Members were surveyed in September 2012.

1. Cambridge Product
Management Network Survey
Arthur Meadows
Sept 2012
http://product-management.ning.com/

2. Survey
• Survey closed in September 2012
• 60 responses
(Cough – sorry I have been sooo slow to analyse the results!)

3. Survey Response vs Attendees
> 50% of responses came from people that
hadn’t attended a meeting

4. Experience
Lots of experience .....
but did the experienced PMs come to meetings??

5. Best Meeting
Date Topic Votes
Jan 2011 The Psychology of Pricing 9
Nov 2011 Is Your Company Technology, Sales or Market-
6
Driven?
Sept 2011 Where it Really Hurts: finding the pain of your
5
present and future customers
Feb 2012 Competitors 4
March 2012 Market research after the fact: Using the minimal
viable product to validate the product vision 4
April 2012 Taming the Turing Machine 4
May 2012 Product Portfolio Analysis 3
Oct 2011 Market Sizing 1
June 2012 Top 3 Things I've Learned As a Product Manager 1
- Umm, sorry, I didn't attend any, so no comment! 32
(*) 90% of attendees felt the events were pitched at the right level of experience

6. Balance of Topics
A mix of everything please!!

7. Suggestions 1
Suggestions
User requirements and Use cases, PRDs vs MRDs
Market research Product road mapping Value proposition development
Possible change of venue, Oxford or London
As a Director-level PM I would be interested in higher level topics. Perhaps these would also attract PMs aspiring for promotion. Topics could be
more strategic i.e. MBA-type topics around identifying or building sustainable competitive advantage, market entry and timing, measures of product
success, etc. etc.
What about a Q&A session? Attendees can submit a question / problem in advance of the meeting; full list published on the web site. Others can share
their answers / solutions at the meeting.
1. Early stage start-ups - little money, few resources, so much to do. How do we prioritise the product? 2. We're a bunch of exceedingly clever people
and we do stuff - consultancy services as a product
Could be an interesting one to look at how the new emerging market will/could change the focus on US and EU focus on products.
Crunchier the better.
I think the mix of topics has been good. The fault is more with me in terms of being able to attend.
Product Management in SaaS/Hosted Services/Cloud
Film the presentations? The topics are (mostly) interesting Suggestions for other good reference sites?
I am on the commercial PM side (rather than technical) and have more interest in this area. Using PM's to influence and drive sales (of IP and very
technical products) is a challenge to get the balance right between being a PM and being dragged into pure BizDev - so strategies to enable the sales
team to outbound market and deliver also deliver the right inbound market information is of interest.

8. Suggestions 2
Suggestions
Intro to agile / waterfall Essential launch materials Evaluating which of multiple projects are the ones to do first or at all What makes a good PM Time
Management for PM's Social Media and Product Management - how is it used/how could it be used How does PM in technical products differ from
FMCG
1. Discussing the roles and responsibilities of a product manager in an organization, sometimes its so easy to be a catch all. 2. The implementation
and effectiveness of any product frameworks, interesting to get feedback across different sectors and company sizes. 3. The discussion of tools and
tactics used by other product managers to organize and manage their day and multititude of priorities. What works and what doesn't work.
Never having been, I can't comment. However, I'm very interested to discuss with others how we manage product lifecycles and portfolios.
Slightly earlier start time would be good.
Excellent, but wish i could attend more
Challenges of being PM and how to face them?
Haven't been to any events yet - so hard to say. Recently flew 3 people to the US for a Pragmatic Marketing course - whcih was worth it, but if
something like this could be organised more locally it would be easier for us to send people - maybe this could be organised in conjunction with the
Network
Just needs to be earlier - I work in Cambridge but live out near Bury St. Edmunds, I really don't want to kill 2 hours between work and the meetings.
Start them earlier and let the socializing go on longer after.
Turning user needs into product specifications - Validating product specifications

9. Other Comments 1
Other Comments
Nice group and good location.....works well
I would like to be involved but a) I have family commitments and b) the fact that it is technology product orientated means its not a priority in a way
that a broader product menegement network might be for me. Thanks though, I'm glad it exists.
I ammore inclined to attend a meeting after attending the joint CIM PM meeting this week. It was informative and I felt confident that I'd not be out of
my depth and could contribute to future discussions
The Boathouse is not an ideal venue (for reasons which have previously been discussed). We should be looking at alternatives for the longer term.
It seems this is the Cambridge TECHNOLOGY Product Management Network really, or even product development rather than product management, it
doesn't seem to encompass the discipline of product management also practised in other sectors. I realise most PMs in this area are software PMs
though!
Thanks for your hard work in organising.
Well managed - I appreciate the effort required to continue to provide interesting and informative meetings.
It is a great group but must always continue promoting and I think the latest event when held at an established company like ARM is great as ups the
image a bit. Very dangerous that it otherwise becomes a bit of the Cambridge Product Buffins get together for a beer event...
Keep up the good work, team!
For those who cannot attend, would it be possible to publish presentations / content provided by speakers to review? Apologies if already done and I
have missed!
Your professionalism is fine, folks!
We don't share (ie. use social media etc) as much as the London group do - why is that ?
sorry, unable to comment as a non attender

10. Other Comments 2
Other Comments
May benefit from more overlap with the CIM? Really looking forward to the joint event in September
Despite not having been able to attend, I am pleased that the network exists and do attend to come along to some meetings when possible.
Haven't had enought interacttion.
I would like to get more involved
I think it's great that there are enough people passionate enough about their profession to start this group in Cambridge. I plan to come to more
events this year.
Great group. New location is better, but has scope to improve (projector, bookings, ..._
Too new to comment so far. Still completed the survey with a load of "don't knows" to show willing.
Just a big thank you for the effort I know you put in. Wish I could get to more meetings.
I believe the network deserves more recognition across the south-east of the UK. If there is anything I can do to help market / promote / spread the
word, then pls let me know.
All looks great - I will come if it's earlier and not Thursdays.
Went to one over a year ago and really enjoyed it. Keep saying to myself will attend more!
Alas, I wish I could suggest something vaguely useful. Perhaps a compare and contrast around how entrepreneurial start-ups do Product Marketing
Vs how big boring well-established companies do Product Marketing.