But once people get to know you and a good working relationship gets established, magic happens. Now, “what” you say becomes more important than “how” you say it. You could even drop every other word and speak (not that I recommend you do this) and still your team magically knows where you are coming from and what you are trying to say. Once the rapport has been built, people start believing in you and you can move a mountain.

So I don’t care what social networks come and go, what technologies make it easier to communicate, nothing comes even close to the traditional “human” face-to-face connection in building relationships. So what have you as a software product manager done lately to build or strengthen existing relationships at work? If you are new at your job, what have you done so that the magic happens that switches the conversation from “how you say it” to “what you say”? After all, it is all about human relationships, not about products. Relationships – internal and external – will outlast any product you will ever build.

Agree? Comments?

Image: Courtesy of presentationmagazine.com

Other articles you may like:

Customer Visits – Do’s and Don’ts

Don’t be an “I” specialist

B2B vs B2C Product Management -16 Differences

Thoughts? Please share them via comments.

Last night, I was teaching my 9 nine year old daughter Navya how to compute the area of shapes. I was teaching her how to break the shape into rectangles and squares, calculate the area of each and then add them up. Suddenly, it dawned on me as to how I could break down this wall of not blogging.

It is simple – “10 minutes” and “Now”. I even have this written down on my monitor at work. When something feels too big and I have trouble getting started, I try breaking it down into steps each of which would take 10 minutes. And then I start doing them NOW. Believe it or not, it has been working and a proof point is this blog post. I just opened WordPress and started writing.

Try it for yourself. Whether you are a software product manager procrastinating on starting a requirements doc for a complex feature or you are a painter wanting to start a painting, break it down into “10 minute” chunks and start on it “Now”.

10 minutes get over fast and before you realize you are 30 minutes into it. The sense of accomplishment suddenly carries you forward. Agile development methodology is built on this core principle of breaking things down, building fast and shipping often.

Do you agree? Thoughts, comments?

Image: Courtesy of digitalminimalism.com

Here is a guest blog post written by Mike Cudemo of Sparta Systems that explains the differences between Agile and Waterfall product development methodologies in a very simple way. He also explains the benefits of doing agile as a way of increasing the success rate of IT projects.

Seeing is believing.  Agile methodologies are not perfect, but they are three times more successful than traditional waterfall methodologies (source: Standish Group).  Agile methodologies allow end users and stakeholders to visualize their requirements faster and catch errors earlier in the development process.

A waterfall process can be likened to building a house.  An architect translates your requirements into blueprints which only an architect can visualize.  Your first glimpse into reality occurs after the foundation is poured and the walls are erected.   While things can be changed, it is more expensive to change.  Most people struggle to catch problems until the drywall is up and the ductwork and plumbing are in place.  Again, you can make changes if there are issues, however, now it is even more expensive to address.  The waterfall process attempts to “freeze the requirements” after the blueprints are designed.   As you can imagine, this is not reality.  The later you catch a requirements problem (e.g. I want a larger master bedroom closet), the more expensive it is to fix.  In some cases, it is impossible to fix.  You can have the closet, but little Timmy needs to sleep on the roof!

The Agile Method does not attempt to “nail and freeze the requirements” all up front at one time.   It assumes that the requirements will evolve and change as the customer begins to visualize their own requirements.  The Agile Method attempts to build the house by first creating a visual 3D representation of the outside of the house.  This is how it is going to look when you come home from a long day at work.  After the outside look and feel is developed, you attempt to construct the house one to two rooms at a time.   The Agile Method attempts to focus the requirements, design, code and test into iterative smaller development phases.   Essentially, the Agile Method is a series of smaller contained waterfalls.  End users and business stakeholders get to see and experience the system as it unfolds.  Course corrections become more apparent and easier to navigate.

Waterfall processes attempt to minimize and control change.  Agile processes accept the inevitable need to accommodate learning about the real requirements.  End users think in broad strokes; however, we all know the devil truly lies in the details.   Skilled Agile development teams have a clear methodology to guide the process most effectively.  They will select the plot and then develop the look and feel of the outside of the house. Next, they will focus on the 1^st floor, and then move to the second floor.  The finished basement will be last, because as we all know, we’ve run out of money by that time.

