Posts Tagged “communicate”
A couple of months ago, I read a great book on displaying data (perhaps THE book) by Edward Tufte called “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition.” Like many other books I read, this one was recommended to me by a colleague.
Tufte’s book is, in a word, beautiful. He presents wonderful and profane examples of graphical information from hundreds of years ago, as well as recent examples, to illustrate his points about information density, graphical integrity (charts that lie), the relationship between ink and space, and informational noise (what he calls, “Chartjunk”). Tufte is nothing, if not thorough. I found myself turning the pages just to see the next example and read about how wonderful it was or the litany of flaws it contained.
What’s great about Tufte’s work is that his focus is on the receiver of the information. How much information can be absorbed? What’s the best way to display multi-factor data? What presentation shows the relationships between the elements accurately.
One of the most famous graphs in the book (and by Tufte’s own admission, “It may well be the best statiscal graphic ever drawn.”) is the one by Charles Joseph Minard, whose masterful depiction shows Napoleon’s campaign in Russia in 1812-1813. The chart displays numerous factors: size of the army, direction of travel, route, elevation, and time, all in a single graph. Tufte refers to the image repeatedly in the book.
I was so impressed by the book, that I read another by Tufte, Beautiful Evidence, which aims to characterize visual information as art. Indeed, many of the examples Tufte cites are beautiful and relay the information in a much more elegant fashion than the typical bar, line or grid. Tufte even dedicates a chapter to everyone’s favorite whipping boy application, Powerpoint, pointing out the many foibles of using stock layouts, graphics, and charts.
However, I found much of the material in the latter book to be a rehash of his original work. Not a direct copy, but certainly a work with significant overlap, with Minard’s chart getting an entire chapter all to itself, albeit using an updated and translated version.
After being a bit of a fanboy, I got an email from a friend of mine who had seen Tufte at a seminar. My friend summed it up this way:
“My 2 cents (and with inflation, that’s worth about 1/3 of that, before taxes) – He’s kind of a blowhard. He has some good points, but at least at the seminar I saw him at (about 5 years ago) he spent most of the time railing on Powerpoint – but he didn’t provide real solutions, just talked about how wonderful he was.
There was also a definite cult of personality going on, with a cadre of sycophants in the front 10 rows cheering when he sneezed.
I understand that Powerpoint sucks – but it’s the tool most of us have. I would have liked to have him provide solutions that fit within the toolset that most corporations are going to buy and provide the peon.
Don’t get me wrong – I think he’s right on the money in terms of the information density that you can achieve – but the fact is that most of us don’t have the time or the resources to make those fantastic images – so what the hell do we do? Give me a path forward, don’t just tell me what’s broken.”
A fair assessment, perhaps not of the man, but definitely of the material.
So, what’s the point? For Product Managers, espcially those in software, presentation plays a big part in your success and the success or failure of your product. Search your hard drive for Powerpoint files and see how many times you have to communicate complex ideas using the limited forum provided by Powerpoint. Try using a pad and paper to map out your presentation, instead of writing it directly in Powerpoint. You won’t rely on the tools it provides and instead, will think harder about how to best communicate the data.
Also, look with a critical eye at how your product presents information to the user. Identify ways that you can increase the information density without overwhelming or confusing the users or the audience. Does your product try to do too much? Try out some different options to see which one(s) work best. Solicit feedback from users and prospects.
And most of all, make sure that the data presented is accurate, both metrically and relationally. Once you lose the trust of your customers about the information you provide to them in the application, it’s very difficult to regain it.
Popularity: 12% [?]
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Tags: art, charles joseph minard, communicate, edward tufte, graphs, information density, integrity, product manager, software, visual information
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Today’s Product Management Question Corner brings us some insights from Mary K. Marsden (she prefers just Mary K), New Business Leader for Retail and CPG accounts at Acxiom, a developer of large-scale enterprise business intelligence and marketing databases. While Acxiom is not a start up in any sense of the word, Mary K has participated in her fair share of entrepreneurial efforts. Read more below about how she leveraged her Product Management experience in CEO and leadership roles.
Q: How did you become involved in Product Management and was it planned?
A: No, this aspect of my career was not planned. When I was working in Marketing Communications at Novell back in 1988, we were growing so fast and having challenges recruiting people our executive team expanded marketing’s responsibility and that is when I got my first leadership role in Product Marketing.
