tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74552564350108838622012-02-14T10:32:52.644-08:00My views on Product Management and Product Managers - "What do Product Managers manage? Product or Opportunity"Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.comBlogger221100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-34827646284199696172012-02-07T11:26:00.000-08:002012-02-07T11:26:45.301-08:00

At product owner level, wherein I am sole owner of product / portfolio or LOB, I ensure that I have maximum possible coverage of reference points, inputs from which can be translated into requirements and placed in backlog. Taking care of large number of reference points is cumbersome, especially if you are dealing with  a cloud based delivery platform that enables high quality services to

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-36773310496193655192012-01-29T08:50:00.000-08:002012-01-29T22:58:18.729-08:00

Over 940,000 results when I last Googled ‘how to write a good PRD’. More than enough documents (docs, PDF, PPTs) and templates (doc & excel) that will guide you through various sections (& topics) that constitutes a good PRD. While nothing to argue against or for these ideas as they come from rich and/ or wise experience, however I suggest that a Product Manager must consider opinion of the

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-30504402345804325462012-01-14T22:33:00.000-08:002012-01-14T23:10:56.903-08:00

Knowing your working style and what role is best suited for your way of working is very important for every professional. Rather, I should say chosing a style that helps you do your preffered role effectively is  of greater importance. Well, as you aim to become a success manager, it becomes imperative that you know about your ability and your style. While you may pic-up any of n number of

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-76524321178850118682011-12-21T10:07:00.000-08:002011-12-22T09:24:48.831-08:00

We humans are interesting and so are our dreams. On one hand we aim for perfection - try to match precision of machine and on other hand we with help of Artificial Intelligence, design machines to match humans. Evolution and Future of Product Management is inspired by this philosophy of humans & machines. In ancient world construction was considered as an Art, which later on was discovered 

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-4888215833797061272011-12-05T11:20:00.001-08:002011-12-07T01:59:13.519-08:00

I was meeting this whole bunch of product managers last Sunday at India Product Managers Association annual event at IIMB campus. Each of them doing something different from rest but mostly from IT, ITES kind of background. Just wondering why we don't see PMs from non IT background. Well, whatever - it was good to learn few things which was evident from what I observed during the talks / Q&A,

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-74800316512736484322011-11-21T10:36:00.001-08:002011-11-21T11:16:43.485-08:00

Abstracts from an interview of a candidate for the post of product manager. Feel like hiring him, though not after my manager gave me staring looks on this candidate. Interesting interview conversation though. Your experience is largely into Project Management. What convinced you to change your career path? Yes – I have done project management for 8 years now and I happened to visit

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-87646921634998107852011-11-03T02:33:00.000-07:002011-11-03T02:34:52.588-07:00

Managing opportunities is top most priority of a Product Manager, and a professional who does this religiously wins success. While there are many aspects of taking care of opportunity, I suggest following 10 as most important pieces that will ensure a complete picture of success. Having continuous focus on these 10 points is a must for any product manager who wish to get branded as success

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-79669617672736736832011-10-19T11:10:00.000-07:002011-10-19T11:12:44.401-07:00

Trait V - Be up-to-date, the control system How often do you re-visit the product plan? What's your control system that helps you correct the course that you have decided to take your product on. As a product champion you are responsible for the result, responsible for effectiveness of the team that works on your course and responsible for ROI that investors expect from you. Being a Product

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-90189134495242154782011-10-05T11:46:00.001-07:002011-10-05T11:51:32.804-07:00

I am working on designing our next generation service delivery platform that will help us enhance our capability and add dozens of new features on fly. Wow! That sounds interesting, and to begin with I organized a series of brainstorming sessions. In all we had 7 sessions that were conducted over a period of 12 days. Each day, we picked a module (sub-system) and discussed it thoroughly. Our

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-50599255431244272342011-09-16T23:25:00.000-07:002011-09-17T00:33:04.672-07:00

What's in the title? - yeah, that's not that easy to let go. My title is my identity in my organization - well said by someone whom I meet 4 years back in mirror, while combing my hair. I was curious to know if my title truly justified that I do, and equally curious was the guy in mirror to answer me, hmm but then what does Product Manager mean, and is this the title that truly justifies my

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-11034138455689899022011-09-16T23:16:00.000-07:002011-09-16T23:16:35.088-07:00

I have been guilty of abandoning  this blog for quite long now and believe that my absent from blogging is an injustice that I did to myself. I am back here now, with an open commitment to myself that I will be regular on content and fresh on thoughts – I will be committed to my blogging as I have been to my personal and professional life. So no more looking back. I am back and am here to stay

