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Blog Articles
Viewing entries tagged with 'product marketing'
Assessing Customer Impact
In my last article I wrote about the trends of continuous discovery and continuous delivery. At the end of the article I pointed out that while I love these techniques because overall they are much better for our customers, and for our ability to rapidly improve our products, there were a few important consequences that had to be dealt with. In this article I want to take about the impact of continuous delivery on product marketing and our marketing, sales, and service organizations.
Product Marketing Contribution
Jane is supporting the launch of Product X, a new release her company is really excited about. She is on the marketing team. Armed with her launch checklist, she schedules a meeting with John, the product manager. At the meeting, John answers all of her questions, draws a market segmentation on the white board, and talks about the key features and why they are important. Jane takes lots of notes and asks John to review what she sends him.
Why Traditional Messaging Fails
Back when I was a product manager for Microsoft Office, we spent hundreds of thousands on positioning research. Messaging lived for years on store shelves, so getting it “right” was important. We thought about every word and enforced consistency, summarily dismissing changes from well-intentioned copywriters.
Great Products Are Not Just the Product Guy's Job
I recently asked the founder of a startup what he most wanted to know about marketing. He said, “What’s the best way to get publicity without feeling spammy?”
Watch Cable TV and Read People Magazine
My husband and I were watching the Daily Show the other night on our DVR, fast forwarding through commercials as we usually do.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the text "Palm Pre" and yelled, "Back up!" to my husband. I hadn’t yet seen the Pre and was interested in Palm’s latest ‘Hail Mary.’
Product Management vs. Product Marketing
Industry pundits claim that 9 out of 10 product releases are failures in that they don’t meet their goals. I don’t know if that’s the exact stat or not, but I bet it’s not far off. I do believe strongly that most releases are ill-conceived. Countless release cycles are wasted on products that are either not useful or not usable. There are many reasons for these bad products, and each article I write is intended to address some aspect, but I have long argued that the root cause of these wasted releases can most often be traced to how the role of product manager is defined at your company, and the capabilities of the people you choose for this role.
Product vs. Marketing
In many product organizations there are problems between product and marketing. The problems might range from mild friction to downright dysfunction.
Lipstick on a Pig
A pig is a bad product. Lipstick on a pig is when product marketing tries to make the best of a bad situation. The metaphor may be a bit harsh, but the message is clear.