Pragmatic Marketer Spring 2013

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Prepare to conquer the world. The winter issue of Pragmatic Marketer features actionable best practices for bringing your products to international markets. The Anniversary Issue November 13, Since , Pragmatic Marketing has been privy to some interesting perspectives from our alumni and instructors. We are sharing some of those insights in the fall issue of Pragmatic Marketer. With topics including metrics, roadmapping, social media, working with analysts, market visits, big data and kanban, the issue holds something for The Innovation Issue August 14, Stop innovating for innovation's sake.

The summer issue of Pragmatic Marketer shares tips, best practices and real-life examples to help you innovate the right way. The Rockstar Issue May 15, The Spring issue of Pragmatic Marketer is packed with useful information to help you become, discover and mentor rock stars at your organizations. Paul Young, Pragmatic Marketing instructor, leads the page issue with an article on the seven X-factor traits of product professionals. While some traits are inherent, others are not. Raising visibility on tough issues is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of strength.

Pragmatic Marketer, Spring — Applied Frameworks

There may be organizational designs or larger resourcing issues at play that an executive can help resolve. The first step in learning to speak truth to power is understanding at what level to engage those in power. The second step is to learn that how you raise an issue is just as important as the issue itself. Calling out an executive in public, for example, might not be the best way to address a problem. Third, speaking the truth to power is not simply about raising issues, it is about providing solutions.

A rock star should describe the problem, as well as provide several potential fixes. Role playing and practice can help alleviate that fear factor about telling the truth to those in power. Discovering the truth to power skill in an interview setting can be difficult. It is not sufficient to pose the obvious question: Test truth to power by posing a direct, uncomfortable question: Many product professionals are adept at gathering data. They spend hours researching the competition, interviewing salespeople or buyers and observing users.

A good product professional might take all of the various sources of data and turn them into a page business case. A rock star can synthesize that data down to a compelling page presentation, including a call to action. Synthesis is best developed by practice. Take the output and conclusions you have drawn from your information and assemble them into a presentation.

Then, pull a trusted peer into a room and have them play the role of the critic. Ask them to consider:. There are several ways to test for synthesis during an interview. Give the candidate a reading assignment to complete before the interview.

Then, during the interview, ask the candidate to tell you what they learned. A good synthesizer will be able to sum up a long article into a few key takeaways. To raise the level of difficulty, give the candidate a research topic instead. In this way, you can test both research ability and the ability to synthesize what they have learned.

Alternatively, you can use open-ended questions like: Number two is death. Death is number two.

Does that seem right? But a rock star learns to relish the chance to share his or her perspective with the group. They are skilled communicators, able to hone the content, style, tempo and tone of a presentation to the group at hand.

He or she knows the content backward and forward and can handle questions on the fly. When the audience experiences a presentation by a rock star pitch artist, they walk out of the room nodding their heads. The ideas presented and conclusions drawn seem forgone. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that the fear of public speaking, known as glossophobia, affects approximately 75 percent of the U.

So if you find yourself feeling anxious, you are not alone.

The X Factors

The good news is that, like most fears, this one can be overcome. There are two effective methods of overcoming the fear factor of public speaking: Join a group such as Toastmasters and force yourself to speak. Also, become the subject-matter expert on your topic area and your confidence will skyrocket. Give candidates a situation, topic or scenario where they must ask for more funding. Have them work up a slide presentation that they might give to the executive team. A true rock star will jump at the chance to use his or her synthesis and pitch artist skills to demonstrate being the most skilled communicator in the candidate pool.

Being a solid executive debater is an X factor, because a rock star must be the strongest advocate for what is right for the market and for the product. Some may worry that using this skill is politically dangerous. But the more the product professional exercises this skill within limits , the more the executive team respects him or her. To develop your executive debater skills, first evaluate your situation. Will your executive team be receptive to being challenged? If not, you might be able to shift the dynamic with an upfront conversation about how you plan to provide stronger guidance and leadership—even if it means offering pushback.

Otherwise, recognize that not every company wants this from the product teams. Some companies want people to check their brains at the door and simply execute. If this is the situation you find yourself in, you may be at the wrong company. Next, look for opportunities to challenge team thinking and drive the right outcomes.

Pragmatic Marketer

How you debate will vary based on the personality and temperament of the team but, in general, remember to praise in public and criticize in private. Also, recognize that moderation is key, so pick your battles wisely. No executive team wants to be pulled into a debate on every decision. Focus on the big decisions that matter. Ask the candidate to provide examples of when they challenged an executive team and the result.

One interesting way to phrase the question: Now tell me about a time when you did that and they overruled you, and why. Another way to test this skill is to assign candidates a presentation or analysis to perform, and then poke at their findings. Challenge them and force them to defend their conclusions, perhaps in a panel interview where the panelists toss questions to the candidate in a round-robin format.

This method is intended to probe deeply, use the intelligence of the group and induce stress in the candidates, so you can see how they perform under pressure. Great products do not come from the force of personality. They require the organization to work together toward that greatness.

But inspiring others to action is not enough, especially if different parts of the organization are working at odds with one another. Unfortunately, consensus is often elusive. It has received a bad reputation recently, with many looking at it as the fluffy domain of management consultants.

But product professionals who are consensus builders can travel across an organization without being perceived as pushing an agenda. They can ask questions and receive honest and open answers because they have the street cred of the market.

Other teams trust that they are looking out for the good of the product and not a specific department. These skills allow them to smooth out conflict among teams and get products to market faster, by redirecting energy that would otherwise be spent on internal strife. The best way to develop building consensus is to practice. Start by getting to know your organization better and understanding how departments are measured, such as quotas, net promoter scores or hitting dates. Where there are warring factions, bring them together to discuss. Do not choose sides in the conversation, but facilitate it and let them work through it on their own.

The consensus will stick better if they feel like they reached it, instead of you forcing it. Pose leading, open-ended questions, such as: Instead, ask for specific examples of Amy building consensus across the organization and how she did it. Someone familiar enough with a candidate to be a reference should be able to provide a few simple examples. The final X factor is intertwined with all others, and will amplify all the other skills rock stars bring to bear.

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Empathy means understanding what people are going through, without actually having experienced it. When leaders fail to understand the situations of others, the tendency to make unreasonable demands skyrockets.

Their credibility then decreases, their effectiveness drops and eventually they flame out and their products fail. Failing to empathize with people outside the organization, such as customers, is even more fatal to product success: You will not ask good questions at the best, and will make terrible choices at the worst.

Both routes lead to failure. One reason that empathy receives short shrift today is culture. Another reason is that being empathetic takes time.

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