Customer Reviews

Software Product Management Essentials

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I read this book while it was still in galley form and once I'd finished it, immediately began to recommend it to my friends in the software industry industy who are involved in product management.

Essentials begins with a useful overview of the role product management plays in the software development, sales and marketing process. The role of a product manager is to serve as a communications "hub" for a publisher's software, coordinating the different and frequently conflicting wishes, needs and priorities of development, sales, marketing and customers.

While product management is one of the most enjoyable and exciting positions within the firmament of software marketing positions, it can also be a wearying and frustrating job. One of the hoariest observations in the software industry is that product managers have "all the responsibility and none of the authority." To succeed as a product manager it helps to have the reflexes of a juggler (to help keep multiple balls in the air), the proboscis of a basset hound (to help sniff out the political winds), and the hide of rhinoceros (to help deflect the flight of poison darts that will be coming your way).

After its look at the role of product management in software, the book moves onto discussing frameworks for managing the process. Software Product Management Essentials is particularly enamored of the Base Level Integration Planning (BLIP) methodology. BLIP is a time-based system that begins with:

"...A schedule for each development cycle or Base Level (BL), and then builds a practical set of features and development work into the schedule, rather than the other way around. In software engineering, this approach is called "time boxing." By using the BLIP process, your company can maintain fleet-footedness and flexibility while ensuring functionality to keep ahead of the market. The BLIP process is flexible enough to allow you to focus on one of the development attributes (quality, functionality or time) as much or as little as desired for each release cycle."

BLIP is favorably contrasted with the traditional method of product development, which often consist of a product manager walking into a meeting with the development group, presenting a list of desired features, and then threatening, blackmailing, and eventually sobbing piteously until he or she gets buy-in from the programmers. Or the methodology, which consists of the development group ignoring marketing while they build the next version of the product they think is cool and which may or may not correspond with the desires and needs of the buyers of said products. Or the system in which the sales group promises that software will soon have the ability to product anti-gravity waves on demand if the customer will sign the PO today.

A word about some of the sillier reviews I've read here. No one with any experience in the industry would regard reading this book as a waste time (except maybe some disappointed developers who are accustomed to buying books by the pound.) Software Product Management Essentials is a compact, pithy book. It gets to the point, provides up to-date-info on current industry techniques and approaches and is one of a small handful of books which focuses specifically on the issues facing software PMs, not product managment in general.

A very valuable tool for those of us in the software industry.

I was excited to get this book after reading the initial glowing reviews on Amazon (apparently from friends of the author). As mentioned elsewhere, there are good books covering Product Management in general, but few covering Software Product Management. This short book does provide an overview of what the software product manager should think about that is specific to the software industry, and provides some practical advice useful for the new product manager, but doesn't go into much depth on any one topic, which would greatly benefit the more experienced product manager who must piece together bits of wisdom from disparate sources (such as Kotler on Marketing, Product Management (lehmann and winer), Crossing the Chasm, etc.) in order to do more than get up to speed on fundamentals of the job.

The author mentions that the 4 P's of marketing are: Product, Place (distribution), Pricing, and Positioning (usually called Promotion). However, she doesn't go into depth on any one of the P's nor does she try to explain how to integrate them. The deepest section is on product development but there are much better books on this one subject alone. Similarly, readers needing more information and advice on pricing should read other books such as The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing. However, I really liked how Dver included the S-curve as a 4th C of pricing (Customers, Cost, Competition, and now Change). Unfortunately, positioning is only covered in a few paragraphs! Distribution is also glossed over.

Perhaps this lack of substance reflects the adolescent state of the industry, with its overemphasis on Product above all the other P's (perhaps this made sense in the hypergrowth stage as firms quickly leaped to the Next Big Thing but not in a maturing industry), and lack of integration between the P's in most firms. By contrast, think about consumer brand management (where product management originated) for a moment: does P&G only emphasize one P or do they do a good job integrating all 4 when bringing a product to market? Considering who Redmond hires as new product managers, no wonder Microsoft is the only firm in this industry seen as having great marketing (debate over the quality of its software notwithstanding).

The book also seems to lean heavily on quotes from Pragmatic Marketing (course and consulting firm). We have a long way to go, both in the industry, and in guidebooks on the software product manager's job. Perhaps the second edition of Ms. Dver's book will be more helpful.

