Stakeholder Management

One of the advantages of having customers to visit everywhere is that you get to see a lot of places. Recently I was lucky enough to get stuck in Stockholm after a meeting, and got the chance to visit the excellent Vasa museum. So what? What does the well preserved wreck of a 16th century Read more »

When you design and build a product, it is important that you regularly demo completed work with the team and key stakeholders. In Agile software development, so-called sprint demos are a key part of every iteration, but whatever product you’re building, be it an app, a website (or even a physical product), demos can be Read more »

In this ProductTank London talk, Gareth Owen offers motivational and supplementary advice to product teams navigating workplace challenges. Gareth led product teams at the BBC, CNN, and the Telegraph and has lots to say about the obstacles and frustrations that product can face in businesses. From start-up to large-scale, product teams own the end-to-end experiences of Read more »

In this entertaining and insightful talk from Mind the Product Singapore 2019, Sherif Mansour, Distinguished Product Manager at Atlassian, shares some common misconceptions about the product management craft, how we need to think differently about those issues, and what we should be doing instead. 1. Product Managers Make all the Decisions As product managers it Read more »

Learning about product management is not just restricted to the business ecosystem. The sporting world is one of the key platforms where you can gain valuable product management insights and see product leadership dynamics in action. Rather than look at product managers CPOs or CEOs, it’s worth looking to sports leaders for inspiration and a Read more »

Who doesn’t struggle to manage their time effectively, at least occasionally? As product managers we have so many priorities that organizing them into a short list can be the hardest challenge each week. I’ve found that taking a deliberate rather than a reactive approach to changing plans can help ease the blow of change and Read more »

I’ve worked at two different startups, going from beta to 1.0 as the first non-founding member of the product team. Surprisingly, I had a completely different experience at each startup, even though they were both open source databases. If I were forced to prioritize (as all product managers naturally tend to do) and choose the most Read more »

Have you ever worked in an environment where one part of the business didn’t talk to the other? Are your Product and Engineering teams pushing (or pulling!) in different directions? Does your Marketing team know what is happening in the Contact Centre? Does Logistics know what has been happening on the website recently? Does the Read more »

Do you ever get tired of being asked, “when will it be ready?” Are you always hesitant to commit to a deadline so you can avoid being accused of being “late” when you don’t hit it? Because let’s face it, when you start to build a piece of software or a big feature you can’t Read more »

Summary: A  ProductTank London talk that advises you accept that you are part of any failure that happens and be specific about the issues that you face. This helps you to work through them as a team and sets an example for others to follow. When success does come, make sure you expose the specific Read more »