all research.

brainmates Agree! @saeedwkhan: PMs should share insights. Also should leverage off research fr other departments - marketing, sales

wapolanco Q5 is fundamental to building strategy and maintaining roadmap. In my view a good PM considers this a top priority: 40%. Without research (incl client visits) you can't build strategy/ roadmap.

roadmapwarrior A5: Stumped on a # but could also depend on where you are in lifecycle-more res for GTM, less but continual for later versions

brainmates Agree with @wapolanco that PMs should spend more time analysing mkt but its not the norm.

saeedwkhan @wapolanco At times, I've spent ~80% of my time doing that, but 40% would be great! Overall for me it's closer to 10%-15%

wapolanco @brainmates understanding the mkt is key. Back to Q4.... not a step to take lightly otherwise = prod failure

Global Product Management Talk^TM is a weekly mini-product camp Socratic discussion of pre-posted questions with live audio of thought leader and co-hosts commenting.