Product Management is becoming more and more of a recognized critical function and area of core competence in companies. A recent CBS news story and report showed that Product Management is now the fourth most important job in corporate America, with only CEOs, Executive Management and General Managers higher on the list.
With poor product management companies risk building products and services that customers don't want, that don't have the right strategy or that are taken to market ineffectively. The result is that they fail, and the profits and brand reputation of the company suffers. Great Product Management can change all of this, ensuring that companies create products that delight their customers, have winning strategies and maximize profits.
Brian Lawley is the CEO and Founder of the 280 Group. He is the author five best-selling books, The Phenomenal Product Manager, Expert Product Management, 42 Rules of Product Management, 42 Rules of Product Marketing and Optimal Product Process and is the former President of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association. He was awarded the Association of International Product Marketing Management award for Thought Leadership in Product Management, and has been featured on World Business Review, the Silicon Valley Business Report.
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AIPMM Membership benefits include the national Product Management Educational Conference, regional conferences, the Career Center, peer Forums, tools, templates, publications and eligibility to enroll in the Certification Programs. The Agile Certified Product Manager® (ACPM), Certified Product Manager® (CPM), Certified Product Marketing Manager® (CPMM), Certified Brand Manager® (CBM), and Certified Innovation Leader (CIL) programs allow individual members to demonstrate their level of expertise and provide corporate members an assurance that their product professionals are operating at peak performance.
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Moderated by Cindy F. Solomon, CPM, CPMM
Founder, Global Product Management Talk @ProdMgmtTalk
Global Product Management Talk: http://www.prodmgmttalk.com
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The Certified Innovation Leader body of knowledge and credential is aligned with The Association of International Product Marketing and Management. AIPMM was founded in 1998. It provides professional development, training, and certification to those involved in product management, such as product managers and developers, marketing managers, brand managers, project managers, and many more. The certified innovation leader credential is one of four certifications provided by AIPMM. The others include: certified product manager, certified product marketing manager, and agile certified product manager.
Director of PM will prioritize markets and segmentsPM – understand customer needs and develop business cases for solving customer problems at the product levelPMM – understand features and benefits and how those tie to customer problem"marketing programs" means PR, advertising, direct, website, events, etc. -- the whole marketing mixWhoe Product Definition deals with the actual product, the packaging and out of box experience, and all necessary supporting srervices (such as support, accessoriesAs with anything that tries to assign tasks with roles, this is not set in stone. The goal is to list the most logical owner, but every company needs to determine how to split these tasks based on skill sets of its employees and where in the lifecycle a product is. So I think any framework comes with caveats.As far as the location of “markets” at the top and “customers” at the bottom. The Dir., PM, and PMM must understand both, but I was trying to suggest the Dir. Concerns themselves more with markets. Which markets and market segments to be in, which are growing, which are shrinking, which are changing, do we grow by taking our product to a new market or by creating new products for an existing market? The PM and PMMs are working very closely with customers and finding shared problems that make a market. But they start bottoms up and the dir, starts tops down. Let me know if this is lost or confusing.I think the side bars are clearer, but let me know. But the main internal interface for PM is development and the main internal interface for PMM is basically every other department. I’ve kept “inbound” and “outbound.” I’ve always found this notation helpful. It is not to say the boundaries are firm between all parties, but that primary inbound responsibility is the PM and primary outbound is the PMM. For me, inbound is what I call listening activities. Those things that feed into the product until it is built. Outbound is a broadcasting activity letting the world know about the product and stepping the target market through the awareness, consideration, trial, purchase, and evangelism cycle. However, I’d like to hear more thoughts on this. I think barbara and Jim makes some good points, there are some inconsistencies and is this label actionable? Is there a better label? Should there be no label?Pricing – I kept that with the director. I agree the PM needs to have input into it and target price is a design input. But if someone has to own it, I think it is the director. I have not added the term VOC but have the idea. Let me know you think VOC should be there.I’ve added competitive analysis to all three roles (Dir = company and financial analysis), (PM=product analysis), (PMM = price, promotion, and place analysis). Does this make sense?I was using the term “market requirement” and “PRD” which was inconsistent. I know use “market requirement” and “product requirement”. FYI – aim is introducing “customer requirement” which is the idea that each person has their requirements. When enough share the same thing it is a market requirement. s, warranty, value added services.)
Director of PM will prioritize markets and segmentsPM – understand customer needs and develop business cases for solving customer problems at the product levelPMM – understand features and benefits and how those tie to customer problem"marketing programs" means PR, advertising, direct, website, events, etc. -- the whole marketing mixWhoa Product Definition deals with the actual product, the packaging and out of box experience, and all necessary supporting services (such as support, accessoriesAs with anything that tries to assign tasks with roles, this is not set in stone. The goal is to list the most logical owner, but every company needs to determine how to split these tasks based on skill sets of its employees and where in the lifecycle a product is. So I think any framework comes with caveats.As far as the location of “markets” at the top and “customers” at the bottom. The Dir., PM, and PMM must understand both, but I was trying to suggest the Dir. Concerns themselves more with markets. Which markets and market segments to be in, which are growing, which are shrinking, which are changing, do we grow by taking our product to a new market or by creating new products for an existing market? The PM and PMMs are working very closely with customers and finding shared problems that make a market. But they start bottoms up and the dir, starts tops down. Let me know if this is lost or confusing.I think the side bars are clearer, but let me know. But the main internal interface for PM is development and the main internal interface for PMM is basically every other department. I’ve kept “inbound” and “outbound.” I’ve always found this notation helpful. It is not to say the boundaries are firm between all parties, but that primary inbound responsibility is the PM and primary outbound is the PMM. For me, inbound is what I call listening activities. Those things that feed into the product until it is built. Outbound is a broadcasting activity letting the world know about the product and stepping the target market through the awareness, consideration, trial, purchase, and evangelism cycle. However, I’d like to hear more thoughts on this. I think barbara and jim makes some good points, there are some inconsistencies and is this label actionable? Is there a better label? Should there be no label?Pricing – I kept that with the director. I agree the PM needs to have input into it and target price is a design input. But if someone has to own it, I think it is the director. I have not added the term VOC but have the idea. Let me know you think VOC should be there.I’ve added competitive analysis to all three roles (Dir = company and financial analysis), (PM=product analysis), (PMM = price, promotion, and place analysis). Does this make sense?I was using the term “market requirement” and “PRD” which was inconsistent. I know use “market requirement” and “product requirement”. FYI – aipmm is introducing “customer requirement” which is the idea that each person has their requirements. When enough share the same thing it is a market requirement. s, warranty, value added services.)
