2. About Rich Mironov CEO of a stealth startup Veteran product manager/strategist/executive Business models, pricing, agile Organizing product organizations “The Art of Product Management” and Product Bytes blog Organized first Product Camp
3. Roles and Promotions PM role is different from Director and VP PM The promotion funnel is narrow Not an entitlement Not (just) by being the best at your current job Do you demonstrate skills/scope beyond your current role Do you want that next job?
4. Product Management Executives Development What Does Product Management Do? strategy, forecasts, commitments, roadmaps,competitive intelligence budgets, staff, targets market information, priorities, requirements, roadmaps, MRDs, personas, user stories… Field input, Market feedback Mktg & Sales Markets & Customers software Segmentation, messages, benefits/features, pricing, qualification, demos…
5. Mythical PM Organization VP Products Dir PM Dir PM Pricing Analyst Sr PM PM/PMM Sr PM Sr PM PM Product Owner PM/PO Competitive Analyst Channel/Partner PM
7. PM as Individual Contributor Knows more about product, market, roadmap, competition, use cases, personas, trade-offs than anyone else Talks benefits with customers; tech with engineers Relentless communicator of the truth Timeline: Next 2-4 quarters Get it done with what you have
8. "You build your product with the development team and cross-functional organization you have --not the team you might want or wish to have at a later time.” 8
9. Director of Product Management Focus on processes, resources and teams Cross-functional cooperation and priorities PLM-level trends and market input Standardization and simplification Mentor your replacement Scope Next 6 quarters Broad product strategy and budget Keep the trains running
11. VP Products Focus on aligning strategy, organization and products Is the company succeeding? Is PM succeeding? Company-wide issues and disconnects Market success ($ales) Scope 3 year trends Thoughtful member of exec team How do we build organizational support to do the right things?
13. Example: Agile Adoption VP “Our competitors using Agile are out-developing us by 30-60%. We need a 12-month executive commitment to invest in Development and PM improvements” Director “Here are training and coaches and processes and metrics and tools to move us toward Agile.” PM “Let’s review roadmaps, personas, user stories, backlog, acceptance criteria for my product.”
StrategyMaking product line succeed within portfolio and channelsCompeting product suites, adjacent productsPeople and OrganizationEncouraging cross-functional cooperation, helping peers identify talentMarket SensingHow do we educate Sales and learn what’s working?1-3 year technical and PL market trendsProcessesAdvocacy for process improvements (waterfall agile)Delegate, avoid settling individual issuesAgilityRe-allocating PMs, focusing attention, shifting roadmaps
StrategyMaking product line succeed within portfolio and channelsCompeting product suites, adjacent productsPeople and OrganizationEncouraging cross-functional cooperation, helping peers identify talentRelentless promotion of own team and product lineMarket Sensing1-3 year technical and PL market trendsStrategic moves by competitors and partnersHow do we educate Sales and learn what’s working?ProcessesAdvocacy for process improvements (waterfall agile)Delegate, avoid settling individual issuesAgilityRe-allocating PMs, focusing attention, shifting roadmapsRecruit partners and third party contributions
StrategyMaking product line succeed within portfolio and channelsCompeting product suites, adjacent productsPeople and OrganizationEncouraging cross-functional cooperation, helping peers identify talentRelentless promotion of own team and product lineMarket Sensing1-3 year technical and PL market trendsStrategic moves by competitors and partnersHow do we educate Sales and learn what’s working?ProcessesAdvocacy for process improvements (waterfall agile)Delegate, avoid settling individual issuesAgilityRe-allocating PMs, focusing attention, shifting roadmapsRecruit partners and third party contributions
Some PMs would be better as Directors(and vice versa)