Product Management - I Am Charlie Graham

I Am Charlie Graham

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Product Management

A collection of 15 posts

Product Management

Why you should stop using the word "Disrupt"

The word “disrupt” is everywhere these days. In Silicon Valley today you can’t spend more than 5 minutes in a coffee shop without hearing someone describe how their company is going to “disrupt the <fill in the blank> industry.” Entrepreneurs and business school students are taught case

Product Management

Creating vs. Disrupting

The word “disrupt” is everywhere these days. In Silicon Valley today you can’t spend more than 5 minutes in a coffee shop without hearing someone describe how their company is going to “disrupt industry <fill in the blank>.” Entrepreneurs and business school students are repeatedly taught case

Keeping It Simple

Do You Believe in Magic?

[http://www.iamcharliegraham.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/sparkles.jpg] [http://www.iamcharliegraham.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/sparkles.jpeg] I have been helping a few startups try to reach product-market-fit and have encountered a common theme: everyone is too tactical. Discussions quickly digress into incremental benefits and features. Attend

Product Management

Win, Play and Lose

No matter what product you are building, you can’t be the best at everything. Spread your resources across all areas equally and you will be average at them all. So how do you figure out where to focus? One technique we used at Shop It To Me [http://www.

Keeping It Simple

Technical Debt -- when to deal with it?

One of the key themes In the upcoming presidential election is what should we do with the US fiscal debt. Some argue we should stop everything to pay it down right now; others think we should put our resources into improving the economy and then pay it down later when

Product Management

Smart Tips for better customer feedback

My latest post, 6 Smart Tips for Better Customer feedback [http://www.inc.com/charlie-graham/customer-feedback-tricks.html], is now on the Inc.com website! Three of the tips are: 1. Keep customer support in-house and staffed by smart people. 2. Initiate customer conversations yourself. 3. Test constantly. To read more

Keeping It Simple

First Impressions

At Shop It To Me, we are constantly experimenting. It’s one of our core values. In fact, as of this morning, we have 24 different A/B experiments running on different parts of our site. Each week we probably add anywhere from 1-5 new experiments to our testing pool

Blue Oceans

In my previous post [http://www.iamcharliegraham.com/2012/06/05/focus-what-is-your-product-going-to-be-awesome-at/] I talked about how having a focus is super important to a product’s success. The question comes, what to focus on? Here’s one angle. I have been a big fan of Kim & Mauborgne’s Blue

Focus: What is your product going to be awesome at?

One of the most important things to do when you are building a product of any size is to focus. Pick the few things you are going to be amazing at and the many things you will not be. It’s hard, but it’s the only way to succeed.

Keeping It Simple

How we celebrate the little things

Running a startup is definitely an emotional roller-coaster ride. You are going to have really good days (like when you are featured on The Today Show [http://thelook.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/17/11744571-what-to-wear-to-summer-weddings?lite] ) and a bunch of down days as well. Your product development will

Product Management

How To Find Early Adopters For Your Internet Startup

I recently came across a Brookings institute article onglobal happiness level [http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2010/01/03-happiness-graham]. The premise is simple (and well-documented from other books on the subject) — the human psyche towards happiness is incredibly adaptable. People even in the poorest, most war-ravaged parts of the

I'm Back, Baby!

I’m Back, Baby! Hi again! As you probably can infer from the title, I am going to start blogging regularly again, my wife and I now are proud parents of a cute baby girl, and I am a fan of double entendres/puns. The last year has been crazy,

Product Management

Actual Value vs Perceived Value II

In a previous blog post [http://www.iamcharliegraham.com/2011/06/14/actual-value-vs-perceived-value/], I chatted about the differences between the actual value people get from your service and the perceived value they have when they are considering using it. In this post, I’ll talk about some steps to attract

Product Management

Actual Value vs Perceived Value

Here’s the scenario: You’ve got an amazing paid or free product or service. Everyone who is using it loves it. You know your market is huge! And yet it’s the hardest thing in the world to get a new person to join or buy. Don’t despair.

The Beginning....

We’re live! After about a month of waiting, iamcharliegraham.com is now live. As some of you have requested, here are my rants and raves about entrepreneurship, Product Management, Shop It To Me, and eCommerce. Enjoy and please join in the conversation! –Charlie