Director of PM will prioritize markets and segmentsPM – understand customer needs and develop business cases for solving customer problems at the product levelPMM – understand features and benefits and how those tie to customer problem"marketing programs" means PR, advertising, direct, website, events, etc. -- the whole marketing mixWhoe Product Definition deals with the actual product, the packaging and out of box experience, and all necessary supporting srervices (such as support, accessorieAs with anything that tries to assign tasks with roles, this is not set in stone. The goal is to list the most logical owner, but every company needs to determine how to split these tasks based on skill sets of its employees and where in the lifecycle a product is. So I think any framework comes with caveats.As far as the location of “markets” at the top and “customers” at the bottom. The Dir., PM, and PMM must understand both, but I was trying to suggest the Dir. Concerns themselves more with markets. Which markets and market segments to be in, which are growing, which are shrinking, which are changing, do we grow by taking our product to a new market or by creating new products for an existing market? The PM and PMMs are working very closely with customers and finding shared problems that make a market. But they start bottoms up and the dir, starts tops down. Let me know if this is lost or confusing.I think the side bars are clearer, but let me know. But the main internal interface for PM is development and the main internal interface for PMM is basically every other department. I’ve kept “inbound” and “outbound.” I’ve always found this notation helpful. It is not to say the boundaries are firm between all parties, but that primary inbound responsibility is the PM and primary outbound is the PMM. For me, inbound is what I call listening activities. Those things that feed into the product until it is built. Outbound is a broadcasting activity letting the world know about the product and stepping the target market through the awareness, consideration, trial, purchase, and evangelism cycle. However, I’d like to hear more thoughts on this. I think barbara and jim makes some good points, there are some inconsistencies and is this label actionable? Is there a better label? Should there be no label?Pricing – I kept that with the director. I agree the PM needs to have input into it and target price is a design input. But if someone has to own it, I think it is the director. I have not added the term VOC but have the idea. Let me know you think VOC should be there.I’ve added competitive analysis to all three roles (Dir = company and financial analysis), (PM=product analysis), (PMM = price, promotion, and place analysis). Does this make sense?I was using the term “market requirement” and “PRD” which was inconsistent. I know use “market requirement” and “product requirement”. FYI – aipmm is introducing “customer requirement” which is the idea that each person has their requirements. When enough share the same thing it is a market requirement. s, warranty, value added services.)
Director of PM will prioritize markets and segmentsPM – understand customer needs and develop business cases for solving customer problems at the product levelPMM – understand features and benefits and how those tie to customer problem"marketing programs" means PR, advertising, direct, website, events, etc. -- the whole marketing mixWhoe Product Definition deals with the actual product, the packaging and out of box experience, and all necessary supporting srervices (such as support, accessorieAs with anything that tries to assign tasks with roles, this is not set in stone. The goal is to list the most logical owner, but every company needs to determine how to split these tasks based on skill sets of its employees and where in the lifecycle a product is. So I think any framework comes with caveats.As far as the location of “markets” at the top and “customers” at the bottom. The Dir., PM, and PMM must understand both, but I was trying to suggest the Dir. Concerns themselves more with markets. Which markets and market segments to be in, which are growing, which are shrinking, which are changing, do we grow by taking our product to a new market or by creating new products for an existing market? The PM and PMMs are working very closely with customers and finding shared problems that make a market. But they start bottoms up and the dir, starts tops down. Let me know if this is lost or confusing.I think the side bars are clearer, but let me know. But the main internal interface for PM is development and the main internal interface for PMM is basically every other department. I’ve kept “inbound” and “outbound.” I’ve always found this notation helpful. It is not to say the boundaries are firm between all parties, but that primary inbound responsibility is the PM and primary outbound is the PMM. For me, inbound is what I call listening activities. Those things that feed into the product until it is built. Outbound is a broadcasting activity letting the world know about the product and stepping the target market through the awareness, consideration, trial, purchase, and evangelism cycle. However, I’d like to hear more thoughts on this. I think barbara and jim makes some good points, there are some inconsistencies and is this label actionable? Is there a better label? Should there be no label?Pricing – I kept that with the director. I agree the PM needs to have input into it and target price is a design input. But if someone has to own it, I think it is the director. I have not added the term VOC but have the idea. Let me know you think VOC should be there.I’ve added competitive analysis to all three roles (Dir = company and financial analysis), (PM=product analysis), (PMM = price, promotion, and place analysis). Does this make sense?I was using the term “market requirement” and “PRD” which was inconsistent. I know use “market requirement” and “product requirement”. FYI – aipmm is introducing “customer requirement” which is the idea that each person has their requirements. When enough share the same thing it is a market requirement. s, warranty, value added services.)