Customer Reviews

The Product Managers Handbook, 3E

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a new product manager, I found this book quite useful as an overview of what is to be expected of a product manager. The book covers the roles, skills, and expectations of the product manager, covers the different organizational structures that cover product management, and uses detailed examples to show how those functions work in practice.

My only criticism is that it is a broad overview, and as such some of the areas (branding, for example) are covered very briefly. This book probably won't teach anything to the experienced product manager, but it might be useful as a reference to how other companies approach product management.

This book is a good first step into product management (even though I tend to be partial to textbooks). It covers a wide spectrum of the topic. Unfortunately, this wide coverage and the book's short length (254 pages) means that at times it tends to be a bit too general. If you are looking for a very specific and comprehensive book then this might not be the one for you.

On the upside, it's packed full with charts, checklists and case studies (invaluable tools in learning), and it's written in a pretty concise fashion.

Overall, I feel that this book is a very good introduction into the area of product management for the beginner and possibly a supplimental text for the seasoned product manager.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

SECTION ONE: The Role and Operation of Product Management. 1. The New Product Management. 2. Introducing Product Management and Managing Product Managers. 3. The Role of Product Managers in the Organization. Case One: Heavyweight Product Managers.

SECTION TWO: Planning Skills for Product Managers. 4. The Product Marketing Planning Process. 5. The Annual Product Plan. Case Two: The Importance of Data.

SECTION THREE: Product Skills. 6. Evaluating the Product Portfolio. 7. Strategic Product Planning. 8. New Products: Proposal, Developmeent, and Lauch. Case Three: The Many Aspects of Product Line Management.

SECTION FOUR: Functional Skills. 9. Pricing Products and Services. 10. The Product Manager as Marketing Manager. 11. Product Management: The Final Frontier? Case Four: The 3M ScotchCartII Cartridge.

Please let me know if this was of help.

For product managers and, in fact, *anyone* who contributes the to the making, marketing or selling of products, this is a great reference book to have on your shelves. Linda Gorchels does a masterful job synthesizing all of the issues a product manager must be capable of tackling. She accomplishes this task with clean, well-structured text and examples. The heart of the book is really a series of extended checklists which are comprehensive, well-researched and accesible to the lay reader.

My only complaint is that the book is front-loaded with some some compartively less important stuff, including a chapter entitled "Product Manager.com." I suppose this emphasis is reflective of a book written in 1999 and published in 2000. But as I cast my eye warily at that chapter I was *this close* to just chucking the whole thing.

Just then...bingo. The red meat arrived at Chapter 5 when *finally* the planning skills required to be a PM were introduced. The book from this point (p. 69 in hardcover) on is cram-packed with tremendous information that you'll use again and again.

So, my word of advice when you get this book is either (a) don't give up on it early, or (b) proceed directly to Chapter 5.

I wish I had bought this book a year ago when I began building our PM Department! I live in Germany and the role of the product manager is poorly understood by many people I come into contact with. So it helps to have written examples which indicate that I am moving in the right direction. Even today, I find the book to be quite useful and the scenarios described in the book certainly apply to much of what I had to learn the hard way. It is a bit general for an experienced product manager but its small form-factor makes it easy to have with you at all times. It is an invaluable resource for those who are new to product management and is full of great ideas to help you move your product forward.

Product Management is one of those jobs that is different for each product manager, what it is depends on your product and what you make of it. The danger is that when you write about product management, you focus on your specific experience. I found this book to be general enough to be of interest of many, still it was not so highlevel that it did not provide any help. I would recommend this book to everyone who thinks about product management as a next career. I would also recommend it to those who have been in product management for several years, and just want to read what others think about it

Information was helpful however it was very general. As a new product manager I was able to gather enough general information to formulate some idea of how product management is received in organizations. Based on other books I have read this is probably the best one to provide you with that general information. Again, this book is not for the advanced Product Manager.

This is a solid desk reference for less experienced product managers. If you have many years of experience, you may find this book somewhat basic.

I read this book in 2000 when I started my first job as a PM. Since then, I have re-read it a few times. Each re-read is such a pleasure as I am able to tie in my experience to more and more facets of the book that were previously unclear. The book is an industry independent, general review of the roles and responsibilities of a product manager. It lays a nice foundation for those who are new to the position by outlining business processes, internal and external interactions and organizational roles a PM can expect to have.

The book does not delve into the mechanical details of marketing: such as conducting research, performing surveys, managing channels or evaluating effectiveness. However, it does talk about which kind of product managers would benefit from certain types of marketing initiatives.

If you are new to Product Management or would like to learn more about the processes involved in managing a product's lifecycle, this book is an excellent introduction.

This book provides a very good overview of the role and responsibilities of the new Product Manager. It is aimed basically to describe the new concept of product management emerged out of corporate product marketing. Lot of literature is available to explain about new product development explaining the aspects of research, target customers etc. but it is not helpful for understanding of the complete role of product management. It has all inputs for setting up new product management team for organizations. As a new product manager I found this book helpful while making my role description. As I see, this second version has some new additions when compared to the first version and I hope, the next version will provide some additional information about branding, positioning and product marketing aspects to help experienced product managers as well. This book surely helps new product managers.

The Product Manager's Handbook is a good, general introduction to the subject. The concepts are explained clearly. The book gives a good description of the different steps it takes to transform ideas into commercially viable products and the skill set expected from a performing product manager. The critical financial side of product management, however, deserves more space than only 8 pages in a 290-page book dedicated to the product manager. At the end of the day, a product manager must show the money. Otherwise, the products will be "killed" sooner or later.