What impact does the economic downturn have on your enterprise, and on the products you manage? The answer to that, truthfully, is unknown.

The product manager, as representative of the market, may be the role best suited to finding out what the market’s changes mean to your products. Calling customers to find out what effect the market’s turmoil has on their budgets and their short and intermediate term plans is probably a wise idea for all businesses, and the answers can only help to reduce the uncertainty.

What you do with the information is, of course, up to you and depends on the product and market. But don’t go unarmed into a battle of information.