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Tag Archives: Jim Holland


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Guest Post: Market Sensing is not Crop Dusting

Today’s post comes from Jim Holland. Jim’s passion is enabling product marketing teams. With a lifetime of  experience, he has a fresh and unique perspective in guiding and managing product teams and has a knack for sensing markets, synthesizing ideas and turning them into reality. Enjoy the post and don’t hesitate to tweet your comments to Jim directly.

Crop DustingRecently while traveling to a new fishing spot, I had an experience that could only be replicated in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller “North by Northwest.” While driving along a rural highway, a crop dusting plane dropped in from nowhere, passed over the car and onto a field dusting everything in sight. If you’ve ever seen an actual field being dusted, it’s an amazing feat. Imagine flying a single engine plane at extremely low altitudes, maneuvering into position, as you dive over treetops, houses and power lines dropping a fine mist about 30 feet from the ground at precisely the right time and then, throttling yourself to safety avoiding the same obstacles and more. Can you image the rush? What type of training and preparation does it take?

If you compare the skill and precision of crop dusting to market sensing techniques, shouldn’t product management employ similar planning, preparation, techniques and proper ground support before taking off?

Think about it. When product management and its leadership jump into the cockpit of market research to better sense markets, is there a flight plan that will result in delivering useful information? What market problems are you discovering or need to understand?  What artifacts and information currently exist? You can’t overlook the treetops, roof line and the power lines in order to dust the fields. Market sensing plans and preparation are only complete once you’ve had a safe landing with your research and credibility intact.

While planning and preparation are basics for any product management activity, do you find yourself missing the target and spraying the wrong field due to incomplete techniques or lack of ground support? If so, are you setting realistic personal and team goals that include measurable milestones? Make your goals achievable and prioritize what’s most important. For example, if you lack real information on why sales haven’t materialized, try conducting win/loss analysis. For some insights on win/loss see the Strategic Product Manager and On Product Management. If you aren’t connecting with economic buyers, are you sure who they are? David Meerman Scott wrote; “Basing your work on buyer personas prevents you from sitting on your butt in your comfortable office just making stuff up.”  In both of these examples, discussing the right approach is what’s important.

Finally, ground support (a.k.a. internal resources) is key to supporting your efforts before and after market sensing. Do you regularly connect with sales engineers, customer support, client relations, development and others to include all aspects of those who interact with your customers, prospects and market? Do you ask for their input in reviewing your plans? As time and resources are always a factor, product management should be creative in finding ways for team members to share the experience.

As product management and its leadership adopt precision in market sensing, they will build internal and external credibility and provide a softer landing when credible market information is used to make product decisions.

If you like the post, please comment. If you’d like to connect with Jim, he may be reached on Twitter at jim_holland or drop him an email at jbhprivate[at]gmail[dot]com.


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A new Leadership Development Carnival

The Lead on Purpose blog is featured in the July Leadership Development Carnival of Dan McCarthy’s Great Leadership blog. Jim Holland’s guest post Leadership Lessons from a Kindergarten Class is the focus.

July’s Leadership Carnivals brings together links to more than 25 fresh posts on topics such as accountability, talent management and succession planning. You’ll find posts from great bloggers such as Wally Bock and Chris Young. The Leadership Development Carnival is well a half hour of your time.


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Guest Post: Leadership Lessons from a Kindergarten Class

Today’s post comes from Jim Holland. Jim’s passion is enabling product marketing teams. With over 20 years of technology experience, he has a fresh and unique perspective in guiding and managing product teams and has a knack for synthesizing conceptual ideas and turning them into reality. Enjoy the post and don’t hesitate to tweet your comments to Jim directly.

What can a classroom full of bright-eyed and energized kindergartners teach you about leadership? A lot!

My wife is a gifted Kindergarten teacher. She’s a tuned-in educator who engages each child with the attention of a ninja master. During the school year, I’ve been asked to come in and help, so I’m well acquainted with each personality in the group and the “good morning Mr. Holland” that accompanies each visit. Near the end of this school year, my wife asked if I could complete a project with her class. The project was to ask each student, and record the answers to: “What was the most important thing I learned in Kindergarten this year?” I decided to use this as research into the minds of 6 year olds and to see what leadership attributes the kids had acquired over the months.