We were divided into 2 discipline areas Product Marketing and Product Engineering. Product marketing was responsible for the market requirements, pricing, release schedules, communicating with Sales, Marcom, PR, product launches, new release priorities, bug fix priorities… We were also responsible for the business case and presenting any new products to the innovation center. Product Engineering defined the most efficient way to develop the product we had designed.
Q: What are the biggest challenges that Product Managers face?
A: I believe the biggest challenge Product Managers face is knowing how to prioritize product functionality. What do customers really need and will pay for. It is easy to fall in love and start creating products and services but will the market value the product and will they pay for it. The balance of development to revenue is a perpetual challenge.
Q: What is your greatest Product Management achievement?
A: My greatest achievement again was at Novell releasing an SDK (software developers kit) in conjunction with Microsoft’s operating system release. Microsoft did not make it easy for partners/competitors to write software to their platform. Getting a product out the door on schedule, that worked was a Herculean accomplishment for our team.
Q: What was your worst Product Management mistake and how did you recover?
A: We developed a computer telephony application that was a “great idea” only we could never get the telco companies to adopt our products. We did not recover and the company failed. We did not understand the market, and we created the product mostly in a vacuum with some input from consumers. We learned a hard lesson on that one; we had raised $1M in venture funding based on our business plan and a rough prototype, getting the money was the easier part getting into the market proved impossible for us.
Q: What Product Management tool(s) would you consider most effective and why?
A: Listening. Listening to the market, your customers or potential customers, your competitors… I know you wanted me to suggest a tool, the tool does not matter if the product team is not listening.
Q: Where is the best place for the Product Management function in an organization and why?
A: I believe the best place is aligned with marketing. Understanding the market, the gaps and the clear needs of the customer are critical to Product Management success. Also the release cycles are so rapid now and most of the debugging is done in partnership with the customer – putting Product Management customer facing is the best for the organization and the customers.
Q: How has your experience as a Product Manager influenced you as a CEO or founder?
A: Having a product management background made me a better CEO it let me focus the company’s resources effectively. We spent our time and money on product features that made a competitive difference. It also taught me how to communicate with my development team and how to architect the solution I wanted without telling them what to do. That gave the team the space to be creative within the needs of the business. My background in Product Management also made me a better judge of time lines. We got the first version of our platform to market on time, that keeps the investors happy and that is important in the very early stages of the business.
Q: If someone told you that they wanted to transition from a Product Manager role to CEO (or founder), what would you tell them?
A: Spend a year or two in Marketing, Marcom, and/or Sales–all the customer-facing functions. You will learn to “hear the customer needs” and be able to translate that into products, and services. You will learn to prioritize and manage the resources of your company much more effectively. Also you will see the gaps in the market and come up with better ideas. Don’t create a product in a vacuum; 9 out of 10 companies fail because they create products no one cares about or ever hears about.
—————-
Mary K’s question for The Productologist:
Q: What is the biggest challenge product managers face in today’s development environment? What company has the best product managers – why, what do they do that others don’t?
A: There are many Product Management challenges, but the biggest one is the lack of consistency in Product Manager roles across (and sometimes even within) companies. There are so many differences in job descriptions, functional responsibilities, placement in the organization, and goals, that it is difficult to make the transition between one Product Management job and another.
Take positions like Account Manager, Marcom Director, or Development Manager. They each have relatively defined roles, responsibilities, and success characteristics. It’s not guaranteed that a Marcom Manager at one company will be a success at another, but the variance in the necessary skills and experience to be a good fit across several companies is minimal.
On the flip side, 20 Product Management job postings could have 20 unique skill sets and experience requirements, as well as be situated in many different areas of the organization. Is the team Agile-based or do they do more traditional waterfall? If it’s Agile, what flavor? These little differences matter a lot. At start ups versus mature companies, Product Management might not even look like the same job!
While diversity is usually a good thing within an organization, it can hinder the development of Product Management professionals by making job requirements so specific that very few candidates are actually a good fit, at least on paper. With that in mind, it’s difficult to say which companies, if any, turn out the best Product Managers. Big companies typically have a lot of process in place, so their Product Managers get a healthy dose of that, for better or worse, but they are also highly specialized, so they lack the broad general skills required in smaller teams. Product Managers at small companies get a lot of experience working directly with many functional areas within an organization, but they don’t get to do many of the purely Product Management tasks because they are spread so thin.
