The Clever PM

Tips, tricks, and hacks that help you to be a better, more clever, Product Manager.

The Troubles with “Transparency”

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The common wisdom in the Product Management world is that more transparency is always better — transparency into the planning process, the roadmap, the product strategy, prioritization, design, development, etc.  And while transparency is certainly important, generally speaking, it can also have its dark side, especially when the culture in which you are being transparent doesn’t understand or respect the goals of transparency, and subverts your attempts to provide clarity and understanding in order to further their own agendas.

Rarely, however, is transparency itself to blame for these problems — rather, it’s transparency combined with other dysfunctional behavior, or transparency that’s not well thought-through or explained in a way that others understand why things are open and available.  When these behaviors or cultures converge on a transparent process, the outcomes aren’t always pretty.  Here are three examples of transparency that results in incongruous outcomes…

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The “CEO of the Product” Myth

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I’m fairly confident that anyone who’s worked as or interacted with Product Managers for any extended period of time has run into someone talking about how the Product Manager is the “CEO of the Product.” The implication is that the Product Manager has some form of ultimate authority for what’s in, what’s out, and when things ship; that people ask “How high?” when the Product Manager yells “Jump!”; that simply by virtue of being the Product Manager, there’s a level of influence and direct control over the day-to-day and strategic operations of the product.

This is complete and utter bullshit, in the vast majority of companies.

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The Importance of Continuous Improvement

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Most of the “Agile” and “Lean” product design and development practices that we follow in the modern age can be directly linked to the lean manufacturing movement from the 1940s and 1950s, largely attributed to the work of W. Edward Deming and his influence on the post-war Japanese manufacturing culture.  Deming relied on a “Plan-Do-Study-Act” methodology that likely sounds extremely familiar to those who have implemented true Agile and Lean methodologies in their own work, and his influence is clearly seen in such famous processes as the Toyota Production System, Six Sigma, and Kaizen practices.

One of the things that all of these practices have in common, that is often missing from software development teams, is that they are focused on continuous or continual improvement of not only the product, but the process as well.  While many software companies do somewhat focus on continuous improvement of the product, many neglect the equally important factor of working to continually improve the process as well.

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Getting Shit Done is Job #1

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As a Product Manager, sometimes we get so caught up in either the macro or micro concerns of our day-to-day lives that we forget that getting shit done is our primary job.  It does no good whatsoever to have our product remain in a constant state of development, with projects that get put on the shelf after being half-complete, in preference for the new hotness over what’s now old-and-busted.  As a Product Manager, we’re not only in charge of making sure that we’re doing the right thing at the right time, but also that we’re actually finishing what we start — and that what gets done gets into the hands of the customer as soon as reasonably possible.  Iterative development is literally impossible to do within the confines of your four walls; unless you’re constantly releasing a stream of iterative improvements, you’re just not getting it done.

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The “Power Trio” – Balancing Market, Product, and Technical Needs

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One of the biggest challenges facing nearly every Product Manager is the lack of a clearly-defined role in the organization.  Even in companies that have “rigorous” organizational structures, the Product Manager often becomes everything to everyone – the hub around which all the other business processes operate.  And for the most part, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Unfortunately for all of us, the simple fact is that not every person has talent for every single piece of the puzzle.  The “marketing genius” might not know the difference between XML, HTML, PERL, and PHP; the person with the best relationship with the Support organization might feel challenged when asked to present to the Sales organization or sit on a panel at an industry conference.

It is for this reason that many companies differentiate between “Product” Management and “Program” (or “Project”)  Management.  And, for the most part, this makes sense – the Product Manager becomes the voice of the customer, and of the market, while the Program Manager becomes the liaison between the Product Manager and the Development organization, sometimes even taking up a role within the Support or Training organizations as well.  For smaller organizations, or very niche markets, this works quite well, particularly if the Product Manager originates from the market that the product is serving.  Their experience and prestige in the community provide key insights and instincts that can guide the product in its development, and ensure that customer requirements are met.

