The other day I was stumbling around and I came across this site with some great quotes about Product Development. One of my favorites from this list is from Seth Godin: “People don’t steal ideas. Ideas are cheap. Implementation makes the difference.”

One thing that is crucial for Product Managers is the ability for using communication when leading the product development. Often there are times when I try to be too diplomatic about a situation, and sometimes that is necessary depending on the circumstances and project. The most successful product managers use a the art “influencing, negotiating, relationship building and other similar similar skills” to make sure the product proves to be successful.

One thing I definitely need to focus more heavily on this year is to focus on the details more. Not sure exactly how to do it, but I am going to find out.

As a product manager I have been seeing more and more variance between this role and what a project manager is supposed to operate as. I’ll admit that until recently I saw very little difference between the project manager and a product manager. Was I ever wrong! I started to poke around the with this question and a slough of great resources was opened up to about this differentiation. Since my world evolves around web technology primarily I needed to find some specifics on web product management. With a few Google searches I found a great blog Rob Grady. He explains on a very simple level the importance of taking a web product beyond a short term project to a point where management continues through the entire “product lifecycle.”

From what I gather, the primary difference between product and project management is that project management is focused on getting the project launched on time and within budget and oft times with no regard to what features are removed to get it launched. However, for the product manager, the customers or users of the product take priority number one and they concern themselves with even the smallest of details. Product managers realize that the cumulation of many small issues can make or break the site and cause users to stop using the product.

With the coming of the new year I will be taking a “cool nerd” approach to Product Management and will be providing periodic updates on what I discover through research and application.