The Productologist

Travel usually makes for a very productive Productologist (long waits in airport terminals and poor in-flight entertainment typically give me the time to crank out the great blog posts you all have become accustomed to). But lately, I have been worshiping at the altar of the Red-Eye trans-continental (or trans-Atlantic) flight, which has resulted in a decrease in blog productivity, but an increase in actual work productivity and familial relations. It’s not that I don’t like you, it’s just that I don’t LIKE-like you. Sorry. Here, take this pen. It’s a really nice pen.

1. Are Product Managers ready to focus on research?
   [Forrester Blog for Technology Product Management and Marketing]
2. Our product’s got no pants on
   [Carl Knibbs]
3. 8 lessons we can learn from Infomercials
   [On Product Management]
4. How to present like Steve Jobs
   [Product Matters]
5. Make Time to Read
   [Product Management Zen]
6. Product Management is more than prioritizing features
   [How to be a Good Product Manager]
7. Authority vs. Influence
   [Strategic Product Manager]
8. Market Problems or Just (Bad) Ideas You Want To Build?
   [Enthiosys]
9. Spam is not Marketing
   [Rocket Watcher]
10. How Can Product Managers Mange People?
    [Accidental Product Manager]

Disclaimer: Just because I include a link to a particular posting, that is not an indication that I agree with the original author. In fact, I may post topics that are the opposite of my views or at least somewhat controversial in order to provide a contrasting viewpoint to the one I present on The Productologist.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Related posts

• About (0)
• Resources (1)
• Welcome to The Productologist (2)
• Why the UI is Important (4)
• Using Human Factors in Design (2)

Tags: airport terminals, infomercials, management and marketing, Marketing, Prioritizing, product management, productivity, spam, steve jobs, Strategic, technology, UI, zen

It’s late (or early, depending on your perspective) and I can barely see the text as I type because my eyes are so bleary. I know that if I don’t write something witty here, one of you will send me an email complaining that I didn’t write anything witty here. Well, fear not, gentle readers, I will write something witty here. I have it around here somewhere…oh yes, now I remember, I wrote it in the leftover tomato sauce on my plate from dinner. I know, not ideal, but when an idea strikes, you MUST write it down, lest it be forgotten and that’s all I had available. I’ll just go fetch my plate from the table. OH NO! The dishes! They are…in the dish drain! And clean! Who could have done such a foul deed? Certainly not me…oh, cruel world, why must you punish me so?

1. Three P’s of business success
   [Lead on Purpose]

2. Summer’s here: Do something different
   [On Product Management]

3. 6 Lessons for Non-Dev Executives at Agile Companies
   [ProductMarketing.com]

4. Google Chrome OS: Dissecting A Great Marketing Announcement
   [Rocket Watcher]

5. Writing Complete User Stories
   [Tyner Blain]

6. Next-Generation Conference Room Phone Design Ideas
   [Silicon Valley Business Catalyst]

7. Product management and marketing mix it up
   [Forrester Blog for Technology Product Management and Marketing]

8. Bloggers miss the point of buyer personas
   [Buyer Personas]

9. Business-Driven Product Management
   [Product Management Pulse]

10. Viable Product or Service First, Then PR
    [Twilight in the Valley of the Nerds]

11. Idea Management Vs Innovation Management
    [Purist Product Management]

Disclaimer: Just because I include a link to a particular posting, that is not an indication that I agree with the original author. In fact, I may post topics that are the opposite of my views or at least somewhat controversial in order to provide a contrasting viewpoint to the one I present on The Productologist.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Related posts

• About (0)
• Welcome to The Productologist (2)
• Why the UI is Important (4)
• Using Human Factors in Design (2)
• Traveling with Technology (1)

Tags: agile, buyer personas, Design, Innovation, innovation management, Marketing, nerds, Personas, product management, silicon valley, technology, UI, viable product

I wrote a lengthy, humorous, and grammatically correct introduction, but then my USB drive burped and I lost it. I’m OK about it. I just hope you can find what YOU need to start the healing.

