Savvy Avi

A Product Manager’s key responsibility is focusing the product direction. It is always the case that there is more work than resources especially in startups. Hence a good way to prioritize work can really be useful. Using SaaS, software typically resides on vendors’ servers, it is easier for vendors to release updates at more frequent intervals, and with agile development practices, applications are updated almost continuously without traditional version control. Software hosting also allows vendors to collect valuable information about customers’ usage patterns. The available information is unprecedented in scope and immediate in availability. With a continuous deployment model and immediate customer response, the feedback loop between development and customers has never been faster. However, in order to fully leverage the fast feedback loop, companies must use the right performance metrics. This is what my research is about and I’ll speak about it in CE2011 conference this Jul...

When HubSpot’s development team started working it was clear to them that they are going to work agile. It was equally clear to Raytheon’s air traffic control development team that they should use traditional methods like waterfall (and CMMI). And if Raytheon would have decided on agile I would never fly again. However, these projects are in two ends of the spectrum for many in the middle the answer isn’t obvious. I recently went on a business trip to San-Jose California to help establish MIT’s product realization lab. I met with managers in Cisco software and E-bay and learned that this is an important issue. In fact, E-bay uses both methodologies depending on the project. To come at the right conclusions development teams should consider organizational, product and industry characteristics. I developed this questionnaire with 8 questions. By filling it out and summing the points, one can arrive at the most suitable method for a given project. Questionnaire Rank each question ...