Getting confused between what to do as a B2B Product vs B2C Product manager role? Read further to understand the difference. Let us start with understanding the difference in those two types of products. It is important to understand what B2B and B2C products are. B2B products are products or services that are sold to other businesses, rather than to consumers. They can be physical products, such as raw materials, components, or finished goods, or they can be digital products, such as software, SaaS (software as a service), or data. And B2C products are products or services that are sold di ..read more

Engineers as Product Managers Engineers bring many qualities to the table that can make them successful and effective product managers. Many products are now more technical in nature and require knowledge of engineering principles. Engineers have this and offer a unique set of skills that can give a product an advantage over competitors. In this article, we will look at why engineers are ideally suited for product management roles, how they can leverage their background to master the role, and how companies can benefit from hiring engineers as product managers. We’ll also discuss some challen ..read more

Rick was the CEO of a startup. His company had a very promising product. He was selling to enterprises (B2B product) for which he needed every helping hand he could get. In November of 2015, he got an opportunity to be an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) for a much larger company (Company A). He was very excited at the prospect. After all, this prospect would bring him additional 40,000 sales people from the new company, and had all the global customers he would not have been able to reach on his own.   But this also meant ensuing troubles that cost him a lot of time/money/resources ..read more

The top 1% PMs use frameworks. Frameworks are a tool for systematic decision making. Frameworks help you repeat your decision making process across other seemingly similar problems. The top 1% PMs have frameworks for everything – for valuing companies, for assessing the market, for prioritizing requirements, for translating vision into execution, for pricing the product etc. The top 1% PMs are people like Steve Jobs (yes, he is the best PM IMO), Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and the likes. Peter Thiel, for example, has shared a framework he uses to value the companies in his book “zero to one ..read more

This is tale of two Product Managers. It tells you how you can switch to Product Manager role in much less time and how the hiring managers rate you ..read more

Several people come to us when they fail a couple of interviews. Some proceed to the final round of interviews and they fail to get an offer. Or some just fail the first telephone interview. Others fail in the middle rounds. Remember, it takes only one question to be be answered incorrectly in order to fail an interview. So what is it that makes you sound an experienced Product guy ? Let us break it down. Practice answers to common questions: Preparation is the key to all interviews. While this may sound trivial, many candidates often underestimate this aspect in their interviews. It goes ..read more

We get this question a lot. This is very typical of someone from a technical background (ex. Currently in engineering or related area) thinking of moving to Product Management. We have all heard about leveraging your strengths. It is applicable in this scenario as well. Not all Product Managers need to be business savvy. There is opportunity to be fully technical in a Product Management role. Similarly, if you are coming from non-technical background (ex. Finance), you can also contribute to high-tech Product Management, although the focus will be much different. In this article, we will explo ..read more

Is your Product leaving money on the table? The answer depends on “who” is driving your product. If Engineers are driving your product, it becomes a highly customized product. Services companies are born out of this approach. This gets the lowest profit margins for your products. If Architects are driving your product, it becomes a highly configurable product. Many enterprise-focussed companies are operating this way. This results in lower profit margin for your products. If Product Managers are driving your product, then this will maximize the profits for you, as most of the intended function ..read more

  Here are some practical tips on becoming a Product Manager (PM) for a high-tech product. This is an excerpt of my Udemy course called – Transitioning to Product Management. How you can become a Product Manager depends largely on where you are coming from. If you are a fresher, the path will be different from someone who has work experience. Similarly, the path for someone with work experience in a technical role will be different than others from a non-technical role (ex. Finance, Operations). Nevertheless, there are certain things you can do in your current role, no matter w ..read more

A few months ago, one of our proposals got rejected because of our pricing. It was on the higher side for this client that was based in Asia. We had proposed a lump-sum payment (aka as perpetual pricing in the Product Management lingo!) for our product license. The client did not have much room in it’s budget in this year and the next. Our proposal definitely offered a good ROI (Return on Investment) for the customer. But because of their limited budget, the client found our pricing very high. Upon further probing we found out that the client was keen to consider this as OpEx (Operatin ..read more