How product managers can identify the right customer problems to solve  Perhaps Albert Einstein summed up successful product management best when he said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.” Product management, at its heart, is about managing a process that develops solutions to problems. So how do you find the right solution? More importantly, though, how do you identify the right problem? Indeed, the most successful product managers lead teams that spend considerable time in hands-on discovery ..read more

“Crossing the Chasm” author on how user-experience design has driven product management from product-focused development to fostering customer engagement There was a time not so long ago that Silicon Valley tech companies were developing systems management computer products – financial, transaction, and customer relationship management systems, for instance, and the products “would get adopted and bought,” says famed author and tech startup guru Geoffrey Moore, who wrote the best-selling book, “Crossing the Chasm.” His punchline: “After that, it was the customer’s problem.” A stark reality of ..read more

CMU Master of Science in Product Management program student Erick Valencia landed a PM experience of a lifetime as part of a student team developing a driverless race car system to race in the Indy Autonomous Challenge Product Managers often face a race to the finish, so to speak. But for Erick Valencia, a student in Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Science in Product Management (MSPM) program, that race to the finish in the summer and fall of 2021 was all too real. And so was the prize for the winning team: bragging rights – and a million dollars. “It’s as real as you can imagine,” sa ..read more

I’m excited to be named Product Executive in Residence (PXIR) at Carnegie Mellon University. This new PXIR role enables CMU to bring the voice of industry into classrooms and product leadership curricula. It also allows me to connect CMU and its world-class graduate degree programs and students who are interested in and excited about product to industry through internships, capstone projects and employment opportunities. So, it is a win for all involved and I am delighted to contribute to industry, CMU and its students. Why Choose Carnegie Mellon for Product Management? Simply put, CMU is ..read more

Here’s what strategic partner PayPal did to bring scaled product management to life for this startup-oriented software engineer Computer software engineer Ashwin Rao was already well on his way to becoming a successful product development professional in India’s startup e-commerce community when he concluded that, to really succeed in the field, he needed to strengthen his business skills in product management as well. He expected to get what he needed from Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Science in Product Management (MSPM) program. What he didn’t expect was that the program ultimatel ..read more

Managing diverse teams, championing customer satisfaction, steering product development strategy, and patiently influencing the decisions of company leaders – it’s all in a typical day’s work for today’s product managers, along with customer problem resolution, communicating effectively with key stakeholders, cultivating new ideas, pitching their business cases, and other management challenges. A lot to manage for these servant-leaders, for sure. But in a recent survey of Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Science in Product Management (MSPM) program alumni, many of whom came to the progra ..read more

“I’m actually a pretty avid DIY-er,” confides Pranita Ramakrishnan, MS of Product Management, Carnegie Mellon University, Class of 2019. “I grew up in a family where if you didn’t take a trip to Home Depot twice a month to get some type of materials for a project, something was wrong.” When Home Depot came to the Carnegie Mellon campus to interview Product Management intern candidates, Pranita’s interest was piqued. “I think it was the collision of two worlds for me. The merging of childhood memories with this area of product management that I really wanted to explore.” From Digital Business ..read more

After nine years working as a systems engineer, applications engineer, software engineer and finally, a lead data engineer, Debashish Sasmal was ready for his next strategic move. “I’d worked for a startup in Hyderabad, India where everyone had to wear different hats,“ recalls Debashish. “I realized that I wanted to expand my focus into product management.” He began this new career path by moving from India to Pittsburgh and joining Carnegie Mellon University’s intensive, one-year MS in Product Management program. “I was making a strategic shift. I had a strong tech background, so I wanted to ..read more

“The manager who comes up with the right solution to the wrong problem is more dangerous than the manager who comes up with the wrong solution to the right problem” – Peter Drucker Nobody wants their product to be received as a source of frustration. Still, we see it all the time. Look around. There is almost certainly a product within arm’s reach that isn’t designed to fit your needs. In my case, it took three PCs, two monitors, a smartphone, and five messaging platforms simply to publish this post. Give me an all-in-one solution to compose and communicate, and I’ll be your first customer! M ..read more

Career need a kickstart? Imagine a future with impact! 9:00 p.m. on Sunday night…  Dread sets in… It’s the sensation of knowing tomorrow will feel like the past 99 Mondays. You’ll sign in, then zombie-walk through a day of routine engineering tasks to patch old patches as everyone around sprints to meet a product ship date that only matters to your boss’s boss.   Your dreams will soon be disrupted by questions like: Who wants this product? What need will it serve? Is it better than the competition? Is anybody willing to pay for it? What’s the point of my work? How many more Mo ..read more