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Description |
New Competitive Analysis Benchmark Report
| How is your organization faring when it comes to collecting data about your competitors and in creating new competitive strategies? We decided to find out. Read on... |
Sequent Recommends: Product Management and Project Management - Two Functions, Two Vital Roles
| This article explores the vital roles of product managers and project managers by uncovering their similarities and differences. |
Sequent Recommends: Guerilla Product Management - 17 Golden Rules for Achieving Success on the Job
| The job of the product manager is relentless. Daily pressures, prioritizing tasks, and demanding activities makes every day a challenge. Product management isn't for the faint of heart. This article provides you with 17 suggestions to help you master your trade! |
Sequent Recommends: Managing Product Portfolios Across the Life Cycle
| Product portfolio management is critical to the firm. Revenue is derived from a mix of products across the life cycle, yet some companies over-emphasize new product projects to the exclusion of the ongoing management of current products. This article discusses the importance of managing product portfolios across the life cycle. |
Crowdsourcing and its Impact on Product Development
| Crowdsourcing is the process of accessing groups of people with known or defined characteristics, and tapping their knowledge to create something of value. This article provides some interesting angles how the voices of many customers can influence your product's future. |
Product Discontinuation Strategies
| All products go through a product life cycle. This paper describes how to recognize the signals and how to discontinue a product. |
Demystifying Marketing Strategy
| Marketing strategy isn't about just about advertising and promotion, yet it is often misunderstood. This article takes the mystery out of marketing strategy. |
Orchestrating the Product Launch
| The product launch is one of the most important activities in product management. It's the point where the value proposition is put into real life and the product is brought to the market. Unfortunately, many product launches fail to meet their objectives. Read why... |
No Time for Market Research? Take our 15 Minute Challenge!
| What if I told you in 15 minutes you could gain insights into your segmentation models, validate your business case and forecasting assumptions for the economy and your industry, size your market, and/or get inspiration for new marketing mix programs? Scan 15 minutes once a day for four weeks and tell us what you learned and how you applied it by April 30th. The most compelling results will be published in our newsletter and you may get a free seat in one of our upcoming classes! |
Case Study: Finely Honed Vision & Strategy Gets Team Funding
| Sequent Learning Networks discusses the results of an important project with a financial services firm. |
Product Manager's Resource Guide for Organizations Pursuing Product Management Excellence
| This product manager's resource guide provides some perspective for those who are relatively new to product management, or for those who would like to gain a perspective on the role of the product manager. |
SURVEY RESULTS 2006 - Is Your Product Strategy a Winner?
| Is your product strategy a winner? We wanted to know. For several months during 2006, we surveyed about 200 people and learned that there may be some issues and challenges. Read this article to find out more... |
Perspectives on Corporate Branding Strategy.
| The competition in the global business environment is tough and achieving a unique position and competitive advantage becomes more and more difficult and expensive. The high level of investment necessary to maintain production capabilities and rising cost of R&D for product differentiation makes strong marketing capabilities and unique brands pre-requisites for modern companies to cover these heavy investments. How can companies and management teams catch up? |
Aligning Departments with Your Strategy
| Product managers are responsible for the creation of product strategy, marketing strategy, and product plans. Securing the buy-in from cross-functional team members in support of the product strategy (or overall corporate strategy) is critical. This article describes some ways to achieve this buy-in. |
Effectively Managing Existing Products
| This article is about helping you to determine where your product is situated on the life cycle curve in order to devise the appropriate strategies and tactics to optimize the market and financial performance of your product. |
Staying Ahead of the Product Life Cycle Curve
| Best in class companies invest in product and market development through all economic life cycles. How can you stay ahead of the curve? By investing for the future. This article provides some meaningful insight. |
Marketing Dictionary
| This dictionary of more than 135 terms represents a compilation of information derived from a variety of sources. The purpose of this dictionary is to provide a unique document to those who are concerned with the development, marketing, and management of products & services, especially within the context of Sequent’s Product Management Life Cycle Model. |
This is Not Your Father's Life Cycle Management
| Product Lifecycle Management - three words with the initials PLM are now used to describe three different disciplines. This article focuses on how companies can incorporate PLM systems into their businesses. |
Improving Product Forecasts
| Forecasting is both an art and a science. Product forecasts are no exception. Product managers need to harness the resources of a cross-functional team in order to both create the forecasts, and to carry out product management activities. This article provides some interesting perspective. Read on.... |
Win-Loss Analysis Checklist for Product Managers
| This article explores the importance of product management's involvement in conducting a win-loss analysis. You'll learn, from the point of view of your customer, about the selling process, the attributes of your products, your competitors, and the overall buying and decision-making experience. |
Bolstering Product Line Performance - Spurring Innovation as You Get the Most from Products in Market
| How do you achieve product line balance? Learn a method to analyze current product line performance, products in development, and the enterprise product portfolio. |
Learning Product Management from an Entrepreneur
| Entrepreneurs and Product Managers have much in common. Both are vitally concerned with creating unique, high-value products. This article discusses these common issues like product and, market viability, market share estimates, sales volume estimates, etc. |
The Reality of the Buzz - Customer Ethnography & Anthropology
| Pick up any business publication these days and you’ll read about the latest buzz – customer ethnography and anthropology. What's the reality? What if you don't have a big budget to spend on a cadre of social scientists? We have some ideas about what to do and still be in on the hot topic. |
Marketers and Engineers - Why Can't We Get Along?
