Kevin Schofield over at Microsoft rants on marketing, how hard it is, and how most techies dis marketing types [case in point].
Marketing is a difficult discipline, that requires both theoretical and practical knowledge. Just as marketing people should respect technical people, technical people should respect marketing people. I think in the long run one of the most important business lessons that people will take away from studying Microsoft is that when you put sharp technical people and sharp marketing people together and things click, you can create a very, very profitable business.
Luke Hohmann has a book title Beyond Software Architecture in the AW Martin Fowler Signature series of books that addresses some of the topics around Product and Marketing Management.
Luke's book provides an excellent introduction to product marketing and management, especially for software architects. He drills down into the method of what may sometimes seem to be marketing madness. Luke is a fairly engaging writer, and I enjoyed the work. I have a couple of nits I would pick: the chapter on logging seems like it is not congruent with the rest of the book, and I was yearning for more insight and depth in the effect of brand on software design than making brand names configurable, but of course that leaves room for book 2 (or 3, really). Well worth the read, even if he ought to lose the beard pic on his site.
Via the scobleizer.
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