Product Management

The Need for Product Managers Continues to Grow.

2008-05-07T12:24:00.011+01:00

Traditionally when I think of the job of the product manager I think of someone who is half marketing and half engineer – someone who is 50% orientated towards business needs and 50% orientated towards technology. People who have this mixture hold a number of different job titles: product manager, product marketing manager, product development manager… and so on. There are many papers and blog post that explain the differences between these job roles and functions e.g. Product Management vs. Product Marketing. From my point of view your job title and function depends a lot on the type of company your working for and the industry you’re in.

I wrote a blog post a few months ago about Product Management moving into IT/IS departments. This should not come as a surprise since the Product Manager is essentially a bridge between business and market needs and technology – (be it hardware, software or a combination of the two) - and the talented individuals who dedicate their lives researching, designing and building technical products. Many SME and organisations e.g. Banks rely on information technology to gain the competitive advantage hence the investment in product management to ensure that technology constantly delivers business value and therefore the competitive edge.

Tim O'Reilly states that: "Technology is fundamentally transforming publishing." In the same article entitled Tools for change conference he continues by saying that:
"There is so much that publishers need to know: how to effectively apply new Web 2.0 concepts like harnessing collective intelligence, loosely coupled web services, tag clouds, and mashups; content generation technologies like blogs, wikis, and crowdsourcing; content management systems; production workflows for XML publishing; real time data analysis driving publishing decisions; new presentation layer tools like Ajax (and the latest from Adobe, like Apollo); search engine optimization...."

Taking all this into consideration it’s no wonder that Product Managers have arrived at online media companies, bridging the gap between the publishing business and technology teams. Marie Griffen says in her article Product Managers Arrive that:
“The Internet is a constantly evolving technology, not simply a delivery platform for content in electronic form. It requires the creation of new jobs within media companies, and one area that is on the rise is online product management.”

The article goes on to say that: "At Penton Media, the product manager function is well-developed. “Product managers marry market needs with the core competencies in our technology group,” said Prescott Shibles, VP of Penton Media "s new media group.

I’ve been working as a Product Manager for Reed Business Information (the world biggest B2B publishing company) for 3 years – prior to that I had worked for in Project Management and Product Management for two different technology companies who designed and manufactured products for the broadcast industry. Comparing the two different Product Management roles I would say that the technologies, of course, differ. Also in the online world your loyalty is shared between at least 3 different types of customers: the advertiser and/or sponsor, the end user and the search engine/google(bot) as opposed to just a single customer who was generally the end user. Apart from that the fundamental functional differences in Product Management are minimal. The key differences lie in the area of work flow and processes - however this can also vary between companies with in the same industry.

So if your looking for a challenge and a change in your product management career I would highly recommend transferring your skill set and working for an online media company.

The current transition the publishing world is experiencing is akin to the transition the broadcast industry went through when it moved from analogue to digital or to put it in consumer terms the transition from having limited TV channels with analogue to have unlimited channels with digital TV or the move from vinyl to CD – as with all changes some will embrace while other will get left behind.

Product Management is not just here to stay its growing fast and gaining ground. Where ever there are business problems and commercial needs (be it B2B/B2C online publishing or re- purposing adverts in wide screen format for television or producing films in HD for the cinema) the product managers ultimate goal is to utilize technology to produce products to solve the problems and meet the market needs in a profitable way.

Where will the product manager be in 3 years time?

2008-04-16T17:56:00.008+01:00

Where do you, as the Product Manager, see yourself in three years time?
I always find this question challenging: the pace of product management and technology is moving so fast that it would be quite difficult to predict where or what today’s product manager would be doing in three or five years time. However here are a few thoughts that may help you answer the question and put you on track for a prolonged and fruitful career as Product Manager
Stress on seeing yourself as a successful Product Manager
I’ve always liked this quote from Allan R Cohen book “The portable MBA in Management”
“…the meaning of success has also changed for most people. No longer do people think of success in terms only in vertical terms (for example in terms of promotions). Increasingly, people define success in their own terms, measured against their own particular set of gaols and values in life. We call this psychological success. The good thing about success from the individuals point of view is while there is only one way to achieve vertical success (that of moving up), there are an infinite variety of ways of achieving psychological success.”

Applying horizontal success to Product Management
The Product Manager could apply philosophy of horizontal success by talking about:

Becoming or continuing to master a range of technologies that are applicable to his/her market and product.
To be known as the Product Manager that successfully launched a number of innovative products into the market place.
Broadening your product portfolio and entering new markets.
Taking on more responsibilities and mentoring junior product managers

Achieving the above and being formally recognised for it is also known as lateral promotion acording to Promoting to a new employer
"The lateral promotion is where, because of your increased knowledge, skills or experience, you earn more pay but do not get a managerial position. Many companies have realised over the past decade that one way to keep their personnel happy is not to make them supervisor, manager, partner or vice president, but to pay them better for being good at what they do. It's a simple way of rewarding - and keeping - valuable employees without putting extra strain or a new life on them."

It’s important not to give the impression (or have the idea) that you’re using the company only as a stepping stone to becoming the “Head of Product Management” or promoted to being the “Group Product Manager.”
Be sure to persuade the interviewer that you are able and ready to add value to the company and the product range(s) you will be managing before you give any impression on having a desire to climb the corporate ladder.

7 things the Product Manager needs to consider when bypassing processes

2008-04-11T11:29:00.011+01:00

Wikipedia, states that: Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal. Therefore it is important that the product manager believes and supports the processes that the company has implemented. However are there ever situations when it is acceptable to break an agreed process?