We find ourselves in the worst economy since the Great Depression.  Many CFOs find themselves in a complex juggling act of cutting operational costs and making technology investments.  CFOs are forcing their CIOs to come up with plans to leverage existing investments, yet develop the capabilities to rapidly respond to both economic growth and competitive changes. Project failure is really not an option, yet according to the statistics, waterfall approaches waste 60% of a company’s IT project budget.

Over 20 years ago, 90% of IT projects failed or under-delivered on functionality. Today, depending on your source for statistics, IT projects fail or under-deliver between 30-70% of the time.   It is better, but far from perfect.  It is clear, that Agile methodologies are at least 3x more likely to succeed.

Agile methodologies are iterative. Understanding is paramount to containing change.  Systems unfold one functional area and set of screens at a time.  An Agile Methodology will not fix a bad project vision, an impossible task, or a lack of skilled personnel.  Properly applied, an Agile approach will catch the poor vision, unattainable goals, or lack of resources early.  IT and application departments must learn that cancelling a project early is actually a win.   Broken processes should be fixed first before they become institutionalized with software or a system.

Companies that employ Agile methodologies and cancel unattainable projects early will thrive.  Their IT success rates will exceed 85%.  Most importantly, they will have more working capital to drive growth, innovate, and increase productivity.

About Mike Cudemo

Mike Cudemo runs the Customer Success Program at Sparta Systems.  The program accelerates knowledge transfer of best practices to our customers to enhance overall business performance.  Mike spent over 12 years integrating manufacturing operations with ERP and value chain systems at Fortune 100 clients, utilizing his expertise in value chain, quality, manufacturing execution and process automation systems. Trained as a systems engineer to analyze and simplify computer systems, Mike has spent a career helping clients understand their core business drivers, simplify the underlying processes, and automate the repetitive, non-value-added tasks which introduce defects and waste.

1. All key stakeholders have been invited – marketing, sales, product, customer support, qa, …..
2. The demo is held a couple of days before the release – stakeholders should have some time to react to the new features and also engineering – in case there are small changes that need to be made (textual changes or other very minor changes).
3. The demo is done by engineering. This is very key for me. Engineers toil hard to get everything done and it is their work that is being shown in the demo. Given this, they are the best ones to show case what they have built. It also ensures that everything to be released is completed before these demoes.

What are your experiences? How do you do your sprint demos?

So if you are a new product manager who walks into such an environment, the last thing you want to do is to criticize the way things are. Instead, spend the time to understand the reasons why things are the way they are. 9 times out of 10, the folks that have been there are not stupid to have done what they have done. The team will be very appreciative if someone takes the time to appreciate what they have done under the constraints they had. I am not suggesting that you be disingenuous and praise something when everyone around you knows it is a pile of shiitake. You have been hired for a reason. If you are hired as a VP of Product, it is probably because things have not been rosy and the company needs a direction. But before you start to rock the cart, first find the reason for the current madness.

Another occasion where understanding constraints becomes valuable is when you are making a business case for something. Sell the idea first (before you ask for resources), make sure there is buy-in and then outline the constraints that will need to be resolved if the idea needs to succeed. This could be asking for more people or funding.

Thoughts? Do you agree? What can you share from your experiences?