1. Cost of A Wrong Decision
   [Enthiosys]

2. Robin and the sales promotion budget
   [ProductMarketing.com]

3. the tyranny: of twitter
   [Ack/Nak]

4. Making it Real
   [Rocket Watcher]

5. Measure Measure Measure!
   [Strategic Product Manager]

6. Don’t Forget Your Checklists
   [Requirements Defined]

7. The extended family of Agile
   [Forrester Blog for Technology Product Management and Marketing]

8. Why product launches fail
   [Launch Clinic]

9. Be a HERO by planning for and fixing those “arrrrgh!” moments
   [Experience is the Product]

10. Project Management for Small Teams – Part 1
    [Bizzia]

Disclaimer: Just because I include a link to a particular posting, that is not an indication that I agree with the original author. In fact, I may post topics that are the opposite of my views or at least somewhat controversial in order to provide a contrasting viewpoint to the one I present on The Productologist.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Related posts

• About (0)
• Welcome to The Productologist (2)
• Why the UI is Important (4)
• Using Human Factors in Design (2)
• Traveling with Technology (1)

Tags: blog, forrester, product management, technology, twitter, UI

Insert snarky text here. Then read valuable Product Management info below. Lather, rinse, repeat. That is all.

1. The Digital Native Persona
   [Product Management Zen]

2. Driving Lessons: Product Managers Learn To Ride The Economy
   [Accidental Product Manager]

3. Requirements Plagiarism
   [Requirements Defined]

4. Measuring Market Concentration (Competition)
   [Tyner Blain]

5. Business Strategy vs. Product Strategy
   [Silicon Valley Product Group]

6. Gobbledygook Grader just how crappy are your marketing materials?
   [Launch Clinic]

7. motivation: the hidden lever
   [Ack/Nak]

8. Tropicana Driven Backward by Users
   [User>Driven]

9. Are We Making Our Users Google Stupid?
   [Effectivus]

Disclaimer: Just because I include a link to a particular posting, that is not an indication that I agree with the original author. In fact, I may post topics that are the opposite of my views or at least somewhat controversial in order to provide a contrasting viewpoint to the one I present on The Productologist.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Related posts

• Resources (1)
• Why the UI is Important (4)
• Using Human Factors in Design (2)
• Ethnography or Just Good Requirements Gathering (8)
• Building a Working Roadmap (5)

Tags: Launch, motivation, product management, product strategy, requirement, Requirements, strategy, UI, zen

At this year’s P-Camp, I learned a lot of things. Some about Product Management. Some about people. And some some about organization. Here’s a short list of my observations and learnings. If you are on twitter, search for the tag #pcamp09 or #pcamp to see what other folks thought. I’ll be back next time.

1. Even unorganized events need organizing (thanks, Rich and team)
2. Discussions serve a different purpose than presentations
3. Topics are just the starting point
4. Just like in the real world, squeaky wheels get the grease
5. Equal access to participation is not equal participation
6. Product Managers sometimes have to act like Sales to get their message out
7. Labels, definitions, and functional inconsistencies continue to be the bane of Product Managers’ growth as a profession
8. Every product has problems; every Product Manager has problems; sometimes they overlap, sometimes they don’t
9. User Interface == User Experience
10. Requirements are not the answer
11. Product Managers are friendly, if you say hello first
12. It’s hard to twitter and pay attention
13. Product Management is a “renaissance” role
14. Agile is a good tool, but not salvation
15. Product Managers are part of the problem
16. Product Managers fill the voids left by other roles
17. Others fill voids left undone by Product Managers
18. Product Management is political
19. Product Managers, as a general rule, spend too much time NOT listening to the market

For more information about this P-Camp, check out the Facebook group, LinkedIn group and the wiki.

Thanks to all who planned, staffed, and participated.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Related posts

• Why the UI is Important (4)
• Using Human Factors in Design (2)
• Fast Release Cycles (4)
• Fighting, er, Working with Engineering (2)
• I am NOT the CEO of my Product (7)

Tags: agile, definitions, Interface, learnings, product management, real world, renaissance, Requirements, UI, user experience, user interface

Today is the day that has gone on forever. Up early. Up late. When you read this, the day that has gone on forever will be yesterday (or even the day before yesterday), but nonetheless, it went on forever. Kind of like the list of this week’s Product Management posts. It just keeps going. No end in sight. In this case, it’s not such a bad thing.