The answer depends a lot on the industry and products you’re managing. Very early on in my career I worked as an Avionics Engineer – the company would periodically be audited (with little or no warning) by the CAA, FAA and internal QA department. For obvious reasons failure to adhere to and being seen to follow the laid down processes would be totally unacceptable. Other industries are bound by SOX or ISO 9001 etc…. So if asked, at an interview – it would be wise to demonstrate that you understand and embrace the appropriate processes and procedures. However it would also be good to demonstrate that you can think outside the box. Some industries are not heavily regulated and there will be times when bypassing a process may result in commercial gain. If you feel it is appropriate to bypass processes then by sure to indicate that you would consider the following 7 points:

1. Inform your line manager. The last thing you want is for you boss to approach you if something goes wrong – ensure you keep her/him in the loop.
2. Weigh up the risk and rewards to the company and product. Are you sacrificing quality and therefore the company’s reputation for the sort term commercial gain? E.g. by shipping a product to a customer before it has been fully beta tested. On the other hand if you don’t ship first will you competitor ship before you and gain valuable market share?
3. Weigh up the risk and rewards to your career – in other words would you feel confident defending your actions to corporate management? How would you explain a lost commercial opportunity to the CEO or MD?
4. Keep a record of what was not done or who was not consulted.
5. Send an email, inadvance, to those who may have actually by pass the process and be sure that you clearly indicate that you as the ‘Product Manager’ are prepared to take full responsibility for any unfavourable outcome.
6. After the event (e.g. a release of a new online feature) be sure to backtrack – tidy up any loose ends and make sure that the records correctly reflect what actually happened and why. Or continue beta testing and offer the first customers free upgrade etc…
7. Review the process that was bypassed and see if it could be improved to cater for any future emergencies.

My final thought on the topic is never by pass a process if it involves compromising on health and safety, breaking the law or deceiving the customers/end user no matter what the commercial gains.

If you want to get into Product Management - then ask a good Product Manager.

2008-03-31T17:04:00.009+01:00

Many ask the question “How do I get into Product Management” well here are a few links to Q&As, on the topic, on Jeff Lash’s new website ‘Ask a Good Product Manager’

How can a software engineer become a product manager?
View my answer to this question - hopefully it will help not just the asker but many more software engineers who want to make the transition from software engineering to product management.

How can I become a product management consultant?
After being a product manager for a number of years you may want to change career and become a product management consultant. Read how Adrienne Tan of brainmates answers this question.

How can I become a product manager without any experience?
Saeed Khan of On Product Management shares his views on how to get into product management.

You can also read more of my thoughts on how to get into product management at:
How to get into Product Management

And read how other got into Product Management at:
How others have moved into Product Management

How do Product Managers Keep up with Technology?

2008-03-25T19:33:00.011Z

In general Product Management and/or Technical Product Management is about orientating between business and markets trends and needs and

being able utilise technology to define product features and enhancements. Marty Cagan, in his article Are You Technical Enough? States that:

"When I interview product management candidates, I’m looking hard at these two points. The candidate must convince me that they are capable of understanding and applying new technology, and of earning the respect of the engineering team."

As such keeping up with new and emerging technologies and learning about technologies that could be new to you is not only a challenge but critical to being a good and well respected Product Manager. Marty in the same article gives a few tips on how to stay technically savvy or should I say technologically savvy.

"There are many ways to do this. Books, articles, blogs, extension courses, experiment with the technologies or write software on your own, spend more time with your engineers, ask them about the technology topics they are exploring and tag along."

'Technical Product Manager' or 'Technology Product Manager'

In my book we should be careful not to get being technical mixed up with being able to apply technology to solve a problem – semantics one might say – let me explain – I view being technical as being the role of the Developer, Engineer or the Architect the person who is able to dig deep into the code, design the solution be it hardware, software, firmware or a combination of all three – they are also the people who are able to maintain the product, figure out work arounds (e.g. when chip sets all of a sudden go obsolete and purchasing are unable to source any more or a release of a new online feature causes performance issues not experienced in UAT or system test environments). The Product Manager needs to be able to have an appreciation for these issues but is not the person to offer up a detailed solution.

Things Product Managers do to keep up with Technology

Here’s how a few Product Managers that I have interviewed keep themselves updated with new technologies:

From Marketing to Product Management: Ivan Chalif says that he
"...typically let my Engineers bring new technologies to me, but I keep my eye open for new UI features and capabilities in other products that I think might be useful for my users. I also subscribe to a number of usability- and technology-oriented RSS feeds."

Transition from Web Developer to Product Manager: Patrick Jolley said "By using sites like TechCrunch and eHub. I also really like the ‘Movers and Shakers’ section on Alexa."

Interview with a Director of Product Management: Paul Young says that he tries "... to read a lot. I make heavy use of Google Reader to keep up with RSS feeds from favorite tech sites like Engadget. I also regularly read the other Product Management blogs that I link from my site, Product Beautiful. I am always amazed and humbled by the great thoughts and posts that other Product Management bloggers are creating."

Interview with an Ex AOL Product Manager: Brunella said "By reading a lot on the Internet and getting the latest hints through friends and colleagues in the field."

Interview with Jeff Lash: Author of How to be a Good Product Manager "... I try to read as many blogs as I can manage, read general consumer and business magazines, and learn from colleagues. I try to use as many new web sites as possible -- I always sign up for the "notify me when this service is available" email notifications, since there's too many to remember. As much as I try to stay ahead of the curve, though, I can't keep track of everything. My feeling is that if something is really going to be important, I don't need to be the first to find out about it, since I'll probably hear about it soon enough if enough people are talking about it."

From Technical Support to Product Management Mark Barns states "Mostly through working closely with in house development teams on Product Requirement and Software Requirement Specs. Continuous customer engagement, Trade Shows and Standards bodies attendance also help."