Image: Courtesy of scmep.org

1. Buzzwords: When I read “Builds and manages relationship with customers to smooth transition from legacy, fragmented business processes and systems to streamlined global product development processes enabled by enterprise technology implementation that improve efficiency of new product delivery and sustaining engineering“, I have no idea what you are talking about and I move on very quickly to the next resume.
2. No quantitative metrics: If I see no metrics or results achieved based on what you have done, I get no sense of whether your efforts were successful or not. Instead of saying “Launched a customer visit program for direct reports”, add more meat and metrics. Tell me what happened as a result. Instead, it is more useful to read something along the lines of “Developed an on-site customer visit program for direct reports that resulted in 200 visits/year. Improved understanding of customer product design needs resulted in launch of 5 new products in 2 years for the machine design and consumer design vertical segments.” It gives me context and also a better understanding of your accomplishments. However, never make things up, hiring managers will be able to sniff things out very easily. Trust me, I have seen candidates lie on their resume and it has come out within 5 minutes into the interview.
3. No white space: Your resume is so full of text with minimal spacing, I as a reader have trouble focusing on something in your resume. It becomes a lot harder to read your resume. Presentation matters, readability matters. You want to stand out, make it easier for the hiring manager to read. Ask yourself this question – “Does my resume highlight my key achievements that will make the hiring manager want to pick up the phone and call me?” You do not have to put in everything you have ever done in your resume, what you want are your key achievements. The nitty gritty details can come in during the interview (if you think it is relevant to mention them). A good friend of mine, who has been a VP of marketing at many companies gave me a good rule of thumb – “1 page of resume for every decade of your experience”.

Thoughts? Comments? What are your experiences as a hiring manager?

Related articles:

1. 10 job hunting tips for a product manager
2. 8 traits of good managers
3. 7 tips to survive a layoff

Customer visits can be the best qualitative method to learn the most about your customers/prospects – stuff you will not learn from surveying them. But this is only if you do them right. Based on experience doing 300 of them in 10 different countries, I would like to share what has worked and what has not.

Here are the slides I used.

The international group is small (total of 7), follows an agile development process and is very fast paced. We launched in the UK last month and will be launching in other countries very soon.

Product Manager based in Waltham, MA

Care.com is seeking a highly motivated individual to join its International Product Management team in the position of Product Manager. The individual will be responsible for defining, prioritizing, and overseeing the implementation of features and functionality of Care.com‘s international websites. The ideal candidate must have previous experience developing product requirements for an online, consumer service. In addition, the candidate must be able to effectively manage cross-functional teams of stakeholders throughout the organization.

Specific Duties/Responsibilities:

• Ownership of product requirements for Care.com’s online product offerings for international markets. This includes the requirements gathering process, requirements documentation, and the ongoing maintenance of requirements as the business context evolves.
• Working directly with stakeholders throughout the company to ensure that a successful product is delivered.
• Working with business owners to understand and document the product requirements.
• Working with engineers to communicate product requirements, make trade-offs, and oversee the product implementation and testing process.
• Working with marketing to understand marketing plans and strategy and ensure the site and reporting platform support those plans.
• Working with the member care team to ensure that product support concerns are addressed in the product requirements.
• Working with the finance team to ensure that any revenue generated from the product is accounted for correctly.
• Driving cross-functional teams to deliver a product which is on-time and in compliance with the product requirements.
• Assist Director of Product Management in creation of product roadmap for international products.

Skills/Experience Requirements:

• 4+ years of product management experience REQUIRED.
• Experience working for a company/organization that develops and runs an online service, preferably a consumer-oriented service.
• Experience working directly with customers in doing market research and usability testing.
• Experience writing product requirements documents and functional requirements documents. This includes experience developing wireframes using tools such as Balsamiq or other similar tools.
• An understanding of Information Architecture and a passion for defining a highly-usable online experience.
• Demonstrated ability to manage cross-functional teams, solve complex problems, and produce high-quality results.
• Knowledge of and experience with reporting requirements of an online product.
• Experience working in an agile development environment.
• Ability to roll up the sleeves and work in a fast-paced, start-up environment.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and in a team environment.
• Willing to travel internationally as required to meet with customers (travel expected to be less than 5%)

Education/Other Pre-Requisites:

• BA/BS degree in engineering or related field.
• Knowledge of German, French or any other languages considered a plus.

I was 9 years old when my father taught me how to estimate the height of a building using my thumb and simple geometry.  As engineers we are taught estimating techniques – in school, and by colleagues and mentors.  Quick-and-dirty assessments are indispensable as we engineer new products, and they’re just as critical for product managers exploring new markets and products.

