Free Microsoft Word 2003 template for creating informal use cases. This template is built as a form with guiding text and help text. Read how to use it and download it today.

Inbound product manager or outbound product manager - what’s the difference? We’ll look at the overall role, and the breakdown of responsibilities. We also follow-up with some suggested detailed reading.

For folks who don’t read a lot of blogs - there’s a meme going on right now where people list five things that most people don’t know about them. This spreads virally, like the old email chain letters. After you share your five things, you tag five more people. Read on to see my five things…

One of our readers is working on determining product manager staffing levels for her company. While every company is different, it always helps to understand where our peers are. We do some in-depth analysis of the 2006 Pragmatic Marketing product management and marketing survey to see how other companies set their staffing levels.

Marketing is as foreign to most software developers as swimming is to fish. We’ve found a list of ten truths of marketing, and we’re secretly sharing them with the developers who hang out here. Shhh. Don’t tell anyone in marketing.

A look back at the best from a year ago

Code Debt is the debt we incur when we write sloppy code. We might do this to rush something out the door, with the plan to refactor later. Agile methodologies focus on delivering functionality quickly. They also invoke a mantra of refactoring - “make it better next release.” This can create pressure to “get it done” that overwhelms the objective of “get it done right.” Taking on code debt like this is about as smart as using one credit card to pay off another one.

The wisdom of crowds helps us avoid stupid decisions. Unfortunately, it also prevents innovative, passionate, fantastic decisions. Collective Intelligence is collective insipidness. We need to keep the inputs of individuals in the mix.

There are three main models for selling software. You can hire a direct sales force. You can spend a lot on marketing and advertising. You can let your users sell the software for you, a technique commonly known as viral marketing. There’s a catch with viral marketing - users have to like your software.

Getting requirements documents approved can be a pain in the butt. Why do we need to do it in the first place? The approval process is more than just reaching concensus or creating a contract. Done correctly, it presents an opportunity to get more inputs from stakeholders.