That’s why hiring Product Managers can be such a difficult and drawn out process. It’s a lot like trying to find a good dance partner…it’s not one-size-fits-all.
A little more about Mary K:
Mary K is a proven entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in global marketing and management with some of the software industry’s best companies. Over the last decade, Mary K has built two successful consulting companies that focused on strategic management marketing and the “smart application and commercialization of technology”. Her clients included leaders in the industry, such as Microsoft, Novell, HP, and Fujitsu. Prior to that Mary K had a very successful management tenure with Novell, Inc. during the rapid growth stage. She has also led the successful commercialization of dozens of software products and rolled-out over 20+ companies in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan.
Popularity: 54% [?]
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Tags: Acxiom, agile, API, balance, business intelligence, business leader, ceo, challenges, communicate, competitive, Customers, Engineering, focus, Innovation, leadership, leadership role, leadership roles, Listening, Marcom, Marketing, marketing databases, Mary K. Marsden, new product, Novell, platform, prioritize, product management, product marketing, prototype, release cycles, release schedule, release schedules, SIG, software developers kit, start ups, UI
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In this episode of the Product Management Question Corner, I am interviewing Gene McKenna, VP of Product at UpTake, a travel search and discovery site. The next few PMQC posts will focus on Product Managers who have an entrepreneurial streak. They’re founders, CEOs, and exec team members at start ups and you’ll find that they have some interesting things to say about how they approach Product Management and how they moved from PM to bigger things.
Q: How did you become involved in Product Management and was it planned?
A: I’ve had an organic growth from developer to architect, to a professional services role and then formally into Product Management. Product Management is a broad term and varies a lot from place to place. I am more on the product development side than the product marketing side. My path was not all planned from long ago, but each step change seemed like the right decision.
Q: What are the biggest challenges that Product Managers face?
A: I’m reminded of that credit card commercial with David Spade where he keeps saying “no”. If you are a Product Manager, you better be good at that. Lots of people have great ideas, but a great product needs focus and priorities. The challenging part is to keep people from getting discouraged when they hear “no”, so I try to say “yes, in the future” which is really the right answer.
A second challenge can be getting everyone in the business on board with the same process. We embrace agile development and that sometimes poses a challenge for folks who still cling to those heavily detailed project plans and that big waterfall document.
Q: What is your greatest Product Management achievement?
A: I like to think my greatest work is yet to come, but my greatest work to date is UpTake’s industry-first, semantic travel search engine. We spent about two years building a search engine and a back end data collection and organization system whose output is the web’s largest online catalog of travel products. Already, it helps travelers make better decisions by providing them with a summary of the collective intelligence about travel products we recommend. Realizing our full vision and making it a truly great product will be the focus of the next two years.
Q: What was your worst Product Management mistake and how did you recover?
A: Failure to set expectations properly. As a Product Manager, you are always talking about what is coming, what features we will have and how great they will be. There are two ways to mess this up and I’ve done both. First, I’ve underestimated how long things will take and second, I’ve miscommunicated that a concept that might come some day is a feature coming soon. Recovery is a long process of getting it right the next ten times.
Q: What Product Management tool(s) would you consider most effective and why?
A: When people ask me what I do, I answer “I translate and I meet.” I translate from marketing-speak to engineering and back. I translate business requirements to visual and technical designs, and back. And I meet, and I meet, and I meet. For my job there are only four tools I ever really need. Outlook, Excel, google docs and a wiki. I can mock up nearly anything in Excel, with occasional bits of Photoshop pasted in. A wiki that describes what are we doing, why and when is it done, is critical. There are lots of agile development “scrum board” tools, but we’ve found using a simple Google Docs spreadsheet as the focus of our daily stand-up and means of tracking progress works great. And of course, Outlook is important because I need to have a good calendar to schedule lots of face time with pretty much everyone in the company to talk about what we are doing, when, why, what it should look like, which trade-offs can be made, etc.
Q: Where is the best place for the Product Management function in an organization and why?
A: In a corner office with an awesome view.
Organizationally, the answer will depend on the kind of company. Is it a product company or a service company with a product or set of tools? Are there many products or one? Is it a big company or small? Are there separate product marketing and product development functions or are they the same? Generally if there is a business group whose P&L is driven by a product, the Product Manager should either be the general manager of that business unit or should report to him. At a small company, that usually means reporting directly to the CEO.