Being able to quickly size a market is quite handy at several points in a product’s life cycle.  I am not talking about achieving the third decimal point of accuracy at a 95% confidence level; rather, I am talking about being able to know within, say, a factor of two or four what the opportunity might be.  Here’s just a few of the situations I’ve seen where roughly sizing an opportunity helped lead to a better decision:

• What is the market opportunity for Product X?  This is useful not just for go/no-go decisions, but also for what might be the right way to bring a product to market.  For example, a line extension that can appeal to 15% of your existing user base might be a very attractive new add-on for your company to introduce; though it may not, for example, warrant a spin-out or significant engineering diversion.
• What is the right funding and development path for New Idea X?  A new idea may be worthwhile, regardless of whether the opportunity it represents is $5M, $50M, or $500M.  But it sure might be helpful to have a clue as to which it might be!  If it’s $5M, it might be an interesting lifestyle business; if it’s $50M, it might be an interesting company for a couple angel investors to help get off the ground; whereas at $500M and up, it may be worthy of a venture capital investment and more aggressive development and go-to-market plans.
• Which user persona to target for the first release of Product X?  Often, a product might appeal to a couple different user types.  But rather than engineering the “gray sneaker” (when half the users actually want black, and the other half want white), it may be better to figure out which segment represents a better opportunity, and really optimize the product for them.

There’s no one “right” way to do market sizing, and in fact it’s often useful to triangulate using multiple approaches, to increase your confidence that you’re in the ballpark.  Here’s a couple examples.

Top-Down: The Filter Approach

The approach here is to identify a key metric that’s driving the opportunity, and the key assumptions / reduction filters to zero in on your addressable market. One of my start-ups was Interactive Supercomputing (a venture-backed MIT spin-off acquired by Microsoft).  Our software connected engineering desktop applications – such as MATLAB® or Python – and parallel servers, to solve large and complex numerical problems that can’t be solved with a desktop computer.

The market for high performance computers (also known as “HPC servers,” or “parallel servers”) was large and reasonably well-known – hundreds of thousands of servers sold annually.  There is a broad set of diverse applications and usage scenarios for HPCs, so the big question for us was, how many of them could benefit from our software?  Here are the three primary filters we identified:

1. Fraction of servers to run custom applications: The software running on these servers falls into 2 categories: it is either an existing software application; OR it is a newly developed application, currently being prototyped on a desktop tool.  Our software was suited for the latter scenario (enabling a much quicker path going from desktop prototype to deployment on a server).  Our research suggested that roughly half the servers purchased every year were for running existing apps, and half were for custom apps.  This 50% was therefore a constant filter in our model.
2. Desktop Language Support:  The first filter helps us identify the servers running new custom apps.  But that would be an overestimate, because our software was not able to help every one of the custom app developers.  Turns out that a second important filter is: which desktop tool or language is used to prototype the application.  Our initial product supported MATLAB, which according to our research was used to prototype ~25% of the custom HPC apps.  Over the following 3 years, we planned on introducing support for Python and R, expanding the addressable market to 50% of the custom HPC apps.
3. Product fit: The third and final filter was product fit.  Our software did not support all domains and applications equally well – for example, we were great for signal processing, but not genetic algorithms.  We broke down the numerical methods into about 10 domains, identified our sweet spots, guesstimated which ones we’ll strengthen over time, and felt that a reasonable model might be to grow this filter from 25% to 40% over 4 years.

Here’s the resulting model – we start from the universe of servers sold in the HPC space, and zero in on the footprint of ones we can address well.  Because two of the filters grow over time, as does the absolute number of servers shipped, the market grows rapidly:
(Note: I’m glossing over a couple details here, for clarity.  First is the connection between number of servers and the dollars spent.  And second, the fact that in addition to new servers modeled here, there is an installed base which is approximately 3 times larger, though less of them are available for new custom applications, and are typically not being sold to by the channel we were betting on.)

