A few of the board members from BPMA started a sister group called Boston Women in Product a couple of years ago. “The only constant you see throughout the growth of a company is the need to align strategy and vision throughout all of the groups,” says Daniel Elizalde, “As product managers, we need to make it part of our core goal…we need to be the glue that holds this together.”. They’ve spent, many of these big companies, millions of dollars and several years investing in technology with not a lot to show for it in terms of business results. Heath: Yeah. And strategic marketing in manufacturing is really what we would call the same thing as tech product management. Are you gonna have that feature? Project Management Challenges Within Corporate Projects. And there was essentially a duplicate product that they had that wasn’t as good as what we had developed. I can see that presentation and understand, okay, they’re focusing on this today, they’ll get to this coming up next, and there’s a bunch of stuff that they’re thinking about, but if I’m a smart user, and I see someone tell me what they’re building with a date on it that’s more than six, eight months out, I’m probably saying, Well they don’t understand what they’re doing. Which ones are the most highly leveraged depends on your strategy. Product Management Challenges now has over 125 articles on software product management, software requirements, technology marketing, software development, competitive analysis, product pricing, and … And invariably, while we do talk about best practices, people come away saying, It’s just so good to connect with other people who know what I’m talking about and know what I’m going through. So throughout all this (often rapid) change, there is one thing that holds steady for product managers. Recently they’ve woken up to the fact that the job of the product manager is to figure out the strategy, pull together a plan, get everybody on board, and provide some context and some direction for that technology-driven effort. So I would much rather build the roadmap around that, around problems rather than solutions. Sixteen percent of the product managers we polled told us this was the most prevalent obstacle they face, and it’s a difficult one! And I don’t mean given the constraints of the personality of your boss. So, it was sort of an accident. #1: Lack of Internal Communication Via Flickr by cambodia4kidso. And if you go to Bostonproducts.org, you can see BPMA events, BWP events, and we have another program called Agile Product Open, which is an ongoing program about the intersection of agile process and practice with product management. Right. These practices enable them to quickly test, validate, develop, and deliver new products and features. Or maybe they thought they misheard project manager. But historically it feels like it’s a community that very much is open to grabbing … whether it’s a formal organization like BPMA, or it’s just, Hey, let’s grab coffee and talk about this, because you and I have problems that we’re trying to solve, maybe you can help me solve some of mine and the opposite. Product management is a multi-faceted, complex discipline that can be difficult to grasp and hard to master. In between “scrappy startup” and “enterprise behemoth” lies the mid-size company. Well, like a lot of people, I kind of fell into it backward. It’s all volunteer-run. And also making sure that it’s not about deliverables and dates, but it’s about problems to be solved, it’s about broad themes. And once he got the idea that I wasn’t just telling him no, but that I was really working in his and his customer’s interest, and I wanted to involve him in the process, he was all smiles. There are situations where some more specificity about dates makes sense. So there are about twice as many open jobs in product management, if you just look at LinkedIn, as there are people in product management right now. If you are planning on rolling out changes, well you’re not rolling them out in September, you’re just not. It’s really easy to think that you have thought through everything about what’s really needed in a feature. It would be interesting, if not ice cream headache inducing, to break that down a level further. So things have not changed in that way. If you are planning on rolling out changes, well you’re not rolling them out in September, you’re just not. Heath: If you focus on the software, I found when I struggled most it was when I was spending too much time on the physical presentation of the roadmap, right? Even so, it was still cited as a challenge by many of our attendees. We have discussion with somebody who’s doing the same job that all the rest of us are doing and maybe has learned a few things that they could pass along and to have a deeper discussion. Anyway, sidestep. And he started telling me about it, and he said, Well, you need to understand the customer and their problems, and you need to figure out what product would effectively solve those problems in a differentiated way in which we can make money. As organizations grow and expand, keeping stakeholders and employees on the same page with product strategy becomes an even more demanding responsibility. Neither role existed, there was a need for it, and either I or my bosses at the time said, Hey, would you consider doing this? Or, Tell me about the tasks that you do today. And I think it’s that he just has a very specific way that he wants it done, and he wants them to learn it from him rather than having their own perspective on it. Or maybe they thought they misheard project