Jock Busuttil’s (@jockbu) series “100 Things I’ve Learned” is what he’s learned about product management over the years – usually the hard way.
It is inevitable that you will need to stand up and give a presentation at some point during your career as a product manager. Some people dislike presenting more than others; that’s natural. Whether you love or hate the sound of your own voice, try some of the following tips to ease some of the stress of presenting.
We product managers are a surprisingly upbeat bunch considering that we seem to spend a good proportion of our time making compromises. We very rarely get the opportunity to deliver everything we need in a product in the best possible way.
Product managers can be creatures of habit. Some habits are good and give us a consistent and diligent approach. Sometimes, though, we allow ourselves to be constrained by habitual thinking, inhibiting true innovation. What’s stopping you?
So much of being a product manager depends on successfully persuading and influencing others. Whether you’re presenting your product strategy, presenting a business case to the Board or talking with your customers, you need to know your subject matter: to demonstrate a good knowledge of your products and market to ensure that you come over as authoritative and credible.
When we start thinking about the requirements for a new product version, I bet we all make the same mistake when deciding what goes in: we guess solutions rather than find problems.
One of the roles a product manager or product marketing manager plays is to act as a translator between different groups of people. Sometimes this can be in a literal sense, if your responsibilities span different countries, but more generally this means translating between the market, Sales, Marketing and Development as a minimum.