1. Invention, innovation, and product management
   [Forrester Blog for Technology Product Management and Marketing]

2. Define the problem before solving it
   [How to be a Good Product Manager]

3. The Seven Deadly Sins of Product Planning
   [Silicon Valley Product Group]

4. Keeping your Strategy Simple
   [Strategic Product Manager]

5. Dilbert for Product Managers
   [Cranky Product Manager]

6. Why Business Analysis Matters More During A Recession
   [Requirements Defined]

7. How to get a lost account to speak with you
   [On Product Management]

8. Catching Up is Not Possible
   [Managing Product Development]

9. Brutal Prioritization in Agile: cut costs by NOT building the fluff
   [Agile Blog]

10. How To Use Web 2.0 To Be A Better Product Manager
    [Accidental Product Manager]

11. Yours visually
    [Confessions of a Digital Immigrant]

12. Made To Stick: Product Management Book Review
    [Product Management Meets Pop Culture]

Disclaimer: Just because I include a link to a particular posting, that is not an indication that I agree with the original author. In fact, I may post topics that are the opposite of my views or at least somewhat controversial in order to provide a contrasting viewpoint to the one I present on The Productologist.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Related posts

• About (0)
• Resources (1)
• Welcome to The Productologist (2)
• Why the UI is Important (4)
• Using Human Factors in Design (2)

Tags: agile, Analysis, Book Review, business analysis, forrester, managing product development, Marketing, pop culture, prioritization, product, product management, product planning, recession, requirement, Requirements, seven deadly sins, strategy, UI

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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• Welcome to The Productologist (2)
• Where Does All the Time Go? (1)
• Why the UI is Important (4)
• Clearly, You Aren’t Hearing Me (2)
• Hiring for Success (3)

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

Enjoy this batch of Product Management treats, fresh out of the oven. Mmmm, melts in your mouth!

1. Borland: The Accidental Agilist
   [Enthiosys]
2. 2009 product management survey
   [Pragmatic Marketing]
3. Maximizing Product Value Through Effective Feature
   [Product Management View]
4. Documenting Scope: Concept vs. Solution
   [Web Product Management]
5. A 5th element to the Agile Manifesto
   [On Product Management]
6. How to be THE ULTIMATE Agile Product Team
   [Agile Product Owner]
7. How can I get international product management experience?
   [Ask a Good Product Manager]
8. Persona Grata – How to Use Personas to Manage Your Requirements Better
   [Product Management Insights]
9. How To Undertake a Product Comparison
   [Brainmates]

Disclaimer: Just because I include a link to a particular posting, that is not an indication that I agree with the original author. In fact, I may post topics that are the opposite of my views or at least somewhat controversial in order to provide a contrasting viewpoint to the one I present on The Productologist.

Popularity: 39% [?]

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• Why the UI is Important (4)
• Using Human Factors in Design (2)
• Fast Release Cycles (4)
• Fighting, er, Working with Engineering (2)
• Product Councils (0)

Tags: agile, Brainmates, feature product, international product management, Manifesto, Personas, Pragmatic, pragmatic marketing, product management, product team, Requirements, scope, UI

Don’t Make Me Think (2nd Edition) by Steve Krug

I have seen this book sitting on the desks or bookshelves of several designers and UI engineers that I know and it has always intrigued me. The whole concept of making the user experience so easy that it seems obvious is a big task and even with the help of books like this one, it’s still a moving target.

The book is geared toward building corporate and publisher websites, but a lot of the topics can also be applied to applications, both consumer- and enterprise-oriented software. It’s a short book (with pictures, no less), which is good. It’s laid out with some guiding principles around page layout at the beginning and then goes on to more advanced topics such as usability testing and accessibility.

Good Enough

Early on, in chapter 2, the author identifies a fundamental challenge of software development, especially web applications:

“We Don’t Make Optimal Choices. We Satisfice.”

By this, he means that we make trade-offs between making the best possible solution and one that is good enough to satisfy the user or market. Many choices that a Product Manager has to make are based on having to balance between the optimal solution and what can be done in a given time frame with the available resources. We bet that if we satisfice, it will be enough to address the short-term requirement or at least buy some time to refine the feature in a later release.

Krug later identifies some other best practices, again focused on web sites rather than web applications, but many of them apply to both, including the following gems:

1. Using common navigation and organizational conventions
   The less time users spend trying to figure out about your site/app, the happier they will be
2. Limiting the use of text-heavy instructions
   If your instructions are more than a few sentences, go back and fix your process or workflow, because that’s where the root of the problem is
3. Telling visitors about your site/application
   Don’t assume that everyone who arrives at your site/app know what it’s for and what it does
4. Creating an obvious starting point
   The home page is precious real estate, so there is going to be some crowding; make sure users know what to click

They seem like no-brainers, but both web sites and applications sometimes forget about one or more of them in the rush to create a unique experience of the user in “the next big thing.”

