A lot has happened over the last two months while we were building out nexus. One very interesting thing is the big changes at Pragmatic Marketing. The “800 lb. gorilla in the product management space” has re-branded some of their online assets and introduced new products and services. For some of our readers this is old news (April for at least some of it), for the rest, this is a cool update or introduction.
Preeminence?
As an extremely satisfied customer of some of Pragmatic Marketing’s training classes, I don’t know that I can say they are “the best.” I can definitely say that they are the best that I’ve worked with. Regardless, I was very excited when they announced several changes to their offerings in the product management space. I’ll try not to be too much of a fan-boy, and list a couple of the big changes that I’ve seen and liked.
As disclosure – I have positive relationships with several people at Pragmatic Marketing, and have had a couple articles published in their magazine – so I’m biased towards liking their stuff. In fairness, those relationships started after I attended their product management and requirements management training classes. That training out-shined all that I had taken in the past, and made me want to be proactive about building the relationships I have today.
New Look
First, their primary website (I guess they have multiple online assets) has been redesigned with a new look. The UI makes it much easier to find what you’re looking for, is cleaner, and better organized than before. One thing I particularly like is that their blog page is promoted more effectively – which will help drive more traffic to Steve and David and Adele’s blogs. They also include a very comprehensive list of the blogs that are really making solid contributions in and around product management.
New Branding
Their print magazine, formerly productmarketing.com is now The Pragmatic Marketer. Really a great magazine, happily still free, and now easier to download as a pdf when you want an electronic copy (much easier to search than a stack of paper).
New Services
Probably the most exciting update is that they are now offering services to help companies execute. There are more details after the link (this isn’t an ad for Pragmatic :) – but basically, you can now augment your team or project with services support to help your company execute. If their consultants are as good as their trainers, then this will be a home run for them. There’s a lot of opportunity for companies to get better at creating products, and “show me” or “do it with me” often works better than “tell me how” for helping people and teams learn.
