Linda Gorchels

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About the Webinar: Ryma's August 24th webinar was presented at noon EDT by Linda Gorchels. Product management, like any complex organizational design, is not perfect. There are communication breakdowns, blurred lines of responsibility, and changes in strategy that cause firms to question its value or even consider major reorganization efforts. Before your firm dives into either initiating OR eliminating a product management architecture, join us to explore a few tips and tools on both the need for, and the effectiveness of, a product management structure.

About the Presenter: Linda Gorchels, faculty member of the executive education department of the Wisconsin School of Business, has inspired over 10,000 managers and executives (including CMO, Planning Strategist, VP-Marketing, Director of Sales & Marketing and product manager titles) into crafting visions and implementing strategies to attain them. An award-winning author, Linda received the Excellence in Thought Leadership distinction from the Association of International Product Marketing and Management for the 3rd edition of The Product Manager's Handbook (2006). This work plus her other books (The Product Manager's Field Guide and The Manager's Guide to Distribution Channels) have been translated into multiple languages.

 

 

 

 

Jim Berardone, CEO of Product Strategy Network


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About the Webinar: Ryma's August 11th webinar will be presented at noon ET by Jim Berardone. One of the most important responsibilities of product managers is to manage the product roadmap. When created effectively, roadmaps can be a very valuable and powerful tool for the product manager. They can help to provide focus to activities, inform key internal and external stakeholders, keep everyone on the same page and drive growth. Unfortunately, we see many practitioners who fail to obtain the benefits.

In this webinar, Jim Berardone, CEO of the Product Strategy Network (www.ProductStrategyNetwork.com), will discuss the 10 biggest problems that he has observed with product roadmaps and the practices for dealing with them effectively. You'll takeaway important lessons that can help you to make product roadmaps a useful and effective management tool.

About the Presenter: Jim Berardone is the CEO of the Product Strategy Network, (www.ProductStrategyNetwork.com) the leading practitioner resource for product management organizations. One of the founders, he has led the company's strategy and development since its inception in 2002. Through study, observation, participation and collaboration with many product management organizations in various industries, he has gained a unique perspective of the practice of product management and uses this understanding to enable PSN Members to meet their specific challenges.

Jim has broad experience in several segments of the technology industry including content management, product life cycle management, supply chain management, e-commerce, and data integration. In his career, he has managed product management departments, product development, and professional services. He has led the development and/or commercialization of over 70 products and services including enterprise software, SaaS services, vertical-market search engines and education. Jim has been part of new product innovation for over 20 years with large and early-stage companies such as Fujitsu, Perot Systems (now part of Dell Computer Corp.), AT&T/Nets Inc., Industry.net and SAE International.

 

 Harry Gilbert,  Senior Partner Fish, Gilbert & Associates, L.L.C


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About the Webinar: Ryma's webinar presented May 19th at noon ET by Harry Gilbert. This webinar presented a good balance between stressing the business basis for requirements, and an approach to estimating what it will take to obtain them in a product initiative. 

Considering the three levels of requirements:

 

·         Business Requirements - "Why the project is being undertaken."

·         User Requirements - "What users will be able to do with the product."

·         Engineering Requirements - "What engineers need to develop."

 

success is going to be about getting the upstream business requirements right, and then ensuring logical flow between downstream activities.

Harry will review the three phases of his requirements determination estimating process

 

1.     Understanding the purpose, context, and rationale of the overall project

2.     Defining the scope and complexity of the project

3.     Defining resources and schedule for the requirements determination portion of the project

 

Other topics covered in context of business requirements will be sales process, requirement decomposition, relationships, estimation, prioritization, project charters, and scope documents.

About the Presenter: Harry Gilbert is a manufacturing and information technology consultant-level professional, specializing in problem analysis, requirements determination, cost reduction, and the improvement of processes and organizations. He has over 35 years experience in the paper, converting, printing, and automotive manufacturing and assembly industries in supervision, management, and industrial engineering.  

 

He is particularly effective in reducing manufacturing and white collar costs, both direct and indirect labor, facilitating cross-functional teams at all organizational levels, and creating, coaching, and mentoring Business Analysts. Mr. Gilbert's specialties include process modeling and improvement, discrete event simulation, requirements determination and documentation, and Lean implementation in manufacturing and white collar environments. He is an avid wildlife photographer.

 

 

 

 

Gerrit Muller, Professor Buskerud University College


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About the Webinar: Ryma's May 12th webinar will be presented at noon ET by Gerrit Muller. Many companies struggle to benefit from similarities between the products they sell. The challenge is to find these commonalities that can be shared between product, while the product value for different customers is not (too much) compromised.

We'll discuss a method for understanding the playing field both in marketing and technology, and we'll discuss a process to quickly explore this playing field by workshops and fast iteration overviews and considerations.

