Factors That Drive Product Management Excellence; Product Management Learning Library; Moving from Products Towards Solutions

Jeff Lash

Happy 2019! I hope that you had a Happy Holiday season and took some time off (it’s important!) and are ready to rock in 2019. While I did get some rest and relaxation, I’ve also been busy over the past few weeks with lots of exciting news and resources for product management leaders and product management teams.

The Four Key Factors That Drive Product Management Excellence

Product management has long been practiced based on “gut.” Few product managers have ever taken a course in product management and many have never even attended a training class. Product managers have historically “fallen” into the role, learning on the job by watching others who also learned on the job. Although product management leaders recommend and coach their teams on certain approaches that seem logical, the reality is that there has been little evidence to support certain product management practices or shed light on important aspects that may have gone unnoticed.

Until now.

At SiriusDecisions, we’ve identified the characteristics that drive product management excellence – product management teams that perform at a higher level than their peers. The results are summarized in my blog post The Four Key Factors That Drive Product Management Excellence and our new e-book, Product Management Excellence: The SiriusDecisions 2019 Playbook which you can download now.

SiriusDecisions Product Management Learning Library

Speaking of learning how to be a good product manager (which is one of the reasons you’re reading this blog, right?) one of the most common things I hear when talking to product management leaders is that they have a need to upskill and improve the competencies of their product management teams. Often this is because there are people new to product management, but in many cases it’s because there is a need to get a consistent set of knowledge, processes, and terminology in place among all product managers in the organization.

Upskilling doesn’t take place just in one hour or one day or one week; it’s an ongoing process that requires reinforcement. And, even when product managers learn (and adopt) best practices in one specific area, there is of course a lot more to learn given the wide range of product management responsibilities.

I spend most of my day every day helping product management teams understand and adopt best practices, but as I said, learning is an ongoing process. Over the past few months, we’ve been hard at work at SiriusDecisions building a new approach to online learning — not just a one-time course, but a library of resources that can help product managers learn best practices across the range of product management responsibilities and guide them through the adoption of those in their day-to-day work.

In this short (only 90 seconds!) video, I introduce the SiriusDecisions Product Management Learning Library and how it can help product managers at all levels of experience. You also see what’s included in the Learning Library, sign up for a demo, or purchase access online.

Moving from Products Towards Solutions
One other priority I hear from a lot of product management leaders — and CMOs, CEOs and others — is the desire to move from a model selling only standalone, one-off products to a model where the company is developing solutions. This has implications for product management, of course, but also for marketing, sales, and other functions that need to adjust.

That’s part of the reason I helped put together the new SiriusDecisions e-book Moving from Product to Solution Innovation, which reviews the benefits and challenges of moving to a solution-centered go-to-market strategy, introduces the SiriusDecisions Go-to-Market Architecture Model and explores considerations for product, marketing and sales teams!

What’s Hot on Twitter
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