You’ve highlighted a really common misunderstanding in organisations that don’t “get” product management, often where it reports into the Sales organisation. Because we happen to be good at listening, know our market and products, and are relatively articulate (except me on Monday mornings), some VPs think we should work in Sales. Don’t get me wrong, if that’s what you enjoy, knock yourself out.

What will happen is that, without a group of product managers keeping one eye on the short-term, one eye on the longer-term view, the organisation will increasingly suffer from an overall lack of strategy. This is characterised by a very reactive roadmap, incoherent products that try to be all things to all people, and loss of ground to competitors with a more disciplined approach.

It takes a while to get the point across, though!

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your thoughts.

Cheers,

Jock

One place I was, I had a boss that took another view. He reclassified us as “inside sales” (I am not kidding, my job code changed) and ordered us to go out and help the sales team close orders. That is a little too much sales for my taste.

Thanks for the post!

It’s understandable that this is not an attractive option; after all, who wants to be the person who has to point out that their company’s lost its way?

unfortunately still very true around here.

When looking at what the market really requires, many companies seem to pay lip-service to this idea. But really, are still doing what you describe in the background, then trying to fit the two together (leaning towards the stuff they wanted to do anyway)…

I do agree there are many remote usability testing tools available. In fact I’ve collected a few elsewhere on this blog. I think what you miss out on with remote testing is the easy ability to observe the body language of the person. But when you’re balancing convenience with depth of information maybe that’s an acceptable (or pragmatic) compromise to make.

Thanks for your comment,

Jock

I certainly think moderated usability testing has it’s place, but these days there are many remote, unmoderated tools that can really simplify the testing process as well as reducing costs. I find the key is finding a balance between in-person, moderated testing and remote testing, based on the goals and objectives of each site and going on from there. Obviously bigger sites have much more time and money to invest on developing a project than smaller sites/individuals.

I really like you text on creating the scenarios – this is super useful information that can be applied across all kinds of usability testing techniques. I look forward to seeing your next post in the series.

Thanks again for sharing.

Jacob.

I think about this in a few ways:

• I really enjoy the ‘lightbulb’ moments when I understand better how people interact with my product
• My opinion, though interesting, is irrelevant (thanks Pragmatic Marketing)
• It’s better to get unbiased feedback from lots of people, then see if there are recurring problems