The Productologist

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.

One of my goals for this year is to establish Product Councils for my products. Product Councils, or Product Advisory Boards, as they are sometimes called, are made up of people who are familiar with your product and/or the market. In most cases, they are external, meaning that the members are customers or industry experts who can provide strategic guidance or provide feedback on tactical implementations, but they can also be made up of, wholly or in part, internal members.

I plan to have two; one made up of internal team members and one made up of customers. Both are necessary to help me grow the product to meet the needs of the market.

Bug scrub is a word that strikes fear and hatred into the hearts of many Product Managers (Developers, QA leads, Release Managers, and Project Managers, too). Not because of the purpose of bug scrub–dispositioning recently filed product defects–but because the process behind the purpose can end up being so heinous and painful.

For the uninitiated, the Cranky Product Manager provides a valuable, albeit hyperbolic glimpse inside the bug scrub process. She highlights the frequent discord and conflicting interests that makes bug scrub such an ordeal and one that all-to-frequently ends up being internally-focused rather than customer- or market-focused.

Whenever my BW gets asked what I do (and it’s suprisingly often), she usually just says, “Oh, he’s in Marketing…he does stuff with technology.” Now that may sound like BW is a little ditzy, but she’s not. In fact, she has an advanced degree and is one of the smartest people I know.

The problem is that my chosen career, Product Management, doesn’t register with most people who aren’t in high tech.