Product Thinking - The Newsletter
Ken Pulverman
New Division or Startup B2B Leader & CPO | + Strong Product Marketing & Marketing Leadership | Former Oracle | Siebel | Model N | Driven Core IPO Process | Paved Path for Multiple Exits
Breakthrough Strategic Thinking About Product Strategy & Management to Make You and Your Company Stand Out
Product Management is a uniquely compelling & perplexing role. You are at the center of it all and responsible for all, but not the master of all. The weight of the world is often on your shoulders, but you often don't control most of the resource bringing that creation to life. It is a role of subtle influence where potential setbacks are the opportunity for savvy strategy to shine.
Product Thinking is art & science of applying a keen business lens to any strategic opportunity to ensure your company, with its unique skills and given resources, can make the absolute most of it for you and your customers. As you likely direct the most expensive activities your company undertakes, Product Thinking is mindset that will help your company deliver the results it is capable of.
There are, no doubt, lots of supporting functions at your company. People need to thing about how best to get your name & solution in front of a prospect, some defines how to orchestrate a sale and best satisfy customer accounts and end users. These all arguably support the thing that you do which is delivered as a product or service.
This newsletter is for you. I'll cover new thinking in Product Management and refresh old chestnuts that hopefully you'll be able to use in the heat of battle to win. I'll also be here as a sounding board hopefully bounce these ideas around with you and more.
Happy reading, commenting, and doing your own Product Thinking,
Ken Pulverman
Volume 1
In this version of the newsletter, I am exploring:
1. Who to Hire & Why
During pandemic, there was a giant sucking sound in the Bay Area draining every frat brother and sorority sister out of their johnny come lately jobs in high tech during the heady froth of the late 20 teens. A lack of obvious bro culture had them packing up and moving back to Des Moines and Columbus to live in their parent's basement and save for a down payment for a house in the after years. Smart move. As the pandemic waned and people whined about coming back to the office, and many cases, moving back to the office it became clear that many of these folks were the mercenaries that came for the spoils, but not so much for the heavy lifting.
With clearly idle bro-time in the basement, these folks created a field day for HR consultants as they continue to wrestle with WFH and hybrid work situations trying to address environments where OKRs were few and far between and accountability was just loosely given a nod via attendance. With this phenomenon now clear as day, I make the case for hiring the self-motivated curious and provide ideas on how to do so.
Hiring for Curiosity. - You Likely have Mercenaries in your Midst, and They are Crippling your Results
2. How Best to Structure the Product Management Job
Young PMs want a tribe. It is understandable. By sitting in umpteen Engineering meetings, they get that sense of belonging. The problem is, they are failing to do their jobs. Poorly written user stories leave Engineers dependent on a dog's body PM who will go chase every question down which gives that PM a false sense of self-worth. It's a leadership challenge, and I surface this issue and explain how to as Product Management guru Steve Blanks says, "get them out of the building" to do the heartbeat of the job gathering, synthesizing, and summarizing customer discovery insights into specific market needs.
The One Reason your Company May be Missing its Moment – the invisible "Agile Divide" between Product Management & Engineering.
领英推荐
3. How to ensure you can drive a strategic roadmap that delivers
So many C-Suite executives bemoan that reality that the products they are producing are not delivering what the market is telling them it needs. In my view, the root cause is a poor prioritization process. This dysfunction can be seen in their Product Councils that may have devolved into shouting matches that look like a session of the Taiwanese parliament. At the end of the day, ruthlessly prioritizing what the market needs with limited resource to develop a thriving business is not an act of democracy. It is the collaboration of an executive team will clear milestone and goals on a mission to serve the needs of a large market. This piece addresses this common dysfunction and what to do about it.
On Product Management: How to get What you Need to be Successful from your Roadmap
I hope this collection of themed articles proves useful to you, and I hope you'll engage and share your views. It takes a village to advance a profession. You preside over that village.
<end ;-)
#CEO #Leadership #ProductManagement #ProductStrategy #Engineering
OFFER
If want to bat any of these ideas around for your company and talk about what you could do to maximize your organization's impact. I'd love to help you map out next steps over coffee or Zoom & coffee.
Ken Pulverman is a Silicon Valley software executive with more than 20 years of leadership experience in large and small software companies including multiple C-Suite roles in both Product and Marketing in growth companies resulting in three successful exits and an IPO. In addition to the software industry, his work has included the Manufacturing, Logistics, Banking, Insurance, Pharma, and Travel & Transportation industries, as well as & Education. He has helped grow, build & improve product offerings at large organizations like Oracle, Siebel Systems, DHL Airways, and Stanford University as well as successful startups like Model N, Vendavo, & Parsable. His consulting brand is www.sagecxo.com where he and his partner provide hands-on services to unstick any software company to help them seize the day - from message to product to technology.
CEO & Founder @Yarsed | $30M+ in clients revenue | Ecom - UI/UX - CRO - Branding
11 个月Excited to dive into these insightful topics on Product Thinking! ?? Ken Pulverman