Maziar Adl
Recent Posts
How Frequently Should You Update Your Product Roadmap?
One of the biggest lessons that product managers learn is that their roadmaps are not set in stone. You can create a product roadmap with the relevant phases and plans, set the milestone timelines, and share access with all stakeholders. However, roadmaps still require continuous management and regular updates. These updates must also be shared with the relevant teams working on each product to inform everyone of the product strategy and prevent operational silos.
What Is Stage-Gate Methodology, and Should You Still Use It?
The Stage-Gate methodology has become widely used since it was first introduced as a system in the 1980s. Many companies were using pieces of the puzzle already and found it both easy and exciting to have a system to follow and launch more products successfully. As with any industry, time brings innovation and changes that require methodologies to update and adapt to them. Does the stage gate process for product development remain strong after nearly forty years? Let's discuss the state of the Stage-Gate process and whether manufacturers should still use it.
Why It’s Important to Track the Phasing In and Out of Features on Your Roadmap
Very few products stay the same year to year, let alone decade to decade. The components, materials, and designs change and evolve. Sometimes, this is due to consumer demand or innovation; other times, it results from resource shortages or supply changes. When a product team knows in advance that a certain component will no longer be available, this is called phasing out.
How the Role of the Product Manager in Hardware Is Evolving
Product managers have traditionally been viewed as intermediaries tasked with understanding customer requirements and translating them into products and features that engineers and product teams understand. However, the rapidly evolving landscape of hardware development has resulted in a significant transformation of the product manager's role, requiring them to step into more prominent positions of leadership and innovation to build successful products.
Living in a Hybrid World: How Product Managers Can Navigate Stage-Gate, Agile, and Hybrid Models
In the product development world, different companies use various methodologies to plan, build, and launch their product lines. Some continue to use the traditional stage-gate methods of making and testing complete prototypes over several years before launching to the market. These companies typically have large-scale, complex physical products such as vehicles, machinery, or massive software programs.
What Is the Role of AI in Product Development?
Although AI is a newly emerging trend, its applications are already found to be beneficial in multiple industries. In product manufacturing, AI is particularly useful in improving product development processes, predicting customer preferences, and automating laborious tasks.
What Are OKRs and Why They Matter in Product Development
They say that setting a goal means nothing when you have no way to track your progress or measure your results. The same truth applies to business. Your company may set lofty objectives, but without a clear plan to achieve those goals or specific metrics to track and measure success, those goals will likely not be reached.
How to Develop a Product Line: Clone & Own vs. Platforming
Every company that has developed a product their customer loves wants to repeat the same success. It feels good to know your market and deliver value. Some product teams think about long-term success and put plans in place from the initial design. They know that if their product is successful, they’ll want to create other versions. Even companies who haven’t planned in advance to replicate their products still have a choice to make between these two methods.
7 Tips to Improve Internal Stakeholder Management
Effectively managing stakeholders is essential for success as a product manager. This involves communicating and consulting with various stakeholders with different responsibilities in the product's development. Without the support of the internal teams, achieving product goals can be challenging, if not impossible. To overcome this challenge, product managers must have certain skills and develop a communication strategy to persuade stakeholders to contribute to the product goals and align with the company's vision.
Why You Need These 3 Players When Transitioning to Agile
Product managers are responsible for presenting the best possible products to their executive and finance teams for approval. The best products will align with the company goals and have the right features to satisfy market demands. These decisions require strategy, research, and a team of great players working together. As many manufacturing companies shift from the traditional stage-gate process to an agile product development process, three key players are essential team members who support the product manager and the product teams: the product owner, the scrum master, and the lead developer.
What Qualities Do Successful Product Managers Have?
Product Managers juggle various tasks all day, from deciding on a product strategy to presenting metrics to stakeholders. You need to understand what customers need and then decide on a product that can be built to meet that need. This job involves many moving pieces, and while it is not for everyone, it can be gratifying. So the big question is, what qualities do successful product managers possess? There are probably a lot. But some that all great product managers have in common are business drive, good communication skills, flexibility, analytical skills, and the ability to find a work-life balance.
How to Make the Most of Your Roadmap in Product Management
Every good product manager knows that the roadmap is crucial to product management. Roadmaps give you a high-level view of the entire product portfolio as well as the progress of each product from start to finish. While there are various details to include on a product roadmap, five essential metrics to include are objectives and key results (OKRs), key performance indicators (KPIs), milestones, initiatives, and value.