Most people are under the assumption that a product manager’s job is to manage a product.  In reality, their primary responsibility is to hone in on the customer’s needs. Regardless of how wonderful your product is, or how well-run your production and distribution departments are, if customers aren’t buying your product you don’t have a…

There’s a large body of research pointing to the fact that between 85 and 95% of products fail. While these numbers are disheartening, you could avoid becoming a statistic in the failure category. There are many factors that go into building a successful product company, but these three basic aspects to get right. Don’t put…

So far, you’ve done everything right. You’ve identified an obvious unmet need in the market, and developed an awesome product that will satisfy that need. It has unique features, unlike any other product, so there’s virtually no competition. And you’re convinced that it’s priced to sell. Now you’re ready to take your product to market,…

If you’ve been following along, our previous articles have outlined the exact process we use to successfully bring a product to market using helpful tools (such as the Lean Canvas) as an outline. In this article, we’re going to outline our entire process so you can see what you should be doing and when to…

Naturally, you have an idea. Unfortunately, an idea alone isn’t typically worth much.  Merely having an idea does not make you a business owner, nor does it automatically turn into a viable product business. The challenge of turning a great idea into a profitable product business has tormented entrepreneurs for as long as there have…

Everyone thinks their product is ready to scale, but few are truly ready.  I’ve been on my fair share of teams scrambling during the 11th hour for something that should have been done weeks ago.  Scaling is no joke.  Building a product that is ready for the masses takes a lot of planning and testing. …

Prioritizing product features is a key responsibility of a product manager.  Knowing what to prioritize and, more importantly, when can make all the difference for the success of your product.  Once your architecture is decided and built, you need to progress into building product features. Your team needs to not only build the right features,…

As a product manager, I’m very process oriented.  As a result, I’m borderline obsessed with efficiency.  If there is a way to save me time, I’m all over it.  Every product manager’s nightmare starts out with missed deadlines and only gets worse from there.  While you may not know much about my area of expertise…

Whenever we’re deciding to go somewhere it’s always helpful to have a map.  I find it easy to take for granted the convenience afforded to us through technology.  If I’m driving somewhere and know where I’m going I’ll enter my destination address into google maps just in case there is any trouble on my route.…

Lean product development has origins rooted in manufacturing.  Principles and practices refined overtime within the manufacturing industry have been repurposed for methods of developing digital products.  The most basic description of lean development is a methodology focused on reducing waste.  Waste can be in the form of something physical (think manufacturing) or virtual (unnecessary software…