Hello under the winter sun in Amsterdam...
Steve Jobs is famous for ignoring market research, saying, “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” This perhaps oversimplifies the problem a bit but it resonates with my experience.
A roadmap made up entirely of customer requests generally results in a product with no focus, unclear market positioning, and poor usability. If you understand what underlying problems motivated your endless list of customer requests, you and your team can usually develop a more elegant set of solutions that renders that list moot.
Do you have examples of saying "no" to customers? Let me know.
Lots of News Below. Ping me if you are interested in any or all.
Jobs
My fiend John Zilch at Validity in Boston has two positions open for Product Managers with strategic thinking ability. Is the PM or Senior PM you?
Freebies
I have one free pass, worth $1,599, to The Product Event conference in San Francisco, February 7 and 8. Want it?
My Travels
Over the next few weeks I’ll be traveling, working with organizations on several continents on their product culture. Ping me if you’d like to discuss a workshop for your company — or just chat about product culture over a local beer.
Week of January 27: Washington DC
I'm speaking at ProductTank - Washington DC on Product Culture Will Eat Execution Culture Tuesday, January 29. Will I see you there?
Weeks of February 3 and 10: Auckland, NZ