Product Management Rule #42 from the best-selling book, 42 Rules of Product Management, was written by Greg Cohen, Senior Principal Consultant, Productside
As we look to advance our products, we must be aware of the larger picture and environment in which we work.
Rules are designed to prevent failure and, in particular, the repetition of failure.
The majority of rules in the book emerged from the personal, observed, or near failures of each rule’s author in bringing a successful product to market. It is therefore worth reflecting on the fact that this seemingly concise book of 42 Rules contains over five centuries of collected wisdom from the contributors, and many of these lessons were learned from the school of hard knocks.
If you were searching for the grand unified theory of physics, forty-two might seem like a large number. But in the much more complex world of product management, forty-two is relatively small—enough to capture the essence of the topic, but not to cover every situation you will encounter in your career.
Therefore, each day we must ask what we can do to make our products more successful.
The rules contained in this book can help by provoking you to think differently about how you do your job and manage your products. But this book, or any other book for that matter, does not contain all the answers, nor does it contain the nonexistent single formula for success.
As we look to advance our products, we must be aware of the larger picture and environment in which we work.
Do we understand our customers?
Do we understand how they perceive value?
Does our team know this as well?
Is there a solution that our company is capable of delivering, and have we persuaded management to invest in this opportunity?
