Episode Synopsis: Has recent business news made you worried about your job and your career as a product manager? Are you wondering how to survive in a turbulent economy with your resume intact? If so, spend 45 minutes and get some new perspective and a healthy dose of reality-based optimism from two product management veterans who have survived *and thrived* in multiple market downturns and shrinking companies. In this webinar you will learn:

• How to apply a simple shift in your own attitude to uncover new opportunities for your product and company
• What you can do with little or no budget to sharpen your vision of the market
• How to create alliances to get critical work done with fewer resources

Webinar participants will learn from Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps' own experience as currently practicing product managers, trainers and consultants. An interactive Q&A session will further enrich the discussion.

About the Presenters:

Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps are the founders of internationally recognized training and consulting firm Pivotal Product Management (www.pivotalpm.com). Both Linda and Mara are AIPMM certified, practicing product managers, with more than 40 years’ combined experience, and both are recipients of AIPMM’s "Excellence in Product Management Education award".

Previous AIPMM Partner Webinars

Episode Synopsis: AIPMM introduces a new 45-minute open Q&A session format with veteran webinar presenters and AIPMM “Excellence in Product Management Education” award winners Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps of Pivotal Product Management. In this live Q&A forum webinar you can pose your tough Product Management or Product Marketing challenges to Linda and Mara, and get some fast, effective coaching in real time!

Hearing what challenges your colleagues around the world are experiencing

• Gaining real-time insight on solutions to these challenges from the founders of awardwinning trainers and consultants from Pivotal Product management
• Getting a solution to your own big challenge

Join us for a 45-minute investment that could provide your biggest "Aha" moment of the year!

About the Presenters:

Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps are the founders of internationally recognized training and consulting firm Pivotal Product Management (www.pivotalpm.com). Both Linda and Mara are AIPMM certified, practicing product managers, with more than 40 years’ combined experience, and both are recipients of AIPMM’s "Excellence in Product Management Education award".

Previous AIPMM Partner Webinars

Episode Synopsis: (SLIDES ONLY-NO AUDIO) Do you ever wonder why some product managers seem to get promoted and advance much faster than others? Are you interested in learning strategies and tactics you can use to speed up the advancement of your own career? In this presentation Brian Lawley, Founder of the 280 Group and President of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association will share the different ways he has seen product managers successfully accelerate their careers during his twenty year career in product management.

Presented by Brian Lawley, President and Founder of the 280 Group. He is also the former president of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association

Previous AIPMM Partner Webinars

Episode Synopsis: As a Product Manager, you probably don’t manage budgets or people, but you are accountable for the ultimate success or failure of your product. This makes your role one of the most challenging in your company. Without the official authority, how can you get things done, and make your product successful?

In this webinar you will learn:

* How to gauge your product team leadership abilities, from your colleagues’ point of view
* How to motivate your cross-functional team members to do the right things for the product
* How to gain a credible voice with the executive team
* When to speak up, when not to, and how to know the difference

Webinar participants will learn from the presenters’ own experience as product managers, including examples from a variety of companies and products. An interactive Q&A session will further enrich the discussion.

Bonus Material: Webinar participants will receive a “managing from the middle” planning guide to improve their ongoing effectiveness.

About the Presenters: Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps are the founders of internationally-recognized training and consulting firm Pivotal Product Management (www.pivotalpm.com). Recipients of AIPMM’s “Excellence in Product Management Education” award in 2006 and 2007, Linda and Mara are AIPMM-certified, practicing product managers, with more than 40 years’ combined experience. Pivotal Product Management is an AIPMM-Authorized Testing Partner.

Episode Synopsis: Working effectively with the team who designs and builds your product (or service) is critical to your effectiveness as a product manager – regardless of your industry, company size or culture - yet few of us have had any training in this area.

Mara Krieps and Linda Merrick of Pivotal Product Management will provide insights from their 40+ years’ combined experience as Product Management practitioners, as well as tools to make you more effective. You’ll learn how to:

• Assess how you’re currently working with your product design/build team
• Clarify the team’s expectations for tangible deliverables
• Identify some typical team issues, and tips for resolution

Krieps and Merrick are Certified Product Managers, and the 2006 and 2007 recipients of AIPMM’s “Excellence in Product Management Education” award. Pivotal Product Management www.pivotalpm.com provides training, consulting, team coaching and skills assessment for product teams across industries.