Tony Bradley in his article: Keeping up with Tehnology gives this advice:
"New technologies and improved technologies are emerging all the time. It can be daunting to try to keep up with them all. Remember to focus on keeping your business needs in mind and finding the technology that helps solve them rather than keeping up with technology just for the sake of keeping up with technology."

How do you keep up with technology? – Please feel free to share your thoughts and experiences.

Product Manager adopting web2.0 agile software development

2008-03-13T20:22:00.015Z

In the world of web development online product managers have two choices big bang (probably using waterfall) Vs incremental redesign (and empower product development) of the websites their responsible for. The world of online moves at such a fast pace that by the time you carry out your research, then work with an analyst to document your findings in the form user requirements and then design and build your website (or online product) and then launch/re-launch it, the original research is in danger of being out of date or put another way superseded by some new online fad. This means that you’re in danger of being in decline before you’ve had the opportunity to experience growth and maturity. In my opinion a combination of adopting agile software development (such as Scrum) along with web 2.0 technologies and mindset (i.e. perpetual beta) coupled with taking a brave decision to develop a new home page whilst leaving the rest of the site as is and then asking for user feedback via your web site has got to be the way to go. The most recent site to do this is the BBC.co.uk.

Opting for incremental raises a few questions for the online product manager.

#1.Will changing and releasing just the home page of a site confuse the users?
#2.Will internal stakeholders adopt the perpetual beta approach?
#3.What do you do if the users make suggestions that go against your company culture for your online product?

I’d value your feedback on this subject.

Interview question on under performing

2008-03-10T19:56:00.003Z

What would you do if your boss called you to a meeting and informed you that your team has been complaining about your lack of leadership and management?
You would or course be surprised even shocked because you would have put things in place to ensure that you where leading and managing the team well. Once you express that you would be surprised you could then:
1. Ask if their where any particular examples.
2. List the things you would have in place to ensure that individually and collectively the team felt they where managed and led. Such as:
a. Regular team meetings – where everyone has the opportunity to give feedback and where you have the opportunity.
b. Regular one to one sessions – where you have a chance to get close to your team members.
c. Periodic review of work done – with out micromanaging your team.
d. Yearly formal appraisals where tasks are set followed through with formal quarterly reviews.
The above demonstrates to the interviewer how you would manage your team so that such a situation would not occur.
However if such a complaint surfaced and your line manage agreed with the complaint then you could suggest you work with your line manager to put an action plan together in order to get things back on track.

From Technical Support to Product Management

2008-03-09T13:42:00.002Z

Mark Barnes has extensive experience in facing customers, initially as a customer support engineer and then later in his career as a product manager. Continue reading to learn more about his transition and views about product management.

1. What’s your academic background/training?
BEng in Electronics Engineering from Sussex University.
Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from Chartered Institute of Marketing.
2. What did you do before you where a product manager?
Field Service > Customer Support > Sales Support > Product Management
3. Where did you work prior to your current position?
Prior to current position at Tektronix I worked for Adherent Systems Ltd, (Digital Broadcast Test and Measurement) as a Product Manager. Adherent was acquired by Tektronix (General T&M) who in turn have been recently been acquired by Danaher (global portfolio of companies) - now my current employer. Prior to Adherent I worked for Radamec Broadcast Systems Ltd as a Customer Support Engineer, Sales Support Engineer and Product Manager. Prior to that I worked in the Oil and Gas exploration industry for Baker Hughes Inteq (aka Exlog) as a Field Service engineer.
4. What inspired you to become a product manager?
The desire to improve the products I was working with. In previous (support) roles I was always dealing with the results of other peoples product development decisions. I felt I could do better and had ideas about how to improve products and services so decided I should put my money where my mouth is and take on that responsibility in a product management role.
5. How did you make the move from being a Support Engineer to becoming a product manager?
During time spent in customer support role I found I gravitated towards sales activities, demo's, trade shows etc. This led me to realise that I needed to be in a position where I could more effectively influence product direction and when a Product Management opportunity in the same company came up, I took it.
6. What do you like best about your job?
Getting to the bottom of customers problems and developing solutions that make those people and their companies more successful.
7. What do you least like about your job?
Overcoming the challenges of large company 'inertia' needed to execute with velocity.
8. How do you keep up with the latest technologies?
Mostly through working closely with in house development teams on Product Requirement and Software Requirement Specs. Continuous customer engagement, Trade Shows and Standards bodies attendance also help.
9. Describe your Product Management job in one sentence.
Solving customers problems profitably.
10. What’s your dream product to manage?
Great question - something that I am passionate about, is strongly differentiated and targeted at a clearly defined niche segment.
11. How would you describe managing product development before you/your company adopted agile?
We don't tend to use agile in teh hardware world. My current company uses a gating process common to many hardware technology companies product introduction processes. A product is researched, defined and business case justified before the main thrust of development commences. Some amount of de-risking by the development team may take place before the project gets the green light.
12. What would be the top three attributes you need to do your job?
#Insight into customer needs, current and future.
#Ability to communicate effectively across functions, and at all levels, of the organisation.
#Leadership qualities - necessary to motivate cross-functional teams to deliver outstanding products that deliver value to all stakeholders.
13. What’s the key attribute you need in order to work with the development team?
Credibility in the eyes of the developers - I have seen others fail because of this.
14. What do you do when you’re not managing products (outside interests)?
Young family occupies most time. Also motorcycles.
15. What advice would you give some one who wants to become a product manager?
Product Management can be very rewarding because you control, and are accountable for, the product or service in question. However the Product Manager must be truly passionate about the Product or Service to maximise the rewards. If you do not feel a connection to the Product or Service in question then don't take the position - find one that you care about.

Wanted Online Product Managers to work in outer London.

