7 ways to improve your designer–PM collaboration. Product designers spend a lot of time with product managers. There’s an art to creating an exceptional, mutually beneficial working relationship. Adam Amran spoke to several experienced product managers and designers at Productboard, sprinkled in his own experience, and created this helpful guide to the art of designer – product manager collaboration.

(via @productboard)

How product managers can work effectively with product designers. A good relationship between product managers and designers is crucial to product success. Edward Chechique shares some lessons he learned from working closely with product managers to explain the product designer role, how it compares to the product manager role, and how to work and collaborate effectively with product designers to deliver a great product.

(via edwardchechique)

UXers and product managers both say others intrude on their work. To understand how user experience professionals (UX) and product managers (PM) see their roles and how the roles relate to one another, the Nielsen Norman Group conducted a survey aimed at answering several questions. One of the main findings of the survey of 372 UX and PM professionals shows that duplicative work is frequent and generates confusion and inefficiency.

(via @nngroup)

How to best work with product designers as a product manager. Some product managers lack a nuanced understanding of product design disciplines, provide direction & feedback to product designers in unhelpfully limiting ways, and fail to build an effective partnership with product designers. Ed Park provides guidance on how PMs can effectively collaborate with and empower their Product Designers to design delightful customer experiences.

(via @taugrim)

Advice from product leaders: Five ways product and design can collaborate effectively.  Product and design can often feel at odds. Product is pushing to release very lean versions of features or products, often at the expense of an optimal user experience, whereas design is pushing for the best user experience at all costs. Allowing for that tension is critical; pushing for a good user experience from which the product team can also learn, and learn quickly, is essential. Aleeza Schoenberg shares five ways product and design can forge a strong partnership.

(via @MindtheProduct)

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Product management in 2022. Most product teams are making strides towards being user-centric rather than just churning out features based on static release plans disguised as roadmaps. Leaders realize they should add value to the user, rather than just hit releases. 2022 is going to be no different, but the pressure is now on for businesses who haven’t adopted this user-centric approach to do so using data driven insights and analytics, and UX research and design. Oh, and don’t forget about the product talent shortage. With all that in mind, Riana Butler projects what 2022 will look like for product managers and how they can prepare.

(via @MaxwellBondUK)

6 Product management trends to track in 2022. As 2021 draws to a close, the folks at 280 Group are looking ahead at the coming year, and spotting key trends they feel will have the biggest impact on Product professionals across industries. Here’s a look at the six product management trends they’ve identified as gaining momentum heading into 2022.

(via @the280group)

Product management leaders should make 2022 the year of customer value. The end of the year is the time to set goals for the coming year and to reflect on what you would like to have accomplished when you think back to those goals. There are KPIs to achieve and roadmap goals, but there are also behaviors that product management leaders must guide to ensure growth in the years to come. Lisa Singer shares three recommendations to consider as you develop your annual plan.

(via @forrester)

Product management trends and challenges in 2022. Recent airfocus research with product managers in the US and UK found that adopting product-led growth models was the main industry challenge for 40% of respondents. It’s something that they’ve been hearing more and more over the past 18 months and it’s a topic they asked Lisa Mo Wagner, product coach at codecentric AG, to weigh in on. Here is Lisa’s take on product management trends for 2022.

(via @airfocus)

What does 2022 hold for product management?. Who’s excited to finish 2021? It’s had ups and downs, but overall has been a frustrating year for the world. Fortunately, a new year and a new start are around the corner. Here’s Penelope’s predictions for what is coming for us in product in 2022.

(via @penelope_l)

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Product Management Predictions for 2021. Dave Wilner, Auth0 CRO, talked with five product management leaders from various sectors to get their predictions for 2021. Their answers provide an inside look into the trends they thought that impact product management in the coming year. Read on to see how good they were at identifying 2021 trends.

(via @auth0)

Future of Product Management: 2021 Forecast. There is more interest and awareness in product management than ever before. But the product world has also become an increasingly chaotic domain. There are many human and commercial motivations at play, influencing the state of the product management domain. Gabriel Steinhardt outlined some of the market dynamics in product management which he expected to emerge in 2021. Did they?

(via @Blackblot)

What are Product Management Trends for 2021? Hygger Predictions. To be competitive in their market product managers have to follow trends and permanently look for new ways to create value for their customers. In fact, trends can be hard to identify given the variation in product management purposes and objectives between companies and industries. Pavel Kukhnavets took a look at the situation at the beginning of 2021 and formulated these conclusions and predictions about where product management is headed. How did he do?