Pre-registered webinar participants will be entered in a drawing for a complimentary product management book.

Episode Synopsis: (SLIDES ONLY-NO AUDIO) Product Roadmaps can mean the difference between success and failure when delivering and marketing software products. They can be one of the most effective tools in a Product Management professional's arsenal. Done correctly they can help win and keep large customers and partners, and can guide the engineering and strategic planning efforts of a company. Unfortunately most Product Roadmaps are created "On The Fly" and under pressure when sales or the company management makes a last-minute request. As a result they don't have the impact they should. This session will cover the different types of Product Roadmaps, how to create each of them, and which type to use for different situations. Leveraging his experience developing Roadmaps for dozens of clients and companies, Mr. Lawley will share best practices, tips and practical advice so that attendees will come away with a thorough understanding of how to build their own Roadmaps.

Presented by Brian Lawley, President and Founder of the 280 Group. He is also President of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association

Episode Synopsis: (SLIDES ONLY-NO AUDIO) How to get twice as much done in half the time.

As a Product Manager, you will always have far more work than you can possibly accomplish. Between thinking strategically and driving things related to your products from a high level to executing the day-to-day tactical work required for product success, you will have a full list of to-do items and plenty of requests that go unfulfilled. This webinar will show you strategies and tactics for being more productive, with the goal of increasing your output and freeing up your time for high-level tasks, while at the same time reducing your overall stress level.

Presented by Brian Lawley, President and Founder of the 280 Group. He is also President of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association

Episode Synopsis: As an experienced product manager, you strive for an intimate knowledge of your customer and their needs. But the success of your product also depends on how well you can translate your market savvy into detailed functional requirements for your engineering team. And, providing just the right level of detail can proves to be quite challenging.

In this webinar you will learn :

• Three proven ways to document the detail your engineering team needs
• Why the level of detail varies by organization, and how to find out the optimal level for your team
• How to apply these techniques to different product types, including manufactured products, technology products and services

Webinar participants will learn from the presenters’ own experience as currently practicing product managers. An interactive Q&A session will further enrich the discussion.

Webinar participants will receive a “Writing Detailed Requirements” worksheet to use on the job.

Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps are the founders of internationally-recognized training and consulting firm Pivotal Product Management (www.pivotalpm.com) . Both Linda and Mara are AIPMM-certified, practicing product managers, with more than 40 years’ combined experience, and both are recipients of AIPMM’s Excellence in Product Management Education award.

Episode Synopsis: Agile software development methodologies are being used by an increasing number of organizations today. As a product manager, how do you most effectively interact with this process? Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps, founders of Pivotal Product Management, will present tips that can help you work more effectively in an agile environment. Linda and Mara will cover topics including:

• How your life changes when the development team goes agile (the myth vs. the reality)
• What product planning still must be in place before development begins
• How to lead the process, even when the end result is undefined
• How your work varies by specific agile methodology
• What you don’t need to do

This is a must-attend session for anyone in an organization that is using, or considering using, an agile development methodology. An interactive Q&A session will further enrich the discussion.

About the Presenters: Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps are the founders of internationally recognized training and consulting firm Pivotal Product Management (www.pivotalpm.com). Both Linda and Mara are AIPMM-certified, practicing product managers, with m ore than 40 years’ combined experience. Bonus Material: Webinar participants will receive a worksheet of Agile practice tips for Product Managers.

Episode Synopsis: Leading product managers know how to balance their attention between internal and external priorities, regardless of what is happening with their product. The best product managers also play a role as a key salesperson for their product. In this webinar you will learn:

• Which two externally-facing practices keep you in line with the market
• Which two internally-facing practices keep you at the forefront of organizational activity
• When your advocacy for the product matters – and when it doesn’t

This is a “back to the basics” session, but the material covered may hold some surprises, even for experienced product managers. An interactive Q&A session will further enrich the discussion.

