Global Product Management Talk

Questions for discussion: http://on.fb.me/pCl98V  In the B2B world, companies frequently invest time on market research to develop the product vision, and then sequester the product owner in the tactical development work during the entire "version 1" construction phase.  In contrast, agile started in the custom software world, where products being built for a specific customer often involved a customer representative in the form of the "product owner" to provide direct input as the product is being developed.     John Peltier has served as Product Owner on three development projects with varying organizational structures, and has amassed an unenviable collection of bumps and bruises along the way. John's experience has led to a unique viewpoint on how Product Managers can harness Scrum to deliver better products. Twitter @johnpeltier http://johnpeltier.com  http://www.prodmgmttalk.com @prodmgmttalk Today's hosts: Cindy F. Solomon @cindyfsolomon and Roger Cauvin, Product Strategist @rcauvin http://blog.cauvin.org

John Peltier is a frequent participant in the product management community on Twitter, and as an organizer of ProductCamps.  He's participated on the organizing committee of four ProductCamp  unconferences in Austin and two in Atlanta.  This past weekend, he presented a session at ProductCamp Atlanta entitled "Personas in Design and Strategy". http://bit.ly/qMnlB8   John says, "I’m excited to contribute more, in a different way, to the product management and ProductCamp communities!" Follow @johnpeltier http://johnpeltier.com Host: Cindy F. Solomon @cindyfsolomon of Global Product Management Talk @prodmgmttalk

New product ideas can come from many places. A customer may request a specific solution to address a business challenge. A competitor may introduce a new game-changing concept that needs to be answered. New regulations may cause a need for which there is no solution yet. An executive may have a pet idea that they’ve fallen in love with and want to bring to life. An observed overall market trend may point to an emerging need. These ideas should all result in the development of business cases. The responsibility of creating the business case usually falls on the shoulders of the product manager. Whether the idea is the brainchild of the product manager or not, it’s the product manager who must make the case. If the product fails, it’s often the product manager who takes the blame. Therefore, product managers need to be the voice of reason when a not-so-great idea introduced by an influential person in the company doesn’t look like it’s going to fly with the target market as conceived. "This discussion assumes that the audience is familiar with business cases. It's about steering the direction of the company and business cases are one of the tools to do that. Another is a clear vision of the future in the form of a good product roadmap," states Greg White. Greg White Co-founded ProductCamp SoCal, an "unconference" educational and networking event for local product management and marketing professsionals.  Greg also founded  Orange County Product Managers, a rapidly-growing professional organization that facilitates the exchange of ideas, resources and contacts between product management and product marketing professionals in Orange County, California. Follow @GregWhiteOC @prodmgmttalk http://www.prodmgmttalk.com

In today's globalized environment we are all expected to be global Product Managers working with people from very different beliefs about work. India and the US are almost exactly opposite in their business preferences. These preferences show up when organizing a meeting, inside virtual environments like wiki's, deadlines being missed, product deliverables being wrong, and low levels of team retention. Brandi Moore, Founder of IndiaThink and the first American focused on building global business relationships between India and the US, will join us to discuss the challenges product managers face and offer perspectives on how culture may be at the root of many business problems. "Our conversation will offer insights to a community that is stepping into global management on a daily basis and needs to understand how India's business preferences are very different, impacting everything that happens during product development cycles."

Mack McCoy insists, “If you think you’re just selling a product, you’re wrong!  Customers have moved on. They see BRANDS as services and products as a component of the relationship they have with a variety of brands at any given time. Everything is migrating into a service. Customers still buy individual products, but their experience IS your brand impression - the product is important but it’s only a part of their entire relationship.” Follow @ProdMgmtTalk hashtag #ProdMgmtTalk

Jen Leibhart and Liz Blink talk about their experience at Product Camp Melbourne this past weekend. http://www.pcampmelbourne.com

Tim Returns after Laser Surgery for Dissecting MABUSHI with a Laser MABUSHI is the bane of product marketing and continues to run rampant, especially in the high-tech space. It's altogether too easy to get excited about a new feature set but customers rarely buy feature sets - they usually buy solutions to their problems. Effective product marketers truly recognize how their products address those problems. This session will focus on how to cut through your own fluff and get to who really cares and what's important to them. Tim C. Johnson is a Product Marketing expert and Author of the "It's About Value" product marketing blog dedicated to ridding the world of MABUSHI (look up the definition at value-prodmktg.blogspot.com). Johnson has 20+ years of sales and marketing experience in software ranging from end-user applications to development tools, databases, ERP, systems management, security and cloud Background resources: http://pack.li/21

Tom Evans, Sessions Chair at Product Camp Austin talks about the principles of "Teach, Learn, Network", what makes PCamp Austin unique and what enables it to happen every 6 months. He describes Product Manager Smackdowns, The Great Debate, Power Point Kareoke, GameTrack, Speed Networking, Product Potlucks. He gives insight into PCamp Austin's "road map" for sustaining momentum, mentoring future board members, distributing the work load and keeping sessions fun and innovative.

According to Matt Howell, “This session will be an open discussion to uncover best practices in roadmap maintenance, with the goal of surfacing new successful patterns among the variety of industries represented by #ProdMgmtTalk's community.” “Working with the Global Product Management Talk group has been an essential component of building my network on Twitter.  The weekly sessions continue to provide immense value to both new and veteran Product Managers,”

We are pleased to welcome Erika L. Andersen who is jumping in at the last moment to lead our discussion and get her questions answered!  Today's speaker, Tim C. Johnson, had a medical emergency & will be rescheduled.   Lawyers have to specialize in order to survive, and I’m a generalist, I like to do it all. When I was a lawyer, I was involved in a case that required someone who understood markets, technology, accounting and could translate details between various people. I had to figure out the technology, which I did talking to Product Managers and then translate it for the lawyers, accountants, economists and others involved in the $1 billion case. That was the perfect entry into looking at Product Management as a perfect fit for my skill set.   @ErikaLAndersen http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikaandersen questions:  http://bit.ly/pw6uFB