The project was fun, the one-on-one discussions great and the content was included in each student’s journal for them to keep. Below are the responses and how often they were mentioned without any coaching on my part:

  • I learned how to Read (4)
  • I learned my A-B-Cs (4)
  • I learned more about mathematics (3)
  • I learned why we should wash our hands (1)
  • I discovered the library and books (2)
  • I learned we have RULES (1)
  • I learned respect for my teacher (4)
  • I learned Fire Safety (1)
  • I learned how to make friends and to share (5)
  • I learned about Art (2)
  • I learned computer skills and terminology (2)

While this project would create a lot of input for how to sense your markets and how to interview one-on-one, I want to share some leadership qualities that each of us should possess – qualities learned in Kindergarten.

Your ABCs and 123s – From the first day of Kindergarten, great teachers assess individual needs, capabilities and prepare materials, activities and learning experiences for each student. As leaders, we need to follow the same by actively assessing the capabilities of each team member, understand their personalities, strengths and challenges and identify ways improve their contribution. As with any good Kindergarten teacher, when was the last time you conducted an assessment or gap analysis of each team member? As a leader do you have regular (formal and informal) one-on-one discussions with your team? These are not performance reviews or interrogation sessions, but time allocated to listening, understanding and addressing issues while building confidence and educating. Do you hold regular sessions to build business, corporate or other knowledge? I’m not talking about boring staff meetings. I’m talking interactive sessions where you or others members of your team lead sessions on topics that were identified by you or the team.

Washing Your Hands – Kindergartners learn, if you don’t want to get sick or spread germs, you should wash your hands regularly. Every leader has to create, maintain and show integrity. Are you the type of leader that passes “germs” to his team and organization with negative comments about individuals and management? Do you build integrity by maintaining individual, team and corporate confidentiality? Are you keeping your “hands clean” so the team trust and relies on you?

Rules – Kindergartners as well as leaders learn that rules are established as a pattern of consistency. Are there rules or guidance that you have established with your team? Do you set the example by following the team, department or company guidelines without failure? Kindergartners know the consequences for breaking the rules include removal of privileges or the dreaded visit to the principal’s office. As a leader you have to set and maintain realistic expectations and “rules” for your team.

Fire Safety – a colleague once commented; “never burn a bridge, for you might have to cross the river again and walking over rushing water is easier than swimming through it.” As leadership, we have to create and sustain relationships with individuals, teams, executives, customers and perhaps shareholders, investors and industry analysts. Leadership isn’t just about directing a group of people, projects or things. It’s about open communication that creates credibility for you and your team. Create “fire safety” in your team by looking for ways to improve team communication that will lead to better internal and external collaboration.

Sharing – Kindergartners recognize one of the most important aspects of class (team) dynamics is learning to share and making friends. As a leader, are you building the team by sharing knowledge, insights, corporate shifts, and changes with the team. What methods do you use to socialize new information? Do you send a few emails late on Friday afternoon, or actively interact with the team and share? Do you build awareness and share the success and challenges of your team’s accomplishments with senior management? If not, why not? Even a kindergartner knows you need an advocate who’s willing to stand on your behalf.

My experiences this year with my wife’s Kindergarten class have given me some great insights into how leaders can assemble or build teams by learning each personality, assessing specific needs, creating a plan to teach and share and building others by involving the strengths of the team to accomplish the goal.

If you like the post, please comment. If you’d like to connect with Jim, he may be reached on Twitter at jim_holland or drop him an email at jbhprivate[at]gmail[dot]com.

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The Product Management Perspective (as Mike would say): Each leader must understand and apply his team’s personality, capabilities and business experience to build and execute successfully. Using the Kindergarten approach may simplify daily leadership and create new levels of credibility and visibility for your team.


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Guest Post: Watch Out for Flying Monkeys!