Prereading is not mandatory. However, for people who like to prepare I recommend the following papers:

Short introduction to basic "CAFCR" model

Product Familiy Business Analysis And Definition

About the Presenter: Gerrit Muller, originally from the Netherlands, received his Master's degree in physics from the University of Amsterdam in 1979. He worked from 1980 until 1997 at Philips Medical Systems as a system architect, followed by two years at ASML as a manager of systems engineering, returning to Philips (Research) in 1999. Since 2003 he has worked as a senior research fellow at the Embedded Systems Institute in Eindhoven, focusing on developing system architecture methods and the education of new system architects, receiving his doctorate in 2004. In January 2008 he became a full professor of systems engineering at Buskerud University College in Kongsberg, Norway.

All information (System Architecture articles, course material, curriculum vitae) can be found at: Gaudí systems architecting http://www.gaudisite.nl/

 

Esther Rmah, Account Manager, QuestionPro & Survey Analytic
Kathryn Korostoff, Market Research Consultant, Research Rockstar

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About the Webinar: Ryma's April 7th webinar will be presented at noon ET by Esther Rmah and Kathryn Korostoff. Regardless of whether your planning your first market research questionnaire or your 10,000th, this webinar is for you if you ever see yourself considering a customer survey again.

The 10 steps for a stress-free customer survey process will contain bits of information that is a result of decades of practice. Esther and Kathryn will be discussing a simple process to write a successful survey, and basic tips when using an online survey tool to ensure data reliability.

About the Presenters: Kathryn Korostoff is a market research professional with a special interest in how organizations acquire, manage, and apply market research. Over the past 20 years, she has personally directed more than 600 primary market research projects and published over 100 bylined articles in trade magazines. Currently, Kathryn spends her time assisting companies as they create market research departments, develop market research strategies, or otherwise optimize their use of market research. Prior to Research Rockstar, Kathryn completed the transition of Sage Research--an agency that she founded and led for 13 years-- to its new parent company.

She is the author of "How to Hire & Manage Market Research Agencies",

Esther LaVielle is currently an Account Manager at QuestionPro and Survey Analytics, which was started in 2002 in Seattle and is now one of the fastest growing private companies in the US. Prior to her adventure at QuestionPro she spent 3 years as a Qualitative Project Manager at the Gilmore Research Group.

 

 Pattie Vargas,

Principal and founder of The Vargas Group


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About the Webinar: RYMA's January 6th webinar was presented by Pattie Vargas. She presented a very under publicized issue, Stakeholder Management. She says, "Yes you can!" Not only can you, but you should.

Stakeholders have different needs and expectations. They also have differing agendas, motivations and behaviors! The successful manager discovers:
    * What about this product initiative is important to this stakeholder?
    * What will I need to do to meet their needs?
    * What represents success to them?
    * What communication methods will be most effective?

Utilizing situational communication strategies will improve the odds of initiative success by understanding and connecting with each stakeholders' needs.

About the Presenter: Pattie Vargas, Principal and founder of The Vargas Group, brings a strong background in business management, project management, and practical experience challenging and motivating organizations and individuals to develop self-motivated, high-performing work teams. Her success lies in inspiring peak performance and outstanding achievements, despite the typical organizational constraints related to budget, time or resources. Her focus on the importance of developing strong interpersonal skills and relationships is instrumental to achieving success.

Pattie has a bachelor's degree in Business Management, a Master's Degree in Organizational Management and PMP certification from Project Management Institute. She has been published in ISSIG Bits, a PMI publication specific to Information Technology projects, BizSanDiego, ASTD Training Trends, PM Connection and Women in Technology International. Her team-building techniques have been featured in PM Network magazine.

She is a frequent national conference speaker on the topics of Leadership, Team-building, and Performance Improvement. The American Business Women's Association named Pattie one of the 2007 Top 10 Business Women and she was nominated to the 2008 Women Who Mean Business List by the San Diego Business Journal.

Her book, EXTREME Project Manager Makeover, was released in 2008.

   
 
 Mike Kallet, CEO of HeadScratchers

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About the Webinar: Ryma's January 27th webinar was presented by Mike Kallet. Problem Solving, Decision Making, Creativity, and Innovation all have a common foundation that consists of "Thinking".

Critical Thinking is a way of thinking and looking at situations in what we call "manual" mode, as opposed to our everyday "automatic" mode. Mike Kallet, CEO of HeadScratchers will provide an understanding of what critical thinking is, why it is important, and present several critical thinking techniques that you can immediately implement when solving problems, making decisions or tasked with creating something innovative.

