Lean Coffee: Project vs. Product Management

This morning's Lean Coffee TO was hosted by Jeremy at Jar Creative. We had an interesting discussion (and side topics) related to project and product management, including:

• Difference: Projects are finite (at least they're supposed to be :)
• Products: The end isn't always clearly defined
• Is Waterfall methodology still is use? Yes. (unfortunately)
• Product management is a bridge between the customers and development team
• Product Management overlaps with Customer Development
• Projects: Divide them up by features / user stories
• Time-boxing: Pick a fixed date
• Product management is about making decisions
• What do you do in the later phases when your product is launched?
• Sometimes need to go back and do a full adjustment
• Often when you release people don't use it the way you expect
• Difference between strategy and tactics: long term goals with iterations as a tactic
• Helpful: The ability to turn feautures on and off for individual users/groups
• eg: Google, Facebook, Big Bang (Woople)
• Sometimes discussing features takes longer than just implmenting it and getting immediate feedback
• How does technology affect product development? (ie. mobile, tablets, etc.)
• The technology decision should come from product management / customer development

Great seeing everyone, and looking forward to next Tuesday's session with Ali from Well.ca.