I am a regular reader of Pragmatic Marketing blog. Recently they released a good e-book in PDF format:
The Strategic Role of Product Management: How a market-driven focus leads companies to build products people want to buy.
The e-book PDF file can be downloaded here.
Links to the original page at Pragmatic Marketing website:
Some words in this e-book are very hilarious, while some words are very thought-provoking:
In page 2, when it is talking about “definitions of marketing”:
Technology businesses use two definitions of marketing:
1) the market experts and business leaders for the product
– or –
2) the t-shirt and coffee mug department. 🙂
In page 6, when it is talking about the missing of voice of the market:
The VP of Development says,”Customers don’t know what they want.”
The VP of Sales says, “I can sell anything.”
The VP of Marketing says, “We just have to establish a brand.”
The VP of Finance says,”We have to control spending.”
In page 7, when it is talking about what is “Listen to the market”:
I’m convinced that developers, engineers, and executives want to be market-driven.
They just don’t want to be driven by marketing departments.
In page 9, the e-book quoted David Packard (co-founder of HP)’s word:
Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.
and Peter Drucker‘s words:
“There will always, one can assume, be need for some selling.
But the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.
The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer
so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.”
In page 10, when it talks about promotion:
promotion isn’t marketing;
promotion is marketing communications.
In the last page, page 33, the e-book summarized what a Product Manager should do, by comparison to Marketing, Sales and Developers:
Product managers bring a powerful combination of skills:
product and technology expertise
combined with market and domain knowledge
as well as business savvy.Marketing people know how to communicate;
product managers know what to communicate.Sales people know what one customer wants to buy;
product managers must determine if the deal represents a single customer or a market full of customers.Developers know what can be built;
product managers know whether it should be built.
Anyway, I strongly recommend this e-book to anyone who is interested in technology product management, and technology business.
Download The Strategic Role of Product Management e-book (pdf)
Another way of saying it: there are so many things that a company CAN do but someone with a business head should determine whether we SHOULD.
Thanks for your review.
Steve