Why do some products and companies fail, where others succeed. Based on surveys spanning 3,000 companies, 40,000 individuals and one-on-one interviews with 30 technology CEOs, Pragmatic Marketing found seven consistent success factors related to company culture, management style, and product & marketing strategies that propelled the winners. And also the seven fatal flaws that derail market laggards.

Good article by Jeff Lash about how product managers should keep an open mind about agile development practices and how to adopt them as part of their product management approach.

Good case study / anecdote about how a company responds to competitive pressures in the agile vs. waterfall world.

From the article:

Two years ago, in response to emerging customer needs and a surge of new entries into the network monitoring market, Ipswitch realized it had to pick up the pace of its product development strategy. Although the company's software had been widely regarded as among the best and easiest to use, the game had changed. Overseas companies had started to become serious price competitors. And a number of domestic startup firms, armed with marketing tactics fortified by strong venture funding, had also aggressively entered its space. As a result, unless the company could deliver its products to new and frequently inexperienced customers in ways that would work right the first time, Ipswitch's managers knew their market edge risked being lost for good.

Seth Godin provides us with guidance about the importance of revolutionary change, not just evolutionary change.

When you hire a product manager, one of the first series of tasks she should complete is to position the product. Positioning a product means defining your target market and key messages you will use to appeal to them.

Positioning the product in the most effective way typically requires leaving the office and doing substantial market research, including quantitative research (questionnaires) and qualitative research (prospect interviews and ethnographic studies).

As it faces competition, your product will usually fail in the marketplace unless your company has some sort of sustainable advantage. The company's distinctive competence is the source of this sustainable advantage.

Identify the problems the product solves by asking, from a user or buyer perspective, "Why would I use or buy this product?" But don't stop there. Relentlessly follow up with, "Why does that matter?" until you end with satisfaction of basic needs.

Every product with any chance of success in the marketplace has weaknesses. Your product can't be all things to everyone. Your challenge is to ensure that the weaknesses correlate with strengths that resonate with your target market. You can then market your product so that customers translate perceptions of weakness into those corresponding strengths.

You've already identified the biggest weakness of your product. Now find the strength within it.

When determining your product's biggest competitor, think broadly. Even the very first search engine on the web had a competitor: the manual process of surfers browsing and linking to what interested them. Your product's biggest competitor may not be immediately obvious, but it exists.