I have started this blog posting several times, and have been diverted each time. It is a complex topic, and it almost seems like heresy, but I believe it needs to be said. There has been much said on the roles of Product Management, and Product Marketing. There are firms who have well developed frameworks, and extensive training to help you get to a “good” state. In particular, I am familiar...
A lot of people have complained that Bose is over priced for what you get, and that their quality isn’t that high. But I beg to differ. Back in 2004 or so, I got a set of Bose QC-2 headphones for my birthday. I was doing a lot of international traveling, and the headset was a godsend. No, it didn’t eliminate all noise, but it really reduced the jet engine noise, and make listening to...
On my way home every day, at a trailer park there is facing the road a motorcycle trailer with something that is from the deep past. A Kawasaki Bighorn 350cc “enduro” bike. A friend in high school rode one, and we gave him a ton of shit for it. Starting in the early 1970’s Japanese off road motorcycles started redefining the dirt bike experience in the US. Prior to that, you had...
Being a product manager is a high stress, diverse job. Every day will certainly be different. However, it also affords some cool moments. Doing strategic planning, I need to read and study what is happening at a macro scale in the world’s economy (I am by no means an economist, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night), and this means that I get to read a lot of different things...
I am often asked what a typical day looks like. It is hard to describe in general, because one of the things about being a product manager is that I get tossed tasks, and crises all the time. So, what does a day in the life look like? 7:30AM – Arrive. Check email, find an urgent request to do a competitive analysis of one of our products with a down market competitor (clearly inferior, and...
I get that some people view their cars as transportation. My dad is that way. You wash it once a year, mainly to get the birdshit off of it. Heck, he had a 56 Porsche Speedster that had totally oxidized paint before he sold it to a kid down the street (one in pristine original condition is worth about $250K today). If you have a camry, or an accord, or a Taurus, or any of those...
I am fortunate to live 7.2 miles from the office. A straight shot down a main artery, I can make it into the office in 12 minutes, as long as I time it properly around the kid dropoff at the two major elementary schools on the way. The lights are timed, and if it keep it to 1 – 2 mph below the posted speed limit, I can often stop only once. Seems pretty ideal, living in a place where 10...
Way back (1992 ish) I worked as a chemical technician. Part of my responsibilities was to move large amounts of chemicals in boxes (4 gallons per box), and drums (55 gallon drums). Needless to say, I probably was in the best physical condition of my life during that 9 months or so. But there was an upside. Since I worked off shift, I would need to drive the forklift to get my job done. So I went...
Having worked for a company that was uber proud of their content management system, and wondered why that productivity sapping POS was popular at all, and now at a company that has a huge Sharepoint infrastructure, I am coming to the conclusion that all content management systems blow. I understand the need in highly regulated industries to use such things. Government, financial services, medical...
I have been fortunate in my travels. I have close to 2 million miles of travel, and have spent time in a lot of countries, and have had relatively few incidents of food-borne illness. I have eaten street food in Taiwan, had unrecognizable parts of the chicken in China, eaten what probably was a pet in Korea, all without incident. However, it hasn’t been a perfect record. Japan – One...