Whatever your business sells, product management is one of the most important functions in the organization's pursuit of profits. With everexpanding globalization and increasingly fierce competition, the stakes are higher than ever--and the room for error narrower than ever.

Introducing a brand-new Product Management Life Cycle (PMLC) model, The Product Manager's Desk Reference, Second Edition, provides the knowledge, tools, and insight you need to establish yourself as a cutting-edge product manager who contributes measurably to your company's success.

In this fully revised edition of the definitive product management guide, veteran product management thought leader and practitioner Steven Haines clearly illustrates the entire product life cycle, from beginning to end. The Product Manager's Desk Reference is packed with an array of best practices and helpful hints that are critical to the efficient management of products.

Written for practitioners by a practitioner, The Product Manager's Desk Reference explains how to:

• Choose and justify which products to build
• Plan for their profitable creation and deployment
• Develop and launch them
• Manage them once they enter the market
• Gracefully retire them and replace them with new products
• Efficiently allocate investments across all of the products in an organization

The Product Manager's Desk Reference embodies everything "product management." It is a comprehensive, versatile, must-have resource for anyone who works in any company, in any industry, who seeks to successfully and profitably market and manage products and services.

PRAISE FOR The Product Manager's Desk Reference:

"There are some books that are destined to become classics in their field. The Product Manager's Desk Reference by Steven Haines is one of those books. Anyone working not just in product management but also marketing and business development should take the time to read and absorb the comprehensive body of knowledge that Steven has organized around product management." -- AMANDA NOZ, Head of Positioning and Messaging, Alcatel-Lucent

"Steven has done an excellent job of bringing a standard definition of the roles and responsibilities of this 'accidental profession' to the industry, and has provided a path along with tools to improve your skills within the product management profession." -- BRIAN WEBER, Manager of Product Management, Thomson Reuters

"Steven Haines covers this multifaceted topic in a systematic manner that makes the book easy to navigate. His groundbreaking proposal that product management become a formal discipline is an accurate reflection of the acute need for these skills in the business community." -- DAN O'DAY, Senior Director, Product Management, Thomson Reuters

"From now on, this book will stand as an important reference point for all product management teams." -- MARK ELLIOTT, Vice President, Product Management, Smiths Detection

"The Product Manager's Desk Reference is a practicial guide to the activities fi rms need to engage in to build the discipline of product management. When actively utilized, the Desk Reference promotes consistency and standardization of methodology, which in turn leads to repeatable process, good decision making, and positive outcomes. This is an incredibly valuable resource." -- DEBORAH LORENZEN, Chief Operating Officer, BNY Mellon University