2008-03-06T15:27:00.014Z

I've been blogging about product management job interviews, how to get into product management from being a developer, project manager, business analyst etc… for a few months now. Ironically I currently have an opening in my team for a talented individual. Read on if your interested -

Reed Business Information is the world's largest business-to-business publisher. Reed has experienced tremendous on-line growth over the past two years – as such we are looking to recruit a web product manager to product manage a number of on-line products. Click read more to view the job description and how to apply:

Product Manager

Information Services

Information Services includes a department responsible for the development of web sites across the portfolio. Web Solutions Group is an internal online development department for RBI UK incorporating roles that specialise in the creation and on-going development of online products.

The Product Manager is a role designed to bridge Business and IS in developing online solutions. The successful candidate will work with one or more assigned business units in order to roadmap and oversee the delivery of the IS solutions and services required by that unit in order to achieve its revenue targets and overall strategy.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES / RESPONSIBILITIES:
Strategy:
To work with each business unit to in order understand their strategy, goals and objectives and to develop a clear technical roadmap to enable that business unit to achieve them.

Ensure that all assigned business units have a clear understanding of the IS technical strategy.
To contribute to the overall IS strategy and ensure that their business units interests are fully represented. To advise business users on new innovations and technologies within the industry.

Projects
To assist with the initiation of new business projects for each assigned business unit.
To oversee the scoping, requirement gathering and agree all technical solutions on behalf of the business unit.
To represent the business unit in terms of technical solutions on the project steering board.
Ensure that the business unit remains fully engaged throughout the project lifecycle. Project sign-off responsibility to ensure that the final delivered solution was what was originally requested

Support
To prioritise enhancement requests with, and on behalf of, the business units they are representing.
To keep business users informed of progress and to work with the relevant development managers to ensure that changes are delivered in a timely fashion.
To act as the first line escalation point for any IS issues within the business unit
To take on the role of Incident Manager for any critical IS issues the business unit may have.

Quality
To oversee all IT deliverables and services provided to a business unit and to ensure that they are of an acceptable standard and quality.

KEY SKILLS REQUIRED:
Broad Technical understanding across various methodologies, platforms, tools and languages.
Highly customer focused with experience building and/or implementing IS Solutions
Ability to plan forward, analysing possible outcomes and maintaining contingency plans.
Strong influencing and negotiation skills with experience working at all levels within an organisation up to board level.
Preferably educated to degree level in an IT or Business discipline

EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
At least 5 years experience in a customer facing development management, product management or architectural role within a coroprate organisation or large software house.
Demonstrable experience of creating technical strategies and roadmaps for an organisation or significant business unit.
Experience working within the Media industry, with knowledge of recruitment advertising desirable.
Some experience in a project management role
Experience developing in a Microsoft Environment - coupled with an understanding of web portals using the .Net framework.
Experience working with in an agile management frame work such as Scrum
would be advantageous.

If you think you've got what it takes, are based in the UK and can commute to Sutton (Outer London), please send your CV to me at: allaboutproductmanagement.yahoo.com.

Recruitment agents please note, we have a strict preferred supplier list for recruitment, so please no agencies.

Interview Question: How Do Product Managers Handle Success?

2008-03-05T20:47:00.006Z

The interviewer poses the folloing question:
"You, and your team, were involved in a successful launch of a new product that exceeded business expectations during its first phase - what would you do?"

First I would Celebrate [with the team of course] and then….

Follow Brian Lawley’s advice which is stay humble and give credit to the team.

Following that it would be critical to analyse all the activities that led to the success launch of the product. State that as the product manager I'd have the over view of all activities but the analyse will be designed to get into the detail.

Were standard processes and procedures followed? – If they where then that’s fine, if not find out what was done differently and then suggest that the particular process might be improved in the light of the current success.

How was the interaction between the various stakeholders? Did the requirements change? What methodology did the development use: Scrum, DSDM, Waterfall (probably not!). Were there code reviews, was there pair-programming for those real in-depth tricky aspects of the code base.

How was the marketing tasks carried out? – What budget was spent on promoting the product via to launch compared to other product launches? How was the sales team trained?

Round up your answer by stating that you would document the feedback – coupled with your own observations and recommendations and then work towards embedding the improvements into the 'departments and company culture' so that the next phase and next product launch will be even more successful. Finally state that you would share and discuss your finding with your colleagues via case-study on the departmental blog and/or team meeting, thus functioning around CMMI level 2 to 3.

Where do you see your product in two years time?

2008-03-04T17:26:00.007Z

Looking into the future and knowing what the competition, the market and your product will be like is probably one of the most challenging tasks that any product manager has to undertake. This can be a tricky question to answer at a job interview. “Where do you see product x in y years time”? How a product manager answers this question gives the interviewer an insight as to how much of a visionary they are and whether or not they keep a keen eye on technology as it progresses. Here are two mini case study answers to such as question.

I carried out a few interviews over the last couple of days and asked the candidates “How do they see the web in a few years time.” A few interesting thoughts came up. One person drew an analogy between the way television has evolved over the past few years: from two analog channels in black and white to 100s of digital channels via cable & satellite. Like wise the number of web pages will continue to increase therefore competition for viewer-eye-balls will increase as well. The candidate went on to say that as TV has become an integral part of everyday life the web will become even more embedded in the lives of business professionals. We will become more reliant on information to do our jobs and that information will be provided via the types of on-line products and services that we ['we' being the company they were hoping to join] produce – our [being 'us' working together] challenge is to package the information in an easy, digestible and appealing way so that users keep on coming back for more. The subtle use of we and our came over quite well.

