Get out of the wayTips on managing product development and engineering by John Levy, consultant, expert and author of "Get Out of the Way!, An executive’s guide to creating timely, innovative and relevant products."tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-127953842007-02-21T00:03:15ZBlogger
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trueJohn Levy2007-02-20T15:45:00-08:002007-02-21T00:03:15Z2007-02-21T00:01:27Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12795384.post-117201608737839351Technologist or Manager?Who is helping you to become a better manager?
If you're lucky enough to be employed at a larger company with a long-term view, like IBM and HP, you may actually be getting training and coaching that helps you grow in your job as a manager. But most of the rest of us -- particularly technical people who have come up through the ranks -- are learning on the job, mostly by making mistakes.
InfalseJohn Levy2006-10-23T12:16:00-07:002006-10-23T19:40:06Z2006-10-23T19:40:06Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12795384.post-116163240606636643Loss LeaderMy colleague Joel Harrison is good at encapsulating learnings from his experience. A few weeks ago, while I was visiting him at his startup company, Abrevity, he said, "You can't justify a new product based on a cost analysis of the first-generation product. You have to have a vision."
Joel and I had experienced the frustration of trying to create new products at a company that was in afalseJohn Levy2006-09-11T15:02:00-07:002006-09-11T22:24:22Z2006-09-11T22:13:33Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12795384.post-115801281305927306Shifting the focus to longer termStartup organizations are typically unsustainable and barely stable, because:
1. The pressures to develop and market a first product require taking some expedient shortcuts, such as hiring the most capable, but not necessarily the most team-oriented individuals; placing all priority on getting a workable product out the door, rather than building the product for maintainability and growth;falseJohn Levy2006-08-28T12:56:00-07:002006-08-28T22:35:14Z2006-08-28T21:30:18Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12795384.post-115680061831383065Is your software on fire?The spectacle of Dell laptops on fire due to Sony battery problems has prodded me to think about product failures. There is nothing so attention-getting as a fire in a conference room. Few people who see this sort of failure will forget what they have seen.
Software failures may not be so spectacular, but they can be just as memorable to the people who witness them.
Examples from large-scalefalseJohn Levy2006-06-30T11:25:00-07:002006-06-30T18:29:58Z2006-06-30T18:29:58Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12795384.post-115169219870083062Development Process StabilityAfter shipping a first product, successful companies face a number of challenging problems in product development, including lack of development process stability as development work scales up. Here are some responses that have worked well in the computer, software, storage and consumer electronics industries.
Why process selection matters now
As Product Development scales up to involvefalseJohn Levy2006-06-20T13:50:00-07:002006-06-20T21:00:25Z2006-06-20T20:58:06Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12795384.post-115083708619466988What is Product Marketing's role in development?A colleague asked, "Do you believe Product Marketing could be the bridge between the Engineering and R or you get promises that can’t be kept, because Engineering isn’t really running the development process.falseJohn Levy2006-05-19T15:43:00-07:002006-05-25T00:11:27Z2006-05-19T23:06:19Ztag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12795384.post-114807997930579054A + B + C ≠ D (The game changes at the fourth round of financing)When a startup company reaches a certain size, a number of changes have to occur to allow it to survive. Here are some of them:
1. The founders have to choose new roles for themselves. Having been key idea-people or leaders of a particular part of the business process, they may have trouble envisioning themselves in a role that meshes with a larger company. This is OK -- particularly if theyfalse