FAST-FORWARD PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

Customer centric

The basis for successful products is a deep understanding of the problems and needs of customers and the underlying context, because in reality customers always behave differently than expected. Those who do not validate their ideas and assumptions directly with customers are easily misguided by their own prejudices and interests.

Concrete

Product development means selecting the right options from thousands, large and small. Concrete, tangible prototypes help to make necessary decisions transparent at an early stage and to validate concepts directly with customers in a realistic way.

Iterative

In an increasingly complex and unpredictable environment, no idea is successful straight away. Numerous iterations are necessary to find a relevant customer problem and a suitable solution that enables a sustainable business model. Fast, focused experiments help to learn heuristically and hypothesis-driven.

Explorative

Focusing too early on a solution often obscures the best option. Customer centricity, focused iterations and concretization make it possible to validate many ideas in a short time AND to be on the market quickly.

Holistic

A successful product is never just about the product itself. It is based on a holistic service design that takes all business functions into account.

Viable

A product is useless if it does not enable a sustainable business model. Solutions must be technically feasible and economical within the given framework conditions.

Blog

Belief and product managementIn almost 20 years as a product manager, I have seen some concepts work, but many more fail. To this day, I …ProduktstrategieProduct strategy: The foundation of product managementA key task of digital product management is to make decisions in a complex environment with almost infinite options for action. In …Lost in the agile jungle – Talk at Product Festival Zürich 2018The general state of agile product management is embarrassing. Despite better knowledge and the agile manifesto being around for decades now, the …Post-it your Customer-JourneyPersonal interviews are an effective way to gain empathy for customers and their customer journey: What do customers experience and – most …Product Concepts und IdeationPreconditions for successful ideation and concept workInnovation requires great ideas. Luckily, we don’t have to rely on fuzzy brainstorming sessions anymore but have a much more sophisticated method …agiler Taschenrechner CalculatorAgile Cost AccountingDeveloping online products is expensive. Once the concept has been defined, a calculation for developing a small product might look like this: …Achtung vor der Umsatzfalle bei agiler ProduktentwicklungThe Revenue TrapRevenue and profit pressure can be used in appositive, productive way. It potentially helps to concentrate on stuff that really matters, to …Featuritis - Wann ist genug genug?Featuritis: When is enough enough?It seems to be some kind of natural law that leads to an exponential feature growth on websites over time. This exponential …Same Same but DifferentAgility: Same same but differentSometimes product managers are tempted to enviously look back to the good old times of waterfall. The world was still simple and …Fallbeispiel lean ProductmanagementCase Study Lean Product Management: Development of a website to acquire foreign customersBackground One of our clients is a highly specialized service provider from Germany, offering its services on a level that only a …UX der KundenanwaltCustomers’ Advocate UX vs. Bad BusinessWe meet surprisingly many UX people who are dissatisfied with the way UX works in their companies. And vice versa, surprisingly many …Agile ProduktentwicklungAgile and Lean is for everyone!The promise for revolutionary mobility in the 1980s had a name “Sinclair C5”. Innovator Sir Clive Sinclair developed this electric vehicle, and …Systems Thinking und ProduktentwicklungInnovation requires the whole systemImplementing innovative ideas in large enterprises often feels like fighting windmills. Employees may be qualified and motivated to whatever level and there …Eine Idee reicht für Wachstum nicht ausOne idea alone does not create growthAsking laptop owners in hipster startup cafés (like the Sankt Oberholz in Berlin) what they are missing, the answer will probably be: …Business DevelopmentBusiness development – The evil forceBusiness Development is a fuzzy term with many definitions and roles in enterprises. In practice the following activities prevail: Acquisition of large, …Grenzen agiler und leaner ProduktentwicklungCustomer feedback: No, thanks!The core of agile product development is to improve a product iteratively, based on fast customer feedback. However, there are many companies …Agile vs. nicht-agile ProduktentwicklungMore vacation for everyone!productable hasn’t had any vacation for a while. We should go soon. We live in Berlin, so options are manifold. We could go …Portfolio Management in agiler und leaner ProduktentwicklungBigger, faster, more!No matter how small a product starts – over time it will get bigger and fatter. The seemingly canonical growth paradime enforces …Tests und agile ProduktentwicklungTest Angst 2In our blog post „Test Angst“, we discussed the fear of product tests damaging a company’s market reputation. This time is gets actually …Testing bei agiler ProduktentwicklungTest AngstMany products won’t be tested at all during concept or development phase or only at a very late stage. One of the …Qualitative vs. quantitative ProduktentwickungCustomer Centricity by NumbersCustomer centricity is the master key for product management. Strictly tailoring products to customers’ needs is mandatory for long-term success. What is …Geheimhaltung und agile ProduktentwicklungWhy overdone secrecy is harmful to agile product developmentSecrecy is important for every business to secure know-how. When overdone, however, secrecy can have negative impact on the learning curve that …Lean Startup MissverständnisseFour common misunderstandings on Lean StartupLately in a well-known and highly successful online company: The latest big project is presented to product managers from around the globe. …Agile ProduktentwicklungWasted potentials of agile product developmentWhen asking product managers on the main principles of agile product development, you should roughly get the following answer: Cut the product …

Profile

Christian Becker has been developing products of all sizes since 2008 – from small features to innovative business models. He has broad practical experience from projects with high-scaling products and international, cross-functional teams based on Scrum, Kanban, Lean Product Management, Lean UX and Design Thinking, among others for eBay Classifieds, Charité, Bosch, kununu, XING, mobile.de, Zanox, Wer Liefert Was, Scout24, OBI, Meteo Group, DKB, mika:timing and Betterplace.

Before founding his own company, Christian initially worked for automotive supplier Hella as a product manager and in corporate strategy and planning before switching to marketing at eBay Motors. He then worked on the strategic differentiation of mobile.de before finally becoming product manager at mobile.de, where he was responsible for the development of the local marketplaces in Italy and France, among many other projects. Based on this experience, Christian took over as head of product management at mobile.de and built up the user experience department – initially for the German business unit and then for the entire company.

Christian Becker