Q: How has your experience as a Product Manager influenced you as a CEO or founder?
A: I think both my Product Manager role and my co-founder role have influenced each other. The business side says you don’t need the best UI, the biggest set of features or the latest technological doo-dad, what really matters is if you are achieving the business goals. The perspective that being a Product Manager brings to business is a simple, well-honed message and a focus on getting the core parts of what you are doing right.
Q: If someone told you that they wanted to transition from a Product Manager role to CEO (or founder), what would you tell them?
A: Being a Product Manager and a founder/co-founder is a great idea. Go for it. It is one of the best ways to act on the creative drive inside you. Moving from a Product Manager to a CEO means you will need to focus your creative energies on lots of things besides making the best product
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Gene’s question for The Productologist:
Q: The Productologist does a great job of covering a broad array of topics of interest to Product Managers, in all their flavors. What do you see as the core mission of The Productologist? How will you know when you’ve succeeded?
A: Hmmm…while I don’t typically think of my blog as a product, it is. It has features (and bugs) and I have to serve my customers with quality or they will jump to the next Product Management blog and never look back.
When I started The Productologist back in early 2007, my goals were pretty simple: write about my experiences as a Product Manager and contribute to the dialogue about Product Manager professional development. At the time, I thought I had done a fair bit of planning. I did some research on domain names, found a decent publishing platform and a relatively unique template. I even took the time to map out a publishing calendar and wrote about a 6 posts before actually going live.
What I didn’t have was a mission statement or a roadmap for where I wanted to go. I just figured I would “play-it-by-the-ear” (thank you for that Kenyan colloquialism, Lucy Farrell) and see what happens. I thought (and still think) that is fine for The Productologist. The core mission has evolved from being just being focused on my experiences, to getting other Product Management professionals to share theirs, through comments and interviews like the Product Management Question Corner. It may change again in the future, but my plan is to let it evolve organically.
I don’t rely on it for any income (it’s more of a cost center) and it’s not my only focal point, but I do spend a good deal of time thinking about it. I think about how I can extend my reach to new readers or whether my writing is getting any better or whether my early posts stand up to the test of time. I keep thinking about what new features to add or how to make the information more accessible and useful to my readers (and potential readers). It’s subjective, but that’s how I measure its success. And so far, it’s pretty successful, at least in my mind.
If I ever find that I don’t enjoy the writing or managing the blog anymore, or that I don’t get that little tingly feeling when I push the “publish” button, that will be the signal that I’m done.
A little more about Gene:
Gene has 15 years of experience in software design and product development in direct marketing and travel. Previously Gene ran product at Acxiom Digital (formerly Digital Impact) and was responsible for the platform that sent over 5 billion personalized emails daily; during his tenure the company reached profitability for the first time. Before that he co-founded Bluedot Software, a travel company sold to Peter Ueberroth’s Ambassador’s International. Gene is a MIT-trained engineer and has a Masters from Stanford.
Popularity: 54% [?]
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Tags: agile, agile development, bugs, ceo, communicate, Customers, david spade, Engineering, Gene McKenna, goals, Marketing, organization system, plan, priorities, process, product management, product manager, product marketing, requirement, Requirements, roadmap, scrum, software design, start ups, trade-off
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 I had another visit with one of my customers the other day (I know, I’ve been writing a lot of posts about customer visits, but they are important and I learn a lot from them). I call them MY customer, because they are using a product that I am responsible for. It’s important to view yourself as one of the “owners” of the customer because as the Product Manager, you are responsible for their satisfaction, currently and in the future. If you are not getting out into the field to talk to your customers, both satisfied and frustrated ones, then you are missing out on valuable feedback on how to improve your product.
This particular visit was coordinated by our Account Executive at the request the VP of Engineering. He (the VP) wanted to talk to technology-savvy customers and invited me along, as I have been pestering just about everyone to go with them on customer and prospect calls.
The purpose of the discussion was two-fold:
- A knowledge exchange about each of our product roadmaps and how the customer plans to use our product
- The opportunity to hear first hand about some of the challenges (and successes) that the customer has had with the product
Part 1 was pretty straightforward. They presented the overview of their operations and how they planned to integrate our product. I then gave them a view of our product roadmap.
