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Product Marketing

And the CUSTOMER WINS!

So I was browsing around at Pragmatic and found an interesting piece by Barbara Nelson on Agile and politics. Here is the somewhat interesting open:

The Politics of Agile
In the world of agile software development, it seems like Marketing and Development are in a race for control of “the product.” Who will win? The flakes in Marketing or the geeks in Development?

I’ve never thought of it as who wins, rather what the revenue, the competitiveness of a solution and do customers like it. Nelson then sets up the piece with the following 3 career alternatives, albeit slightly weighted options:

While developers sprint through development cycles, one of three things happens to product managers. 1) They are ignored. 2) They are dragged deep into the development cycle. 3) They lead the team to build products people want to buy. The first two situations are lethal to a product manager’s career. The third alternative can lead to successful products and successful careers.

Oh the age old politics of PM…. ? Hurray! A new set of methodology based scapegoating techniques for the marketplace. Clearly talking to people helps with the process and the goal is for the customer to win. Faster, Better – more effective… “NASA development” regimens, while rigorous and needed for space travel are not necessarily needed for software.

I’ve always thought effective product management was politics-like – engage the people, earn trust and deliver on what is promise. I know the later is theoretical in politics, but product managers are effectively diplomats trading favors. Agile methodologies help drive personal interaction and tightens relationships throughout the team by partnering on delivery. I’ve always seen agile methodologies as a way to “formalize” the dev process in context of the customer. Pragmatic is a strong revenue “front end” for agile development, since it is market focused and innately iterative from the customer perspective. If the customer doesn’t win, no one wins – there is this whole revenue thing which drives future builds and development.

Wouldn’t index cards be perfect for customer meetings?

“Just a second Mr. Customer…. so what’s that you need again? …I needed to get a index card from by briefcase to bring it back for the ‘board’…”

February 28, 2008 by Jon Gatrell

He’s at it AGAIN!!!!!

So Brogan has once again “sucked me in” to write on one of HIS topics for ME/YOU. This time, he doesn’t have 100 – but 20 works. I’ll usurp one right now and 2 more look interesting, should I remember at a later date. So I chose #3 for a start.

#3. Share Five Friends– Show us five friends’ blogs and give us a blurb on why you like them.

This is a very interesting one, because normally I pass off a Chris (chris 1 and chris 2) blog on such request. The good news is I have no shortage of cool peoples blogs 5 blogs, 1 is loosely a “blog”, it has blog like capabilities and even has features called a blog, but I don’t consider myspace a pure play blog.

Salesreformschool

This is Adam Shapiro’s blog and he’s continues to keep up the content and actually shares some really good, practical, and pragmatic insights from his sales management, consulting and sales education experience. He’s also starting to meander off topic now which is getting more interesting – while I disagree with his assertion that the Blackberry Pearl is a good device, I do agree with him on google desktop.

mophopro

Mark Resch’s phone game and blog. It’s nice to see things from people’s phones. I don’t know this for sure, but I think mophopro stands for MObile PHOto PRO. COMmunity. The idea is phone photos – fun. The Cathedral in Venice

Launchclinic

David Daniels’ Product Launch blog. The business side of product management and product launch – he’s always been off topic and fun as person and as a blog operator. He’s the father of twins – like myself, and has an absolute passion for understanding information, organizations and products. He’s just one of those dangerous “knowledge consumers”. Good news is he simplifies and prioritizes his content to remain relevant and interesting, as a person and as a blog operator.

Stop, Drop and Roll

So it’s not really a blog, but it IS A CONVERSATION – a rowdy “yeeehaaw!” kind of conversation, but a conversation. What I like is they do have a desire to reach out and develop a community, plus the crazy clutter, background bluegrass and the “near seizure causing” look-n-feel is apparently NOT AN ISSUE. Not sure it proves anything, but graphics, easily read content and an appropriate use of negative space may just not mean anything.

Vacuum – EV in A2

I have not actually met Edward yet, but I intend on it on my next visit into A2, hoped to catch him over the holidays, but haven’t. This is a link blog – the interesting and the obscure. It’s more than links, more or less basically links, sometimes a paragraph or two. This guy works at his links. I recommend an interest in libraries and geography before you go, but you might just become a fan of either before you stop browsing the links. If you look real hard you just might find some interesting stuff on structuration theory.

Those are my five……but you could keep checking Leif’s blog, as I do hoping for another post. It has been more than a year of silence. I mean he took such care with the header graphic. You would think the Chris would have a corporate posting requirement at Cerado.

February 25, 2008 by Jon Gatrell

$1 Coffee a sustainable model?

So with the recent Starbuck’s test of a $1.50 short in Seattle and rumors of a $1 bottomless cup it could make it cheaper to consume more paper products and miscellaneous packaging. That being said – you can make your own coffee, here is the ROI to justify a crazy expensive espresso and cafe Americano maker. Not sure this model would standalone under the $1 pricing model.

Below is a baseline framework for establishing the benefits of brewing your own coffee, the model assumes you are financially responsible in part for someone else’s coffee too.