Comments on: Product Manager What Does Your Business Card Say About You?

By: 5 Secrets To Product Manger Success At Your Next Trade Show

5 Secrets To Product Manger Success At Your Next Trade Show — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:03:56 +0000

[...] While at the show, spend your valuable time reaching out to people that you don’t already know (and giving away your business cards). A tradeshow is a once-a-year opportunity to quickly create new relationships that may benefit [...]

By: Trade Show Survival Tactics For Product Managers

Trade Show Survival Tactics For Product Managers — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:03:29 +0000

[...] when I tell you that you can meet somebody one minute and then forget their name the next. That’s why having a huge stack of business cards is a requirement. Your goal is not to hold on to these, instead give them out like they were [...]

By: What Does A Product Manager Need To Do At Your Next Industry Show?

What Does A Product Manager Need To Do At Your Next Industry Show? — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:03:05 +0000

[...] trade shows (pause for collective groan). No, these are not the most enjoyable things to go to just to hand out your business card; however, maybe you feel this way because nobody ever told you how to get the most out a trade [...]

By: Ronald

Ronald — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:04:21 +0000

I forgot to mention something about fixers.

Fixer is not really a title.
In a way, it is personality and set of skills.

People who get focused under stress and have the ability to solve complex
technical, psychological situations that involve various variables.

Some people crash under stress. Fixers, get sharper.

By: Ronald

Ronald — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:08:01 +0000

God….

Just wrote a LONG post, and it got erased in the submit before I was able to saved it…

I’ll try and re-write it.

Fixer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixer

(Not sure if you have seen Michael Clayton. If not, I recommend, although he is a law fixer).

Fixer’s solve problems. They deal with problems other don’t wanna deal with. This is somewhat actually part of our work.

The fact that in some organizations they work in the shadows is what cause their role to sound *sexy*.

Yet, they are usually not recognized for that formally. No organization wants to admit they have *fixers* for *problems*. It makes them look bad..

So, while their work is highly appreciated by those who know what problems they solved, the rest of the world is ignorence to these people that work in the shadows.

You wont find a “Fixer” title anywhere, right ?

Some of us actually, being cynical, describe them selves as “solve problems that others don’t wanna deal with”…

I understand what you mean. By saying “I solve problems”, you create very basic human curiousity. What problems is he solving ? What skills does he have ?

Yet I am not sure it is enough to describe yourself as problem solver, when you are not always coming to solve a *situation*.

I am still not a manager, nor a product manager.
Yet, I am far from being engineer.

You can, for sure, understand the contradiction in the title “Technical Marketing”.

Marketing=Bullshit
Technical = Engineer oriented

Doesn’t work well together right ?

This goes back to the 2 Items I wrote in my previous post..

This is why I find it really frustrating that EVERY time I not only tell my title I also have to describe it.

By: Dr. Jim Anderson

Dr. Jim Anderson — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:33:43 +0000

Ronald: I like that – “Fixers” is just the kind of vague answer that will get people’s attention and won’t let them discard you. Here’s another thought – in the past I have identified myself as a “problem solver” (who wouldn’t want to be friends with one of those?) and when pressed, I said that I simply “…made problems go away.” This seemed to get good feedback. Yeah, they still don’t know what I do, but they do want to know more!

By: Ronald

Ronald — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:28:21 +0000

I have just had an internal thread within my company.

I was stuggling with the exact same problem introducing myself as a Technical marketing engineer.

I am still not a manager, so I wouldn’t know what to write exactly in the card, but I have found a good description, provided by my colleague:

My group is responsible for two main functions:

1. Communication of technical information to the field including Sales, SEs, partners, and customers

2. Communication of technical needs/requests/requirements back to product and development groups from the same people in the field.

We have also identified our selves as *Fixers* just like Winston Wolf in Pulp fiction.

It is very frustrating to know your value to the Orgnaization, but the difficutly to be able to express it to the outside world, and sometimes within the organization as well.