I call it a view, because when I present the product roadmap to customers and prospects (under NDA, of course), I don’t show them the raw version that I use to prioritize and work with Engineering on. Not because I have something to hide from them, but because for folks who are not intimately involved in the roadmap process, there is a lot of noise in the document that would likely cause confusion and/or would not be useful. There is also some customer information in it that I use for tracking purposes that I don’t feel comfortable sharing with other customers, even under NDA.
The view that I let them see is one that highlights features and capabilities with a long view. The goal is not to show them what is in any particular release, although I do share what is going in to the current and next major releases, but rather the long view.
The long view is a window into where the product is going. For an enterprise infrastructure product like mine, that means identifying how customers are going to be using the product over the next 4 years because unlike software or Web services, they are not likely to abandon the purchase without a truly significant reason.
Our customers don’t say, “We like your product, but a competitor of yours has a new feature/lower price/new UI, so we are switching.” Instead, they say things like, “We paid $X for your product and we expect it to be able to do Y” or “We like the core feature set of the product, but we plan on doing X in the future and we want the product to enable/support that.”
To answer inquiries like that, I have to be able to show them where my product is going in the future. I use the roadmap as a tool for communicating that with them. As part of that discussion, I can solicit the prospect or customer on what they view as important, which helps me understand their real-world needs.
Part 2 of the discussion involved listening to their problems with my product. As easy as it sounds, this is a challenge for many Product Managers. Product Managers are sensitive to criticism of their product (I’m as guilty of this as the next PM). We instantly try to frame any problems as “workable,” by which I mean that we try to identify ways that the user could achieve their goal within the current product framework. This sometimes helps in the short-term, but it precludes you and the customer from thinking about the real solution.
Instead of trying to whitewash the situation, a technique that I use is one that I learned back in grad school when I was studying Counseling Psychology–Active Listening. This suite of listening skills allows you to be more engaged in hearing what the other person is saying rather than debating points back and forth. It is very validating for customers when you, as the Product Manager, just acknowledge the issue that they are having and listen to what they have to say about it.
Lack of defensiveness on the part of the Product Manager creates an environment where the customer is more likely to provide you with valuable input, because they don’t have to waste time and effort in arguing their point.
I won’t kid you, it’s a LOT HARDER than it sounds and the first few times you try it, it’s not only painful, hearing all of that “feedback,” but it takes a lot of effort not to respond. But, I promise that if you keep at it, you will get so much great information that you can use to improve your product that you’ll wonder how you ever collected any useful user feedback without it.
Popularity: 59% [?]
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Tags: challenges, communicate, customer, Documentation, feature, feedback, knowledge exchange, Prospects, roadmap, satisfaction
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 Image via WikipediaThis is my first off-topic post (NOTE: there’s still some Product Management stuff at the end…I just couldn’t help myself), but I just had to rave about this: SoBotanical Shave Gel. I was reluctant to try it at first, but I decided that I was being ridiculously stubborn about not trying it so I ordered it. Plus it was recommended by a friend who said, “It’s the bomb! You won’t be disappointed, man.” And he was right, although he may be slightly biased, since SoBotanical is run by his wife.
First, a little history about me and shaving (if you have read this far and feel that the remainder of this post might be too much information for your comfort level, fee free to go here or here instead)–
- I’m a guy
- I’ve been shaving my facial hair since I was about 14
- I’ve never considered myself (or been considered by others) as a metrosexual
- I prefer to shave without any sort of shaving cream (just a razor and some water; a trick I learned back in high school when I had to shave after soccer practice in the school locker room before 2nd period)
Now, given items 2 through 4 on the list above, why would I consider using a shave gel at this point in my life? No reason at all. It was a whim that was only slightly influenced by the aforementioned friend’s recommendation.
But he was spot on about this stuff being the bomb! It’s been a VERY long time since any part of my body was “baby-bottom” smooth, but that’s what my face felt like the first time I used this stuff. As an added bonus, it goes on clear, so if you have a goatee or sideburns, you can see where you are shaving. Plus it smells nice and is made of all natural ingredients. I have already recommended it to the BW to try (not for her face, though), but I may regret that if she likes it as much as I do.
Even though I said this was off-topic, I am still going to add few Product Management comments–
When I ordered the Shave Gel on the SoBotanical website, I was charged tax, which because I am not a resident of the state where SoBotanical operates, I shouldn’t have (I am aware of the laws around sales tax and out-of-state purchases, but the general rule is that retailers do not charge tax for product shipped to states where they do not have a physical presence). I didn’t even notice this, but when I received my order, there was a hand-written note saying that I shouldn’t have been charged the sales tax ($0.87 on my order) and a crisp $1 bill included as a refund. There was also a free lip balm included as a good will gesture.
