Communicating Your Products' Vision - Jim Semick

"Sometimes getting it 80% done gives you 1000% satisfaction" Jim has a philosophy about work and 'just do it', is a big part of it. Entrepreneur Jim Semick, co-founder of ProductPlan talked with Mark about how they're rethinking how you communicate a product vision. He's been involved in a ton of companies in the region, originally coming down from Seattle and the tech scene up there. His background in Product Management gave him and his partners the idea to create this new company. This wide-ranging conversation covered a lot of ground including: -At 12 he knew he'd be running a business - but wasn't clear how that would turn out. -Going from one big company (AETNA) to another bigger one (Microsoft) and eventually leaving for smaller pastures -His background? A Technical Writer -What Product Plan does and why it's important for key clients like NIKE, Alaska Air and IBM's Watson team -The role of Market Validation, with a shout out to local pioneer in this area, Frank Robinson (Note: Frank coined the term MVP) -What's a Product Roadmap? How does it integrate into the overall corporate strategy -The KANO model for product design: focusing on, Customer delight, Performance related and "excitement" excitement features (There's more to this, listen to learn.) -How vital it is that a product, service or new idea has a Vision - that can be easily communicated to stakeholders