Product Management Journal

One of the most vexing user experience questions is: When must applications be consistent with each other? When is it OK to invent news ways of doing things that require users to relearn established methods? There is rarely an easy answer, but a Product Manager can play an important role in making these decisions. Most of us assume that it's a good thing when a mouse click performs the same action in different applications. Few of us miss the bad old days when every word processor had its own conventions, and there were no Windows interface guidelines and web interaction conventions. De facto standards have been created by successful products and suites, such as Microsoft Office and the Adobe suites. If you've learned one application, you've learned most of what you need to know to use another. But product designers are constantly confronted with opportunities to do things in a better , but different way. Is consistency an inviolable "must", or, as the saying ...

Personas provide a great way to focus your efforts on a specific type of customer. Which is why I was taken aback when a colleague proudly told me that he had provided 37 personas to his team. Focus. That's the point. Personas are descriptions of archetypical customers - they represent the common attributes of a large number of people. They can provide reference points for everyone involved in the planning and development process. Well-developed personas enable a software developer to say "Harry wouldn't be able to use that feature" or an marketer to say "Elaine needs to be able to justify purchasing the product to her manager." Personas should be a constant reminder of who the target customers are. For this to happen, Product Management has to create personas that are vivid and few . Vivid personas provide insight into the customer's problems and motivations; they can begin to convey the kind of gut-level connection that you get when you visit ...

Someone asked me recently: What's the most important unteachable trait to look for in a product manager? Passion . All the skills can be learned. The procedures taught. Business strategy can be picked up by experience (or maybe even in business school). Agile development can be learned on the job. Even leadership skills and public speaking can be coached. Passion can't be taught. A passionate product manager believes in her products. In fact, it's hard for a passionate PM to work on products that she doesn't believe in. When that happens, she may decide to move on. Matching people to their passions is important in hiring, and in management. It's crucial to recognize that different people are passionate about different things - one person may be excited about digital imaging applications, while another is enthusiastic about eLearning systems. When a PM believes in a product, its success becomes important on a personal level. Failure becomes, as they say, n...

I've coached girls softball for years, taking one team to the national championships. It's interesting to look at the ways that coaching a softball team is similar (or not) to product management… - In softball, mastering the fundamental skills is the foundation for success. Without this, no amount of strategy or motivation will lead to success. One weak player can lead to many losses. - In product development, there are specific skills that are absolutely necessary, such as mastery of development tools, design capabilities, and architectural vision. One missing skill can sink a project. - A softball team must be motivated to succeed. Goals, both for both the team and individuals, can help a team continuously improve its performance. These goals can be about both competition (beating a team or winning a championship) and personal performance (improving batting or fielding results). - A development team can usually produce something even if they're minimally motivated,...

A day at Silicon Valley P-Camp…very refreshing. P-Camp is a free information-exchange event for product managers. This year's event was held at Yahoo headquarters in Silicon Valley. There were many hundreds of PMs there…kind of a scary thing, when you think about it. I can't imagine that more product managers have ever been packed into one room. The beauty of this event is that it exists for everyone's benefit. The attitude is that if we all get better at what we do, then it's good for all. Never mind that there were many competitors there - in a way, we're all in this together. Product management is hard, so we might as well learn all we can from each other. It works. Oh, and it's free. P-Camp features class-type sessions that are chosen by the attendees. People propose sessions online, and attendees vote on which ones they want. The winners are given one-hour time slots, with 6-8 sessions at once. Topics ranged widely, from" PM Productivity"...

If you've ever worked in a state-of-the-art usability lab, with skilled user experience staff, you probably find it hard to consider a product finished until it's been tested for usability. Unfortunately, most companies don't have the infrastructure, budget or time for this sort of testing. While I believe it's too expensive not to do usability testing, I know that it's still very difficult for a PM to insist when deadlines are tight and there's no in-house usability infrastructure. Not doing usability testing costs money and time - the later a usability problem is discovered, the more it costs to fix. Find a problem in the spec/prototype stage, and it's trivial. Find it during beta testing, and it's a lot more expensive to fix. Find it after shipping, and the cost can be measured in extra tech support and lost sales, and then it may still have to be fixed in the next release. Clever user experience designers (you have some of them, right?) have d...

Hiring someone is a little bit like getting married. You're making a long-term commitment to spend a lot of time with him or her, you'll depend on each other in many ways, and it's not easy to end the relationship. So the hiring process is like dating - you want to find out a lot about each other, and like dating, it's not just about technical qualifications. Here are some different approaches to getting to know someone during the hiring process. Interviews usually start with a discussion of the candidate's past experiences. As an interviewer, it's important to press for details, not just hear the rehearsed story. For example, you can ask:   - "Why did you leave a job?" Press for details and ask how to confirm them. Is there someone, not necessarily a supervisor, you could talk to, from the previous job? You can learn a lot from a person's reaction to this, even if you don't follow up. And when you ask about why they left another job, you ...