I’m going to give you 100 percent of my 80 percent of my time
I just found an interesting interview with Eric Schmidt that I believe is very interesting. Regarding the hiring and recruiting there are 2 ideas that are very good articulate
- “You need to develop a culture where people actually are going to do what they’re going to do, and you’re trying to assist them”
- “So the 20 percent time is a very good recruiting tool, but more importantly it serves as a pressure valve against managers who are obnoxious. So the way it works is, if you’re my manager and you say, “Eric, you know, we’re on deadline, we’ve got a problem,” and so forth. I’ll look at you, and I’ll say, “I’m going to give you 100 percent of my 80 percent of my time.”
It may be, I don’t know, that these rules don’t apply as there are build, but the base for them is people development. This is a very important aspect for each of us, that’s so easy to be ignored or reprioritized. How many times have you gone to a training that was boring and you checked your emails during it? Or how many times have you left the training room only thinking on the task that you still have to do and with no impact from training day?
Giving the employees the opportunity to choice and sharing the managing authority with them is a big step and leads to a business that is driven by the employee’s creativity and intelligence.
Posting from Blackberry
My first entry from BB. I like the wordpress application 
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Creating a business plan
All starts with a plan. The team is sitting around a table and starts talking about what the competitor X has done and was super, what the company Y has done. One hour has passed, two, three…four … the final decision came: We need to schedule a new meeting.
After an initial plan has been drawn and agreed by the team, the plan must be put in an electronic format. And the real work begings now: the colors are not ok, the format should be changed, vision is not good enough…etc, etc. Version 1, version 2, version 3…version 10…and so after 3 month of work, the plan is ready. Meanwhile, the market trends changed, the competition moved quicker than planned and the plan is out of date.
Lately, I start thinking what can I do in order to prevent this situation and I have collected some ideas:
- Continue create a plan: even if you do not discussed it with your colleagues or your manager.
- Continue watch what the competition is doing (if they launched a product one year ago, but they stopped the communication on that product and the support is not able to solve an issue, then the product failed. DO NOT included in your plan!
- Do not try to only copy your competition successful ideas.
- Listen to your customers and to your competitors customers. Analise better what does your competition do in order to keep their customer happy.
- Listen to market, read a lot about the new trends and analyze their impact in your products.
Email Dominates Mobile Web Time
And we start with the classic action… 
Emarketer.com has published an interesting report regarding what do the American users on the mobile internet.
I’m expecting that the top will change soon, mainly, due the penetration of smartphones and the continue growth of mobile application available in the market.
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007868
Social Products
Social Products Require Social Marketers.
An interesting view regarding social products. I do not believe in social products, either but I strongly believe that social media channel should be under the lead of a product manager and integrated in Go-to-Market flow.
I’m impressed with the number of adopters for social media in USA and how you can solve a problem with your telecommunication provider or an airline on Facebook or Tweeter.
Product Management Problems
As a product manager, I try my best to come with new ideas, to be involved in many projects and to help the organization develop attractive products/campaigns. I worked with technical departments, sales, marketing and I tried to talk to all “on their language”. I always have in mind the say that”if a product manager does not do the job, somebody else in the company will do the job for him/her!”
Still…there are a lot of problems, like:
1. The technical departments take the Business Requirement and implement as they want
2. If there is no follow up – there is nothing
3. The prioritization of requirements is invisible for the product manager
4. The manager requests with very high priority the development of a feature, which failed just some months ago. Main reason:”The VP has asked for this!”
5. After long discussions with Marcom team, the final materials are funny, but the message is not clear. The customers will not understand the new product and its benefits. Back to the long and painful discussions.
6. After lots of meetings, conference call and thousand of emails, the product or the feature is live! You announce it through the organization, thanking the IT and Marcom teams and wishing good luck to the sale team. What next? In an hour a new prioritization meeting for the new features. There is no thank you email for you. At a road map review meeting you discuss about your work and you get an “Ok, that’s nice but the company strategy has change and we must have a new road map! It’s not January or March…
I never understood what does expression like” Fair point” means. Is “the road” ok or not?
Lately, I’m wandering where is this going to, but I haven’t found an answer yet.
The Change Cycle
Every day is a new change! What yesterday was ok, today is forgotten…We re-design plans, we do again the road maps and these situations repeat over and over.
There are times when I analyze myself and I realized that after a change there is period when I’m feeling lost, when nothing makes sense.
If you have a good mentor then these periods can pass without any problems…but if you don’t, then you need patience. With the time, your work experience will be better and better. Good luck!
The surprising truth about what motivates us
A very interested vision, that I would like to see it implemented in many companies.
Good joke for each morning
Do you know what happens if you have to take care of more than the Product Manager bubble? 
Free content
I’m not a supporter of free content, although I know that most of the customers love this, I believe that this is an interesting presentation.
Free content is ok, but it may content errors or it may even be false. On the other hand, due the free content, we all are smarter than 10 years ago.
Grey Product Management
Grey Product Management- I’m going to give you 100 percent of my 80 percent of my time May 3, 2011
- Posting from Blackberry January 10, 2011
- Creating a business plan August 30, 2010
- Email Dominates Mobile Web Time August 27, 2010
- Social Products August 23, 2010
- Product Management Problems August 12, 2010
- The Change Cycle July 12, 2010
- The surprising truth about what motivates us June 28, 2010
- Good joke for each morning June 16, 2010
- Free content June 15, 2010