It’s often stated that Product Managers “lead through influence” rather than through position. And people smile and nod, and occasionally clap their hands in agreement. But how many people really think about what this means, and how to achieve it?
Forests or Trees – The Constant Tension of Product & Project Management
It’s a rather sad fact of life that many companies, hiring managers, and even supervisory managers commonly conflate the jobs of Product Management and Project Management. I literally cannot count the number of times I’ve corrected people at a variety of companies, telling them that I’m a “Product Manager” and not a “Project Manager.” In […]
Prioritizing in an Agile World: What’s Now, What’s Next, What Else?
While helping through a transition with a PM and Dev team that I worked with on a daily basis, one of the major stumbling blocks I ran into was Release Planning and Roadmapping. When I got there, they were in many ways using all of the right Agile terms, but not really following Agile principles […]
How Technical Does a Product Manager Really Have to Be?
There’s a strong trend in Product Management circles to insist that a good Product Manager must be strongly technical in addition to having strong marketing and communication skills. And while this approach is well-meaning, it often results in a weak Product Management role that merely supports Development rather than challenge it. Now, that’s not to […]
Tending Gardens & Herding Cats: Maintaining a Healthy Rapport with Your Development Teams
Several times in my career, I’ve joked to someone or another that my next job title will be “Senior Cat Herder” rather than “Senior Product Manager” — and for good reason. Cats, for all of their cuddly cuteness, are independent problem solvers, much like most of the better developers that I’ve worked with. Add to […]
What Exactly *IS* Product Management, Anyway?
Trying to come up with a single, global definition of what “Product Management” is and what it incorporates, often seems like a massive exercise in folly. Wikipedia describes Product Management as “an organizational lifecycle function within a company dealing with the planning, forecasting, or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the […]
First, Kill All The Product Managers!
There’s a very famous quote that’s used quite often when people are expressing their dislike of lawyers: “First, kill all the lawyers.” This, they posit, is something that good old Bill Shakespeare himself advocated for, after all – and what better way to stabilize our society than to dispose of the bottom-feeding trolls and sharks […]
You Go to Market With the Dev Team You Have, Not the Dev Team You Want
This is the second time I’ve massacred a quote from former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and while I personally have no love for the man, he’s a font of applicable and interesting quotations on the subject of battle tactics, strategy, and resource management. This particular quote comes from a hearing in which he was […]
Five Things a Clever Product Manager Should ALWAYS Do
In a prior post, I talked about five things that clever PMs should never do — traps that we often fall into as a result of our focus on getting things done and delivering value, while perhaps not being as mindful as we should about leading through influence. Today, I’m going to flip that post […]
Product Manager or Product Owner – What’s the Difference?
In the search for a Product Management role, many people become confused by the deceptively similar descriptions, expectations, and requirements that they find for Product Owner and Product Manager roles in various organizations. I’m sorry to say, this is another reflection of the inability of our Product Management culture and discipline to adopt a clear […]
How to Minimize Workplace Disruptions With One Easy Trick
How often do we as Product Managers complain that we’re constantly bombarded with all sorts of distractions as we try to do our jobs on a daily basis? What if I told you that there’s one clever trick that you can use to minimize those disruptions and secure more time to focus on doing your […]
Five Things a Clever Product Manager Should NEVER Do
There are a lot of things that Product Managers can be accused of “doing wrong” when it comes to our daily jobs. As a wise mentor once told me, if there’s not at least one stakeholder upset with you, you’re not doing your job right. However, that doesn’t mean that we’re without fault. If we’re […]