The Product Managers Handbook, 3E

Renowned for offering detailed and valuable guidance to all product managers, regardless of market or industry, The Product Manager’s Handbook has been extensively revised and updated for today’s changing business landscape. While product managers must flourish in many different environments—such as consumer versus business-to-business products or hierarchical versus horizontal, team-driven organizations—the techniques and tools they need for management success are remarkably similar.

The Product Manager’s Handbook examines each piece of the puzzle, showing you how to integrate your organization’s disparate segments into a cooperative, results-focused unit that works together to create satisfying products from initial design through post-purchase satisfaction. The essential guide to seamless product management in a fluid and unpredictable business world, The Product Manager’s Handbook gives you the knowledge you need to:

• Conduct market and customer analysis
• Design branding strategies
• Establish and implement prices
• Target current and new markets
• Develop, launch, and assess new products
• Manage existing and mature products
• Create and manage customer demand
• Work effectively with sales, operations, and research departments

Clear, easy-to-read charts show you how to manage each crucial step, from conception to completion. Practical checklists help you to evaluate progress at every stage. Concise “Business Briefs” feature case studies of leading companies confronting and overcoming today’s product management challenges. Interviews with seasoned product management consultants and top-performing product managers provide you with dynamic, proven strategies for addressing potential problems in marketing, production, cross-cultural communication, and more.

Product managers must create, grow, and manage products that combine internal design integrity with external customer integrity—all, of course, while adhering to strict bottom-line necessities. The Product Manager’s Handbook examines current market-leading companies, latest research findings, evolving customer perceptions, and more to provide you with the tools you need to design, produce, and market winning products, regardless of your industry.

Guidelines for successfully managing your company’s most vital competitive assets—its products

A skilled product manager is among a company’s most valuable employees, responsible for spearheading every step in a product’s lifecycle. The Product Manager’s Handbook shows you how to develop and seamlessly integrate the key aspects of successful product management—product and market knowledge, financial and strategic skills, interpersonal ability, and more—to enhance your hands-on proficiency and ensure that you are a vital contributor to your company’s long-term profitability.

Filled with the updated guidance and insights you need to become an accomplished, valued product manager, this comprehensively revised edition features:

• All-new information on product management brand strategy and global brand management
• Expanded guidelines and insights for getting top performance from teams and team members
• Insightful “Business Briefs” featuring case studies of leading companies

In an environment of increasing product complexity, intense international competition, and accelerating customer sophistication, product managers can mean the difference between product success and failure. The Product Manager’s Handbook provides a straightforward template that you can follow to create and deliver superior products and services to your company’s customers, while at the same time providing long-term value to your company.

Linda Gorchels is the managing director of executive marketing seminars in the executive education department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business. She is the author of a number of successful business books, including The Product Manager’s Field Guide and The Manager’s Guide to Distribution Channels. Gorchels has provided corporate training for global organizations including Nokia, Siemens, Metso Automation, and others.

Booknews

A practical manual examining the role and operation of product management; planning skills for product managers; product skills; and functional skills, with chapter-ending checklists, cases illustrating product managers in action, and a glossary. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)