#Rewind2011

I remember telling myself that 2011 would be my best year yet last January 1st, and I’m looking toward 2012 with the same optimism and enthusiasm! 2010 had been a rather placid year for me, and I was ready for some action. Here are my 2011 monthly highlights:

January: Social uprising hits home — literally — as friends and family are evacuated from my hometown of el Ma’adi, Egypt. On a more positive note, I obtained a certificate in Practical Product Management from Pragmatic Marketing, Inc., and launched the Mindjet Developer Network website, as well as revamped the Developer Program. My efforts led to a 300%+ increase in membership and the development of over 15 new software add-ins.

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February: Flew out to DC to interview with a “deal-of-the-day” website giant, and ended up turning down their offer. Sometimes even when the money and the role are right, the company culture just feels wrong. In the end, I’m very glad I didn’t take the position.

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March: What can I say? March is always awesome because it’s my birthday month! This year was especially special because I drove down to Pasadena to celebrate my pal LM’s bridal shower.

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April: Drove down to LA with my BF to pick up his two best friends, and then onto Vegas for some gamblin’ and the Hoover Dam for some history to make for an epic birthday trip! [Sorry, no Vegas pics allowed! ;)]

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May: Ran Bay2Breakers and attended LM’s absolutely amazing wedding. Definitely one of the major highlights of the year.

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June: Two major product launches in one month — you can believe I hadn’t slept for at least a month. Version 1.0 of Mindjet for iOS launched on the 14th, and MindManager for Mac launched on the 23rd!

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July: Smat’s goodbye party as they head off to Germany.

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August: Traveled to the Big Apple for an interview; spent a couple of weeks exploring New England with the BF and reacquainting myself with the Atlantic.

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September: Accepted a new job in a new city; resigned for the second time in my life.

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October: Moved to NYC on the 2nd, and managed to find, sign for, and move into my new apartment on the Upper East Side within 6 days. That was intense (and quite possibly some kind of record). I also founded the very first ProductCamp San Francisco, an annual educational and networking unconference for local product management and marketing professionals, on 10/22.

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November & December: A few visits from friends and family in the area, and a LOT of exploring in my new city!

  


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I hope you all had just as epic of a story to tell for #Rewind2011! If not, there’s always 2012 to make up for it.

Who Wants a BlackBerry Anyway?

After many years of being a loyal BlackBerry user and evangelist, I am officially leaving the RIM platform for greener pastures. The reason? Because BlackBerry has simply let me down one too many times. Thus far, I’ve been the most patient and forgiving user a product could hope for — I could put up with the lack of quality apps in their app store, the horrendous — and quite frankly, embarrassing — browsing experience, and the inaccurate scrollpad, but the rapid decline in both hardware and software is absolutely inexcusable.

Now I just have to decide — am I an Android girl, or an iPhone sell-out lady?

The Basics of Product Management

Many people don’t realize that product management is a relatively new role in organizations. Until quite recently, different aspects of product management were performed by a myriad of functions across organizations. Business analysts, project managers, program managers, quality assurance engineers, and customer support all pulled together to fill the void and carry a product from inception to launch. But even now that “Product Manager” has become a common position in many industries (and quite the commodity for recruiters), the role remains unclear to even those who fill it. Many product managers still seem to think of product management’s role as a glorified Project Manager, or some amalgamation of User Experience, Quality Assurance and Customer Support. That’s why I’ve compiled a short-list of product management basics below as a guideline.

An effective product manager is responsible for accomplishing the following things:

Identifying Market Opportunity

We’re the folks who determine whether anyone actually wants to buy what the company’s selling. We determine market problems, investigate the competitive space, and thoroughly analyze industry trends. We are the folks who should be up-to-date on every single detail that could affect what our customer base wants or how it behaves.

We’re also supposed to do customer visits, prospect visits and attend industry events; generally speaking, this is where product management is least successful. Although PMs prefer to send out surveys, pore through customer emails and occasionally take a customer phone call, it’s not only their fault the profession is largely lacking in this area. Many companies are not willing to invest in gathering this (the best) kind of data. Product Managers need to attend events and spend time with current and prospective customers to find out what does and doesn’t work about the product. This is where VPs of Product need to step up and fight for the budget to allow their team to accomplish these tasks, as well as to push their team to do these visits and events on a regular basis. It’s best to set a quarterly quota of visits the team must make — it keeps ’em honest.

Defining the Product Roadmap

Product Managers must define exactly what goes into the product and at what times. We don’t technically decide when each new featureset will be released, considering Engineering determines the product RTM date and Marketing is responsible for deciding the exact GA, but we can heavily influence those dates, if need be.

We define each release to include some business and strategic opportunities, a few customer suggestions and as many bug fixes as we can squeeze in. The only problem when gathering market feedback is that everyone thinks they’re an expert, and each person’s pet peeve becomes a PRIORITY 1 MUST HAVE from their point of view, and the release is a disaster if it’s not included. Product managers must learn to hear the noise, and see the trend. And slap a few wrists.

Gathering Requirements

This is the most well-understood portion of a product manager’s role. Most people would identify writing requirements as the product manager’s domain. What they don’t see is the backend of the PM’s effort. We not only gather requirements, but we define use cases and user flows, argue business cases, and become masters in the black art of pricing.

Monitoring Product Performance

Even after release, the product manager’s job is not done. We spend a big chunk of our time tracking released products, because it gives us better insight into the subsequent releases. We follow market and customer KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to help with forecasting future releases. KPIs consist of various performance metrics, such as regional market performance, market segment consumption, % revenue from new products, % revenue from new customers, ASP (average selling price), customer usage, number of trials and subsequent rate of conversion, and renewals. All the KPIs help inform the Win/Loss analysis, which marks the beginning of another product lifecyle. And then we do it all over again. 🙂

Of course, I recognize that I am leaving out key components of product management, such as interpersonal and communication skills, leading without direct authority, managing up, growing feature backlogs, technical aptitude, and a great many other things, but I’ve touched on the four basic activities an effective product manager must perform in order to launch successful products.

Announcing: ProductCamp San Francisco!

I’m very proud to announce the date for the inaugural ProductCamp San Francisco! With the help of some industry veterans, I’m hosting the very first PCamp SF at the Mindjet headquarters on Saturday, October 22nd, 2011.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this wildly popular phenomenon, ProductCamp San Francisco is a FREE collaborative, user-organized unconference focused on Product Management and Marketing topics.

At a ProductCamp everyone participates in some way: presenting a session, leading a round table discussion or showcasing a best practice. Others help with logistics, organizing sessions, or setting up/cleaning up. This is a collaborative event designed to be a fun, rewarding and unique experience.

ProductCamps have no predetermined agenda. Sessions are chosen on the day by voting on the topics that most interest you (propose a topic).

For more information (or to sponsor or volunteer), check out our website!

Stephanie’s blog launch!

Welcome to the inaugural posting of Stephanie’s blog! I will focus most posts around business and marketing topics, as well as document important events in my personal life, including my extensive travels. Think of it as an autobiography illuminated by posts following my personal interests: business, marketing, high-technology, and international relations.