(via @hygger_app)

Product Management Trends & Predictions 2021. ProductCamp Online pulled together a panel including long-time product management experts Steve Johnson and Rich Mironov, JJ Rorie, Vice President at Sequent Learning Networks, David Nash, Vice President at 280 Group, with moderator Hector Del Castillo of Bold PM. The group discussed product management trends and perspectives and looked at predictions for the year ahead. In the face of unprecedented market shifts, exponentially changing buyer behavior, reduced team capacity, and new requirements for remote working, they discussed how product managers require an ever-increasing velocity and scale of analysis in terms of processing and access to accelerate innovation and forge new paths for their organizations to remain relevant.

(via @ProductCamp)

AI / Product Management / UX Design Predictions for 2021. Brian T. O’Neill did not put out a long list of 2021 predictions, but he did have a couple on his radar. First, AI/data product management seems to be picking up. Second, model interaction and exploration come to the forefront.

(via @rhythmspice)

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21 Best product management podcasts for product managers in 2021. Product managers are in an exciting position – we’re constantly looking for new ways to deliver value to our customers in ways that move key metrics and are viable to the business. You have to collaborate with several stakeholders throughout the organization, including your direct product teams, support teams, and executive leadership. While there can be rewarding moments through all this, there are also a lot of challenging moments. In those times, it’s helpful to have somewhere you can go for advice. Bill Ryan identifies 21 product management podcasts you can turn to for any type of advice you’re seeking.

The two “A” words every researcher, designer and PM should know. Kristen Berman and Lindsay Juarez introduce attribution and affective forecasting errors and explain how they can influence researchers, designers, and PMs. Kristen and Lindsay explain how these behavioral design concepts impact your approach to designing products.

New product development process: 2021 NPD guide. Creating new products can be a fascinating journey – both for start-up Founders and Product Managers alike. Some succeed where others fail – but what sets those apart who go on to launch successful products? Monica Viggers takes a look at the new product development process steps that can set you off in the right direction.

Product manager vs. project manager: 6 Differences & similarities. There’s bound to be confusion when you have two jobs with the same abbreviation and similar-sounding titles. When you compare product manager vs. project manager, you’ll find there are some significant differences as well as essential similarities. Kent McDonald took a look at those two job descriptions along with some information to consider when deciding whether you should have both job titles in your organization.

What is product adoption: How to measure + examples (2021 guide). Product adoption is not something that companies can afford to ignore. After all, it’s not profitable to build a product that no one is willing to purchase. You need loyal customers that regularly use your product, and product adoption can help you find those customers. Sara J. Nguyen takes an in-depth look at product adoption and shares some examples of how companies have influenced product adoption.

The post Favorite Posts of the Year 2022 – Part 2 appeared first on Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference.

Andrew Chen — Metaverse, metrics, and meerkats. In this episode of the Tim Ferriss Show, Tim talks to Andrew Chen, general partner at Andreesen Horowitz, about his experiences working with and investing in several consumer technology startups. Andrew shared his observations on growth practices for products and how to use metrics to guide your growth efforts.

(via @andrewchen)

Don’t have a UX research team? Jane Davis’ tips from Zoom, Zapier & Dropbox to get you started. This episode of the In Depth podcast from First Round Review features Jane Davis, the Director of UX Research and UX Writing at Zoom. Throughout the episode, Jane tackled the thorniest customer development questions and walked through the end-to-end research process in incredible detail, covering everything from clarifying your goals and asking the right questions, to selecting participants and synthesizing insights.

(via @firstround)

Competing in a sellers’ hiring market: Using transparency and authenticity. On a recent episode of the BUILD Podcast, Blake Bartlett spoke with Adam Turner, co-founder and CEO of Postscript. Blake and Adam discuss the current job market and Adam explains how Postcript’s culture of transparency and authenticity has helped the company grow from 20 people to 200 people in the past year. Listen to this episode if you’re wondering how to make sure your company measures up and can attract the right talent.

(via @OpenViewVenture)

Fighting fires in B2B product management (with Rich Mironov).  This episode of One Knight in Product features an interview with Rich Mironov. Rich talks about what a “smoke jumper” CPO is and the types of problems he solves when he works with companies. He also describes the various challenges he’s observed companies face from a product leadership and product management perspective. Listen to this episode for some real-life insights into the world of B2B product management from someone who’s seen it all (or at least a lot of it).

(via @OneKnightInProd)

Testing your ideas with David Bland. David Bland joins Melissa Perri on this episode of the Product Thinking Podcast to talk about how to identify your assumptions, experimenting within slower feedback cycles, the importance of aligned confidence, and how product leaders have to continuously walk the walk when it comes to experimentation and de-risk.