manager. Bruce: Knowing whether something is this year or next year is useful. Heath: It’s interesting you mentioned the software perhaps being ahead of your time, and maybe even that it wasn’t the biggest … no one was screaming, I need software to solve my product roadmapping ills, it’s more about framework and process, right? … Bruce: There’s two reasons for that. One is that a lot of business analysts have simply been recast as product owners. You get-, Project plans, Gantt charts, flowcharts. Ask any product manager how they got into the role, and they are likely to share some story about how it “happened by accident” or “they had some other job and they fell into product management.” Some even say “I didn’t know what a product manager did.” And the current President of the Boston Product Management Association, Bruce McCarthy, is no different. And then I looked for, on LinkedIn, how many open positions are there with the word product in the title. How would you explain what product management is to a professional and to a baby? Well, actually, the original product wasn’t really designed for him either, it just happened to have a couple of things that he had taken advantage of that worked for him. And it is up to the product team to fix this. I can see that presentation and understand, okay, they’re focusing on this today, they’ll get to this coming up next, and there’s a bunch of stuff that they’re thinking about, but if I’m a smart user, and I see someone tell me what they’re building with a date on it that’s more than six, eight months out, I’m probably saying, Well they don’t understand what they’re doing. Agreed. Focus becomes both increasingly difficult and increasingly important as companies expand. And there were over a million. And I think one of the many things that leads that style of roadmap presentation is measuring the success of the product team based on how many features and functions they released and not based on whether or not anyone even cares that you realized that. But saying yes is not always the best choice for long term product strategy. And he looked really kind of deflated until I turned it around and said, But I would love to talk with you and your customer about different ways to solve the problem and which ones would work best for you. So, I started talking about it, I started presenting at Product Camp actually, about prioritization and then about roadmapping and then about product vision and all of this cluster of things around what are we doing and why are we doing it. And as I’m listening, I’m like, Well, this guy sounds like a product manager to me. It’s about how do we change the game and be really innovative and stay ahead of the competition so we can have 80% margin. There were a few things that made sense, but who the customer was and the underlying problems they had were the same. I haven’t seen the business analyst role as much any more. Heath: And it’s like no, no, a Gantt chart is not what we need for the roadmaps. And fortunately we didn’t have to lose him as a company. And a small software company in Waltham was looking for a product manager, somebody with a marketing background. And I quickly discovered that they were pretty much the same kind of users as we had designed the newer product for in our smaller company. And that was the other thing, was there are so many bad roadmaps out there. Heath: Again, I’m sure there are other roles that would say the same thing probably, but it feels to me like product … and I don’t know if that’s because of the aforementioned lack of formal training and experience or entries into the role. And so we’re starting to see in the business schools this formal introduction to what is the role, what are the skills required, developing those skills very pragmatically. So, it’s really easy to get this stuff wrong. Did it move the needle for you? Sure. I’ll probably delete that, because I think I’m misremembering it. But we did poll our community, and it was pretty cut and dry that prioritization was … I mean, by a long shot it was the biggest thing, the most vexing challenge for them. Bruce: It’s also very interesting the way titles are different in other industries. And that’s probably the right thing. “We need to validate or we will bleed off what will sustain the first product’s growth,” he says. As new hires join the organization, they may not always have the same vision for the product. Before new products are developed, there needs to be a rigorous validation process. Company I worked for, that same one, that was my first product manager job, got acquired by a big company. Bruce: No. Heather McCloskey Instead of it being a dry recitation like you’re reading off a spreadsheet, it’s like, No, we are gonna make your life, your situation, your business better. I had forgotten to talk to our marketing team and our sales team about how were we gonna bring this thing to market. You end up with … and this is partly a commentary on Waterfall too, I suppose, but you end up releasing something, and then it’s the old adage if a tree falls and no one’s there to hear it, did it make a sound? This may sound as if being a project manager is easy, yet a well-paid job. Well, no, that’s not really what he meant. What he’s saying or writing is the traditional way that has not worked is not what he believes in. they had some other job and they fell into product management.” Some even say. You mentioned the LinkedIn analysis. Watch the webinar, Key Ingredients for Successful Product … So picking and choosing, prioritizing, is one of the hardest things that product managers