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-75696303100540591202010-11-06T11:21:00.000-07:002010-11-06T11:45:02.455-07:00

I have been part of discussions on this topic for enough and more times. Few suggest a strong back ground in technology while some emphasis on business acumen and marketing background a must for PMs job. I remember my discussion with a senior executive of a reputed Indian telecom giant who says, “It depends on product type, market and key deliverables that are expected from PM”. And why should

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-17976351487594121522010-10-25T10:34:00.000-07:002010-10-25T10:52:36.694-07:00

India Product Management Association organized P-Camp at Bangalore recently. This event was hosted by Yahoo India and attained by over 100 enthusiasts from Product background and few stalwarts of the functional domain from reputed brands like Honeywell and Yahoo. This event will be remembered for long as it was first of its kind in India and was organized to perfection. Well done folks. This is

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-35041851807063514872010-10-09T22:58:00.000-07:002010-10-10T00:01:19.712-07:00

It talks two to close a sales deal, a salesperson and an engineer. Sales folks are front end who would typically meet the customer and demonstrate the product to customers, whereas engineers work in back end and are responsible for design and develop a product that exceeds the customer expectation. Let’s consider this medical simile. Salesperson’s role is like that of a needle, who knows how to

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-91578959841378490462010-08-28T09:39:00.000-07:002010-08-28T09:57:32.410-07:00

'To Err is human, To repeat it is idiotic'This is true. We are human and so is success manager. We all are bound to make some mistakes in our decisions but what would distinguished a success manager from rest is that he takes his learning from mistakes and move forward while others might cry, some would find excuse and some start playing a blame game.Understanding the situation and reason of your

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-67441571154424159252010-07-23T11:50:00.000-07:002010-07-23T12:23:32.998-07:00

In September 2008, I wrote a blog on ‘urgencies of getting ready for post recession’. Many were seeing light at the end of the tunnel then but were not sure of the distance though. Many were not able to see the light then but they could see it today and many are still in dark. What amuses me most is that there were people who had always seen light at the end of tunnel, be it start of recession or

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-15238620676640433192010-02-19T00:42:00.000-08:002010-02-26T10:19:55.980-08:00

"Success Manager is truly a social animal" In the very first post of my blog, I mentioned that one of the characteristics of a success manager is that he concentrates and advocates customer needs and opportunities. Now how and when do a success manager do it, in board rooms? No way...... board rooms for me are meant for sign-up and not for decision making. Decision making requires a lot of

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-19195576317703519052010-02-12T05:56:00.000-08:002010-02-13T23:08:02.709-08:00

Winners make it happen and Losers let it happen The trait of making things happen is tightly coupled with being proactive, and taking initiatives at right time. A success manager drives product, people and organization. His job is to take initiative, build conviction and then drive the initiative to a logical closure. Waiting for things to happen will only allow others to make it happen, it's

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-26096274595385777602010-02-05T21:41:00.000-08:002010-02-13T23:05:04.339-08:00

‘how high you go, depends upon how deep your roots are”This one trait of going deep into the requirements, customer expectation & engineering process takes product manager & product to greater heights. As a success manager, you are expected take the bull by the horns. So how do you manage these expectations. The only way forward is to get deep into the expectation, neck deep, deeper than anyone’s

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-71454972721041799372009-09-19T10:36:00.000-07:002009-09-19T11:13:10.634-07:00

Escalation that wasn't - is a false alarm. Raised by customer and escalated by friend’s next door (customer care) to top executives as business critical bulge. This falls as lighting on engineering, who then keep aside all planned activities to look into this. Although engineering maintains limited buffer for such unplanned activities, and most of the time ensures release on plan but lighting

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-64997302348142982432009-09-08T09:35:00.000-07:002009-09-09T23:40:53.715-07:00

Recession is all set to go. Are you ready to grab the opportunities that may spur the sinking market. The situation is like that in a Formula 1 racing. The safety car comes on after a crash, slows down the pace and now it has switched off the lights. Drivers know that it’s going out at the end of the lap and the drivers are all set to whoosh. That’s what happens in Formula 1 racing, but in

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7455256435010883862.post-67022579778820692362009-08-30T01:34:00.001-07:002009-08-30T03:30:39.110-07:00

What do Product Managers manage, Product, LOB or an Opportunity? Product Managers profile is most commonly misunderstood as someone who manages the product roadmap, requirements for a release and owns a delivery. While these definitely are some of the key tasks performed by product managers, but these are not all, product management is lot more than these KRAs.Successful product managers are

Abhayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02377839573143346839noreply@blogger.com0