(via @produxlabs)

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Selling problems (and then solutions) instead of philosophy. Internal company issues can be just as complex or misunderstood as external customer problems. Getting agreement about solutions usually requires us to agree first on underlying problems. Rich Mironov explains that when framing up core product/development issues for less-technical audiences, we need to focus first on root causes and then on tangible business outcomes.

(via @RichMironov)

It’s time to fight for a dual product management career path. Ken Norton points out that product management has matured and is long overdue for the same treatment that our technical colleagues have received for decades. Most importantly, one’s base compensation, bonus, and equity should be comparable no matter which path one follows. Nobody should have to sacrifice earning potential if they forgo the people management track to focus on product leadership. And most importantly, no one should ever feel like they have to give up doing what they love in order to advance in their career.

(via @kennethn)

Discovery hand-offs kill momentum: Here’s what to do instead.  Good discovery establishes a direct communication line between the team who is building the product and the customer. There’s only one problem. Products aren’t built by trios. We typically have additional engineers, sometimes a second designer, maybe a product owner, a scrum master, and any number of additional roles depending on the organizational context. Teresa Torres explains how to avoid hands-offs between the product trio who is leading discovery and the rest of the team.

(via @ttorres)

Big disrupted enterprises vs. “The Best”.  John Cutler is tired of people putting Silicon Valley on a pedestal. There’s a lot to learn from Silicon Valley AND a lot to avoid. John suggests we need more empathy. Less blame and shame. And more appreciation for the hard work people are doing … especially in government, healthcare, and at disrupted mission-driven companies.

(via @johncutlefish)

2021 Financial and operating benchmarks report. OpenView Venture Partners recently released their 2021 Financial & Operating Benchmarks Report. This report was designed specifically to enable operators to compare themselves against their direct peers across the metrics that matter most in a SaaS business.

(via @OpenViewVenture)

The post Favorite Posts of the Year – Part 1 appeared first on Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference.

Launch mode vs iterate mode. Paul Adams shares the message he sent to his team after launching a new product. The gist of that message is Launching a product, and iterating a product, are two very different things and they require the team to think and operate in very different ways. The things that make a product team successful when launching a product are exactly the things that will make them fail after that product is launched.

(via @padday)

A straightforward guide to the process of iterating products. Aside from launching the product, the single most important process a product team uses to ensure success is measuring, learning, and tweaking the product. Christopher Bank explains that once your working product hits the market, its life becomes a sequence of iterations based on getting the right answers to the right questions. Do customers like my product? What could I add to make them happier to pay more? Are we even on track for long-term profitability?

(via @thenextweb)

How to plan iterations for a new product idea. The more iterations of your product you can work through the more chances you have of succeeding.Then again, endless iteration is hard to come by, no matter how big the company or the bank balance, so you need some sense of the number of iterations before you start to get your idea, feature, product, team or company funded appropriately. Scott Middleton aims to help you answer the question of how many iterations you need to make your product succeed. For the record, the answer is not 42.

(via @teremtech)

Design iteration brings powerful results. So, do it again designer!  Product iteration is a great way to gradually improve an existing product in a customer focused way. The folks at the The Interaction Design Foundation reminds us that you can also use iteration – iterative design in this case – to reach the best possible product for release to the market.

(via @interacting)

Iterating to an actionable outcome at tails.com.  Sonja Martin and her team at tails.com recognized that retention was critical, especially at the 90-day mark. But when they tried to use retention as their outcome, they discovered it was a little too broad to guide their day-to-day work. Melissa Suzuno tells the story of how Sonja and her team gradually refined and iterated on their outcome until they came up with a metric that was meaningful and actionable.

(via @ttorres)

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11 Ways to improve your retrospectives. A retrospective is a meeting held for the purpose of reflecting on the product development or workflow process. The aim of a retrospective is to look closely at the processes and products produced during a sprint, discuss these as a team, and decide on a way forward together to drive constant improvement. Joanne Perold shares 11 top tips to make your retros successful.

(via @agile42)

How to lead a product retrospective. A product marketer’s job doesn’t stop when a product is out the door, but product marketing teams do tend to be very launch-focused. These launches provide a great cadence for product marketing teams and can be a good frequency for product retrospectives. Jeffrey Vocell provides some guidance for leading a product retrospective that applies to product marketers, or any product person who wants to reflect on their product development work and find opportunities for improvement.

(via @PMMalliance)

Data-Informed Retrospectives. One of the key steps in running an effective retrospective is gathering data. Unfortunately many product teams either err in spending too little or too much time collecting data. If they don’t spend enough time, they lack vital information to reflect on. If they spend too much time, they have little capacity to analyze the data and come to conclusions on how to best improve as a team. The folks at Age of Product explain how you can avoid falling victim to both scenarios by gathering data for your retrospective continuously and asynchronously.

