Re: The Process is not the Point

(Cross-posted from Google+)

There's nothing worse than working hard and methodologically on stuff that no one wants to use. But how do you know whether the stuff you're building is what people want or not, until you ship it?

a) That's why lean methodology works - build fast, test fast, iterate fast

b) Some of the most successful products were not built to serve others' needs and wants. The creators set out to solve their dire problems, and it happened to be that there were million other people who had the same problem.

The Process is not the Point

There are two parts to every project…there is the Process and there is the Point.

The Process, which gets most of the attention, is the series of steps we go through to do the work. We obsess over the process…should we do wireframes, mockups, prototypes, or code right in HTML? What deliverables do we need to get buy-in? When do we do testing? What kind of testing do we do? Should we do user testing early? Late? When is the best time to get feedback? ...
 

Who is a product manager?

(Cross-posted from Google+)

Who is a product manager? It's anyone who sets out to work with multiple people to get the job done - whether a startup CEO or a small event organizer.

Product managers, by definition, need to convince other people and have them do the work. The most important skill for a product manager, therefore, is the ability to create a "reality distortion field". Steve Jobs, in that sense, is the ultimate PM best practice.

Creating a reality distortion field actually entails multiple different things: The ability to create the right vision (most of people are not dumb, so you'll need to come up with the right vision to have those smart people do the work for you), the ability to articulate the vision in the most compelling way, and general likability -- this is actually quite important, as people generally want to work for/with other people that they like.

More to come :)