As I went to go and post a review of this book, I was shocked to see some of the negative reviews that are here. This book was fantastic in that it was simple, clear, and comprehensive. I've been a product manager for over 15 years and have managed product managers for the last 7. I work in a very successful software company and have been a successful PM. I was looking for a tool to help train my staff and this book was recommended by one of my colleagues at another company who is also a succsssful manager of PMs. I am glad I listened to my friend and not the people who think they know too much and need boast this via an Amazon book review. From my perspective, this book really helps - it helps new PMs understand what they are expected to do and how to do it. It also confirmed for me what I should expect of my employees and gave me some really staightforward tools to use, even after all these years. If you want a solid and accurate view of software product management, this is it. If the book missed anything, it was how to deal with unfulfilled engineering types....maybe next version?

When I began my career in Product Management there were no books that taught the art and science to newcomers. Most of what I learned had to be absorbed by osmosis while working at different software companies, each with their own Product Management roles, responsibilities and processes. If there had been a book available it would have saved me many headaches and
given me a much better idea of what to expect during each part of the product lifecycle and how to be more effective.

Software Product Management Essentials solves the need for a
resource for introductory to mid-level software Product Managers. It helps them learn how to do their work more effectively and covers the fundamentals of Product Management. Targeted primarily at smaller companies, who oftentimes have little or no process in place and tend to demand that the Product Manager do the widest variety of tasks, it is also a great resource for those thinking of getting into Product Management.

I recommend this book as a good resource for anyone who is a Product Manager.
Brian Lawley
http://www.280group.com

Overall: Good book to provide an introduction to product management. Also has a good set of sample document templates that can serve as guidelines.

Depth: I think the book does not intend to go in more detail by design. I would have liked more deep dive on some topics like the Pricing models, Role of the PM in the organization etc. But again, this book was probably not intended that way.

Breadth: It covers all the various areas pretty well I think.

Price: I would have expected a lot more material for the price tag. I was a little disappointed with the size and depth of the book in this regard.

Dont waste your money on this one. As someone pointed out , it should be titled 'Software Product Management Topics'. Instead i found 'Product Managers Handbook' more detailed and relevant.

It is a shame that this book didn't exist when I started my career in product management. It is an excellent primer to pull together the various areas of software product management. Each area is well explained in simple language and touches all the important things that every product manager should know. Unlike my fellow reviewers, I do not believe any more information is needed in areas such a product development (i.e. RUP or other methodologies which is clearly beyond the scope of this book). As Dver notes up front, this book is a survey of the key areas a product manager is reponsible for. She clearly notes that in some areas, she is using one example of a technique (i.e. she uses the base level integration process as an example of only one development process). Dver also notes that PMs are very busy and the terseness of this book is beneficial leaving the PM free to explore any one of the topics further as it fits their specific organization and personal needs. From the other reviews listed, there is obviously diversity in the opinions of people as to what a PM should know and do. It is good to see that official PM organizations such as Association of International Product Managers (AIPMM), a number of Product Management Associations (PMAs) as well as Product Development and Management Associations (PDMA), have endorsed this book. Some even give it as a registration gift for new members. So in conclusion, I hope other people who want to learn or hone their PM skills do pick up this book. Its a great resource and is backed by those who practice product management for a living.

I would expect from a book with that impressive heading to be more generic, describing different approaches and types of situations - maybe not in detail, but somehow covering the field. What I've got was the PM experience of the author - certainly not useless, but too specific.

For me it was a waste of money.

Unfortunately I cannot bring myself to rate any published book with as many grammatical errors as this one higher than a 3. Once you get past what appears to be a piratically unedited book, the content is good for someone with little knowledge of what an actual Product Manager does.

If you have any type of IT Project Management or IT Management experience you may want to try a different book or you may feel you wasted your money.

I recently moved to the US and while I managed software products in my native country, I wasn't familiar with the process or all of the terms used in the US. This book was very helpful as it didn't complicate or assume anything. Software is hard enough to manage - books about managing it shouldn't be. I appreciated that. The templates at the end saved me a lot of time and expense. I never expect any one book to answer all questions but for me, this book was a great help in my recent transition.