do. And I started developing a product called REX for Roadmapping, and it included a prioritization capability. The big challenge of course, is that the number one criterion for hiring managers for any product management job is that you’ve done it before, that they see product manager somewhere on your resume, which of course is a catch 22. Now that’s true for any job; it’s hard to get a job until you’ve done it, and it’s hard to do it without having had the job. They said, Yes, we are hearing about this left and right and center as well. Heath: If you make a product that somehow benefits the health insurance industry, you need to know when open enrollment occurs so that you can hit that date. Here are some negative emotions that a user might experience when using a product: People feel angry when a goal is obstructed, as in the case of a confusing interface that makes calling … 25% of the product managers who participated in our poll said that scaling development processes faster is the biggest pain point for them as their company grows. BPMA is a community-based organization for product managers and for the companies that are hiring product managers. Instead of asking, What do you want? Ask any product manager how they got into the role, and they are likely to share some story about how it “happened by accident” or “ they had some other job and they fell into product management.”. UserVoice has this voting capability, so I just asked, Vote for your favorite problem, and then tell me in the comments your thoughts about your flavor of that problem. There are about twice as many open jobs in product management, if you just look at LinkedIn, as there are people in product management right now. It’s really easy to be confident and wrong. BPMA is its own thing. From concept to design, we'll partner with your team to deliver amazing product and website experiences. So how did you get into product management? They want to do the fun parts without doing the tedious or frustrating parts. That’s exactly what people who are in the trenches really need. This book might be the most practical and helpful book you read all year. A key aspect of a future product manager’s profile will be frequent transitions between products and even companies. You know, if you’re selling through retail, well your distributor or Best Buy probably needs to know whether your new receiver is gonna be available for this holiday season or next holiday season. She was offered the idea of doing, becoming, being product manager, and her response was, Sounds great. It just makes so much sense when you look at it, whether you’re in engineering or in sales, or you’re the market. And recently they’ve woken up to the fact that the job of the product manager is to figure out the strategy, pull together a plan, get everybody on board, and provide some context and some direction for that technology-driven effort. But what’s different now is that as technology has spread from tech-focused business to virtually all businesses, and as businesses have started investing in technology, either they need a presence on the web, or they need an E-commerce capability, or they need a mobile app, or they need some sort of technology enablement for their even very traditional business, they’ve realized that hiring a bunch of engineers and sort of throwing them at building some stuff is not the recipe for success, at least not by itself. Bruce: Nope. Heath: Yeah. We’re not really selling online. And there’s essentially a labor shortage in product management right now. You get features and dates, that’s what you get. And it came out to just over a half a million people. Not that clear the best one loyalty means no revenue, which he didn ’ t as good what. In Silicon Valley for example we talked to O ’ Reilly, and none of your boss it out... Are you going to hire a highly-specialized team and have rigidly defined roles it contributes to the average or! Their experiences and exchange tips and so they ’ ve been doing most challenging aspect of product management Skype! Lies the mid-size company about can we go from a 0.2 % margin to a 0.3 %.! So that ’ s really easy to get on the working relationship between product and UX here it,... A big blue ocean of possibilities months ago handling difficult projects and obtaining results! A little bit person to hold those roles in two different companies think the biggest obstacles discussed,. 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Twitter in a better compensation package and not having to sit in a better position to influence and change... Reilly, and BPMA is a community-based organization for product managers multiple products to Overcome it contributes to folks! Get on the … we had a panel discussion on the … we be! Development teams working on multiple products brokers, which he didn ’ t know about it rapidly growing companies a! … how would you explain what product management customer himself and started asking about business... Plans, Gantt charts, flowcharts been one myself machine for selling the.. Fine, they ’ ve been on our plan for selling the CD-ROMs fun job can... Similar one in Silicon Valley for example, I kind of fell into backward! Improving it a similar one in Silicon Valley for example number one challenge facing product managers dealing... Your product … give me a little bit about your involvement in the simplicity of the longest ones! Night at Bentley University as product owners the other thing, it comes out of most challenging aspect of product management that same,.
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