And Now a Word About Users

In latter part of the book, Krug dedicates some space to Usability, a subject that is near and dear to me, but which is often overlooked due to lack of time, space, money, know-how or resource availability. He starts off by debunking the myth of the “Aveage User.” The Average User is a tool frequently used to make trade offs for a website or application. Unfortunately, building software for the average user typically ends up creating mediocre software that addresses no one’s requirements.

Krug also discusses the ins-and-outss of usability testing, drilling home the message that focus group testing is NOT usability testing. It’s great that testing is included as an integral part of design. I have heard (and lived a few) horror stories about re-design projects where 100% of the effort is allocated to page layout and supporting graphics, and ZERO effort on determining if the changes are an improvement over the existing version. Oh, there’s a lot of review and feedback, but it doesn’t come from users; it comes from people within the company, most of whom are NOT the target user.

In addition to the “why,” the author spends a good deal of time outlining the “how” of testing. Beyond just providing the steps to take, Krug provides a sample script that highlights how even a bootstrapped organization can do minimal testing to improve their product.

The book closes with a chapter on how poor usability can zap user goodwill toward your software. We’ve all been there. You go to a site or web application that looks interesting, but after 10 minutes, you are so frustrated that even if the site provided all of the answers to the great questions of the universe, you wouldn’t go back. He highlights some of the most common goodwill killers:

1. Hiding information
2. Asking for unnecessary information
3. Szzle for Sizzle’s sake
4. Making users jump through hoops
5. Looking like an amateur

Recommendation: This book is one that Product Managers should read once and then give/loan/purchase for their Engineering VP/Lead/Developers. It’s easy to understand, provides both context and supporting data, and it’s short. You (or an Engineer) could read it in one night.

Popularity: 56% [?]

Related posts

• Resources (1)
• Welcome to The Productologist (2)
• Less is More (2)
• Why the UI is Important (4)
• Hiring for Success (3)

Tags: applications, Book Review, consumer, Engineering, enterprise, feature, feedback, goodwill, guiding principles, page layout, process, requirement, Requirements, Satisfice, steve krug, trade offs, trade-off, UI, Usability, usability testing, user experience, web applications, workflow

The ladies are going for a hat-trick with this third installment of the PMQC. Today we’ll hear from Carol Dirig, Senior Director of Product Management at NewScale, a provider of IT Service Catalog and Service Portfolio applications.

Q: How did you come into the role of Product Manager and was it planned?

A: Like most Product Managers (of my generation at least), this wasn’t an explicitly chosen career. I didn’t know what Product Managers were supposed to do, since my observation of them varied from PM to PM. But they all looked very busy, very stressed, and very popular.
I was working for a newspaper company in the early 90’s and just worked my way into Product Management roles as they developed applications to deliver news and market quotes to trader’s desktops. The Product Manager role was more fluid back then. There wasn’t much of a prescription for Product Management, so it was easy to weave your way into the job and react to what needed to get done.

I think Product Managers entering the profession today have a great advantage to kick off their careers – more college business courses that bring awareness to the explicit role of Product Management, and companies like Pragmatic Marketing that focus exclusively on the tools and functions of our craft.

Q: What are the biggest challenges you have experienced as a Product Manager and how did you overcome them?

A: Time management, time management, time management. As a Product Manager you are a magnet – a catchall – for the entire cross-functional chain. Most Product Managers have a certain character that attracts them to the profession, and that character is what makes it impossible to accept mediocrity in your work, or to say “No” when you’re already operating with an overflowing plate. When you start your day with 7:00am bug triage with India, run to an analyst briefing at 10:00, painstakingly enter demo data before 1:00, submit staff performance reviews before 3:00, do two sales calls before 5:00, squeeze in a doc review before running to a cocktail reception for your user group at 6:00…it becomes a little nutty. You have to accept that on any given day, at least one person will be very, very mad at you. That is hard, given our character.

I haven’t found a great solution to this yet – but a strategy that seems to work the best is simply keeping a firm grasp of your product’s vision in mind as you prioritize the events that come barreling at you. And being sure to put time in your day to be proactive in planning the right events/work/conversations around your product.

Q: Where is the best place for the Product Management function in an organization and why?

A: I think Product Management works best as a separate function. Have a VP of Product Management on par with the VP of Engineering, VP of Marketing, VP of Sales.  Couching it under Engineering has a tendency to snuff the business thinker in favor of those who are more technically savvy. Reporting to Marketing has the opposite effect.

