For this SVPMA talk on "Getting Onto and Moving Up the Product Management Career Ladder," we will cover what product managers actually do, how someone get their first product job, and ways senior product managers can signal interest in director-level roles ..read more

Every CPO/VP Product I talk with is in a battle for product talent... so we're in a “candidate" job market rather than a “hiring company” job market. What are some do's and don'ts for product managers and first line product directors looking for their next adventure in this market ..read more

I sometimes find product management teams composed entirely of first-timers, where not a single person has any previous experience as a product manager.  This presents a fundamental challenge: how do we train or skill up a whole product team from scratch ..read more

John James produces the “Champagne Strategy” podcast, which which deconstructs world-class business strategy with a focus on growth and tech.  We virtually shared a class of 19 Crimes Chardonnay during a rollicking chat about products, strategy, and tech history. We touched on: Elon Musk oversimplifying MBAs (Rich has one, but tries not to act like … Podcast: “Champagne Strategy,” Innovation, and Product Growth Read More ..read more

There’s a pattern I see, especially at enterprise software companies, where the go-to-market materials present a glowing product picture - but underneath there’s a jumble of mismatched pieces, arcane product history, incomplete testing, and randomness.  I call it product sprawl.  ..read more

I see some software companies classifying multi-year development contracts as SaaS ARR. Here's why I don't think investors should be excited about that ..read more

You can’t build great products without great teams, and great teams need great leaders. This panel dives into what modern product leadership looks like, and what it takes to build empowered product teams.  John Cutler will moderate a lively panel discussion ..read more

Jason Knight invited me onto his One Knight in Product podcast for a wide-ranging chat about product issues and organizations titled "Fighting Fires in B2B Product Management ..read more

When we’re building software products, we’re faced with daily/weekly “build versus buy” decisions. Should we license in a commercial product or platform to handle part of our own application, or build a capability ourselves? Product managers and developers can have dramatically different points of view ..read more

Most of us don’t get much practice resigning from corporate leadership positions, but it’s important to do this gracefully.  Plan it the way you’d plan your next product: clear communication, succession plan, helpful transition. And be a mensch: you'll be working with many of these people again ..read more