Keynote for March 2012 Product Leadership Days ("Produktledardagen") in Stockholm, hosted by Tolpagorni's Magnus Billgren. A 2-day event with 60+ product mgrs/execs from Sweden & northern Europe.

1. Produktledardagen 2012:
Product Management
Observations from
Silicon Valley
Rich Mironov
Stockholm
22 March 2012
1 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

2. About Rich Mironov
 Veteran product manager/exec/strategist
 Organizing product organizations
 Business models, pricing, agile
 5 startups, including as CEO/founder
 “The Art of Product Management”
 Founded Product Camp, chaired first
product stage at Agile conference
2 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

3. Agenda
1. What do product managers Produktledar
dagen:
do?
Product
2. Impact of Agile Management
trends
3. Lean Startup is Hot
4. Take-Aways
3 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

4. Our Challenge
 Technical product management in Silicon
Valley for 40+ years
But…
 Inconsistent titles
 Responsibility > authority
 Parent organization (Eng  Marketing)
 People problems > technical problems
4 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

5. We Are Now A Community
 Ten years ago…
 Very few PM articles, books, thought leaders
 SVPMA was the only face-to-face network
 Now…
 27 Product Camps in 2011
 90+ blogs, LinkedIn groups, Twitter…
 Formal classes (2-day, 5-day, 20-day)
 More respect, more networks, more recruiters
5 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

6. What Does a Product Manager Do?
 For commercial technology (HW/SW/Services)
 PM drives delivery and market
acceptance of whole products
 PM targets market segments,
not individual customers
 For strategic internal development
 PM resolves competing priorities
 PM drives acceptance and adoption
6 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

7. What Does a Product Manager Do?
budgets, staff, strategy, forecasts,
commitments, roadmaps,
targets competitive intelligence
Executives
market information, priorities,
requirements, roadmaps, MRDs, Field input,
personas, user stories… Product market feedback
Management
Mktg & Markets &
Development
Sales Customers
product
Segmentation, messages,
benefits/features, pricing,
qualification, demos…
7 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

8. Product Mgmt Planning Horizons
many years
Strategy
years
Exec Portfolio
many mons
Product
PM Release 2-9 mon
Sprint 2 wk
Dev
Team Daily
Time scale depends on
8 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 product and sales cycle
www.mironov.com

9. Nature of Product Role
 No natural sequence for PM
 Must work all aspects in parallel
 Entire planning onion
 Intensely interrupt-driven
 Bottom-up meets top-down
 Product Management must provide
strategy, judgment and integration
as well as execution
9 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

10. The ideal candidate
for a tough job…
10 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

11. Agenda
1. What do product managers Produktledar
dagen:
do?
Product
2. Impact of Agile Management
trends
3. Lean Startup is Hot
4. Take-Aways
11 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

12. Product Managers Should Love Agile
 We all want better/faster development
 Agile = collection of software best practices
 Product Owner: how engineers see
product management
 IMHO, a tragedy for revenue products…
12 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

13. “small p” product owner
Executives
priorities, requirements,
personas, user stories…
product
owner
Marketing/Sales
Development
Customers
product
13 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

14. Product Owner Failure Modes
 Weak on market realities
 Pricing, packaging, selling,
upgrades, service models,
discounting, competition
 Not connected to Marketing/Sales
 Trades off company-wide
strategy for product features
 Confuses showcase customers with
broader market
14 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

15. PO/PM Organizational Map
GM - VP PM - VP Eng/CTO
Product
Management
Organization
product owners
more market-focused more technical
15 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

16. Agenda
1. What do product managers Produktledar
dagen:
do?
Product
2. Impact of Agile Management
trends
3. Lean Startup is Hot
4. Take-Aways
16 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

17. Blank & Ries
 Every entrepreneur in Silicon Valley
has read these books
 Focus on product/market fit
 Early testing and quick pivots
 Fail Fast
 IMHO, much better results with
seasoned product managers
17 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

18. Agenda
1. What do product managers Produktledar
dagen:
do?
Product
2. Impact of Agile Management
trends
3. Lean Startup is Hot
4. Take-Aways
18 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

19. Product Management Take-Aways
 We need to drive clarity and appreciation of
product management
 Great product management can be invisible
 PM leaders work on organizational and
strategy issues
 PM must drive company-wide
improvements: agile, lean,
strategy
19 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com

20. Contact Information
+1-650-315-7394
rich@mironov.com
www.mironov.com
@RichMironov
www.linkedin.com/in/richmironov
20 - PRODUKTLEDARDAGEN 2012 www.mironov.com