Today’s post comes from Jim Holland. Jim’s passion is product management and product marketing. With over 20 years of technology industry experience, he has a fresh and current perspective in leading product management teams and has a gift for taking conceptual ideas and turning them into strategic reality using methods based on market sensing best practices. Enjoy the post and don’t hesitate to tweet your comments to Jim.
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What images do you create when you hear the words, Flying Monkeys? Perhaps the creepy, winged creatures from the Wizard of Oz or the Broadway remix Wicked, the ones that are villains’ henchmen and carry you off to the inevitable showdown with the Wicked Witch?

flying-monkeysWhile leading a team of Product Management and Marketing professionals not long ago, I coined the term “Flying Monkeys” for all unsolicited requests from executive management on behalf of customers and prospects that surfaced while executive were on the road. Imagine you’re sitting in a product planning meeting with your favorite product team. You’re engaged in a lively conversation when all of a sudden, Flying Monkeys dive into the conference room via as vibrating Blackberry’s, urgent emails, flashes of instant messages and sigh of the onslaught – Flying Monkeys – Flying Monkeys announce the arrival. The monkeys quickly grab product management, marketing and development resources, and quicker than you could say, “there’s no place like home” three times, your product roadmap, release content, development resources and team are tossed into turmoil like a Kansas barnyard in a summer twister. As a leader and messenger of the market, how do you handle these disruptions?

In my previous guest post, I introduced the Yin and Yang of Product Management and how balance and interactions drive success. This harmonic balance is easily thrown off when Flying Monkeys appear. Pressured with executive leadership commitments (usually in front of sales and customers) your team begins ducking and dodging the monkeys while trying to focus on bringing the right products to market. As product management leaders; “How do you watch out for Flying Monkeys?”

Product management and its leadership have to be vigilant and plan for the ambush of Flying Monkeys. While product managers know they have all the responsibility and none of the authority, you must focus on what matters most, and be grounded in product management best practices that bring consistency and irrefutable evidence to any conversation. Leaders of product management have a responsibility to establish and maintain visibility into the executive team, and provide regular updates on strategy, delivery and financial success, using the product team to support all conversations.

If your executives regularly connect with customers and prospects, prepare them in advance, and let them know that you are available to discuss any topic in a separate meeting. Another avenue that many product management leaders fail to utilize is internal relationships. Maintaining a relationship with executive administrators, travel, finance, sales and development can provide valuable information on travel schedules, agendas and the details that will reinforce the emergence of Flying Monkeys.

In the series, How to be a Great Product Manager, Saeed Khan shares the four C’s of Leadership that each Product Management professional and leader should strive to embrace. The Four C’s include:

  • Credibility – leadership begins with credibility. If people aren’t willing to believe you and trust what you say, then there is no way you’ll be given authority to do anything significant.
  • Commitment – demonstrate commitment to your product’s success. In your current job as a Product Manager, have you bound yourself to the success of your product? Or are you just going through the motions and simply doing the job? People want to see that product managers truly care about product success and figuring out what is right and best for their product.
  • Communication – No amount of credibility can be retained if communication barriers exist between a leader and his/her followers. Leaders must be able to communicate their thoughts, ideas, visions and strategies clearly and succinctly, and in such a way that those listening are inspired to want to be part of the plans the leader is proposing.
  • Courage – the most challenging of the 4 Cs. The difference between a leader and a manager is the leader’s ability to take risks, blaze new trails, and have people follow him or her down those trails. Leaders can be praised when they succeed, but will be criticized roundly when they don’t.

How can Product Management and its leaders ground the Flying Monkeys? By creating credibility in their role and communicating effectively, and showing leadership they are committed and willing to stand by their beliefs and facts. As leaders of product management, it is your obligation to be the voice of reason and sound decisions.

If you like the post, please comment. If you’d like to connect with Jim, he may be reached on Twitter at jim_holland or drop him an email at jbhprivate[at]gmail[dot]com.

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The Product Management Perspective (as Mike would say): As the messenger of the market, product management cannot be carried away by Flying Monkeys or allow the disruptions. Product managers and those leaders who manage them must establish and maintain credibility internally, in order to confidently communicate externally. When you create a foundation of leadership based on strong executive relationships, you eliminate the Flying Monkeys before they ever appear.


