Conifer Consulting

If you had to remember only 5

If you had to remember only 5 things about effective product management what would they be? I have my own punch list but I would love to hear yours so please write me.  Here are mine:

1. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate until it feels like baby-sitting and then do some more with customers, sales, engineers, executive staff, customer service, everyone who has a stake in your success.
2. Don't boil the ocean. Easier said than done.  Every product I worked on that failed was because we tried to do too much and as a result we forgot what was important.  Worse we did not even see our competition coming!
3. Recognize you always have competition.  Every start-up I talk to claims we don't really have a direct competitor because we are so unique, blah de blah! Wear your customers' hat when you speak about your competition.  I mean that. Truly wear the hat and then write down one single reason why they are better. 
4. Thing like a GM.  Product management is a unique, central, powerful function when structured properly.  You have all the responsibility but may feel like you have no authority.  But you do.  You can be a key influencer in your company.  But for that you need to think like a general manager - not merely a product manager.
5. Always ask for customer input except when you shouldn't.  Yes I know tricky but true. Know what your customers can answer for you, what they cannot, how to ask them so they can tell you and when to show them the way vs. asking them.  Art and Science. Go to school on this and master it.

Any of these need more explanation or clarification? Ask me and I'd be happy to share more.  What's your list of top 5 that's not on here?

The Good -- Amplified!

Many companies fear social media.  But the good ones have less to worry about than they might fear. While SM can be intimidating (especially with all those lawyers out there chomping at the bit in our sue-happy America), the truly good companies will find that social media is a friend.  In fact it is their key ally. Why? Because Social Media may expose your vulnerabilities but it also amplifies the good.  GREATLY! Here's why.

Four companies in the past month have so impressed me with their service that after just this one experience with each of them I am probably a customer for life!  So what did these companies do?  Simply put they --

• indulged in good old fashioned customer service, 
• delighted me, the customer, especially when I was down /stressed and 
• simply kept the promises they made in all their ads and promotional materials when they signed me up or attracted me to their business.  

Sidenote; If you know my philosophy of marketing then you know I simply call this marketing.  Everything else especially when people say "yeah it's all just marketing..." is very simply, lies.  

So how did this good get amplified? 

1. I am a customer for life. And what's my life time value compared to what they gave me in terms of goods and service?
2. I am so impressed that the competitors can quit calling or writing me. No matter how good their marketing they are wasting their time -- not until there are exaggerated instances of bad service from my current companies in the future -- highly unlikely! A good culture, like a bad culture, sticks!
3. I am telling everyone - on Yelp, Twitter, on my blog here, everywhere... And where I used to tell 10 friends I am telling all my followers in Twitter, I have told everyone on Yelp and this blog post even shows up on LinkedIn since my posts on this multiple through all my networks.

Some old fashioned stuff is not a fashion after all; it's a classic.  Know how to recognize it, preserve it, cultivate it with great care AND let social media amplify it for you!!

In case you're wondering those companies are:  Geico, America's Tire, Enterprise Rent A Car and Zappos!

Customer's Voice anyone?

Market research is a critical tool in a product manager's arsenal; yet often I find it goes neglected and at best misapplied. Often a client wants to find out why a particular product is not getting the adoption it truly "deserves" but they don't know where to start (1 on 1 interviews, focus groups or quantitative surveys?) or even what and how to ask the burning questions they have.  To their credit they know thy need to talk to customers but just don't know where to begin.

Do you know how you can utilize the customer's voice in developing your product and marketing strategies for success? Do you know how and when to ask the right questions? Which techniques make sense for which business question and how to implement them so the data you get it real and clean? If you feel you could learn more in this area come to the Product Marketing & Management roundtable I am hosting in Palo Alto next Thursday (June 17). The topic is "Practical Ways to Integrate Customer Perspective into Your Product Strategies" and we will have an excellent speaker who is a maven in the field. 

Details are here: bit.ly/w3EvE