In this post, the first one, Patrick Tickle, the Chief Product Officer of Planview, wrote about product innovation. He emphasized the importance and the power of strategic planning, portfolio and resource management, product innovation, capabilities and technology management and the role that planning plays in collaborative work managing. Mr. Tickle mentioned three main points:

  1. Prioritize projects and products that are aligned with strategy
  2. Plan capacity continuously
  3. Gain visibility to both structured and unstructured work

I strongly agree with the original author, who mentions 4 key points that can lead to successful product management:

  1. Product Managers must develop the ability to “See a project in total”;
  2. A product manager must be skilled at finding synergies where programs intersect for efficiency and speed up project delivery;
  3. Also, he requires both strong technical skills and an understanding of how software development fits into overall process design; and
  4. Lastly product managers must become adept decision makers.

Overall and in a nutshell,  Portfolio Management is a tangible way to operationalize strategy.  A few years ago PMI had a Thought Leadership Series Report titled, “Delivering on Strategy” The Power of Project Portfolio Management”  that I would encourage those interested to take a glance at.   I also recall a PMI Conference Paper, “Linking Portfolio, Program, and Projects to Business Strategy” (Anyosa Soca, Victor) that still holds solid insight and merits exploring for a deeper dive.    – Prof. Dr. Te Wu, the founder Project Management training firm PMO Advisory is among the few people in the world certified in Project (PMP), Program (PgMP), Portfolio (PfMP), and Risk Management (PMI-RMP).