Critical Thinking Skills can be applied to:
• General problem solving and decision making
• New product ideas and creation
• Improving Productivity
• Short and long term business strategies
• Competitive strategies
• Managing people and situations
• Improved development processes and quality
• Improved operational efficiency
• Crisis Management
• Revenue generation and cost reduction strategies
• Customer care improvement
• P&L Management

With the Benefits of
• Faster and higher quality decisions
• Creative solutions to problems and strategies
• Higher productivity and quality
• Being better prepared to tackle daily problems
• Avoiding mistakes and recognizing opportunities
• Leading others to "Think"

About the Presenter: Michael Kallet is a technology and operations executive with 30 years of experience in leading teams that created numerous award winning products and services spanning computer and communications technologies and markets. 

In 2004, Mike started HeadScratchers, a company focused on training Critical Thinking for Problem Solving, Decision Making and Creativity. Its mission: To help people become better "HeadScratchers".

Prior to forming HeadScratchers, Mike had a 25 year career spanning the software, internet and telecommunications industries. His accomplishments range from creating award winning products such as Harvard Graphics to running ICG a half billion dollar communications company, as COO.

Craig Gygi,
Principal and Managing Director, CKGygi


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About the Webinar: Ryma's December 9th webinar was presented by Craig Gygi. For years, experts have recommended problem statements as a tool to help effectively manage product development projects. But there has been resistance.

Some feel that a problem statement restricts innovation and flexibility--characteristics increasingly critical to marketplace success. Others say that limiting a new product to the bounds of a customer- or market-driven objective precludes finding the ideal solution which surpasses what the customer even knew was possible. This resistance, however, stems from a misunderstanding of effective project problem/objective statements and belies the evidence from consistently successful innovators.

In this webinar you will learn:

• Specific problem statement techniques from Lean and Six Sigma which have proven to result in more consistent project successes
• How to use problem statements to programmatically capture product requirements that will surprise the market and delight customers
• How to use project problem states to anticipate project risks and hurdles

Background Reading: 
Success, By the Numbers (or why being science-y is a good thing)
Does Six Sigma Stifle Innovation?

About the Presenter: Craig Gygi--lead author of the bestselling Six Sigma For Dummies and Six Sigma Workbook For Dummies--works with companies in the USA and internationally to integrate Six Sigma practices directly into their core operations. Craig has wielded Six Sigma techniques now for over 16 years, spanning projects from design to manufacturing to business process management, and at companies as varied as Abbott Labs, Software AG, American Express, Fiji Water, and the US Air Force. He is also an expert teacher, having instructed and mentored at all levels.

 
Brittney Herrera,
Co-Founder pmNERDS

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About the Webinar: RYMA's December 30th Webinar was presented by Brittany Herrera. Attendees of this webinar should have gained insight into roadmapping activities designed to address issues found in typical roadmapping processes, and help companies reap the benefits of a unified roadmapping initiative.

Unlike typical roadmapping discussions that focus on a single person, or department creating a silo'd product roadmap, this webinar will address issues and solutions in cross-functional teams, strategy alignment, and consensus on roadmapping decisions found in a continuously changing product management environment.

Each step of a sample enterprise roadmapping process will be reviewed with the intent to highlight the issues and benefits relative to that step. With the insight gained from this webinar, you can look at your own roadmapping processes and start doing the things required to gain even more benefit out of your roadmapping efforts.

About the Presenter: Brittany comes from a systems engineering background in Homeland Security, Aerospace and Defense, and their tier 2 suppliers. She has over 7 years of experience working with, and observing, product management teams struggle with issues stemming from poor Roadmapping. Brittney is a co-founder of pmNERDS, and spends her time teaching and implementing product management practices fundamental to all businesses, small and large.

Jan Bosch,
VP Engineering Process at Intuit


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The Jan Bosch Website



About the Webinar: RYMA's December 2nd Webinar was presented by Jan Bosch of Intuit. Software product lines present the first successful approach to intra-organizational reuse. Companies that successfully deployed software product line technology were able to achieve order of magnitude growth over a decade or achieve major business milestones and the talk will present several of these.

Our experience with dozens of companies shows that successful product lines, however, over time suffer from increasing dependencies the software assets that make up the product line and, consequently, the teams associated with these assets. This results in high coordination cost, slow release cycles and high system-level error density.

We present the notion of compositional software product lines as an approach to address the root cause of these problems without sacrificing the key benefits of software product lines.

About the Presenter: Jan Bosch works in a corporate role to guide and facilitate the adoption of software product lines, or large scale software reuse, and to develop software engineering processes at Intuit including architectural, development, validation and evolution/maintenance processes.

He has more than 15 years experience in large scale software development research and practice through direct line management, "matrixed" roles, external consultant roles and as a professor of software engineering. Areas of expertise include the technical, business and organizational dimensions of software architecture, software product lines, service architectures, mobile services and applications, etc.