The other candidate focused on enabling technologies like ajax and silverlight to enhance the user experience and discussed the merits of web 2.0: social networks and web services to give users a more personalised experience – he quoted the BBCs and new home page i-google as an example of being able to move widgets around a webpage and mix and match a combination of widgets to give you the all the information you want in the format you want. Thay stressed that going forward many more websites would adopt and roll out such features- untill they become almost standard. They also mentioned how mobile device will probably change and copy the UI of apples i-phone.

Whilst neither candidate came up with the next killer app or suggested something total new or innovative, however they both demonstrated that they had at least thought through the general direction of on-line products and were able to demonstrate how and why future changes might be brought about.

How others have moved into Product Management

2008-03-03T19:38:00.015Z

How do I become a product manager? There is no one right answer to this question however one thing we do know is that very few if any people enter the realms of technical product management immediately. I have interviewed a number of Product Managers who have shared their background, experiences, likes, dislikes and given tips on how to succeed.

1. From Marketing to Product Management
Ivan Chalif studied psychology and counselling at university as opposed to business studies or technology – however he is a successful technical product manager. Read how Ivan made the various transitions in his career that eventually resulted in him becoming a product manager. Read From Marketing to Product Management for more details.

2. From Web Developer to Product Manager
Patrick was a web developer who produced online products for the travel industry. Patrick took an interest in the business operated become acquainted with the key business stakeholders and eventually made the transition into product managers for the travel products the business went through a restructure. refer to Patrick's interview for more details: Transition from Web Developer to Product Manager

3. From Hardware R&D Engineer to Product Management
Francois Abbe had a strong technical background and worked for an engineer led company. As a result the engineers were used in many client facing activities. This gave Francois the opportunity to perform many of the product management roles while being an engineer. This helped make the smooth transition to product manage many of the products that he worked on as an engineer.Read From R&D Engineer to Product Manager for more information

4. From Mechanical Engineering to Software Product Management
Bikram Gupta has an academic background in Mechanical engineering – he used his engineering degree to get into IT. Bikram has a wide technical background and has read his way into Product Management Follow the link to read Bikram's interviewMoving from Technology to Product Management to increase business skills

5. The man that did all the roles before entering Product Management
Marty Cagan has worked for several hi tech Silicon Valley companies. He has a wide range of experience in many technical roles including Product Management. Marty is a founder of Silicon Valley Product Group a consultation firm that helps companies with all aspects of the product life cycle read the the interview by going to the following link From Software Engineer to Product Manager to Founder of SVPG - Interview with Marty Cagan

6. From Business Analyst to Product Management
Andy started his career as a Business Analyst - the opportunity arose for him to temporary manage a few products. He took up the challenge, impressed his employer and then got promoted. He has since moved onto a new product management role and market sector Andy's interview can be found at Moving from Business Analyst to Product Manager to "Online Product Manager"

7. From Webmaster to Product Management
Daniel worked for a publisher as a webmaster. When his company went through a restructure he applied for a job as a project manager in the IS department. This gave him exposure to Product management and it was just a matter of time before he moved through the ranks and now managers a strong portfolio of online products for the aerospace industry Danile's interview can be found at the following link: Transition from Webmaster to Product Manager via Project Management

8. From Web Applications Programmer to Product Management
Paul Young started life studying Radio-Television-Film at University but quickly moved into web applications programming which eventually led into Product management. Paul is currently a Director of Product Management. Read Interview with a Director of Product Management for more details.

9.From Account Management to Product Management
Brunella Russo was an Account Management for a Financial Company. She moved into Product Management at AOL. Read Interview with an Ex AOL Product Manager

10. From User Experience Designer to Product Management
Jeff Lash has a strong background in User Experience Designer and has practiced information architecture. Jeff now works as the Product Director for MD Consult, a leading web site providing clinical reference information for physicians and medical professionals. Interview with Jeff Lash: Author of How to be a Good Product Manager

11. The man who read himself into Product Management.
Matt Rowe is one of those Product Managers who is self taught and self read. Matt was a Business Analyst (BA) prior to becoming a Product Manager. As a BA he ran several small projects – this coupled with his BA experience put him in good stead to become a product manager. Interview with a Product Manager

12. from Customer Support Engineer to Product Management
Mark Barnes found him self having to face customers in order to fix and install problems with equipment they had purchased - now he talks to customers with the aim of producing products that will provide them with solutions. Read From Technical Support to Product Management for more information.

Related articles:
How to improve your Product Management career and grow in your job
Interview Questions for Product Managers
How to get into Product Management

From Marketing to Product Management

2008-03-02T22:03:00.005Z

Ivan Chalif is author of th eblog The Productologist. He is also a founding member of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association (SVPMA). In addition to creating the original logo, and managing the website and forums, Ivan was instrumental in organizing early SVPMA events and establishing the organization’s charter.

1.What’s your academic background/training?
Both my undergraduate and graduate degrees are in Psychology and Counseling. While getting my undergraduate degree, my focus was on working with individuals with severe psychological disorders like Multiple Personality Disorder, Schizophrenia (which by the way, is not the same as MPD, even though they are commonly used interchangeably by the media), Bi-Polar disorder, and Depression. My graduate school work centered on working with young gifted students with behavioral problems. Learning to communicate effectively with both of these populations has gone a long way in contributing to my success as a Product Manager.

2.What did you do before you where a product manager?
Before I settled into Product Management, I worked in a variety of Marketing roles, including competitive intelligence, marketing generalist, webmaster, and application prototyper.

3.Where did you work before you worked for StrongMail Systems?
The past few years, I have worked at Email Service Providers like Acxiom Digital and ValueClick. Before that, I was Director of Marketing at a small online agency and before that I worked in the library automation industry.

