Insights

During Sequent Learning’s product management training workshops, product managers often refer to “the product management process” as a unified approach to their work.  If you find yourself in this…

There are 3 Key Dimensions to Create a Perfect B2B Product Launch Imagine Apple missing a key launch date for a new iPhone? Unimaginable. Imagine then your own firms’ efforts to launch a product on time…

Validate Aspects of Your Business Case How many times have you had to validate aspects of your business case or your go to market plan, or confirm the context of a user story for a product before it’s…

Cultivating Product Management Talent This area can have a greater impact on the firm’s financial and market performance than any other job family or function.  Unfortunately, not all product managers…

Product Management and Technology Companies. My first thought is that the word technology seems so overused that it’s meaning has been blurred. When people use the term, they can mean anything from an…

I’ve been collecting data to find out if product managers are happy and engaged in their jobs.   I was motivated to do so because so many product managers say that they don’t have the proper resources…

I have yet to talk to a company executive that doesn’t want their teams to produce more unique and differentiated products that meet customer needs. However, saying those words simply isn’t enough…

I recently remodeled my kitchen in my 15-year-old house.   As I began planning the project, friends and family would joke with me (or some, perhaps more) about my reason for wanting to do this.  Everything…

If you’ve ever felt an unexpected sense of pleasure while performing a simple task like crunching numbers or cooking a homemade meal, you’ve probably experienced what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi refers…

A few years ago I was contacted by a product manager in crisis. His recently-released product was languishing, and he was racked with guilt. He told me that although he had put all of his efforts into…

A senior business leader (and a reader of The Product Manager’s Desk Reference) recently reached out to me. He said that it was time to engage Sequent Learning Networks to deliver a Product Management…

I have always been amazed by how deftly the TV series Mad Men dramatizes the tension between creativity and efficiency. A scene from a recent episode stuck with me for days. Let me set the stage for you:…

Business managers have tough jobs. They’re constantly being called upon to make decisions without the right amount of data – or the best quality data. I can tell you that I’ve made plenty of mistakes…

Reading about great inventors makes me nostalgic for a work environment that may have never existed. Take Albert Einstein. The man was a born and bred tinkerer.  As a boy he often visited his father’s…

At its core strategy should be straightforward and uncomplicated, yet product managers talk about it like it’s some amorphous, elusive thing.  So often, product managers will ask for help to improve…