February 2012 Event Re-Cap
Posted on | February 22, 2012 | Leave a Comment
“Starting from Scratch? Lessons Learned From Trying to Create Software as a Service at SAP” with Mike Tschudy, VP, Product Design Group, On Demand Applications at SAP
By Tej Ravindra
In February’s SVPMA monthly meeting, Mike Tschudy shared his experience and insights on developing SAAS solutions from a scratch. Three key takeaways were: a design thinking based approach to new product development, quick prototyping and Read more
Featured Article
Posted on | February 13, 2012 | Leave a Comment
What makes great Product Managers at expansion stage companies?
Choosing the right product management leader might mean success or failure for your startup. How to find great ones?
by Tien Anh Nguyen, Senior Associate at OpenView Venture Partners, an expansion-stage venture capital fund in Boston
In our portfolio companies of expansion stage software companies, the product management process is a critical function because it affects how successfully a company can evolve in its rapid trajectory from a startup to an established player in the market. Along this evolution, the company has to be constantly evolving its whole product experience to adapt to changing customer needs and to the changing market segments. The ability of the product management organization to guide and execute this process both strategically and operationally Read more
January 2012 Event Recap
Posted on | February 10, 2012 | Leave a Comment
“What Every Product Manager Needs to Know about UX” with Glen Lipka, Vice President of User Experience at Marketo
By Cindy F. Solomon
Glen Lipka is the Vice President of User Experience at Marketo where he was the first non-founder employee that ran product management and UX for several years of the company’s development. Prior to Marketo, Glen was a Senior UI Designer at Intuit, Director of User Experience at Adchemy and started his career running a thirty-person web development company in NYC during the Internet bubble. Glen has been a pioneer in websites and web applications for over 15 years, pushing the envelope in interactivity on public facing websites to Rich Internet Applications (RIA) for businesses. He speaks frequently on all aspects of building great products on the web, including NYU Stern School of Business and Stanford University.
Lipka kicked-off his talk acknowledging that most companies do not have a strong UX department and most products do not have a pleasant user experience. His definition of user experience, which he repeated several times during the presentation is; “User experience, specifically “design” is Read more
Featured Article
Posted on | January 3, 2012 | 1 Comment
Making the Case: Why Product Management Is Critical to Company Success
by Greg Geracie
Ask virtually any person inside your organization what the value of product management is and you’re likely to get a series of different answers or even quizzical looks. This is ironic, because product management is critical to company success. Although no one inside theorganization wants to eliminate product management, few people can succinctly describe its value to the organization.
This begs the question, why is it so difficult for people to understand and communicate product management’s value? Read more
12-2011 Event Review
Posted on | December 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment
“The Tyranny of Benchmarking” with Mike Harding, Vice President of Juniper Networks
by Nate Zou
Mike Harding is an entrepreneur; mixing business and technology to solve hard problems. Over his 25-year career, Harding has founded seven startups and has had four successful exits. Two of these were dismal failures, for which Mike bears complete responsibility. He indicates that these failures represent at their worst “the most expensive business school in the world” and at their best “the most valuable learning experience about business, technology, and self.” Read more
11-2011 Event Review
Posted on | November 17, 2011 | Leave a Comment
“The Journey of Mobile Computing – Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” with Anthony Yung, Group Manager, Product Management, Intel
by Dan Galatin
Anthony Yung, Group Manager of Product Management at Intel, presented at the November 2nd meeting of the SVPMA. Mr. Yung discussed the history of mobile computing, major milestones over the years, and some of the lessons learned from notable product successes and failures. Although he focused his analysis on mobile computing, many of the themes he introduced naturally apply to other quickly-evolving sectors as well.
Mr. Yung demonstrated the usefulness of taking a “big history” approach in understanding the development of mobile computing over the decades. In this approach, Read more
10-2011 Event Review
Posted on | November 3, 2011 | Leave a Comment
“Managing Products in the Mobile App World” with Etay Gafni, Owner, Bright Act LLC
by Tej Ravindra
Etay Gafni, an experienced mobile app consultant and owner of Bright Act LLC, addressed the whys and hows of Mobile Product planning and product management for mobile devices.
In addition to the best practices of product management, If you are planning product for a mobile device, take into account the speed of change in mobile technology, the large number of variations of the hardware: Screen sizes, inputs, CPU, memory and the different OS.
While most companies consider going into the mobile space as a no brainer, it is important to stop and ask 2 important questions: Read more
Featured Article
Posted on | October 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment
The Perfect Partnership by Greg Geracie
Companies often struggle to maintain a good balance between their market activities and their product development efforts. The fact is – most new products are not ready for prime time. This circumstance leads to products that deliver less value than anticipated or fail altogether. This inability of organizations to effectively bring products to market often creates a significant drag on companies’ ability to innovate and compete in today’s rapidly changing marketplaces.
There are a significant number of reasons why it’s so challenging to effectively bring products to market. Some are external, such as changing market conditions or shifting customer needs. However, many problems result from internal challenges such as overstretched contributors, the wrong mix of skills, poorly understood processes, and misalignment between the core team members in the value creation process. Read more
09-2011 Event Review
Posted on | September 26, 2011 | Leave a Comment
“The Marketing Side of Agile: 10 Secrets for Success”
with Ron Brown CEO of United Keys
Ron Brown, patent holder, corporate spokesperson and author of the book, Anticipate, The Architecture of Small Team Innovation and Product Success, on promoting creativity and innovation at the team level, presented at the September 7th meeting of SVPMA.
Ron’s career spans three industries. One third of his career was in the packaged goods advertising industry where he learned principles of professional creative problem solving. The second third he spent in high-tech hardware and software companies, where he learned about supply chains and distribution channels. One third has been within Silicon Valley internet startups. His career includes experience at Nestle, international ad agencies J. Walter Thompson and BBDO. At JWT, Brown managed the HP computers and printers businesses. As VP Corporate Marketing at Wyse Technology, he gained global channels, distribution, and corporate marketing experience. As president at eFax.com, he built one of the fastest growing consumer internet sites.
Brown said that the failure rate for new product entries has been increasing. Whereas 50 years ago, most new products were successful, twenty years ago the failure rate was 50%, while it is 70% in today’s business environment. He set out to discover what knowledge leading companies have about new product innovation that distinguishes them from their industry peers. He started by digging through 60 years of industry research about product success, then he interviewed developers and managers from a wide range of companies.
Brown defines “leading companies” as those that generate Read more
Featured Article
Posted on | September 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment