We always have that someone who throws in a random unsolicited ideas and suggestions to your projects. While we are told to be open minded the reality is that's we have our biases and we do get annoyed and tend to respond too early. In this podcast we talk about how you can take a pause in your response and give yourself a bit of time to navigate through this. The product manager is put in an unfair situation when the meddler sends in their suggestion. By understanding the situation and taking a well thought out approach you can politely say NO if the idea doesn't make sense.

Commerce has always been about selling more and keeping customers happy. When customers come into the physical store the shopping experience and the ability to touch and feel the product before the sale is made, or even having a delightful conversation with the sales person drives the decision to purchase. So it should seem logical that if the physical store has been replaced by an App then that App needs to similarly wrap the customer with a blanket of affection, care and trust. This is where understanding the end user, empathising with their situation and then translating into good product design with simple, intuitive, connected and immersive user experiences will drive customer acquisition, sales and growth of e-commerce.  Digital experiences should be all about freedom of choices, transparency and immersive user experiences. If one of these are compromised in the product design then expect to see lower user acceptance. In this podcast we travel back in time to 2000 where we share how design and experiences have evolved to where we are today. It's important to understand this context as many people in leadership roles today just don't understand why UX is important. If you like more content like this subscribe to productcoach.net to get regular updates or click on our RSS stream and follow us on twitter to view our regular insightful tweets.

A playbook puts together strategies, decision criteria, assumptions and inputs which are required to chart a way forward. It also serves as a compass to navigate through the obstacles to reach the desired goal. Playbooks are used in sports and there is merit in incorporating this approach in product management. A well documented playbook extends into incorporating your learnings and experiences being synthesised into a set of crisp notes which you can call on in the future. The playbook is influenced by your organisation, culture, people and the typical challenges that you would encounter in managing and launching products. The playbook is also your library of best practices, political toolkit and your battle card which will help you build a habit of thinking ahead and planning for the best execution outcomes. If you like more content like this subscribe to productcoach.net to get regular updates or click on our RSS stream and follow us on twitter to view our regular insightful tweets.

In our fast paced digital world how can a product manager stay relevant to customers and the business? Future proofing and solving the problems of tomorrow requires a different kind of thinking. One has to start by getting into a deep work flow of carefully analysing the visualising how the next couple of years will shape up. While there is no crystal ball for accuracy there are cues which can be taken into consideration to form a view of where society and business is heading.Think about how the future narrative of business will change in the next 5 years and how we must as product managers position ourselves for our own career growth and how we need to change the way we think and empower ourselves to continuously adapt. The products of the future will be smart, connected, decentralised, and immersive. If we limit our creativity and innovation to the problem statements that are driven from the events and systems that exist today, then we are not doing justice to our roles as product managers. We must ask ourselves "What will the problems of tomorrow be?" If you like more content like this subscribe to productcoach.net to get regular updates or click on our RSS stream and follow us on twitter to view our regular insightful tweets.

Product managers who are in the B2B space have their work cut out for them. B2B product delivery is complex. There is very little wiggle room to test a product concept and get direct user feedback. Products that are not of a "one size fits all". There are specific nuances across countries and industries. Companies selling into the B2B space have specialised sales managers who have domain knowledge and insights into how these companies operate - who their customers are, how they buy, how they in-turn sell their products and grow their business. Building a partnership with sales will enable better understanding of what problems needs solving and in turn influence the product design. Knowing your role and power of influence with the sales team is critical for win-win outcomes. Product plays the role of the manufacturer (the guy in the kitchen who cooks all the great food for everyone), the sales folks bring in the diners. If you like more content like this subscribe to productcoach.net to get regular updates or click on our RSS stream and follow us on twitter to view our regular insightful tweets.

The product manager role has picked up significant traction in the last five years. It's no longer seen as a job which gets piggy backed on the back of another role. Today the profession is getting a lot of attention and it is now recognised as a critical role, where the product manager is that go to person sitting at the intersection of business, customer, technology and user experience - driving business growth, manage execution risk and solving customer problems. This podcast gives insights for graduates and early career professionals who want to give product management a shot If you like more content like this subscribe to productcoach.net to get regular updates or click on our RSS stream and follow us on twitter to view our regular insightful tweets.

The new normal is accelerating the future of work and shaping a new outlook for product managers on what the future of work could look like. The Future of work prior to the pandemic was geared towards which jobs could be automated through artificial intelligence and robotic process automation. The OECD has now defined the future of work as : "The future of work is now. Digitalisation and globalisation have sparked radical shifts in how we live and work. The coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has accelerated these beyond anything we could have imagined. These changes raise essential questions about the precarity of our jobs, the support available if we're unable to work or retire, the skills we need for current and future jobs, the quality of those jobs, and what voice we have in shaping these outcomes".  In this podcast we  look into the near future and predict  what lies ahead for product managers. In the years ahead the role of a product manager will evolve  into a mash up of varied skillsets covering both business and technology and a convergence of roles. There are many factors which are pointing to this new world of product management.  If you like more content like this subscribe to productcoach.net to get regular updates or click on our RSS stream and follow us on twitter to view our regular insightful tweets.

Agile was pitched to the business as a way to deliver commercially valuable  software in a timely and incremental way, We explore in detail what makes and breaks agile and how businesses needs to change the way in which they operate to accommodate. Agile is not for every project and there are reasons for this. Agile has a strong dependancy on the capability of the product owner and the product manager. Listen on to get a primer on how agile may solve or complicate your projects. This partnership model between business and technology brings together a collaborative model for product delivery and increased end user and customer satisfaction.

Starting a new role is exciting and while everyone has their own way to get themselves soaked into their new job we outline here an approach for consideration. These tasks will get you up to speed fairly quickly and will help you zero in on some areas which you should focus on to meet the expectations of the role. If you like more content like this subscribe to productcoach.net to get regular updates or click on our RSS stream and follow us on twitter 

In a product management team there needs to be diversity of skills and talent to take on the business opportunities as they come. There are workers who are comfortable with chugging along doing the everyday tasks and making sure that products and platforms are operating optimally. There is another group of workers who get more excited pushing the boundaries and dabbling with the creation of new products and experimentation. This is where builders come in. Builders are comfortable to be dropped into the deep end. They absorb information in quick time  and makes them an ideal candidate to lead new product development. Find out what makes a good builder product manager. If you like more content like this subscribe to productcoach.net to get regular updates or click on our RSS stream. We would like to hear from you if you find the case study approach suitable for podcasting and if you want us to cover case studies more frequently.