However, a challenge presents itself when this type of Product Manager needs to confirm their instincts and insights with the market as a whole, particularly in situations where the organization has decided to implement an Agile or Agile-like product development process.  One of the core tenets of Agile and similar methodologies is regular review by the stakeholder, here most likely the Product Manager.  But, if that Product Manager is out in the market several times a month, coordinating these reviews can become very difficult.  And the product, as a whole, suffers.

Enter the concept of a Market Planner.  I first encountered this concept when I was assigned to design a brand new product, from the ground up, for a niche market that sat on the periphery of my prior industry experience — it was, in fact, at the intersection of two very different markets.  The Market Planner on this product came from the other side of this niche – from the other industry in this intersection.  As we talked about the concept, it became increasingly clear that she was in a great position to be the voice of the market to the product, and of the product to the market, while I was the obvious choice to work on the ground, collating requirements and combining them into a narrative that we could sell to the business as well as the Development teams.

For the next year or more, we worked side-by-side — she attended conferences and engaged in panel discussions with industry leaders, feeding me detailed reports about what was working for them, what wasn’t, what their workflows looked like, and whatever wild concepts they would come up with over dinner and drinks.  I would take these tidbits of information, collect them, and put them into documents that were used to explain the product to our internal stakeholders.  Often, I had to tell her “no”, or put some of her requests on the backburner, for version 2.0 of the product.  And she often asked for my own input on ideas, concepts, and workflows.  It was a match made in heaven, and we launched a very successful product, the first of its kind in the market space.

This was a very different experience than any other I had with that particular company – the active participation of a Market Planner made a world of difference in the product.  She knew where the product should go, what the specific needs of the target customers were, and most importantly provided both a vision and a plan that I could execute against.  The separation of the long-term from the short-term from the execution truly made all of the difference.

What I learned from this is that every person in the broad Product Management world has their own specific skills, talents, and interests.  And the most effective structure for a larger business, particularly if they’re attempting to expand into new and uncharted areas, is to engage the market in a structured, coordinated approach – have a Market Planner to be the overall voice of the market and of the product, let them set and communicate the vision; have a Product Manager who can coordinate and collate all the work and insight uncovered by the Market Planner, and let them turn the vision and plan into actionable requirements and documentation that can be absorbed by the rest of the business; and last but not least, have a Program Manager who can wrangle the exact deliverables, the schedule, the nitty-gritty resource allocation problems that plague even the best-staffed of organizations.

With a strong “Power Trio” of these three roles, there’s almost nothing an organization cannot accomplish.

Don’t Believe Your Own Hype

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There’s always a ton of hype that we create surrounding our products.  Sales positions the product as the best option for prospects and existing customers; marketing spins our features and benefits so that we sound like the best thing since sliced bread; and our CEOs and internal cheerleaders are constantly optimistic about the future, the market, and the direction of the company.  We submit for rewards to organizations that we also provide financial support to; we pull customer quotes for our website testimonials and advertising materials; and we solicit interviews and other media attention that serves to reinforce all of these perspectives.

And all of that is well and good – we need to position our product in the market and in the media in the best possible way.  But there’s  also a risk when the executives, management, or even the product managers start to believe this hype.  It can lead to dysfunction on an epic scale, and rarely ends well.

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Common Company Dysfunctions — And How to Combat Them

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Throughout my many years as a Product Manager, and through many conversations with fellow Product Managers, I’ve come to notice certain patterns of dysfunction emerge within companies that make everyone’s job harder.  Many of these dysfunctions exist due to cultural patterns within the company, and are things that have developed over time — often they begin through necessity or simply as a matter of getting things done, but eventually develop into anti-patterns that prevent the company or its products from being the best that they can be.

The good news about these dysfunctions is that they’re all capable of being corrected for — provided that (1) you’re willing and able to identify them, and (2) people in the company can recognize the negative repercussions and are interested in adjusting their behavior appropriately.  As Product Managers, we’re often the most centrally impacted by these dysfunctions, and we’re often best positioned to lead others away from them through our influence and customer focus.  In this article, I’m going to discuss some of the dysfunctions I’ve seen and propose some possible ways to approach and correct for them.

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