Posted on March 25, 2009 by Michael Ray Hopkin
The practice of love in the context of leadership is both powerful and necessary. Steve Farber describes this clearly in his audio book Extreme Leadership: In Pursuit of the OS!M. What does it mean to love the people you lead? My definition for the acronym LOVE embodies the actions necessary to cultivate positive behaviors that [...]
Filed under: Integrity, Knowledge, Leadership, Techology, Trust | Tagged: confidence, effort, experience, inspire, Knowledge, love, participation, success | 1 Comment »
Posted on March 18, 2009 by Michael Ray Hopkin
What is the most important role in a company? That question has been debated endlessly, and as the idiom goes, the “jury is still out.”
If you think about this question not from the perspective of the role, but from the perspective of the outcome, you start to shape opinions that at least get you closer [...]
Filed under: Leadership, Market-driven, Product Management / Marketing, Techology | Tagged: Marketing, products, sales, services | 2 Comments »
Posted on February 18, 2009 by Michael Ray Hopkin
Is the discipline of product management relevant outside the sphere of technology products? How big does a company have to grow before it needs a product manager? Do organizations that create products — but do not sell them — need product management? My answers: yes, one and yes respectively. The following recent experiences illustrate my [...]
Filed under: Market-driven, Product Management / Marketing, Purpose, Techology | Tagged: market insight, market sensing, success, technology, understanding | 4 Comments »
Posted on January 29, 2009 by Michael Ray Hopkin
Product managers are the messengers to the market for their companies. In the latest episode of the Product Management Pulse podcast I interview Steve Johnson, a top thought-leader in product management. Through his years of experience as a software developer, SE, sales rep and then product manager, Steve has gained a deep understanding of technology [...]
Filed under: Product Management / Marketing, Techology | Tagged: market, podcast, product management podcast, Product Management Pulse, Steve Johnson | Leave a Comment »
Posted on January 16, 2009 by Michael Ray Hopkin
The first principle of the Five Factors of Leadership is that people are assets. Every organization, be it a technology company or a non-profit charitable organization, is composed of people. The people – not the buildings, equipment or intellectual property – compose the true assets of any company. Everything that exists in the world today, [...]
Filed under: Leadership, Product Management / Marketing, Team Building, Techology, Trust | Tagged: assets, Kingston, Leadership, opportunities, people, people are assets, success, Trust | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 25, 2008 by Michael Ray Hopkin
Thanks to Dan for pointing me to this video about the fast pace of change. It takes about 5 minutes and will cause you to think differently about the world we live in. Hold on tight and pay attention!
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The Product Management Perspective: The world of product management is changing too. Just [...]
Filed under: Learning, Market-driven, Product Management / Marketing, Techology | Tagged: buyer persona, change, engaged, Eric Hoffer, market, product | 4 Comments »
Posted on November 24, 2008 by Michael Ray Hopkin
In today’s language the term “service provider” is often used generally to describe the company or organization from whom you get your Internet, phone and/or TV service. The emphasis seems to be on ‘provider’ not ’service.’ It seems, in many cases, the service providers have forgotten the importance of providing service to their customers. They [...]
Filed under: Leadership, Product Management / Marketing, Techology | Tagged: customers, Internet, positive attitude, service, service provider | Leave a Comment »
Posted on November 15, 2008 by Michael Ray Hopkin
Many thanks to Jeff Lash for sending me another question from his Ask a Good Product Manager blog. The latest question he asked me to answer is “How can you best manage a product atop a platform?” Take a look at my response and let me know what you think.
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The Product Management Perspective: The post [...]
Filed under: Product Management / Marketing, Techology | Tagged: Good Product Manager, Jeff Lash, platform | Leave a Comment »
Posted on November 3, 2008 by Michael Ray Hopkin
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has been proven to work, and is increasingly becoming the mechanism of choice for software delivery. Most of the software in use today was developed as traditional client/server or on-premise software. On Wednesday I will present the webinar Product Management Best Practices – Transition to SaaS, for The Product Management View webinar series. [...]
Filed under: Market-driven, Product Management / Marketing, Techology | Tagged: initiatives, SaaS, Software-as-a-service, webinar | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 15, 2008 by Michael Ray Hopkin
Just because you port or transition your product (software, hardware, etc.) to a model that is new/up-and-coming/exciting/proven/<fill in the blank>/ you have no guarantee it will succeed; technology is not enough to make a mediocre idea succeed. You must understand the market. If your product or idea is not what potential customers are looking it [...]
Filed under: Leadership, Market-driven, Product Management / Marketing, Techology | Tagged: customers, SaaS, success, understanding | 1 Comment »