So far we have talked about Why The Problem Manager was created, First Principles regarding What is a Problem Manager, and the Anatomy of a Problem. With these as background, we can now talk a bit about setting up our Problem garden (for horticulturists), stable (for horse people) or infrastructure (for IT people).
S.M.A.R.T.E.R is, of course, an acronym:
- S is for Stored
- M is for Managed
- A is for Accessible
- R is for Relevant
- T is for Trustworthy
- E is for Evolving
- R is for Related
To be successful your Problem Management garden/stable/infrastructure must have these seven fundamental aspects…
Out there in the world there are many different methodologies for converting market insights into products (and features) and services. Here at The Problem Manager our goal is to be simultaneously independent from and complimentary to these methodologies. For example, in software development our content and tools should be equally useful if you are using a Jobs To Be Done approach or Persona Problem Statement approach or others.
Purpose & Goals
Before defining the problem I recommend thinking about your purpose in doing so. For example, the anatomy of a cat would be described differently by Grandma versus our veterinarian, right?
- Why are…
Out there in the world there are many different methodologies for converting market insights into products (and features) and services. Here at The Problem Manager our goal is to be simultaneously independent from and complimentary to these methodologies. For example, in software development our content and tools should be equally useful if you are using a Jobs To Be Done approach or Persona Problem Statement approach or others.
Purpose & Goals
Before defining the problem I recommend thinking about your purpose in doing so. For example, the anatomy of a cat would be described differently by Grandma versus our veterinarian, right?
- Why are…
In the Problem Manager blog and podcast (and eventually book) I want to build up to our main topic from first principles. Hey, if it is good enough for Elon Musk, then it should be good enough for us, right? So let’s begin simply enough by defining our central terms: Problem and Manager.
What is a Problem?
Here at The Problem Manager when we talk about problems we are using that term in the more ancient sense of the word. In ancient Greek, proballein meant “to put forward”. Pro meaning before and ballein meaning to throw. Some definitions also include the word obstacle or…
It’s All Steve’s Fault
When I told my long-time friend and mentor Steve Johnson I was launching a new blog and podcast we discussed a theme he had been writing and speaking a lot about over the past few years, which he summarized simply as:
“Let’s be Problem Managers” — Steve Johnson
His point being our discipline of Product Management had evolved greatly over the past 25 years but one area which seems to have evolved less (and maybe degraded) is Problem Management. …
Allan Neil
25 year product management veteran based in the greater Toronto area. Passions include Product, Rust, Clarinet, Cigars, Disambiguation.