(via @ageofproduct)

Remote retrospectives: 11 Tips for leading retros remotely.  Retrospectives can be an incredibly helpful tool, giving teams an opportunity to bond, learn, and grow together. But as anyone who has participated in a less-than-productive retrospective can attest, not all retrospectives are created equal. Engaging in a healthy, open discussion about what went well, what didn’t, and how to improve next time, can be tricky. Doing it remotely (as many teams have learned in the past year) adds another layer of challenges. Alex Glabman shares 11 tips for running an effective retrospective when everyone is somewhere else.

(via @planview)

The blame game retrospective. Retrospectives can be a powerful tool for adjusting your product team’s approaches, but they can also be detrimental to your team’s effectiveness. Stefan Wolpers describes one scenario where retrospectives become counter-productive that he refers to as the “blame game retrospective”.

(via @StefanW)

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What is product management analytics? Product management analytics include data from digital products that reveal insights about the user experience, helping teams build better products. But product management analytics can only tell you what’s happening in your product—it can’t actually make changes. Harsh Patel describes product analytics and explains how to ask the right questions, track the right product metrics, and act on the insights.

(via @mixpanel)

The Amplitude guide to product analytics. The success and growth of any business depends on understanding who your customers are and what they expect from your product. Product analytics takes you to the next level in measuring product performance. It takes raw data and turns it into something meaningful, giving your entire team critical insights into the customer journey and digital experience.The folks at Amplitude break down what product analytics is, why you need it, and how to get started using it.

(via @Amplitude_HQ)

Product analytics vs product experience insights: what’s the difference? Product analytics is hard data that helps you identify where your product is working and where it’s falling short. But product analytics data doesn’t tell the full story of the user experience (UX). Product experience (PX) insights help you connect the dots between what’s happening and why it happens. The folks at Hotjar explain the differences between product analytics and PX insights and how you can use them together.

(via @hotjar)

How product analytics maturity feeds a product-led startup strategy The success of a product-led startup depends on having a crystal clear understanding of the value your product drives for users in the first place. And that depends on—you guessed it—having access to the right data. Hannah Maslar explains how a mature approach to product analytics can help your product-led startup succeed.

(via @OpenViewVenture)

19 Product manager analytics you need to know. Product managers are responsible for maximizing customer value, and they need to be able to understand their customers in order to do this. Product manager analytics helps them better understand how their products are being used so that they can make more informed decisions about future iterations and releases. Josh Fechter introduces 19 different great product manager analytics metrics and tools that you should know about if you’re aiming for a position of responsibility at your company.

(via the-product-company)

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Product metrics that matter. Product metrics allow measuring product progress and creating alignment in an outcome-oriented way. They develop an appetite for experimenting and being data-informed/inspired. Cláudia Delgado explains if you don’t use product metrics, you’re at a disadvantage. You’ll understand less about users, be prone to opinions, take unnecessary risks, work harder instead of smarter, and have less understanding of your work’s impact.

(via @claudiatd)

16 Customer Success Metrics and KPIs to Track in 2021. Suzan Çalcalı has questioned success her entire life. She kept asking herself, “what defines success?” She doesn’t need to ask the same philosophical questions while doing her job. That’s because she has metrics she can use to measure success. Susan covers the essential customer success metrics and the KPIs that you need to track for a better CS operation.

(via @UserGuiding)

15 Product management KPIs and metrics to track in 2021. Product management KPIs and metrics help product managers monitor the performance of their product to ensure that the company is improving and working towards a successful product strategy. But what are product management KPIs and metrics, and how can they help you? And more importantly, which metrics should you be tracking? Greg Swan discusses everything you need to know about product management KPIs and takes a look at the fifteen best product management metrics you need to track today.

(via @clickup)

What metrics are the most important for your product?  The SaaS industry is full of advice on the perfect product metrics to gauge your users’ activation, engagement, and interactions. But how do these concepts translate into real product improvements? If you don’t know exactly what questions you want to be answered, these product metrics leave you blinded by the very data you hoped would open your eyes. Nick Odlum And Kevin Mcnally explain how to answer the key questions about your product and business, and provide data that can inform product team decisions.

(via @intercom)

2021 Product Benchmarks.  If you’d like to get an idea of how your metrics line up with other companies of your same size or in your market check out the 2021 Product Benchmarks report that OpenView Ventures produced in partnership with your friends here at Product Collective.

(via @OpenViewVenture)

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