4.What inspired you to become a product manager?
To be honest, I fell into Product Management. It combines many of the business functions that I enjoy (and some I don’t) and it was only through trying out other Marketing roles that I found out what Product Management actually was and started to get more interested in moving into that type of position. I am passionate about the user experience and in many organizations that starts with Product Management.

5.How did you make the move from being in Marketing to becoming a product manager?
I moved into Product Management through a hybrid role that combined Web Producer and Product Management functions.

6. What do you like best about your job?
The part of Product Management that I like the most is solving problems. There isn’t a day that goes by that I am not working on solving a problem for a customer, prospect or internal user. It may be as simple as addressing a customer question or as complex as creating a brand new workflow for users, but it’s the challenge of overcoming the constant onslaught of problems that I find most stimulating.

7.What do you least like about your job?
Meetings.

8.How do you keep up with the latest technologies?
I typically let my Engineers bring new technologies to me, but I keep my eye open for new UI features and capabilities in other products that I think might be useful for my users. I also subscribe to a number of usability- and technology-oriented RSS feeds.

9.Describe your Product Management job in one sentence.
Balancing spinning plates on a drinking straw while walking a tightrope as fast as you can with an itch on your nose.

10.What’s your dream product to manage?
In an ideal world, I would love to be the Product Manager of a motorcycle. I’ve been a fan of motorbikes since my youth and with “standard” bikes in particular. My two favorite bikes are the 1984-86 Honda CB700s and the 1986-87 Yamaha Fazer.

11.How would you describe managing product development before you/your company adopted agile?
Most of the companies that I have worked at have used a traditional or modified waterfall development process. There was one company where we used an iterative development process, but that was more a function of lack of development planning versus actually following an agile method. I am not convinced that an agile development process is ideal for every type of product, so I am not driving a change to that from our current process, but I would be interested in working with a development team that uses the agile methodology to see how it works first hand.

12. What would be the top three attributes you need to do your job?
a. The ability to make decisions quickly and effectively.
b. Being able to communicate with both internal and external stakeholders.
c. Comfort with a rapidly changing environment.

13. What’s the key attribute you need in order to work with the development team?
The patience to see your plan through to the end. There is a constant tug-of-war between Product Management and Engineering. Product Managers want more features in less time; Engineers want fewer features in more time. There are compromises along the way on both sides, but don’t sacrifice key elements of the product plan because they are difficult or haven’t been done before. Stand up for your ideas, your product and your users. That’s what it means to be a Product Manager.

14. What do you do when you’re not managing products (outside interests)?
Besides spending as much time with my family as possible, I try to fit in a variety of physical and mental activities including, soccer (futbol for the rest of the world ), running, snowboarding, reading hard science fiction and political satire, and occasionally blogging.

16. What advice would you give some one who wants to become a product manager.
Product Management is a broad practice that is, at best, loosely defined. If you are thinking about becoming a Product Manager, try some adjunct roles first. Sales, Corporate Marketing, Support, and Professional Services (or Engineering, if you are technically-inclined) will all give you a good background and the skills necessary to be a successful Product Manager. If you are a new Product Manager, it’s easy to get sucked into doing things that aren’t really product-related. Stay focused on addressing the needs of your users and understanding your market. The rest will fall into place.

How to improve your Product Management career and grow in your job

2008-02-27T22:17:00.010Z

I have recently been interviewing Product Managers about their jobs and writing interview Q&As for those who may be going for a job in Product Management. ( Refer to 'Your Career' for a list of articles). The aim is to provide individuals who want to get into Product Management with ideas, insight, inspiration and encouragement – one common thread that spreads across all the interviews is that everyone had a different role before they entered the world of Product Management.
Brian Lawley gives a webcast entitled “How to accelerate your product management career.” I have given a summary of the 20 odd points that he raises. In the hope that this will also help those who are currently working as product managers and those who want to break into product management.

1. Career goals: where you are honestly have 1/3/5/10 year goals – start with the 10 year goal and work backwards. You need to sit back and do some real thinking about this.
2. What’s the difference: why do some people advance very rapidly while others move slowly or stagnate – it about the techniques you use and how you manage up.
3. How does your boss view you: attitude and productivity: you need to be organised and get on with people – you also need to be a good leader.
4. Productivity = deliverables: both strategic and tactical - day to day and important high level projects and tasks that are important to the company. Ensure you free up enough time to tackle additional responsibility – therefore the day to day work need to be under control.
5. Get a mentor: your boss, an executive, senior peer, paid coach - spend an hour a week with your mentor discuss where you’re at and how to rise above issues.
6. Be the bearer of bad news quickly and propose solutions and timelines.
7. Keep careful company: network with the right people. Show me your friends and I’ll tell you what type of person you are therefore avoid negative people they will drag you down.
8. Be an expert: have the relevant information in your head both your discipline (product management) and your market – use google alerts, read books & blogs to stay up-to-date.
9. Beef up your resume: and build your brand – put in extra time and help others, do volunteer work, get certification, take-up internal opportunities to lead.
10. Be a solution employee:– manage your boss by giving them a weekly update and get input on areas you need but have recommendations to issues that are raised.
11. Always give the team the credit: – be humble and give credit to others – however when things go wrong be ready to stand up and take the blame.
12. Choose right: the boss (gage this at the interview) choose the right job and company, get into a company and market that is rapidly growing.
13. Be a good communicator: be concise and always have the correct tone.
14. Hire only those who can over take you: You are who your team, therefore hire stars and that will reflect on you – your team will push you up, while your mentor will pull you up.
15. Truly care about people: – you will work with them again – never speak badly about anyone. It will come back on you.
16. Always be professional:– don’t make issues personal get perspective before communicating –practice listening. We have two ears and one month.
17. The last thing you do: you are always remembered by the last thing you do at a company its the last thing you do that people will remember you by.
18. If you can’t stay positive then move on: You don’t want to be branded as the a negative person.
19. Don’t sit on the fence:– be committed to your job or decide to move on.
20. Build your network: - people are treated as assets – your safety net is your network.
21. Know what your good at: – hire people to complement your skills – do the things that your good at.

