YOUR GUIDE

The product managers I know are smart, capable, and deeply committed to doing great work. During one on ones, they have confidence with the product strategy but struggle to influence the leaders or align the team. 

Product managers operate in a unique space. They lead witho...

Most manufacturers I work with never struggle with generating ideas. If anything, they have too many.

• Engineers see improvements they want to build.
• Sales brings features customers mentioned once in passing.
• Marketing wants something new to promote.
• Leadership adds the
...

I’ve worked with a lot of manufacturers where a product wasn’t failing, but it wasn’t gaining the traction the company expected.

As I talked with the team, something felt off and they weren’t clear what to do next. They shared the hope they had for the product, the work tha...

I’ve never worked with a middle market manufacturer that had perfect data.

Product information is usually scattered across systems that don’t talk to each other. Market data is often missing, outdated, or not shared across the organization.

But you don’t need perfect data ...

The title Product Manager can mean many different things depending on the company.

In software, it’s a well-defined role, but in manufacturing, it’s often misunderstood, or missing entirely.

Most manufacturing leaders either don’t have a product manager or aren’t sure what...

In most founder-led manufacturing companies, the CEO starts out as the first product manager.

You saw the customer problem. You shaped the first product. You made the calls on development, pricing, and how to take it to market.

That hands-on focus is often what gets the bu...

Over the years, I’ve seen companies hire their first product manager with high expectations.

But without a clear plan, the role can quickly lose momentum and fail to deliver value. The first 90 days are make-or-break for the product manager and impact for your business.

Ha...

I have seen product launches fail to meet the business’s expectations. Not because the idea was wrong, but because teams were not aligned on the decision from the start.

On the surface, misalignment might look like a few extra meetings or shifting deadlines. In reality, it ...