How the role of product manager differs from the discipline of product management.

Describing what a product manager does is challenging because it varies from organization to organization. Sure, there are many commonalities, but one product manager may be focused internally, another externally, only work on products in the marketplace or only work on new product development, etc. What does not change is the discipline of product management that spans ideation, development, and evolution. I use the IDEA Framework to express the activities in the discipline of product management. AIPMM and PDMA are organizations that curate and manage the body of knowledge for the discipline. Therese Padilla, President of AIPMM, shares more on the role of product management at https://productmanagement.buzz/index.php/2018/02/07/the-product-manager-role-versus-the-product-management-discipline/

The product manager role is becoming more qualitative in 2018.

A couple years ago at a meetup, I heard a speaker share that product management is all about shipping product. My stomach turned at the thought. Sure, product has to ship and get into the hands of customers, but the context was focused on meeting quantitative metrics. Absent from them, beyond some A/B testing of UI preferences, were metrics that considered customer value and brand loyalty. Product management is “all about” many things, but the focus is on value creation – both for the customer and your organization. I’m glad to see some articles addressing this, among other changes… https://blog.pendo.io/2018/02/05/will-product-manager-role-change-2018/

Product management tweets.

Here are a few tweets from 2017 about product management that are sure to get you thinking. My favorite in the list is from Christian Oestlien, “Here is one small thing I’ve learned in my 20 odd years as a product manager. Great PMs rarely/never exist absent great engineering & design partners. If you want to be considered a great PM build the traits and attributes that attract design and engineering talent.” See more at https://www.productplan.com/product-management-tweets/

Brainstorming is killing creativity and innovation. Do this instead.

Brainstorming is a go-to tool for many people. It’s used to solve problems and generate ideas. People feel good in a brainstorming session. They feel like they are making progress. And, it doesn’t work. A mix of individual and group work is needed for better outcomes. Explore the research and what to do instead at https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2018/02/06/can-collaboration-kill-creativity-five-surprising-insights-on-innovation/#6fa1caa9c1fe