How Product Managers can estimate business value using agile techniques

2008-02-27T20:05:00.007Z

We recently finished a scrum sprint; during the sprint review the technical team gave a demonstration, to senior business owners, of the newly developed functionality and bug fixes they had done during the sprint. It was noted at the sprint retrospective and subsequent discussions, that followed, that the demonstration gave equal weighting in terms of the time spent demonstrating each user story. However some stories were minor bug fixes while others where major enhancements to the site's home page. The question is how does the technical team know how much time to spend demonstrating each user story?

One way would be to demonstrate the stories in priority order. However this would just give an order for the demo and not a give any indication on how much time should be spent. I believe one way would be to introduce an estimated business value to each story refer to Measuring business value with metrics for more details. The technical team are quite used to using Fibonacci numbers (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 ...) to estimate the complexity of a given user story and the product owner and other business stakeholders are accustomed to watching the technical team use the poker cards to vote on the complexity of a given backlog item and then witnessing the team member who gave the highest vote discuss with the team member who gave the lowest vote the reasons why they voted in that particular way. The team then votes again based on the new information they have heard.

A way forward would be for the business stakeholders to go through a similar exercise. The business value would depend on the type of product you are developing. For community website the following could be considered: Search engine optimisation (SEO) value; improvement in usability or user engagement; third party sponsorship generating direct revenue; improvement to backend editorial systems that increase efficiency and through put; automating processes for editorial staff….

Once a business Fibonacci has been given it will be a simple exercise for those demonstrating newly developed functionality and bug fixes to give the correct weighting in terms of time to each user story – thus keeping the review fresh and relevant and ensuring that business stakeholders stay engaged through the session.

However there is a much better reason for estimating business value for each backlog item – it not only helps with setting priorities but can be used to measure the amount of value and therefore ROI for each sprint and ultimately be used to calculate business velocity in a similar way that the scrum master calculates technical velocity for a team or individual. Estiamting business velocity, (refer to Understanding your Velocity for an explanationon on velocity) will also give the product manager and product owner a high level indication on the amount of business value that a team are able to generate for each product roadmap.

Transition from Web Developer to Product Manager

2008-02-19T16:46:00.010Z

People often ask the question – How do I to get into Product Management [from being a software engineer, project manager, business analyst etc…]. Patrick Jolley is a case in point of a web developer who recognised an opportunity to move into Product Management and took it.

1. What’s your academic background/training?
I studied Business Information Technology at University. When I started I intended to do the full 4 years and come out with a degree. I soon realised that the life of a student wasn’t for me and left after two years receiving an Higher National Diploma (HND).
2. What did you do before you where a product manager?
I’ve worked for Reed Business Information UK (RBI - UK) since I finished University, initially in software support, then software development and then web development.
3. What inspired you to become a product manager?
As a developer I always enjoyed getting involved in the requirements gathering, design and specification stages of projects. SEO and especially usability are also areas I am particularly interested in, so it just seemed like the natural progression for my career. That and the fact that I’d had enough of being a developer!
4. How did you make the move from being a developer to becoming a product manager?
The group I was working in was merged with another area of the business. During this time there was a lot of change, I saw my opportunity and took it.
5. What do you like best about your job?
The creativity and innovation aspects of the role are especially enjoyable. It is also very satisfying to deliver something you feel proud of.
6. What do you least like about your job?
Every so often things inevitably go wrong and life becomes very hectic!
7. How do you keep up with the latest technologies?
By using sites like TechCrunch and eHub. I also really like the ‘Movers and Shakers’ section on Alexa.
8. Describe your Product Management job in one sentence.
I’ll use three words instead. Challenging, varied and rewarding.
9. What’s your dream product to manage?
Haven’t got one in particular – although I think I’d really enjoy the challenge of working for a start-up.
10. What would be the top three attributes you need to do your job?
Communication, organisation and market knowledge.
11. What’s the key attribute you need in order to work with the development team?
An English to Klingon dictionary. Seriously – I think being able to trust each other is the key.
12. What are the main differences you have found between being a developer and being a product manager?
I can’t be as hands on with the products anymore which can sometimes be tough when things go wrong or aren’t happening as quickly as you’d like.
13.What do you do when you’re not managing products (outside interests)?
I like to travel, play and watch football, cook, eat and sleep.

Related articles:
From R&D Engineer to Product Manager

Moving from Technology to Product Management to increase business skills

From Software Engineer to Product Manager to Founder of SVPG - Interview with Marty Cagan

Moving from Business Analyst to Product Manager to "Online Product Manager"

Transition from Webmaster to Product Manager via Project Management

How do you demonstrate that you can manage products

2008-02-14T21:44:00.011Z

Product Management interview question:

Tell me about a project you have run or a product you have managed through its life cycle?

This is an interview question that gives you the opportunity to:
a) Demonstrate that you have a practical experience in the product development process.
b) That you have considered the user by developing a product that utilises technology to solve a problem and therefore meets the customer’s needs.
c) That you are able to lead with-out-authority by matrix managing a cross functional team of multi-disciplined professionals.

When answering this question you also have the opportunity to briefly touch on a previous area/question that you may have felt you didn’t answer too well – however you have to be brief, no detract in any way shape or form from the original question and ensure you don’t give the impression that you are labouring any particular point or trying to get one up on the interviewer. For example if you where previously asked about stakeholder management and you didn’t feel that you gave a full and impressive answer - then touch on your experience on stakeholder management while speaking about a project you have worked on.