Another issue was that the Shave Gel had recently been re-formulated and they didn’t yet have the new label with the ingredients. There was also a note about this in the order with an apology so that I would know that something was missing.
Both of these actions speak to the importance of proactively communicating with customers when for whatever reason, they receive a product, service or have an interaction with your organization that is less than what is expected (by them or you).
SoBotanical could have easily done nothing. I would not have even noticed that there was no ingredients label and would have scoffed at asking for a refund of 87 cents if I had noticed that. But by addressing them before I even asked or noticed, SoBotanical reinforced their commitment to serving their customers above their own benefit and in return, they will get repeat business from me and good will about their products and service.
Isn’t that how you want your customers to feel about YOUR products?
Popularity: 100% [?]
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Tags: communicate, Customers, natural ingredients, Off-Topic
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I have read (examples here and here) and heard in numerous places that a Product Manager is like the CEO of the product. I’ve even used it to describe what I do to folks who are unfamiliar with the job. It makes for a nice visual and makes Product Managers feel good about themselves and the role that they play in a company. But it’s not really true.
Tags: activity, ceo, challenges, communicate, community, coo, customer, feature, issues, perspective, priorities, process, product, productivity, strategy, tactical, UI
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In my experience, a Product Manager’s workload is cyclical, primarily revolving around product releases, but there are other factors, too. For example, I recently had maintenance releases for two products, a Beta program for our next-generation release and managing a special project all going on a the same time. For some of you, that may be a lot happening at once; for others, it may seem like a lull, but for me it’s more toward the former than the latter.
Everyone handles stress differently. Some folks feed on that kind of energy and get into a manic state of super-productivity (or super-distractability). Some shut down entirely and have to go sit in the corner and gently rock themselves back-and-forth until they find relief. In some instances, people negatively channel their stress at others (co-workers, family, strangers in a bar) in an attempt to relieve the pressure.
For those of you who know me personally, you know that I am not someone who shows stress externally. When my hair is on fire and there is no water to be found, my demeanor is pretty much the same as when I am sitting on the beach (with the exception that I tend to talk faster when I am under a lot of stress). That’s not to say that I am not FEELING the stress, which I certainly am, but I just don’t process my stress in the moment. BW would argue that’s a problem unto itself, but I won’t open that debate here.
So, how do I channel my stress, you may ask. Well, I used to just bottle it all up and wait for it to dissipate, which seemed to work at the time, but I realized that it wasn’t really dissipating. I was just ignoring it, which caused other problems like disconnecting from friends, family and co-workers and job/life dissatisfaction. So with much support from my family, especially BW, I figured out what I needed to do.
Part of the solution was to share my stress. Not give my stress to someone else, but rather to talk about my stress and what was causing it. I started by talking to a complete stranger. That stranger was (and is) a wonderful therapist, who helped me to first identify and name the stress and stressors and then helped me figure out how to communicate about it in a productive way. Over the two years that I worked with her, this therapist helped me examine what worked and what didn’t and gave me the tools to manage the stress on my own.
Note: Whether you think you need it or not, I recommend spending some time working with a therapist. It is an eye-opening experience and you may find immense benefit in the process.
That led to the next phase, which was finding a way to channel the energy that developed from my stress. What I figured out was that I needed a physical release. I was always an active youth and even in college I maintained an active life by playing intramural sports and skateboarding around campus, but as a “responsible adult” and especially after my family began to grow, my activity level pretty much plummeted.
So I started running at work during my lunch hour. At first, it was primarily motivated by my lack of general fitness, but I soon found that the process was cathartic, too. It gave me time to think, time to listen to my music (which in my family, is not appreciated by others), and time to take all of the stress energy and funnel it somewhere productive.
When I got a new job last year, one of the things I did as part of my due diligence prior to accepting the offer was to scope out places to run and to find out whether the building had shower facilities. It passed on both accounts. At first, I was a bit nervous about what my new co-workers would think about me running out the door at noon most days and coming back freshly showered, but after a few weeks, it just became part of my daily routine. About 3 months after starting the new job, I found an even better alternative to my lunch time run—lunch time soccer.
