I recently heard a Product Manager ranting about how poorly her company was getting products to market. Comments included the likes of "the sales people just don't understand the technology" and "the engineers have not spoken to our customer and do not understand the real needs of this market". This Product Manager is similar to others I have run across throughout my career, alone at the center of their universe. (Note: I have intentionally positioned this Product Manager as both a PM and PMM -- the story could apply in similar ways to both roles).
Product Managers have often been touted as the CEO of their Product. From their vantage point, they can see inward toward development, guiding new features through PRDs and MRDs, and possibly directing product road maps. They can see outward toward the markets, speaking with customers, analyzing market research, and sending the latest marketing content to the sales organization. Their position between development and sales is a privileged one giving them visibility across some of the most important operations of the company.
From the center of their universe, the less experienced Product Manager needs to learn to not only absorb information but to relay it in new ways. Their conversation needs to move from being self-centered to being a steward of information. When examining statements like "the sales people just don't understand the technology", we can often find that what is clearly understood in the Product Manager's head has not been communicated clearly enough to the sales audience. The sales people need to understand something about the technology, product, or service they are offering, but also need to understand why a customer would want to purchase it in the first place. What may seem like an obvious value proposition to the Product Manager, is probably not that obvious at all. Sales people want to understand who their best potential customer is, what problem they have, and how their product or service best solves that problem. Additionally, they want to know things important to the center of their universe like "how much will I earn by selling product A over product B, can I achieve my quota faster with product A, or is the new Product C going to establish a beach head for future sales or kill my chances to ever sell into this account again?". A similar exercise of examining key needs of other stakeholders across the Product Managers universe at the company could be done.
Overall, Product Managers can become more effective by using their privileged position at the center of activity to help other's be more effective in their own roles. As a Product Manager, think about how you can apply your knowledge, market awareness, and product expertise, to help improve the universe for your key stakeholders in Sales, Development, Field Marketing, Channel Marketing, etc. Taking less of a self-centered approach in favor of stewardship and being responsible for other's success.
If you enjoyed this article, please provide comments below to share with other readers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Derek,
Nice work. I agree with the metaphors (CEO, steward, etc.) However, one doesn't just get the title, they have to earn the title by gaining the requisite experience and earning empowerment.
I am inspired by an OpEd piece in the NY Times today (July 22, 2009) by Tom Friedman. In the piece, he describes how troops deployed over and over again in Afghanistan have really learned the lay of the land, the cultures of the people, and in short. The situation has produced a set of 'out of the box' thinkers who don't think that the shortest point between to spots is a straight line. How cool is that!?
Product managers earn their stripes by raw time in the trenches, doing the job, doing the politics, and getting results. With this, the title metaphors can be more aptly earned.
Steven Haines
Author: The Product Manager's Desk Reference
Product Management in the last half decade that I am associated with this field has gone some major and subtle changes. Of late I am finding it to be touted as an anchoring role... a constant readjustment of various interest groups associated with the product.
Keeping this observation and juxtaposing it with a matrix of established and new products and the product roadmap timeline is what makes the task of product management more complex and difficult. Most of this is in the behavioral aspect. For example, a new PM for an established product meeting a customer and propagating a point of view of the interaction gets an reaction from an old support hand like 'I have been with this customer for ages and he does not want what you are saying and really want this and in the past I have solved a major escalation by working on this line and doing this....’. In the face of hard facts like this the PM/PMM can not do much if at all he knows that this approach is short sighted or otherwise flawed and does not share the organizational strategic objectives. Of course what he can do is to strategize how to counter this.
But all said and done this is also what makes this the most interesting task in hand, switching roles and a chance to really contribute to both the top and bottom line of the company. Very few other jobs offer that.
FROM LINKEDIN: Nuno Vieira
Dear Derek,
Really interesting point of view of one of the PM´s main roles.
In my short experience, I really understand this issue, and have come to the conclusion that the responsability on the PM toward it´s products, begin even before the product exist, and it only ends once the product is out of the company range. This vision makes the PM one of the main actors of a products life time. It´s for the PM responsability also to transform the information, that comes from both ends of the supply chain, into the needed and correct knowledge for every actor on the process.
All this is really important stuff in a PM day to day work, but at the end, I really have to agree with José Mario, and that is a really problem on all this process.
Regards
Nuno Vieira
FROM LINKEDIN: Posted by José Mário Gugisch
the problem is PMs are encouraged to have this big responsibility but not entitled to it, on many people´s point of view....
FROM LINKEDIN: Posted by Mark Lipowicz
Good advice for PMs, when you are "CEO of the product" you have a big responsibility to everyone in your organization who earns a living from it, and they in turn have a big incentive to want you to be successful. You also need to be a strong advocate for the customers -- aren't they at the center of the universe? -- and able to balance that with serving your organization's goals. When you create a great product that serves customers, company and team that's a great PM success for all involved.
FROM LINKEDIN:
Posted by Chinmoy Misra
Product Management in the last half decade that I am associated with this field has gone some major and subtle changes. Of late I am finding it to be touted as an anchoring role... a constant readjustment of various interest groups associated with the product.
Keeping this observation and juxtaposing it with a matrix of established and new products and the product roadmap timeline is what makes the task of product management more complex and difficult. Most of this is in the behavioral aspect. For example, a new PM for an established product meeting a customer and propagating a point of view of the interaction gets an reaction from an old support hand like 'I have been with this customer for ages and he does not want what you are saying and really want this and in the past I have solved a major escalation by working on this line and doing this....’. In the face of hard facts like this the PM/PMM can not do much if at all he knows that this approach is short sighted or otherwise flawed and does not share the organizational strategic objectives. Of course what he can do is to strategize how to counter this.
But all said and done this is also what makes this the most interesting task in hand, switching roles and a chance to really contribute to both the top and bottom line of the company. Very few other jobs offer that.
Post a Comment