Working with a company recently, the Marketing Manager said to me “We tried an awareness raising campaign, it didn’t work”.  I asked her exactly what it was they had tried; she told me they had crafted an email full of useful tips on how to get the best out of their product and had sent it out to their customer base but had seen virtually no increase in usage at all.  I asked what else she had done, and she told me that was it.  Just the one email.

This made me think of a learning programme called Super-Memo.  It was developed by a Polish researcher called Piotr Wozniak and is based on the premise that the more often you are reminded of a word, number or fact, the longer you will remember it.  An example would be to imagine you’ve just got a new mobile with a new number which you’ve had to learn.  Without regularly saying that number over time it will become increasingly difficult to remember.  In order to remember something the ideal points at which to refresh your memory are after one day, ten days, thirty days and then sixty days.

So why not do the same with your marketing?  A single e-shot is unlikely to be successful and, in many cases, may not even be opened.  But a sustained awareness campaign sent over the course of several weeks will start to make your company and your products feel more familiar and therefore more memorable for the customer.   Which means when your customer needs the type of product or service you offer, you company will be the one that springs to mind.

I am interested in what Product Leaders think makes a good Product Manager? And what is your way of identifying a good Product Manager?

I am constantly asked what makes a great Product Manager and what do I look for. I am a great believer that a strong Product Manager is the CEO of their solution. They need to get involved in all aspects, from inception to launch, and then in-life management.  It’s for this reason that I am a strong believer in ‘You hire for attitude, train for skill’. If someone has the right behaviours then you can teach them the skills to be a great product manager. I have learnt over many years that a title doesn’t make the person good at their role.

My approach to interviewing is that the first interview is to understand the candidate’s personality. So I tend to ask myself:

• Can they fit into the team dynamic? (If you want to disrupt the ‘status quo’ to strengthen then that is OK too)
• What does their personality bring to the team that is currently missing?
• Do I think they can work within a team, yet be focused enough to work on their own and drive the solutions that they will be managing?
• Are they tenacious and can they prove this?
• Have they got the right social skills to be able to work with a number of disciplines around the company? They will need to be able to communicate and influence different types of people.
• Are they someone that thrives on ownership and responsibility?

Using this approach means they get to know mine and the company’s expectations. And at the same time, this 1-2-1 personal approach to the first interview allows the candidate to understand if the company is the right fit for them.