As a kid, I hated running. I tried to get into many times, but I always found it boring and I wasn’t motivated to stick with it. And growing up in Texas, it was always HOT, which made it difficult to even think about running outside! But I LOVE soccer. I have played soccer in some form almost all of my life, since age 6. In fact, the one summer that I gave up playing after our first child was born was one of the hardest times of my life. I know it sounds ridiculous, but think about your favorite activity, one that you have done since childhood and think about how you would feel if you had to give it up.
Back to lunch time soccer…it was only by chance that I happened to spy two people from another office dressed in soccer gear headed out to the parking lot. I ran outside to ask where they played and if they welcomed other players. As it turned out they told me about their weekly game and some others. Slowly, I went from running 3-4 times per week and playing soccer once a week, to running 1-2 times per week and playing soccer 4-5 times per week. And to be honest, I’ve never felt better. Even when work gets hairy with multiple projects and competing priorities and deadlines, I try to find time to get out on the soccer field and clear my head. I can then come back and tackle the challenges of the day with renewed energy and focus.
I have been lucky enough that my manager gives me the freedom and autonomy to do this, but it’s because my work doesn’t suffer. And my work doesn’t suffer because I make the time to find the balance I need in order to keep my stress in check. Is your stress in check? It could be if you figure out how to balance.
Popularity: 51% [?]
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Tags: activity, balance, beta, beta program, communicate, daily routine, fitness, focus, product release, productivity, project, release, running, soccer, stress, stressors, therapist, work-life balance
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In a post I wrote back in March [Hiring for Success], I discussed the importance of finding and hiring great Product Managers. But in the same way that great workers can be a boon to your organization, poor performers can drag you down. Not only do they create more work for others on the team, but they can poison the atmosphere and cause other members to become frustrated or leave.
“When they (managers) finally decide to get rid of the under-performing slob who plays PC solitaire all day in her cubicle, it can be surprisingly tough to do. And that, in turn, affects productive workers. Few things demotivate an organization faster than tolerating and retaining low performers,” says Grant Freeland, a regional leader in Boston Consulting Group’s organization practice.
The quote above comes from the cover article in this week’s BusinessWeek, “Fear of Firing” which talks about how difficult it can be to fire under-performing staff due to the risk of costly litigation. The author describes several cases where companies were sued and lost because they terminated an employee who felt that they had been discriminated against, even though the employer had documentation verifying that the employee’s performance had been weak or that they were demoralizing to other employees.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I wholly support anti-discrimination laws in the workplace and elsewhere. There has been a long history of discrimination (workplace and otherwise) in the U.S. I am a strong believer in the value of diversity in the workplace, which includes hiring staff with different perspectives, backgrounds, training and experience.
The more diversity on your team, the more likely you are to come up with creative solutions to challenging problems. The problem is that for all of their promise for equality, anti-discrimination laws can be abused and it is difficult and costly to defend against discrimination claims in court.
Unfortunately, what this means is that in order to protect themselves against such claims, companies are becoming fearful of terminating any poor-performing employee who is not a white male under 40, and even employees in that group can be considered victims of reverse discrimination.
So, what does a Product Manager (or any manager with subordinates) need to do in order to remove poor-performing and/or destructive staff while still protecting themselves and their company from litigation. Here are some key things to do and consider if you are looking to unhire someone.
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Talk to the person
It’s not fair to terminate an employee if you never gave them a chance to rectify the problem first. Whether you are a peer or a manager, don’t be afraid to discuss a performance issue with the individual first. It can be uncomfortable, but flip the coin over and envision how you would react to the same information if it were being presented to you. Wouldn’t you want to know and have the opportunity to correct the situation?
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Documentation
As soon as you start noticing a problem (or problems), start to keep track. A detailed accounting of consistent will help back up your concerns when you move to step 3 and will allow you to provide specific examples to the individual when you (or their manager) talks to them about the issue.
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Get HR involved
Many managers don’t think of HR as an ally, but in this and many other situations, your HR team can make the process less painful for everyone. They are considerably more experienced with personnel issues than most managers and can help keep the process in line with corporate policies and local/state/federal laws. They can also provide support to you as the manager or peer on how to effectively address the issue/individual. HR is also an important part of item 2.
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Be quick
Don’t let performance or personnel issues fester. They can have long-lasting effects on the team even after the issue has been resolved. For example, if it takes a long time to address a problem, the team may lose confidence in you (or the person responsible for resolution). Team members may be so frustrated that they start to look for another job.