A few typical points that you need to bring out are as follows:

Be sure to outline the role you played at each stage.
Ensure you highlight that you took the initiative at each key stages.
Speak about brain storming sessions that you led out in to firm up on requirements and the products feature set and ultimately define the product.
Your ability to create and manage a product roadmap.
Be sure to explain how you communicated the vision and project to technical and business stakeholders.
Show how you led the team and got buy-in at each stage of the product life cycle.
Speak about your interaction with stakeholders from across the organisation from sales and marketing to engineering and customer support.

It is important that you take the opportunity while answering this question to speak about your domain and knowledge of the technologies you worked with – coupled with your sharp business acumen. Above all don’t be afraid to mention things that went wrong BUT be sure to speak about what you did to put things right and be prepare demonstrate what you learnt from such mistakes.

The interviewer may ask you to speak about a project that went well or not so well. If so be sure clearly demonstrate that you understand why the project went the way it did.
It's possible to spend the whole interview on this one question alone -

Bottom line is that you as the Product Manager are seen to be in fully in touch with the product at every stag ein its life cycle.

From R&D Engineer to Product Manager

2008-02-12T20:42:00.001Z

Francois Abbe has had many years experience designing world beating hi tech equipment. He has had the opportunity to travel the globe both as an engineer and product manager representing the products he has designed and (later on in his career) that he product managed.

1. What's your academic background/training?
After graduating in France, I followed a B.Eng in Electronics and
Communication Engineering.

2. What did you do before product management?
I worked as a R&D engineer designing niche video signal processing products that’s used in the television broadcast and film industry. I’ve also worked designing lighting equipment and as a DJ.

3. Where did you previously work?
I worked for Snell & Wilcox in the UK, as a Product Manager.

4. What inspired you to become a product manager?
I recognised that there were often a gap between the high quality niche products that I designed and the needs of the customers. Designing products that did not offer a complete solution became meaningless. Product Management gave me the opportunity to influence the feature set of the products that we marketed I found this much more enjoyable!

5. How did you make the move from being a R&D engineer to becoming a product manager?
Snell & Wilcox often used engineers to assist at exhibitions, customer visits, road shows and product training – this exposure gave me a good introduction and a smooth transition into product management.

6. What do you like best about your job?
I enjoy interacting with a variety of people in my specific field.

7. What do you least like about your job?
When the product development cycle is too long.

8. How do you keep up with the latest technologies?
All sorts: chatting, emails, internet...

9. Describe your Product Management job in one sentence.
Managing all aspects of the product line and life cycle.

10. What's your dream product to manage?
Any product that is used in live broadcast applications.

11. What would be the top three attributes you need to do your job?
Ability to listen, flexibility and vision

12. What's the key attribute you need in order to work with the development
team?
Trust

13. What do you do when you're not managing products (outside interests)?
Cinema and food

14. What advice would you give some one who wants to become a product manager?
Be passionate and focused!

Product Management moves into IT/IS departments?

2008-02-11T20:10:00.000Z

The function and role of product management will become crucial as businesses expand and become more dependent on technology departments to asist them in gaining the competitive advantage.

But what is 'Technical Product Management'?

When asked to describe Product Management in one sentence Marty Cagan said:

"This is the person responsible for discovering and defining a
product that is useful, usable and feasible.”

Jeff Lash concurs by saying that the product manager is the person who:

“Understand customer needs, figure out ways to meet those
needs, work to get those solutions implemented, and provide and communicate
them to the market.”

Traditionally technical Product management is a role that has operated in software and technology companies. However the role is being successfully used in Information Technology/Information services departments (IT/IS dept).

How can 'Technical Product Management' help non technical businesses?

Paul Lancour in his podcast interview IT Product Management: An Art More Than a Science?with chief technologist Manuel Barbero discusses the art of product management in the IT organisation: I’ve listed 7 key points that Manuel brings out:

Product Management is a combination of art and science to deliver products and value to a captive, internal, audience. (I’ve heard product managers described as being
half engineer and half marketing manager hence half art and half science).

Structured discipline approach to defining and delivering solutions to an audience – that has not truly embraced in IT.

It’s about selling solutions– not something traditionally done by IT management.

Be able to define the feature set and understand how it will evolve over time.

Know the price points and cost structure.

Departments who want to implement product management need to find the right people who understand and appreciate technology and the needs of the businesses end users and
commercial world.

IT/IS dept who embrace product management need a product catalogue to describe the feature set and helps the success of the introduction of product management into IT organisations.

Case in point 'Technical Product Management' in the banking industry

At Wachovia Bank, Tony Bishop and his boss, CIO Susan Certoma, implemented product Management when they began to build a much needed SOA platform for financial services. According to Susan, Wachovia Bank

“…wanted technology to become an advisor to the business,
not an order taker,”

The article states that:

deploying an enterprisewide SOA is not just about developing and deploying
components and services — it’s about changing the DNA and culture of IT to
become more produc tmanagement oriented.While most IT shops talk about meeting the needs of the business, Tony and Susan, talk about SOA as an ongoing process
of product development and evangelism — a methodology for productizing
responsiveness to changing customer needs. “We’ve taken a software vendor
product management model — the product management discipline with its associated life cycle — and instilled that discipline so I can create that horizontal
utility infrastructure,” Bishop explains.

No such thing as a non technical corporate business

As the world of business becomes more reliant on technology the need for individuals to be able to figure out what is needed, advise internal customers, manage, deliver and maintain solutions will become critical. CIOs and CTOs are bound to be heading up teams of product managers to fulfil the gap and therefore assist in driving revenue.