If a member of the press wants to review a product, the Product Marketing Manager shall assist by providing an Evaluation Guide.
If thou does this according to THE SOFTWARE LORD’S wishes, the trade magazine just might run an article extolling to the world the virtues of your product.
Keeping in mind the lower-than-expected IQ and extreme sloth of certain members of the press, the Evaluation Guide should be written as if for your computer illiterate grandmother.
Said Evaluation Guide shall have a screenshot for each and every step, including installation.
Each step shall describe exactly what to type, what button to push, and why each step is being performed. The steps shall leave no room for misinterpretation. The reader must not be required to think at all.
Marketing messages and competitive comparisons shall be interspersed throughout the Evaluation Guide, in hope that the member of the press will directly quote your ritually pure text.
Read more Divine Rules for Product Managers.
Have the Software Gods been speaking to you as well? Have any additional Divine Rules for Product Managers you wish to share? Share them in this post comments. The Cranky Product Manager will feature the best Divine Rules as posts on this blog, with appropriate link-backs to the destination of your choosing….
Also in Divine Rules of Product Management
- Divine Rules for Product Managers #1: Prepping for Engineering Meetings
- Divine Rules for Product Managers #2: On Dealing With Unreasonable Customer Demands
- Divine Rules for Product Managers #3: On Helping the Press with Product Reviews
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What are your thoughts on an Evaluation Guide vs. something even more automated – software installed on a VM with the “clicks” automated and text in a frame explaining what is going on?
Spot on Cranky. I learned early in my career (the hard way) that if you don’t control the atmosphere of the product review you’re asking for trouble. I’ve even gone to the trouble of meeting journalists in their homes to personally step through the product and be available 24×7 to answer questions. The cost in travel and my time was FAR less than a crappy review.
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