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Guest Post: The Yin-Yang of Product Management — Market Sensing

Today’s post comes from Jim Holland. Jim’s passion is product management and product marketing. With over 20 years of technology industry experience, he has a fresh and current perspective in market sensing best practices, with significant experience defining and launching products in the application lifecycle, mobile, and enterprise software markets. Enjoy the post and don’t hesitate to tweet your comments to Jim directly.

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I am going through the steps of entering the blogging community with my own blog. Michael knows this and asked if I’d like to test that waters with a guest posting. As a product management leader, I have learned that everything great about product management starts with Market Sensing.

To me market sensing is more than market research or analysis, digging through data, customer call reports, sales requests or analysts notes. For me, Market Sensing is “a process of planning, discovering, organizing and internally understanding market insight to validate decisions based on real evidence and market need.”

Market Sensing is the balance and unification of a product’s beginning, life and success.

yin-yangTo illustrate the balance that each product manager should undertake, let’s compare it to the concept of Yin-Yang. Found in numerous cultures throughout the world, Yin-Yang represents the ancient Chinese understanding of how things work. The outer circle represents everything, while the two inner shapes within the circle represent the interaction of two energies, called yin often depicted in black and yang usually in white, which cause everything to happen. Just as things in life are not completely black or white, neither is product management and the leadership it provides.

Using this analogy, Market Sensing is the outer circle. Many product manager’s fixate on the outer circle and how or what a product should be. We treat products as if they require perfection to be accepted by the market. If not, we think it reflects on us and our inabilities. We chase elusive feature thoughts, and use gut instinct in its pursuit of perfection. In looking for answers, we often overlook or place a limited value on Market Sensing. Product management must acquire a Yin-Yang founded on Market Sensing. I believe there are two components that drive market sensing success.  One part is proactive, the Yin, and the other reactive, the Yang.

To create a Yin–Yang in Product Management, we have to balance the proactive and reactive elements of what we do each day. Some of the proactive processes I’ve used to keep the Yin in place include:

  • Customer interviews – are a great way to connect. Kristin Zhivago’s article on how to interview customers adds some insights that you may have forgotten.
  • Virtual focus and advisory groups – Here’s a list of the Top 10 Things to Do when conducting a virtual session.
  • Surveys – provide insight, but go a step further asking for real customer feedback. Ideascope is a great tool to capture, rank and prioritize what’s important to customers.
  • Win/Loss Analysis – if you do it well, it goes beyond all the sales stuff and gets to the heart of what a customer or non-buyer thinks. Stewart Rogers from Ryma has some great ideas.

As a reminder of the Yang, try to limit to the following:

  • Development generated requirements – are nice, but if you aren’t leading the development of all requirements as a product manager, someone else will.
  • Chasing Sales – if you are chasing the latest big deal, you’ll never win unless that’s your business model.
  • CEO epiphanies – if your boss says, “The CEO had a great idea on the way to the office.” Respectfully ask if the idea is founded on market evidence, and was validated by those in the daily commute.
  • Gut Instinct – as a product management leader, guessing, ideas, opinions, and other randomness won’t work. You need market-based insight and facts.

How can Product Manager’s and the leader do a better job at Market Sensing? By creating an approach similar to Yin-Yang.

As a leader in product management, it is your obligation to be the leader for sound decisions. Market Sensing best practices provide the foundation of sound decisions. Creating a market sensing process takes time and effort, both of which will pay dividends as you engage in your role as product manager and leader.

If you like the post, please comment. Until my blog www.marketsensing.com is launched, please tweet at Jim_Holland or drop me an email at hollandj[at]rymatech[dot]com. If you’d like to hear and see what I’ve shared in the past, please view Market Sensing – Anticipating Market Problems and Market Sensing 201 – What Processes Work for You?

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The Product Management Perspective (as Mike would say): As the product manager who uses a balanced market sensing process, you will create and sustain products with a Yin-Yang like focus. It will amaze you as you create a new level of credibility internally, and confidently deliver to the market those products founded on real market evidence and information. Create and use your Product Management Yin-Yang as the foundation to strengthen your leadership.