Excellent book
In my opinion this book is very well written and it provides a wealth of information for new product managers.
Reasonable Overview For Beginners
I purchased several books on Product Management to help my team improve our product development and launch process. I am a little surprised that there seems to be few books available on Product Management.
I found this book to be the best among a disappointing selection. It provides an adequate overview for beginners and intermediate skilled people in software product development. It is useful in that it provides some guidance to help build a product management process where one does not exist.
However I don't think it provides sufficient depth that a team with limited skills should expect that it provides sufficient information. The templates were disappointing and of little value (great templates would have raised my rating by at least a star.)
I suggest you supplement this book with other books (if you can find them) and an experienced team member or outside consultant.
Great starting point for Product Managers
This book is probably the best overall guide for Product Managers I have seen. It is very broad in places because it tries to remain as applicable to Product Managers of all kinds of products, from shampoo to TVs to computer software. The concepts of Product Management are the same, regardless of industry, but the reader needs to be capable of translating broad concepts into something applicable to their own setting.
The book does a great job of describing the scope of a Product Manager's role and the types of things a Product Manager should be thinking about. This is particularly useful for new Product Managers or for experienced Product Managers that want a reference point for helping explain their role to others (often one of the greatest challenges for a Product Manager).
Product Manager must have
This book is is a must have for someone that want to have a good understanding of a Product Manager area of competency. It has real-life interviews related to challenges/solutions associated to this role. I absolutely recommend this book for someone that want to have a good understanding of what Product Manager entails.
Provides insight into the roles & responsibilities of the product manager
This book gives a good introduction into the roles and responsibilities of a product manager. It makes no assumptions of any prior knowledge or experiences. For each chapter, it provides worksheets or process flow charts. In addition, case studies of actual events are presented. At the end of each chapter, it provides a set of checklist. Therefore I will recommend this to any reader interested to know more or making a career change.
Overall, this book provides an excellent overview of the on-goings within business processes. Below is a brief summary.
This book is divided into 4 parts. Part I gives an introduction into product management. Part II highlights the process that the product managers (PMs) can use in their annual planning activities. It provides a format or guidelines for the annual product marketing plan. Part III highlights the analytical skills of PMs, which is to evaluate existing product line and to determine & implement new product strategies. Part IV elaborates on the marketing skills necessary for a successful product line. Special attention is devoted to pricing and marketing communication decisions and activities.
Briefly, product management is about the planning, forecasting and marketing of products and services. There is a need for PMs to be cross-functional leaders. The overall responsibility of the PM is to integrate the various segments of a business into a strategically focused whole, maximizing the value of a product by coordinating the production of an offering with an understanding of the market needs and requirements. PMs manage not only products, but projects and processes as well. The PM's job is to oversee all aspects of a product/service line to create and deliver superior customer satisfaction while simultaneously providing long term value for the company.
In terms of time allocation, the PM typically spends 40-55% on day-to-day activities, 20-30% on short term activities and 15-25% on long term or strategic activities. Therefore excellent time management is crucial. Examples of day-to-day activities are maintenance of product fact books, motivation of the sales force and distributors, collection of marketing information including competitive benchmarks, trends and opportunities and customer expectations, acting as liaison between the sales, manufacturing and R&D, etc teams. Examples of short-term activities are controlling budget and achieving sales goals, participation in annual marketing plan and forecast developments, working with advertising departments or agencies to implement promotional strategies, coordinating tradeshows and conventions, participation in new product-development teams and predicting and managing competitors' actions, modification of product and/or reduction of costs to increase value, recommendation of line extensions, participation in product elimination decisions, etc. Examples of long term strategic activities are creation of long term competitive strategy, identification of new product opportunities, recommendation of product changes, enhancements and introductions, etc.
PMs need a variety of knowledge including product/industry knowledge, business knowledge and interpersonal/management knowledge. In the beginning, PMs typically spend most of the time gathering and organizing information on products, customers and their competition. Product knowledge is paramount. As they gain experience, the focus shifts to more comprehensive business knowledge, including finance, marketing and strategic planning. At the same time, they develop team building, negotiation, communication and leadership abilities. For PM to be effective, they need to build bridges throughout the company and be cross-functional leaders. For product management or marketing management, the emphasis is on being market-driven and not product-driven.
In terms of new product development, the role of the PM will be to represent the voice of the customer, balancing the corporate ROI (rate of investment), customer satisfaction and the manufacturing cost. Whereas for strategic interactions, the PM must work continuously with operations to improve and enhance production line. PMs are frequently involved with operations on cost-reduction projects.