About the Presenters: Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps are the founders of internationally recognized training and consulting firm Pivotal Product Management (www.pivotalpm.com). Both Linda and Mara are AIPMM-certified, practicing product managers, with more than 40 years’ combined experience.

Bonus Material: Webinar participants will receive a worksheet with tips for applying – and balancing – the five leadership practices..

Episode Synopsis: How well-informed you are about your product, your customer and the broader market has a big impact on the decisions you make – which can make the difference between your product’s success and failure. In this webinar you will learn:

• Which data points you must always track for your product
• How the list varies, based on whether your product is sold to consumers or businesses
• How often you need to update this information

Webinar participants will learn from the presenters’ own experience as product managers, including examples from a variety of companies and products. An interactive Q&A session will further enrich the discussion.

About the Presenters: Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps are the founders of internationally recognized training and consulting firm Pivotal Product Management (www.pivotalpm.com). Both Linda and Mara are AIPMM-certified, practicing product managers, with more than 40 years’ combined experience. Bonus Material: Webinar participants will receive a worksheet describing the top four things a product manager must know about their product, and how often this information must be updated.

Episode Synopsis: Pricing experts Dr. Reed Holden and Mark Burton will lead the discussion on the very hot topic of Pricing for Innovation. The presentation will focus on the perplexing problem of how to define the value of innovations, drivers of adoption of new technologies, creating trial offers that don’t leave you with a "pricing hangover," and bootstrapping early sales into broader market success.

Hear advice from the author of the Strategy and Tactics of Pricing, one of the best selling books on pricing, by joining in a brief confidential discussion offering your questions, challenging the discussion based on your experience, and sharing insight on this issue.

Episode Synopsis: Do you know which seven key product management practices can make the difference between your product becoming a cash cow or an "also-ran" contender? And, how and when should you implement them? What steps do you take to get started? In this webinar you'll learn how the most successful product managers apply the seven best practices on a day-to-day basis, and how you can begin to use them to improve the profitability of your own products.

Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps of Pivotal Product Management will provide case studies from their work as award-winning, practicing product managers.

About the Presenters: Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps are the founders of internationally recognized training and consulting firm Pivotal Product Management (www.pivotalpm.com). Both Linda and Mara are AIPMM-certified, practicing product managers, with more than 40 years’ combined experience.

Episode Synopsis: Linda and Mara discuss:

This credential is increasingly sought after by employers looking for proven experience in Product Management candidates. By demonstrating your competency through internationally-recognized AIPMM certification, Certified Product Managers® (CPMs) and Certified Product Marketing Managers™ (CPMMs) can differentiate themselves in the marketplace and create faster career growth.

Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps of Pivotal Product Management will provide an overview of the key concepts you can expect on the Certification exam. Pivotal Product Management is an AIPMM Authorized Testing Partner for the CPM/CPMM exam.

About the Presenters: Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps are the founders of internationally recognized training and consulting firm Pivotal Product Management (www.pivotalpm.com). Both Linda and Mara are AIPMM-certified, practicing product managers, with more than 40 years’ combined experience.

Episode Synopsis: Using a powerful new research technique called "Innovation Games®", Product Managers are developing closer ties with customers, uncovering hidden needs and building more successful product offerings. Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps of Pivotal Product Management will provide case studies and insights on how to use this ground-breaking technique to get closer to your customers and build better products. Merrick and Krieps are certified Innovation Games facilitators, as well as award-winning Product Management trainers, consultants and working product managers. Pre-registered webinar participants will be entered in a drawing for a complimentary copy of the book Innovation Games.

Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps of Pivotal Product Management will provide an overview of the key concepts you can expect on the Certification exam. Pivotal Product Management is an AIPMM Authorized Testing Partner for the CPM/CPMM exam.

About the Presenters: Linda Merrick and Mara Krieps are the founders of internationally recognized training and consulting firm Pivotal Product Management (www.pivotalpm.com). Both Linda and Mara are AIPMM-certified, practicing product managers, with more than 40 years’ combined experience.