Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2007

Integrating the Agile Development Process
With the Pragmatic Marketing Framework
Jason Tanner, Senior Product Manager, NetQoS

The Agile Development Process provides a methodology to deliver products more efficiently; however, some aspects of the Pragmatic Marketing Framework are not always included in the implementation of Agile. Product management professionals can find a way to collaborate with engineering peers to embrace Agile while still maintaining established product management disciplines. This presentation offers a new product development process that combines Agile development and Pragmatic Marketing concepts into an integrated, end to end process that leverages the strengths of both frameworks. Implementation tips will also be explained as well as lessons learned based on successes and failures in adoption by one software company.

Jason Tanner is the General Manager for NetQoS’ Allocate product providing network resource usage and cost visibility. He previously spent six years at Evident Software leading implementation projects, managing a product line, driving product management processes, and providing marketing services. In addition to deploying a product management software system and training users throughout the company, Jason co-developed Evident’s “Agile product realization process” merging Pragmatic Marketing’s framework with Agile Development processes. He previously managed an e-commerce network at MCI Worldcom and served as a Marine officer for over nine years. Jason completed undergraduate studies at Cornell University and received his MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Moving from Tactical to Strategic Product Management —
A Work in Progress
Mike Moser, Product Management Director, BMC Software

In this session, Mike Moser from BMC Software will share his experiences in implementing a new product management process. In this case study, the team was faced with a large, complex portfolio of products, a tough resource environment, both in marketing and R&D, and a need to bring more business alignment and strategic direction to the development process. The PM team covers three major product lines and well over 150 products with a very limited staff. In this session we will discuss how BMC has moved to bring more strategic focus and business alignment to the product development process, while continuing to operate in a very tough, competitive market environment.

Mike Moser is a product management director and program executive in BMC Software's Mainframe Service Management business unit. Previously, he worked for Digital Equipment Corp. as a hardware engineer and later in field consulting with clients in the aerospace industry as well as at Ralston Purina, with responsibilities in IT strategic planning and application development.

A Template-Based Approach to Positioning
Roger Cauvin, Founder and Principal Consultant, Cauvin, Inc.

Product positioning is the process of defining your target market and shaping the perceptions they have of your product. Positioning largely determines which product requirements to tackle and how to market your product effectively. Prospect problems, distinctive competence, and competitive analysis should drive positioning. Yet how should these factors combine to determine your product's positioning? We will discuss positioning principles and fill out a positioning template for a sample product.

Roger Cauvin has practiced product management and market research activities for clients ranging from software producers to real estate developers. His expertise includes product requirements, positioning, and messaging. Roger began his professional career as a software engineer in 1990 and has held leadership positions at: National Instruments; ObjectSpace, where he served as technical lead and requirements analyst; and KLA-Tencor, semiconductor manufacturer where he becamse involved in market segmentation, market requirements, customer presentations and sales collateral. Roger received his undergraduate degree in Philosophy, along with a minor in Computer Science, from the University of Texas in 1990.

Successful Product Management with Remote or Outsourced Development
Matthew Ulery, Director of Product Management, NetIQ

Maintaining the proper balance between sales, engineering and marketing for a truly market driven company is challenging and the balance depends greatly on the nature of the business and the talent in the organization. Weaknesses in any one area results in the other areas adjusting to compensate: disrupting the balance. It is healthy tension between the parts of the organization that drives the balance between tactical and strategic, between the current and future distinctive competence. Key to maintaining the balance is strong communication and trust. So, what happens when the development staff is remote spread across multiple location, culture and language boundaries? This session will address some of the common mistakes made in working with remote or outsourced development organizations and provide key success strategies for avoiding them.

Matthew Ulery is Director of Product Management responsible for the NetIQ IT security and administration solutions. He has over 14 years high tech experience and has managed both hardware in software products in the energy, manufacturing and IT markets. In that time he has worked with local, globally distributed and outsourced development organizations on both the development and product management sides of the organization.

The Future of Search
William R. Leake, Founder, President and CEO of Leads Customers Growth

While search engine optimization techniques produced great results in their early days, as search engines have become more technically sophisticated, SEO is heading towards a more tactical role. Pay per click search is also facing challenges, as video advertising in particular experienced major growth. Search expert and consultant William Leake will discuss the future of search marketing in this session.  Among search tips and techniques, William will discuss upcoming trends in search including: personalized search that brings the concept of behavioral targeting and customization to search to optimize the consumer experience; new strategies for local search; search marketing on video sharing and social networking sites; how search marketing will move beyond text-based ads; and real-life examples from companies who successfully breathed life into their SEO campaigns and more.

A former McKinsey consultant and Dell veteran, Bill Leake draws on a deep expertise in both business and marketing to help increase revenues for a wide range of clients. Before founding Apogee Search, Bill was President of Journyx, the leading software provider of web-based time and expense management solutions, and one of the 500 largest software companies in the U.S. Prior to Journyx, he held leadership and executive positions at several public and private venture-capital backed firms, including Trusted Information Systems (TISX, now NET), Haystack Labs, Power Computing and Dell. At Dell, Bill worked in the Office of the Chairman on several key strategic initiatives.

Bill received an MBA with honors from the University of Texas at Austin and his B.A. from Yale University. A frequent speaker at trade shows and marketing events, Bill has also served as the professor for the core entrepreneurship course in the St. Edwards University MBA program.

Product Manager’s Roundtable
Moderator: John P. Desmond, SMP Event Program Chair
Panelists:
Jason Tanner, General Manager, Allocate product, NetQoS
Mike Moser, Product Management Director, BMC Software
Roger Cauvin, founder and principal consultant, Cauvin, Inc.
Matthew Ulery, Director of Product Management, NetIQ

Our panel of experienced products managers discusses a range of topical issues of interest to the community, including:

• Web application lifecycles; how they are different
• How we train our product managers
• Emerging technology: blogs, podcasts, social network sites
• How we organize: product management and product marketing
• Tales of on-time, on-budget product releases

Audience questions and comments will be encouraged.