Core Image, Inc.

Product Management Tip: Be Revolutionary

I spent a couple of days this week with a product manager from a manufacturer we represent. He brought in a prototype of a new version of a key product. The new version follows conventional product management path, listen to your customers, address concerns with current products on the market, prototype it, validate it with current users, etc.

The problem is of course, customers don't know what they want. They know what they want to change about current products. However, a good product manager looks beyond the obvious iterations and re-examines the customers entire lifecycle of the product to find the unspoken needs.

We listened to these customers for two days, many of which confirmed it looks like a good product. However, the PM never read between the lines to hear the true needs. He acknowledged one key need which would present a huge improvement wasn't going to be addressed even though no manufacturer had addressed it. He was here to validate what they had, not find a revolutionary product need. Shame.