Product Description

Revised and updated techniques to achieve top performance in product management

The Product Manager's Handbook takes the mystery out of this field by detailing how to integrate aspects from production and coordination to value maximization into a cohesive whole, while examining key international issues, new technologies, and the financial side of product management.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15631 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-07
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 389 pages

Download Description
This second edition of

From the Back Cover

Renowned for offering detailed and valuable guidance to all product managers, regardless of market or industry, The Product Manager’s Handbook has been extensively revised and updated for today’s changing business landscape. While product managers must flourish in many different environments--such as consumer versus business-to-business products or hierarchical versus horizontal, team-driven organizations--the techniques and tools they need for management success are remarkably similar.

The Product Manager’s Handbook examines each piece of the puzzle, showing you how to integrate your organization’s disparate segments into a cooperative, results-focused unit that works together to create satisfying products from initial design through post-purchase satisfaction. The essential guide to seamless product management in a fluid and unpredictable business world, The Product Manager’s Handbook gives you the knowledge you need to:

• Conduct market and customer analysis
• Design branding strategies
• Establish and implement prices
• Target current and new markets
• Develop, launch, and assess new products
• Manage existing and mature products
• Create and manage customer demand
• Work effectively with sales, operations, and research departments

Clear, easy-to-read charts show you how to manage each crucial step, from conception to completion. Practical checklists help you to evaluate progress at every stage. Concise “Business Briefs” feature case studies of leading companies confronting and overcoming today’s product management challenges. Interviews with seasoned product management consultants and top-performing product managers provide you with dynamic, proven strategies for addressing potential problems in marketing, production, cross-cultural communication, and more.

Product managers must create, grow, and manage products that combine internal design integrity with external customer integrity--all, of course, while adhering to strict bottom-line necessities. The Product Manager’s Handbook examines current market-leading companies, latest research findings, evolving customer perceptions, and more to provide you with the tools you need to design, produce, and market winning products, regardless of your industry.

Guidelines for successfully managing your company’s most vital competitive assets--its products

A skilled product manager is among a company’s most valuable employees, responsible for spearheading every step in a product’s lifecycle. The Product Manager’s Handbook shows you how to develop and seamlessly integrate the key aspects of successful product management--product and market knowledge, financial and strategic skills, interpersonal ability, and more--to enhance your hands-on proficiency and ensure that you are a vital contributor to your company’s long-term profitability.

Filled with the updated guidance and insights you need to become an accomplished, valued product manager, this comprehensively revised edition features:

• All-new information on product management brand strategy and global brand management
• Expanded guidelines and insights for getting top performance from teams and team members
• Insightful “Business Briefs” featuring case studies of leading companies

In an environment of increasing product complexity, intense international competition, and accelerating customer sophistication, product managers can mean the difference between product success and failure. The Product Manager’s Handbook provides a straightforward template that you can follow to create and deliver superior products and services to your company’s customers, while at the same time providing long-term value to your company.

About the Author

Linda Gorchels is the managing director of executive marketing seminars in the executive education department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business. She is the author of a number of successful business books, including The Product Manager’s Field Guide and The Manager’s Guide to Distribution Channels. Gorchels has provided corporate training for global organizations including Nokia, Siemens, Metso Automation, and others.

Customer Reviews

Great starting point for Product Managers
This book is probably the best overall guide for Product Managers I have seen. It is very broad in places because it tries to remain as applicable to Product Managers of all kinds of products, from shampoo to TVs to computer software. The concepts of Product Management are the same, regardless of industry, but the reader needs to be capable of translating broad concepts into something applicable to their own setting.

The book does a great job of describing the scope of a Product Manager's role and the types of things a Product Manager should be thinking about. This is particularly useful for new Product Managers or for experienced Product Managers that want a reference point for helping explain their role to others (often one of the greatest challenges for a Product Manager).

Product Manager must have
This book is is a must have for someone that want to have a good understanding of a Product Manager area of competency. It has real-life interviews related to challenges/solutions associated to this role. I absolutely recommend this book for someone that want to have a good understanding of what Product Manager entails.

Provides insight into the roles & responsibilities of the product manager
This book gives a good introduction into the roles and responsibilities of a product manager. It makes no assumptions of any prior knowledge or experiences. For each chapter, it provides worksheets or process flow charts. In addition, case studies of actual events are presented. At the end of each chapter, it provides a set of checklist. Therefore I will recommend this to any reader interested to know more or making a career change.

Overall, this book provides an excellent overview of the on-goings within business processes. Below is a brief summary.

This book is divided into 4 parts. Part I gives an introduction into product management. Part II highlights the process that the product managers (PMs) can use in their annual planning activities. It provides a format or guidelines for the annual product marketing plan. Part III highlights the analytical skills of PMs, which is to evaluate existing product line and to determine & implement new product strategies. Part IV elaborates on the marketing skills necessary for a successful product line. Special attention is devoted to pricing and marketing communication decisions and activities.

Briefly, product management is about the planning, forecasting and marketing of products and services. There is a need for PMs to be cross-functional leaders. The overall responsibility of the PM is to integrate the various segments of a business into a strategically focused whole, maximizing the value of a product by coordinating the production of an offering with an understanding of the market needs and requirements. PMs manage not only products, but projects and processes as well. The PM's job is to oversee all aspects of a product/service line to create and deliver superior customer satisfaction while simultaneously providing long term value for the company.

In terms of time allocation, the PM typically spends 40-55% on day-to-day activities, 20-30% on short term activities and 15-25% on long term or strategic activities. Therefore excellent time management is crucial. Examples of day-to-day activities are maintenance of product fact books, motivation of the sales force and distributors, collection of marketing information including competitive benchmarks, trends and opportunities and customer expectations, acting as liaison between the sales, manufacturing and R&D, etc teams. Examples of short-term activities are controlling budget and achieving sales goals, participation in annual marketing plan and forecast developments, working with advertising departments or agencies to implement promotional strategies, coordinating tradeshows and conventions, participation in new product-development teams and predicting and managing competitors' actions, modification of product and/or reduction of costs to increase value, recommendation of line extensions, participation in product elimination decisions, etc. Examples of long term strategic activities are creation of long term competitive strategy, identification of new product opportunities, recommendation of product changes, enhancements and introductions, etc.

PMs need a variety of knowledge including product/industry knowledge, business knowledge and interpersonal/management knowledge. In the beginning, PMs typically spend most of the time gathering and organizing information on products, customers and their competition. Product knowledge is paramount. As they gain experience, the focus shifts to more comprehensive business knowledge, including finance, marketing and strategic planning. At the same time, they develop team building, negotiation, communication and leadership abilities. For PM to be effective, they need to build bridges throughout the company and be cross-functional leaders. For product management or marketing management, the emphasis is on being market-driven and not product-driven.

In terms of new product development, the role of the PM will be to represent the voice of the customer, balancing the corporate ROI (rate of investment), customer satisfaction and the manufacturing cost. Whereas for strategic interactions, the PM must work continuously with operations to improve and enhance production line. PMs are frequently involved with operations on cost-reduction projects.