Creating a PERT estimate for a single task is both easy and straightforward. Creating an estimate for a set of tasks is still easy, but requires a little bit of math. Combining PERT estimates for tasks is easy, but not as obvious. Roll up your sleeves and dive in.
Business Analysis / Product Management / ProductCamp
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ProductCamps and Class Diagrams
For you product managers out there – here are a couple upcoming productcamp unconferences. For you business analysts, here’s an excuse to do a little domain modeling and practice your UML class diagram skills.
Business Analysis / Foundation series
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Foundation Series: Price Elasticity
When prices go up, demand goes down. But how much does it go down? Price elasticity of demand is the term economists use for the math that describes this behavior.
Book Reviews / Business Analysis / Communication / Product Management / Reviews / Writing
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Pictures and Ideas for Powerful Whitepapers
Pictures can convey messages much more powerfully than words. In a recent discussion about writing whitepapers, I suggested combining the idea-creation advice from Made To Stick with the image-creation advice from Back of The Napkin. Check out this article to see some concrete examples.
Book Reviews / Communication / Marketing / Prioritization / Product Management / Requirements / Reviews / Software development / UX
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Personas Make Blue Ocean Strategy Proactive
Blue Ocean Strategy provides an interesting reactive analysis of companies and markets. Personas are used to understand your customer’s needs. Combining the two provides powerful proactive insights when positioning your product for market success.
Business Analysis / Product Management / Requirements
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You Must Not Write “The System Shall…”
A lot of books and blogs and experts tell us to use “The System shall…” when writing requirements. Read on to find out why that’s not a very good idea.
Marketing / Product Management
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Measuring Market Concentration (Competition)
Is your market competitive, or concentrated? What’s the difference, and how can you be objective about it and not just subjective? The United States government uses a measure called HHI – the Herfindal-Hirschman Index – as an objective measure of how competitive a market is. They use this measure to […]
Business Analysis / Prioritization / Product Management / Requirements / ROI
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Product Growth Strategy
Growth is a make or break measurement for products and companies. Investment is often determined by expected value, which is based (in part) on expectations of growth. When you create a product, there are aspects of growth – how many people can use your product, and how many people do […]
Prioritization / Product Management / Requirements
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Dell Cell Phone Lacks Differentiation
No cell for Dell. According to Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu, carriers rejected prototypes from Dell because the “lack of differentiation.” As product managers, we know the importance of keeping up with the Joneses, but we also know the importance of including differentiated value in our product offerings.