Links and Resources
Silicon Valley Business Catalyst

Below is a list of useful links and resources I compiled that may be useful to other technical product management / marketing professionals. I am passionate about learning and want to help others who are also interested in building their expertise.

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Updated March 2012 (still needs some work)
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Events 

Product management events as well as local technical and leadership events that can be accessed from the Silicon Valley are listed below.

Silicon Valley Product Management Association Events

SVPMA holds monthly meetings with guest speakers and quarterly workshops.

Product Management View provides a blog and webinar series.

Association of International Product Marketing & Management (AIPMM) Webinars
AIPMM provides free Webinars and has Webinar archives.

Product Management/Marketing Courses 

For engineers or other non-marketing professionals looking to move into product management, I highly suggest that you take a course on product management to gain a better insight into the product management profession.  Below are organizations that offer such courses.

Pragmatic Marketing

I took their Practical Product Management and Requirements that Work courses to hone my marketing skills and gain some tools for training other product managers.  These courses are geared towards managing technology products.

UC Berkeley Product Management Program

UC Berkeley offers training programs for marketing and product management professionals. They have a 5-day program focused on product management with a certificate at the program graduation as well as individual modules and programs. I have not taken any courses from UC Berkeley.

Proficientz

This organization also offers great resources, product portfolio management framework, and training programs for product managers.  I have not taken any of their courses.  (They have a great webinar for product managers looking for new jobs.  Go to their Webinars page under Resources.)

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User-Centered Design / User Experience 

Organizations who create products that are full of features but the products cannot be easily used are very likely going to fail, especially when targeting the early majority (pragmatists).

Useit.com

This is Jakob Nielson's website, which has lots of information on usability.

Why You Only Need to Test With 5 Users is an article illustrating that usability testing does not have to be costly or complex.

Examples

50 Beautiful and User-Friendly Navigation Menus

10 Most Common Misconceptions about User Experience Design

This presentation slide set describes what user experience is and is not. Some of the slides are quite complex and difficult to read, but provides a good overview of user experience and how it needs to be tied with business objectives.

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Building Management Skills

Here are some resources for enhancing your leadership skills.

American Management Association

I find this organization's free webinars and podcasts very useful.

I recommend listening to Marshall Goldsmith on Influence in All Directions.  In this 10 minute podcast, Goldsmith coaches on how to exert your influence in today’s tough times.

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Trusted Service Providers 

If you are looking for help, this is a list of Silicon Valley service providers that I have worked with who have provided excellent results.

SnapDesign

This design organization applies user-centered methodology for products, services, and environments—providing compelling user experiences.  I worked with David Abkowitz on three softclient projects, which included visual design, ideation, prototyping, interaction architecture, and prototype validation.  I highly recommend David.

Inner Architect

This marketing organization offers strategies for career acceleration, business development, and job search by combining Web 2.0 social media and targeted direct marketing tactics.  I worked with Susan Hanshaw and Dean Guadagni, whom both are really good caring people and want to see others succeed.  What I like best about working with them is that I don't feel any sales pressure and phoniness.  It is refreshing to work with people like them.

Progressive Solutions

Progressive Solutions is unique in that they not only provide printing services, but also distribution.  I worked with both Scott Feldman and Mark Sarpa.  They are patient and just really good guys.  Great customer service!

eandidesign

This is a marketing collateral design provider.  I worked with eandi to create data sheets.  Erin Sarpa is sharp and creative.

Duran Design

Jeff Duran is a digital artist/designer.  He provides great work in little time.  I highly recommend Jeff.

Content Rules

This organization develops technical documentation, marketing collateral and training materials for technology companies.  I enjoyed working with Mira Wooten who is VP of Business Development.  She coordinated and managed the writers contracted for the collateral projects.

Kalmbach Smith Meadows

KSM provides marketing services.  I really enjoyed working with Andy Meadows to create application icons.  He is creative and gave us concept options that were all usable.  It was so hard to choose the final icons.  Andy saved us from another vendor who provided us with awful, ridiculous icons.

Achievex Corporation

This organization teaches the Sandler Selling System.  Achievex provides on-going reinforcement based training with one-on-one coaching and mentoring.

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Associations

Join associations to keep marketing and business skills up-to-date, stay current, and network.

Silicon Valley Product Management Association (SVPMA)

This organization was founded to address the needs of product managers, product marketing managers, and other professionals working with the Product Management field.

Silicon Valley American Marketing Association (SVAMA)

SVAMA is the local chapter of the American Marketing Association and supports all disciplines of marketing.  SVAMA provides local educational and networking opportunities many times per month.

Silicon Valley Business (Marketing/Sales/BizDev) Meetup 

This Cupertino meetup group is for those that want ideas and strategies for driving success of their business.  I've also picked up a few free books from several of the meetings.  The organizer, Mitchell Levy, is an avid networker and has taught me that networking is mostly about giving and sharing.  Meeting times are inconsistent.

Silicon Valley NewTech Meetup 

This meetup group is for tech enthusiasts to discuss and show-and-tell new web technologies.  Meetings are held in Palo Alto on the first Tuesday of every month.  The night consists of four companies demoing their products in just five minutes, then an hour of networking.  Beer, wine, and pizza is provided.  Join the meetup to see demos of hot new Web 2.0 technologies and mingle with fellow entrepreneurs and investors.

Business Marketing Association of Northern California (BMA)

I have found that this organization is mainly made up of marketing communications professionals.

This is the marketing special interest group of SDForum, which is an organization providing information and insight to the technology community.  SDForum provides a venue for engineers, executives, researchers, technology leaders, and venture capitalists to exchange information on emerging technologies and best practices.

Marketing Executives Group on LinkedIn

This is a worldwide group for Marketing Executives who want to collaborate and network to share cases, experience and connect.

CSIX Connect

This organization helps individuals in career transition through networking.  This group meets every Tuesday for lunch in Cupertino and frequently includes a guest speaker presenting on job search related topics or announcing openings at a specific company.

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Salary Resources

Below are sites that can give you a good idea of salary ranges for product management and marketing in the Silicon Valley for free.

Annual Product Management and Marketing Survey by Pragmatic Marketing

Each year Pragmatic Marketing conducts a survey of product managers and marketing professionals.

I like PayScale because it takes into account years of experience, industry, and location.

Salary.com

Salary.com salary results include geography, function, and experience level.  The limitation I found with the free reports is the title of the position.  The closest approximation that I got was for a Web Product Manager III.

Simply Hired

Simply Hired has a salary calculator based on the jobs that are posted.

Indeed

Indeed searches salaries of jobs that are posted.

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Product Management News and Information

Below are sites for good sources of product management / marketing information.

Pragmatic Marketing

Pragmatic Marketing site provides journals, e-books, books, articles, webinars, and blogs.

Alltop

Alltop displays the headlines of the latest stories from dozens of sites and blogs and specifically tracks product management topics.

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