| Two of the most important business functions working together in harmony? Read more... |
Six Chasms In Need of Crossing
| If you're familiar with Geoffrey Moore's book, "Crossing the Chasm," this article offers great insight into six chasms that need to be identified, understood, and traversed. |
Customer satisfaction: How big are you thinking?
| Do you understand how satisfied your customers are with your product and service? Does a high rating guarantee customer loyalty? Are you looking at enough aspects of the customer experience to really have a handle on things? This article inspires us to broaden what we survey. If you are concerned with customer satisfaction, and who isn’t, this article will give you some things to think about and act upon. |
Providing Excellent Internal Customer Service
| Product managers and the teams they lead should be concerned with how products are perceived externally. Cross-functional team members should be responsible for supporting different areas of the business - internally. Smooth running business operations depend on how well internal departments work with each other and support the business. Product management should be a pervasive internal approach to running the business. This article supports this belief.
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Through the Customers Eyes
| This unique article provides you with a five-step process -- a journey -- to identify the experiences engaged in during the buying and consumption process to help you improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. |
The Real Value of Customer Loyalty
| How do you measure customer lifetime value? What do you do with customers who aren't profitable? This article provides you with a unique perspective on customer retention strategies. |
Using Brand Research to Understand Your Customers
| What's the difference between market research and brand research? Why do you carry out one kind of research over the other? Why is brand research so important? This article describes the nuances between the two. |
Managing Your Marketing Career: Networking
| It's no secret that networking is one of the keys to career success. It's not as easy as one may think. Bill Arruda provides an interesting perspective on methods to build relationships which can help you throughout your careers. |
Managing Your Product Management Career: ROI Earned Here!
| Product Managers are in a unique position in the organization to earn the respect of their colleagues. How then do product managers achieve this respect? By focusing on all aspects of the product life cycle! This article has some creative suggestions for you! |
On Competitive Advantage: Bank Mergers and Competition
| In an industry marked by intense competition and punctuated by mergers designed to build market share, how can these organizations differentiate themselves against the competition? This article provides some perspective on this current topic. |
Questions and Answers on the Origin of Brands
| Laura Ries provides an insightful look on the history of brands, and how you can create a new, successful brand. |
Stop Staring! (Start Acting)
| Most companies who say "CRM" do not really know how to carry out CRM strategies. Corporate excellence and product line success is tied to how well the product meets the needs of its audience, and how the experience of dealing with the organization is enhanced. This article eloquently drives the point home. |
Five Steps to Improve Your Competitive Intelligence
| Competitive Intelligence (CI) is a critical input for the product manager and cross-functional product teams. Learn how to extend your reach and improve your Competitive Intelligence efforts. |
Creating the Customer Centric Company
| Is your company customer centric? In your product planning activities, where does the customer fit? This article brings an interesting angle to this timely topic. |
SURVEY RESULTS - 2005 Survey - Are You Market Focused?
| Sequent's January - June 2005 Product Management Practices Survey sought to find out the degree to which product mangers and marketing managers were market focused. The responses may be quite surprising. |
