Well, I’m not going to make excuses for not posting, other than I’ve just been swamped (which is putting it lightly). Definitely will attempt to keep up posting going forward.

Something came to me yesterday after a very negative day (just lots of those little “nagging” things that always seem to rear their ugly heads) and I assumed it was going to end on a negative note, but it didn’t! I saw one of my PM team really working with a salesperson to get a deal done. It really made the day end on a high note for me, and I thought, why not have something positive put out to our whole division on a daily basis?

So, something very simple, but I’m making sure that everyone on our teams know yesterday’s success story, and I am putting out a challenge to all our salespeople and PM’s to get me feedback on these positive deals so that we can internally “brag” about them every single day. I want the entire team to benefit from the good feeling of closing that difficult deal, and hopefully that snowballs into better days for all! Sometimes it’s too easy to get bogged down in the fast-paced day to day administrative duties, and in our business, I think that’s what really puts the drain on us. A small positive success story every morning, I firmly believe will go a long way.

Now to get into Outlook to set that daily morning reminder…

I’m really not sure where August has gone. I knew it was going to be busy with people still out on vacation and being quarter-end, but it seriously flew by.

A lot of my time was spent making sure a renewed partnership with a vendor was being implemented properly. A lot of back and forth with different departments, making sure everbody was on the same page – both within our company and within the walls of our vendor partner.

With this project, I:

• sold the top executives on the plan (with some help and coaching of course) both at our company and the vendor’s
• worked with the purchasing team making sure they understood the whole scope of the initiative
• made sure sales were aware of what we were doing (after all, it is sales that will ultimately make the whole project a success
• co-ordinated contact between our teams and corresponding teams at the partner, again, to make sure everyone was together on this

The hard work co-ordinating all this is already paying off…leads are flowing in to sales and when the first portion of inventory finally hit the warehouse (today, in fact) I’m happy to say that just about half of it is already pre-sold! A lot of late nights from home tying up loose ends has made this all run smoothly and contributed to its success (not only on my part, but on all the teams involved – and if any of them read this blog, if I haven’t already done so, thank you).

Now my goal is to take and build on the initial success. This is just a start, and everyone that has been a part of this is excited – you can sense it when talking to them!

I am taking a week with the family to head up north a bit and do some camping – I am looking forward to the time off. Usually when I’m off I’m worrying about what’s going on back at the office, but with the teams we have in place now, I can actually relax and recharge, knowing that they are all focused on the same thing – making our division the biggest success in the company.

Of course, when I’m back on the 28th, it’ll be the final sprint to our quarter-end…fun!

Well, another month in the books…a lot of positives taken out of July. Backlog is good, and some big wins are coming in from all areas of the business. August is already starting out very positive.

Earlier, I posted on a homework assignment that our boss gave us asking us that if there was one thing we could change that would positively affect our business, what would it be?

Our team discussed this throughout the week in some email exchanges, and we came up with some good ideas. The discussion definitely went longer than intended, but it was a good forum of ideas…following is a list of the highlights that generated most of the discussion:

• Sign back a very large vendor we used to have
• Better communication with purchasing teams
• Getting our support staff more familiar with our technologies and products (buyers, marketing, etc…not tech support)
• Better system tools for sales

These are just a few of the ideas presented; others were mentioned that were great. I liked the format of the whole project. If we’d just been asked point-blank to come up with these thoughts, I doubt that it would have been as successful.

What I really took from this, though, is that as Product Managers, we always have to be thinking about change, and how change can help us succeed. A lot of people are hesitant to accept change, and those are the ones that fail. I appreciate the fact that I am part of a company that encourages – no – rewards people who embrace change. I look back at how I resisted all the changes a couple years ago, and how my views have changed to support good change.

I’ll end with a link to our CEO’s blog since his post today fits perfectly…

I probably won’t make any new posts as we try to wrap up the month and hit the numbers. Always a fun time trying to make sure everything that isn’t bolted or tied down gets out the door

Tags: month-end, sales, push

Today I found out that I have got executive buy-in at the highest level to make one of my vendors potentially our division’s largest. This is exciting, and scary at the same time. Our business is very "purchasing-driven", so bringing in millions of dollars of a product line is not something I take lightly. Things have to be forecast properly with sales, and the more "Just In Tiime" I can get that inventory to hit, the happier everyone is on the financial side.

This is the stuff I love about Product Management. Things like this require forward-thinking, relationship-building, and balls.

A lot of hard work ahead with this project, but the payoff will make it all worthwhile! Still, I may just go get that ulcer prescription renewed…

Tags: forecast, product management, relationship

So today my boss gave us some homework for next week’s PM meeting…he wants us each to think of 1-2 areas of our buiness where, if we had our way, we would change something to help our business. This could be like handing each of us loaded guns, but I hope everyone takes it seriously and comes up with realistic ideas, but at the same time thinking outside the box.

I may brainstorm with my team on this. We’re business owners, therefore we should always be thinking of new, original ways of improving our own profitability.

I’ll possibly post our brainstorm notes later…for now, think I’ll catch some zzz’s

Tags: profitability, homework, business

I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how different industries view the role of a Product Manager. I think there are a lot of different angles on what PMs do in a day-to-day role. Wikipedia defines Product Management as:

a function within a company dealing with the day-to-day management and welfare of a product or family of products at all stages of the product lifecycle.

It makes sense for me to start in my own industry – computer distribution. If I had to sum up my role, it would be that I am a business owner. Within North America I handle six different vendors (in the AIDC space mostly), and I try to run them as if each were a small business of which I am president and CEO. The following list represents my normal involvement (and I’m sure I’ve missed some too):

• evaluate new products and manufacturers and determine if they fit our market(s)
• negotiate terms of the contract
• work together with the potential partner and implement a successful marketing plan to launch the product
• ensure the product(s) and/ or manufacturer gets press externally as well as with internal teams and customers (part of marketing)
• train sales on how to differentiate the vendor’s products, how to sell, etc.
• continually work with the buying team to ensure inventory is adequate for normal business and growth curves (forecasting very important)
• responsible for profitability of each vendor (manufacturer)

In a manufacturing environment, I would have to assume that all of these above points fit, as well as adding the folowing, as here the Product Manager is tasked with bringing a new product to market, or developing a "Gen 2", etc:

• defining a new product (product development)
• turning features into specs
• considering the life cycle of the product

There is always some crossover I find in product management…the above duties are a great general guideline, but there are time when I’m a sales champion helping a rep come up with a solution. Some days (especially like now close to a month-end) I am the buyer’s assistant – helping get shipment info and ETAs from our vendors. Some days I feel like I am doing what I was meant to do – look down the road; predict what the next big product is going to be in our technology space.

I’d love to hear what other PMs do from other companies and industries…what are your obstacles and pressure points?

Tags: product management, role, business owner, product development

Welcome to Product Management Reflections. While the site is in progress currently, I just wanted to put an initial post in so it at least had some form to it. I am hoping to initiate discussion on what we, as product managers, face in our day to day lives, across industries. Sharing ideas is key, as is sharing how we overcome obstacles.

I’m sure if you ask five different people to define a Product Manager, you will get five different answers. Hmm, maybe I have a topic for my first post

Tags: product management