TEI 023: How Lead Users Guide Product Management for Golf Training Devices

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode
023 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad
McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved
in developing and managing products become more successful, grow
their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. Our Guest: Sam
Froggatte is a golf gadget guru! He is the CEO of EyeLine Golf, a
company that specializes in creating and selling training aids for
anyone to improve their golf play. Their training products are used
by weekend leisure golfers as well as hundreds of PGA players.
Sam’s route to becoming a product innovator in the golf industry
started in sales and marketing at IBM and then as an independent
sales rep for golf equipment. Highlights from the discussion
include... 3 principles Sam uses to create successful
products: Fundamentally sound – the product has to do the right
things, built on sound principles and not faulty
assumptions.Intuitive – products must be simple to use and require
little to no training to use.Un-embarrassing – products that
golfers will carry and tell their friends about. A real example of
how Sam created a product… The problem was trying to improve
putting alignmentHe created a rough prototype in his basementHe
field tested it by taking it to golf ranges and showing it to
others and getting feedbackHe revised the prototype until it was a
viable product, including being ready to manufacture