During this presentation, Blair discussed why and how the function of product management is different in important ways in enterprise software as compared to the consumer web, and why it’s not the drag that everyone thinks. Main points: - Your job is your business model - “Move fast and break things” is a recipe for disaster - Business problems are complex ones, not MVPs - Know who your customer is

1. Product Management for the Enterprise
/Productschool @ProductSchool /ProductmanagementNY

2. Product Management for the
Enterprise
Blair Reeves
@BlairReeves

3. Obligatory

4. Hi!
@BlairReeves
Principal Product Manager

5. o business model
What is a Product Manager?
• I like to think of the PM as a sheepdog
(just don’t tell Development)
@BlairReeves
o size of the company
o maturity of the product
• Definitions and responsibilities of PM vary dramatically by:

6. Enterprise vs. Consumer
@BlairReeves
Enterprise software Consumer web
• Direct sales/subscription
• Large, sales-negotiated deal sizes
• SLAs
• Legal & regulatory compliance
• Policy whitepapers, documentation
• Product & solution level marketing
• Customers want very specific stuff
• Ad-supported or subscription
• If sales, small amounts - LTV
• “We’ll do the best we can”
• No one reads User T&Cs
• You have a blog
• Brand marketing
• Users want MOAR

7. Common user/customer distinctions in enterprise software:
● My user is not my customer
● Build product for one, sell to another
● Enterprise PM is all about learning these two groups, and
how they influence one another
● Don’t listen to customers too closely
Customer-aligned PMs have two questions:
- what does your customer value?
- what will they pay for?
Non-customer-aligned PMs are quite different
Customer alignment
@BlairReeves
(Product Manager Collie)

8. ● Basic market research: trade press, analyst
reports, conferences, blogs
● Primary research: third party forums, customer
support forums (google them!), social
○ Are you on twitter? If not… what are you
doing
You need to be an expert.
Research and Intel
@BlairReeves
So become an expert!
● Talk to users and customers at every opportunity - including (/especially!)
not your own
● Listen to competitors - both the party line and unofficial channels
● Platform analytics are great, but...

9. ● Be careful about “design”
● The “consumerization of enterprise
software” is real, but
● Enterprise users care about the
back end (many of them use it!)
● In general, functionality and
bleeding-edge features trump
design (but do both)
The role of design
@BlairReeves

10. ● The best example of how PM is cross-
functional
Protips:
● Insight from sales ops can be a secret weapon
● Pricing is complicated
The “business” of PM
@BlairReeves
● The best PMs understand:
○ average deal sizes
○ cost profiles
○ chargeable parts
○ how deals get done

11. Product Management is not the thing itself
The thing is knowing your market, your users, and what creates value
Some final thoughts
@BlairReeves
Things get complicated when you sell a lot of stuff. PMs should seek to produce
simplicity.
JIRA, PMATs, PRDs, Agile/Scrum/Waterfall, Mythical Man-Month, etc etc -
you’ll figure it out
Have fun and don’t stress out. If it isn’t for you, take up surfing or something!

12. Thanks!
@BlairReeves

13. Upcoming Courses
Apply at
www.productschool.com
Product Management
Weeknights: April 6 - May 25, Tues./Thurs., Sold Out
Weekends: April 8 - June 3, Saturday, Sold Out
Coding for Managers
Weeknights: April 10 - June 5, - Mondays & Wednesdays

14. www.productschool.com
Upcoming Workshops
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Mar 15 : Building the Right Product Features
w/ Dir. of Product at Audible
Mar 16 : Get an Intro into Coding
w/ Software Engineer from LearnVest