Product Management Resources

Product Management Resources

Note: all files linked from this page are in Acrobat format. To access the original files, please download the compressed file in the margin of this page.

Looking For More Information?

Many more marketing resources are available at Carl Galletti's Hard-to-Find Marketing Books Catalog.

Also, you'll find outstanding free software planning tools at Construx Software and Mironov.

Rich Mironov has written a valuable introduction to building an ASP service here.

Check out the product marketing resources at Productmarketing.com. Nice Product Manager job description here.

Check the Silicon Valley Product Management Association's template page.

Here's a turnkey software solution for collaborative product management! "RymaSoft's FeaturePlan™ collaborative platform provides a repeatable process based on product management best practices for the High-Tech industry." (more)

Also see this Technology Marketing Org Chart, which locates product management in marketing - of course!

Product Manager Job Description

The Product Manager

This writeup was done in 1997 to provide guidance to Lawrence Poynter at TriVida. It was Riggs Eckelberry's debrief of what was expected of a Product Manager in the heyday of the Software Utilities Business Unit at Quarterdeck in the mid-90s, when it was headed by his brother Alex.

Role Definition: Product Management and Product Marketing

Don MacDonald, TechTransform's Product Manager in 2005 at CyberDefender, created this table at the time to answer the critical question: what's the difference between product management and product marketing?

Marketing Plans

Marketing Plan By Product

In 1996, Quarterdeck went from three products to 26. Then-VP Marketing Koen Bouwers tried at least to get summary marketing plans done for all of them - in this format.

Marketing Requirements Documents

Sample MRD

Quarterdeck's Michael Bolton drew up this standard format for an MRD in 1995.

Summoner MRD

This sample MRD was written for a planned Quarterdeck diagnostic product. Ultimately this product was not built but instead purchased (WinProbe, as part of the acquisition of Mike Siewruk's Landmark Research).

Functional Specifications

Functional Specification Guidelines

Another Michael Bolton effort. A Functional Spec is always guided by the Marketing Requirements Document (MRD). In case of conflict, the MRD prevails.

Functional Specification Template

Michael Bolton's format for a Functional Spec, written in the classic days of utility software product management.

Launch Collateral

Sample Reviewer's Guide

This Guide, written for the launch of CleanSweep 95, Quarterdeck's only other true success besides QEMM, was a typical press guide.

Sample Sell Sheet (informal)

A sell sheet is a condensed 'cheat sheet' for use in sales channels (eg. retail outlets).

Product Launch Plans

New Product Checklist (Linear)

Originally written by Alex Eckelberry, Quarterdeck's utilities business unit manager, here's a checklist for the launch of a software utility. If you became a product manager in 1995 at Quarterdeck, this is what you got. Simple, complete, great!

Product Launch Plan, Departmental

This template was drawn up for a 1996 product lifecycle effort at Quarterdeck spearheaded by Suzanne Dickson, today at PeopleLink. All dates adjust when the Full Customer Ship (FCS) date is set. Organized by department, this version was a little unwieldy.

Full Product Launch Plan

Also done for Quarterdeck's Product Life Cycle standardization project in 1996, this was an attempt to include all major marketing activities and was light on development milestones. The structure was chronological, which worked rather better than the departmental version.

Model Launch Sequence

Elissa Murphy, then a CleanSweep product manager (now at Microsoft), came up with this summary launch plan, a model of clarity and simplicity using Excel.

A COMMENT

September 13, 2001: A product marketer we've worked with in the past says:

...thanks for your 'mistake-driven marketing' terminology. Having joined my company 2 months ago I have converted the development cycle from 7 to 3 month iterations with a heavy focus on early demonstrator/alpha programs to test the concepts with the market.

Previously they wanted to hold on to the technology until 'they' thought that it was ready for market. I was struggling with a name that I could use - now I have it!