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Greetings!
In the Northern Hemisphere, April brings spring! Trees are budding with fresh green leaves, flowers are blooming, and birds are whistling happily.
 This month's issue of The Village celebrates spring...and the ritual of Spring Cleaning. Our featured article tidies up the differences between Product Managers and Project Managers with the latter as the subject of our monthly recommended reading.
And since you might be doing some Spring Cleaning of your own, our monthly featured innovation fun fact shows you how plastic bags are made.
In case you missed it, you'll want to read our popular article 2 Functions, 3 Ways to Implement Innovation.
And don't forget, at your request, we're offering a special discount on three reader favorites - a bundle of strategy thought leadership papers for only $15.95 - a discount of over 10% from the cover price. Buy Now
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Product vs. Project Management | | |
What's the Difference?
There seems to be a long-running debate on whether product managers are actually just project managers in disguise and vice versa. And like any good debate, you will find someone who argues vehemently for, or against, the point in question. You are just as likely to find a little fiction mixed in with the facts. In this paper, we'll help you sort it all out.
Yet, product managers need to focus on a long-term, ever changing business strategy, while project managers work on jobs with distinct starting and ending points. Product managers study market trends and segments, while a project manager measures completion targets for a single customer. Product managers utilize ideation techniques to widen the scope of possibilities, while project managers narrow a problem to find the one best solution. Finally, product managers engage diverse cross-functional teams, while project managers solicit expert opinions from design and engineering specialists.
Continue reading Product vs. Project Management - and/or listen to the podcast.
GNPS Premier Members can access this dynamic thought leadership paper in pdf format. All GNPS Premier members SAVE on NPDP Certification courses. |
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Recommended Reading | | |
Practical Project Management in a Nutshell
Our newest e-book provides an introduction to project management, including the five phases to manage a project.
 Objectives of projects should be thoroughly detailed by SMART goals: specific, measurable, agreed-upon, realistic, and time-specific. Additional tools, such as the RACI chart and task lists help the project manager define the project. Risk management and change management are both skills that go hand-in-hand with project management.
Finally, as the project is implemented, the project manager is responsible to monitor and execute the work successfully. After the project is handed over to the customer or client, the project manager should lead a project review, or lessons learned, meeting to document what went well, what went wrong, and what to improve to manage the next project.
Learn more about Project Management in a free 15-minute training video or buy the book now from Get to the Point Books. |
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Innovation Fun Fact | |
Plastic Bags
We take them for granted - plastic bags. We use them to take out spring cleaning trash, collect yard waste, and every time we go to the store. Some countries even use plastic bags for drinks (tea in Thailand!). So, how are they made? Most bags start with a short  chemical called "ethylene" which is joined together many times over, like railroad ties, to make polyethylene. Polyethylene is formed into resins, kind of like the "beans" in a child's toy or your old bean bag.
Click on the image of the plastic bag at the right for a short video to see how polyethylene resin is converted to a plastic shopping bag. (A 5-minute video.) |
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