Article archives

Here you can find links to all the articles published on this website.

How closely aligned should product organisations be with marketing and personas?

Here’s another question I was asked recently:

If you’re concerned about buyer needs and their objectives, how closely aligned do you suggest product organisations be with marketing and with the persona development to ensure they are creating a solution that does meet those needs in the market?

Here’s my answer:

Read more › How closely aligned should product organisations be with marketing and personas?

How product managers can build a healthier relationship with the sales team

At some point, all product managers will find themselves wondering how they can build a healthier relationship with the sales team. I’ve written a guest post for the good folks at Mind The Product that offers some practical suggestions. Have … How product managers can build a healthier relationship with the sales team Read More…

Read more › How product managers can build a healthier relationship with the sales team

The £20 bottle of Blue Nun

To all wannabe e-commerce entrepreneurs: you no longer have any excuse. It’s possible to fire up an MVP for a wine delivery business in under an hour using just a mobile phone. Read how… Get articles when they’re published My … The £20 bottle of Blue Nun Read More »

Read more › The £20 bottle of Blue Nun

Making myself redundant

MOJ Digital wants to attract and recruit experienced professionals into the civil service on a permanent basis. We’re hiring for fifteen different job roles, including my role as head of product. Come and have a chat with us at Silicon Milkroundabout on 9th and 10th May to see what we’re all about.

Read more › Making myself redundant

The Practitioner’s Guide… a best seller and selling out fast!

Wow. And furthermore, gosh. I wasn’t expecting that. Get articles when they’re published My articles get published irregularly (erratically, some might say). Never miss an article again by getting them delivered direct to your inbox as soon as they go … The Practitioner’s Guide… a best seller and selling out fast! Read More »

Read more › The Practitioner’s Guide… a best seller and selling out fast!

The Practitioner’s Guide To Product Management – out tomorrow

As you may be aware, I’ve written a book called The Practitioner’s Guide To Product Management. It’s really a collection of stories from my own experience and others’ about how NOT to manage products. So if you just follow my Golden Rule (to ignore or do the opposite of everything I suggest), then you’ll be fine. Probably.

Read more › The Practitioner’s Guide To Product Management – out tomorrow

10 top tips for reading your users’ minds – talk at Product Management Festival 2014

Which is better for making product decisions: guesswork or user feedback? Albert Einstein once said that anyone can make something complex, but only a genius can make something simple. Imagine if you could read your user’s minds and understand what they really think about your product.

Read more › 10 top tips for reading your users’ minds – talk at Product Management Festival 2014

Back(log) to the Future – story arcs, roadmaps and product themes

Last time I published an article explaining why I thought roadmaps were a little like DVD box sets. DonorDrive product manager Kasey Marcum (@kaseymarcum) asked in the comments:

“Always enjoy your posts, Jock! I really love the high level idea of this. What does this actually look like in the wild?”

Imagine your roadmap and sprints being as engaging as a hit movie – just think how much easier they’d be to “sell” to your stakeholders and customers! Let’s see how you can do this.

Read more › Back(log) to the Future – story arcs, roadmaps and product themes

Product Management and the Internet of Things on Mind the Product

Once again, I’ve been attempting to single-handedly deny service to Twitter at ProductTank London.  Last week we had Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Claire Rowland and Alex Jones all talking to us about the Internet of Things and how it affects product management.  … Product Management and the Internet of Things on Mind the Product Read More »

Read more › Product Management and the Internet of Things on Mind the Product

34: Pick your battles

Recently Unilever challenged Procter & Gamble to prove their advertising claim that P&G’s Fairy brand of washing-up liquid lasted twice as long as Unilever’s Persil brand. The result that followed provides a great lesson for deciding how to pick your battles.

Read more › 34: Pick your battles

Ich bin Produktmanager: round-up from inaugural Product Management Festival 2013 in Zürich

The first Product Management Festival took place in Zürich this week, bringing together product people from across Europe, as well as some from farther afield: the US, China, Russia and Australia. There were laughs, drama and conflict (mainly between panellists, I hasten to add), but thankfully no actual fist-fights.

Read more › Ich bin Produktmanager: round-up from inaugural Product Management Festival 2013 in Zürich

Needs, features and benefits

One of the challenges of being a product manager is that it’s sometimes difficult to read between the lines of what your (potential) customers want in order to determine what they actually need. This article explains how to identify and differentiate between needs, features and benefits.

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Blast from the past

Three years ago today I published my first article on I Manage Products.  While a fair amount’s changed since then, I’d like to think that some things remain the same. My writing style, for one, hasn’t really improved in three … Blast from the past Read More »

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32: Be flexible

I’ve just kicked off another project through my firm, Product People Limited. With the inevitable flurry of project start-up activity, a couple of basic tasks have reminded me how important it is for product managers to be flexible, whenever possible.

Read more › 32: Be flexible

31: Learn to enjoy networking

Business networking used to hold about as much appeal for me as speed-dating with alligators. It was only later that I came to tolerate it, even enjoy it, but only after I learned to think about it differently. If the prospect of a room of people at an event fills you with dread, read on, this may help.

Read more › 31: Learn to enjoy networking

Product managers make GREAT dinner guests

Now that I’ve started up a product management consultancy, I’ve found myself having to explain a bit more often than before what a product manager actually is. There are, of course, eminently more articulate and relevant descriptions available of what being a product manager means. But as it’s a Monday, and we’re all need more frivolity in our lives, I’ve come to the conclusion that product managers would make excellent dinner guests. Here’s why:

Read more › Product managers make GREAT dinner guests

Don’t look back in anger – 2012 round-up

2012 was a real roller-coaster ride for me, both personally and professionally. Surprisingly (to me), it was only my first full year of blogging – I only started I Manage Products back in February 2011. But 2012 was the year I decided to step things up a little: yes, I procured a domain name. That made it official.

Oh yes, I also started a company and wrote some articles on product management…

Read more › Don’t look back in anger – 2012 round-up

My new favourite things

Over the last few weeks I’ve mostly been investigating the variety of tools available to help product managers at different stages of their product’s lifecycle. For me, the emphasis has been on speed and ease of use because my project is short-lived and I want to show some results.

Read more › My new favourite things

30: Reserve time for housekeeping

Like doing the washing-up, vacuuming under the sofa or cleaning your windows, housekeeping tasks with your product can get neglected because they’re tedious, not as interesting as new features and so on. However, if you’ve ever found yourself eating breakfast cereal out of an oven tray with a serving spoon because every single item of cutlery and crockery is festering in a pile in your sink, it should be apparent there is inherent value in tackling housekeeping tasks bit by bit over time.

Read more › 30: Reserve time for housekeeping

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