Where is SallyOutLoud?

Where am I?

I’m on hiatus while I rethink the purpose of this blog. With so many great Product Management blogs available (ProductMarketing.com, Tyner Blain, Product Management Tribe, The Cranky Product Manager to name a few), the bar has been set quite high for Product Management blogs.

The phrase that keeps echoing in my head: “value proposition”.

Blogging Out Loud #6 – Cranky PM

Out loud from Cranky PM – “…show some initiative and EDUCATE YOURSELF. Go to Product Camps. Read blogs and articles. Ask questions of people and LinkedIn. Watch online webinars or some of the free online courses. Join a local product management association that hosts monthly speakers. Read some books. NO EXCUSES! All this stuff is FREE or a complete bargain.”

Stop making excuses. Read No Excuses Product Management (Part 2)- Stop Whining About Training.

Blogging Out Loud #5 – Jim Holland

Out loud from Jim Holland – “How can an effective product management leader identify, assess and develop the team while having another full-time job as an individual product management contributor? I believe you can’t. It places you in a position to lose credibility with your team and those you collaborate with throughout the organization.”

Make up your mind. Do you want to be a leader or an individual contributer? Read A Dichotomy – Leadership and Individual Contribution.

Blogging Out Loud #4 – Tom Grant

Out loud from Tom Grant – “Unfortunately, opportunity and reality don’t always meet.”

Do your product managers have the ”authority, capability, and responsibility” to innovate? Does opportunity meet reality in your Product Management Organization?  Find out – read Product managers must have the opportunity to be leaders.

Blogging Out Loud #3 – Rich Mirinov

Out loud from Rich Mirinov – “…we lead through credibility, marshalling of market insights, maintaining the long view, and appreciating functional experts for what they can do.”

How do you deal with market uncertainty?
Stop worrying and read: Market Facts, Judgment, Fallibility and Ownership

Blogging Out Loud #2 – Cindy Alvarez

Out loud from Cindy Alvarez – “ Customers may not be able to articulate what they want, but they can’t hide what they need.”

What is customer development?
Answers to that question and more, read it all here: FAQ: Customer Development for Product Managers.

Blogging Out Loud #1 – Tom Grant

Out loud from Tom Grant – “I will speak in terms you humans can understand.”

How do you avoid outsmarting yourself?
Be brilliant, be visionary read it all here: Don’t outsmart yourself

Blogroll for Product Managers

Updated list of Product Management Blogs – check it out:
Blogroll

Positioning 1-2-3: Selling Your Innovation

Tweeted by @Jim_Holland: “Dan Heath, co-author of Made to Stick on “Selling Your Innovation” [Link - see below] – great video on positioning #prodmgmt”.

Check it out:
Made to Stick: Selling Your Innovation

What’s the takeaway on how to position an innovative new product? Positioning in three steps:
1. Anchor to create understanding
2. A twist to showcase what’s different
3. TIVO: A VCR that enables you to record and pause Live TV

Of course, that doesn’t guarantee buyers will appreciate the twist. Maybe they would prefer a foxtrot or a polka?

How soon is soon?

Reminds me of the day we were driving by a construction site for a new restaurant and I noticed a sign that said “Coming soon”.  The sign was there for what seemed like an eternity, a period of several months.  It was up so long that one time when we drove by I turned to my husband and said “Coming soon?  Is that how they’re going to serve their food? Soo……n?”