Stakeholder Management

If you’ve got a background in waterfall processes, it can seem as if agile techniques are just about making it up as you go along. (MTP’s own James Mayes once commented that waterfall, on the other hand, “is making it up before you even begin”.) What happens if we embrace this, and bring improv techniques Read more »

It’s time to talk about part-time working. Specifically, how to work well as a part-time product manager, the benefits this arrangement brings to you and your company, and how to tackle the common perception that part-time simply cannot work. The following suggestions are all very personal to me, although I have seen similar patterns with Read more »

If you’re new to a product management job then it can often be very hard to get access to all the information you need. But I’ve found that by building relationships, setting the future vision, and having faith in your capabilities as a product manager you can carve out a place for yourself. One of the Read more »

Product managers can make better decisions if they’ve built transparency and trust with their team. How these decisions are made is also important, and it requires a clear and collaborative process. Here’s a straightforward framework for collaborative decision making that is founded in transparency and trust. Product Decisions Product decisions are either tactical or strategic. Read more »

Product people descended upon central London this morning for a series of Mind the Product training workshops, kicking off #mtpcon ahead of tomorrow’s conference. More than 400 conference attendees were up bright and early to join one of 14 workshops covering a range of topics from user research and stakeholder management to product roadmapping and Read more »

When product and engineering teams adopt an agile way of working, it’s all-to easy for them to leave other departments in the organization behind. But, there are techniques you can use which help to make your agile transformation more acceptable for everyone else in the business. Agile transformation, undoubtedly two words that strike fear into Read more »

Discover how to prevent long-forgotten ideas from hurting your credibility and damaging relationships with those involved by mastering the art of saying no. Read more »

A few years ago, I worked with a client in a very hierarchical organization. Position and title were very important at the organization, and everything was done in strict accordance with operating procedures. My team had been brought in to teach a new way of working, and to show how it’s possible to move quickly. Read more »

As a product manager you’re the monkey in the middle. You have multiple stakeholders, all with different and sometimes competing demands, and it’s your job to manage these. A successful product manager will remove themselves as a barrier, and bring people to a shared understanding through a customer mindset. In this ProductTank London talk, new Read more »

What’s the fundamental difference between product discovery and delivery or execution? The degree of uncertainty. The degree of uncertainty should determine whether you need to run product discovery or whether you can begin to deliver a solution to your customer. Why is it Important to Know the Degree of Uncertainty Upfront? Let’s walk through three hypothetical Read more »