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Be concise
When you finally get to the place where you have to fire someone, be brief. Explain the situation and how the process will work. The decision is made; don’t get tied up in a discussion about what the individual can do to fix the problem. Be prepared for the individual to be emotional, but don’t let yourself get caught up in it. Here’s a checklist to help you make sure that you take care of what is necessary.
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Don’t make it personal
There is NOTHING personal about firing someone. Performance, disruptive behavior, headcount reduction due to business conditions–these are legitimate reasons for letting someone go. If you find that your reasons do not fit into those categories, then you should re-evaluate whether you a being truthful about your criteria for terminating the employee.
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Communicate with the team
Once the change is made, make sure you communicate with your team about it. Staff changes are disruptive enough without the ambiguity of not knowing what is going on. A short staff meeting (or an email if your team is remote) to tell everyone what happened and what is going to happen in the future (new responsibilities, change in business goals, a new hire, etc.) will go a long way in helping the team recover and become productive again.
Beyond just the welfare of you and your team, you also need to consider the needs of the terminated employee. Karma works in strange ways and that employee that you sack today, could be a hiring manager in the future. Give every staff member the respect and dignity that you would want to be afforded. Jack and Suzy Welch wrote an article in an earlier edition of BusinessWeek that highlights how to fire someone with dignity and integrity. It’s a good perspective on the inverse of hiring great people.
Whether you are building a new team, augmenting an existing one or filling in some gaps, you want to make sure that you have top notch people. Sometimes that means unloading someone you have hired (or someone you inherited) so that the rest of the team doesn’t suffer. Just make sure you do it the way that you would want it done to you.
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Tags: communicate, creative solutions, dialogue, dignity, diversity, Documentation, firing, Hiring, HR, human resources, integrity, productivity, underperforming, workplace discriminiation
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On a recent trip to a trade show, I witnessed an interaction (several, actually) that underscored the importance of clear communication. For Product Managers, this actually has applications on a few levels. Here’s what happened–
My return flight connected through Washington D.C. and unfortunately, the 767 that was originally scheduled had mechanical problems (or at least that’s what we were told) and a 757 was now what we would be flying. What this meant was that there were instantly 40 less seats available for customers. It also meant that seat assignments changed, but more about that later.
This flight obviously had a lot of connecting passengers, because the gate agents repeatedly announced that international passengers and those making connections should approach the ticket counter. Additionally anyone with seat assignments of H or J needed to go to the ticket counter for seat re-assignment, since the new plane didn’t have those seats (767’s have a 2-3-2 seating configuration (at least on United), but 757’s are configured 3-3). For about an hour before boarding was scheduled to begin, there was a steady stream of harried customers approaching the gate agents.
Each time one of these harried travelers asked about the status of their seat (re-assignment or upgrade), the gate agents kept responding with the following statement (or some variation thereof): “We’ve had a plane change.” What they meant was that there was an equipment change, but what most travelers heard was that there was a plane change (read: You are traveling and you have to take more than one flight), which sounded obvious to them.
They then asked their question again, wondering what changing planes had to do with their seat assignment or upgrade. This seemed to aggravate the gate staff and you could tell by their tone that they were annoyed by having to answer the same question twice for each traveler.
As an external observer, I could see that there was a disconnect between what the gate agents were saying and what the travelers were hearing, but it wasn’t obvious to the gate agents. The problem was that the gate agents were using an industry-specific term to communicate with their customers, who were not familiar with the term. Thus, the repeated disconnect and rising tension between the two parties.
If you have read this far, you may be wondering how this is relevant for Product Managers (congrats if you already know). The key is that Product Management, especially in software and technology, is laden with the secret language of jargon, buzzwords, acronyms and other terms that are confusing to customers, prospects, sales, management and others who you need to clearly understand what you write and say.
Whether it’s verbal communication on a customer call, visiting a prospect, working the booth at a trade show or written communications such as market requirements documents, slide presentation or email about a new product or feature, simplicity is the way to go.
When composing written communications, it’s OK to write your draft using your own secret language, but before you distribute it, make sure to review it, paying close attention to ways that you can remove the secret language elements and simplify the message. When you do that, that’s when you will connect with your audience and they will hear your message. And that’s what you really want as a Product Manager.
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Tags: communicate, customer, executive team, jargon, Prospects, Sales, software, travel
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