One of the bigger problems in XPM when the product manager must act as the surrogate for a diverse customer base is dedication to the development effort. The product manager is often performing the dual role of representing the customer to the developers while actively staying in touch with the market in order to provide adequate representation for product requirements.

What is important is that the product manager not forget that the reason he or she is actively and aggressively interfacing with the customers is in order to be the voice of the customer. The product manager must take the time to provide real time feedback to the development team. Anything less is a dereliction of duty and a major impact on either quality or timeliness of implementation, or both.

Management must recognize this dilemma and provide adequate berth to the product manager to allow proper interaction to occur. Product managers must develop the proper tools for there specific situations to keep the dialogs going (Webex, VPN, teleconferencing, video conferencing, etc.) with sufficient bandwidth.  A communications plan should be set up at the start of the program to insure adequate dialog and it should be reviewed and adjusted often.