If Product Marketing is part of the Product Management function, there’s certainly a good reason to keep it in marketing, but I’m a fan of separating these functions. A Product Marketer needs a very separate skill set than a Product Manager, and both functions have more than enough responsibility to demand disciplined focus.

Q: How do you see the role of the Product Manager changing in the next 5-10 years?

A: I think Product Management will become a more defined profession, with clearer boundaries and objectives.  It’s already come a long way since I started in this job, but it’s still not quite the same as being, say, a programmer or sales executive. There has always been ambiguity around the boundaries of our responsibilities (how we define our personal MBOs, for example) but I see that diminishing. I think titles within the trade become clearer so we have a more common playbook to set up our product organizations (e..g where do the responsibilities of Product Marketing end? What does a Technical Product Manager do? How does a Product Line Manager differ from a Director of PM?)

At the same time, our responsibilities continue to grow. I think there will be more business sense brought into the role. I’m a software Product Manager, so in my experience, we hire Product Managers that come from the technical side; gifted engineers that want to change careers, or sales engineers who want more product control and exposure to management. Over the last few years, however, I have seen a trend for finding Product Managers that (in addition to technical aptitude) have a better understanding of market dynamics, pricing theories, and roadmap strategies. I think this will evolve even further so that the Product Manager profile leans more towards the business and less towards engineering.

Q: What is your greatest Product Management achievement?

A: Releasing my first product was quite a thrill. The feeling of watching customers use it (and enhance it further) over the months that followed was indescribable. Standing in front of 3000 people as they applaud the fact that your product can solve a problem they’ve been suffering…it’s breathtaking. That’s what being a Product Manager is about, in my mind. Some Product Managers are in this job because they love being the center of everything and have CEO ambitions. Others are here because we love to solve problems and watch the solution unfold in surprising ways. I’m in the latter category.

Q: What Product Management tool(s) could you not live without and why?

A: My ears. It sounds so simple, but it took me awhile to actually figure out something so obvious.  Understanding the meaning behind what you’re hearing is critical to Product Management. When a prospect or customer describes a problem to you, they do so with the only words available to them, words that are common in their company, in their industry. Their description might be covering up the real – more pervasive– problem that needs a valuable solution the market would eagerly pursue.

In terms of practical tools, I’m of fan of applications like QualityCenter, and good old Excel.  Anything that let’s you trace your use cases to requirements to features to test cases to doc. There are a variety out there in varying degrees of sophistication. Go for a simple tool that everyone can use easily.

I also find collaboration tools (e.g. SharePoint) invaluable for tracking customer conversations and market research in ways that let Product Managers (and cross-functional teams) benefit from each other’s knowledge.

—————-
And now for Carol’s question for The Productologist:

Q: Have you ever met a Product Manager over 45?

A: When I first saw the question, I was half expecting that there might be some sort of punch line if I scrolled down a bit more (something like, “A Product Manager, a Software Engineer and a QA Lead walk into a bar….”. But kidding aside, this is an interesting question on a few different levels.

Product Managers as individual contributors tend to be younger, typically mid-twenties to mid-thirties, but if they stick with it, they usually end up as a line manager or director (managing other Product Managers) or moving into something adjacent to Product Management, such as Product Marketing or Program Management, depending on where their strengths lie.

Product Management is a tough gig. I don’t mean that it’s harder than being an Engineer or in Sales or Marketing or whatever, but there is an emotional component to Product Management that is not as pervasive as in other functional areas of a business. That aspect can take it’s toll on anyone and for that reason, there is a general career flow from being an individual contributor in Product Management to positions that still have a Product Management focus, but have less of the day-to-day emotional investment.

There is also the fact that Product Managers are in a great position to observe and interact with a majority of the business functions within a company and more than a handful make the leap to either start their own companies or joining executive teams at startups where they have oversight of Product Management, if not direct responsibility.

Having said all of that with out actually addressing the original question, I DO know at least one Product Manager who is over 45. He’s actually a director, but is still very much involved in day-to-day PM work. He hasn’t always been in Product Management, so maybe that is the key to growing up in Product Management.

A little more about Carol:

Carol has over 15 years of experience in software Product Management. Her career began on Wall Street as a product analyst for financial information applications before moving to Silicon Valley where she has held various Product Management roles for solutions in the enterprise IT space.

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