Bottom-Up Estimate

In the bottom-up approach, rather than starting with some total and filtering it to the relevant fraction, we do a bit of the opposite: identify the segments, to build up the total market opportunity.
At my next start-up Cilk Arts (a venture-backed MIT spin-off acquired by Intel), our mission was to provide the easiest, quickest, and most reliable way to optimize application performance on multicore processors.  Our software consisted of developer tools, and a runtime system.  We had hundreds of conversations with a broad set of organizations looking to make their applications run faster on the new generation of microprocessors from Intel and AMD.  We saw a large variety in terms of product fit, how many applications they develop, size of their user base, and what they may spend.

So to size the market, we identified the key segments, and estimated the key variables:

• Number of firms in each segment: through web searches and other data we actually compiled a list of many of these;
• Number of apps developed per year;
• Product fit:  Fraction of their apps we could accelerate (we had better performance in some sectors, and less of a fit for others);
• Estimate of value for each app based on conversations with hundreds of prospects.

My sense is that it was less important to know whether $480M was “right” and more important to quickly figure out that it was neither a billion-dollar opportunity, nor merely a $100M market (where the leader might garner a ~20% share).

Conclusion

Because there is no one source of info is that reliable or complete, it’s better to use multiple approaches to zero in on a good estimate.  Try to identify metrics that correlate with usage or size of the problem – possible sources of data include government databases, relevant publications’ reader studies, commercial databases, competitors.

What approaches have YOU used to estimate market opportunity?  We’d love to hear from you.

1. Earn customer capital: If you can show that you talked to real customers who are likely to buy your product as opposed to holding on to internal opinions, you stand a chance to gain momentum. Even if you don’t talk to customers, but instead have data that proves user behavior (for example web analytics data), you are likely to gain momentum.
2. Political capital: If you can make a business case on why the company cannot ignore the opportunity you have identified based on the “customer capital” you have earned, you are likely to gain momentum. If you can get buy-ins from individual stakeholders and get their backing, you are likely to gain momentum.
3. Early market success: If you can build a minimum viable product, launch it into the market and get early market success, you will likely win over the last standing doubters and build momentum.

If all you have are your opinions, you will lose to the HiPPO (Highest Paid Person’s opinion). Instead if you have data to back up what you are saying, you are likely to gain momentum that will make you successful.

And in spite of all this, if you don’t, it may be time for you to move on. Trust me, I have been in this situation, where no matter how much data I brought in to prove my case, it fell on deaf ears and the organization was more concerned addressing what appeared as the “next big deal” that the product which was bringing in the bacon was left to languish. All you can do then, is know that you put the best foot forward and hope for the best.

What do you think? Do you agree?

Then, recently someone walked into my storm screen door leading to the deck. I could not find a replacement door even after numerous trips to Lowe’s and Home Depot. These retailers only sell you new stuff, they don’t care about getting stuff repaired for you. So as a last resort, I walked into my local, long forgotten Koopman Lumber. Never did I realize that I was about to discover an exceptional company that should be considered an epitome of superior customer service. They repaired my storm screen door. But the exceptional customer service they delivered has resulted in my now making Koopman my destination for all my home repair needs. The customer service is very personal. You can never roam around the store looking for someone because it is well staffed and all the staff are on a walkie talkie with each other so that they can quickly get you the expert that can help you the best. Returns are super easy to make even if you do not have a receipt.

Prices may not be the cheapest, but now I don’t care. Convenience is great because it is a lot closer, and I trust the advice they give me – because in one case they talked me out of an expensive solution for what they considered the right solution for my needs.

What does this teach me as a software product manager?

1. You do not always have to be big to win. Instead, what you need to do is treat every customer who walks in through your door right so that they will keep coming back. How many businesses realize this – most of them don’t.
2. If you are local, the only way you can fight the big boys (and the online stores) is via customer relationships and service.
3. If you are a small town business, you can choose to ignore your local customers at your own peril. Big town customers are not going to come to small town businesses unless you have something unique to offer. But you can surely drive your local customers to big town businesses if you don’t take care of them.

Thoughts? Any other stories about your local businesses that you have come to love?

Care.com enables consumers to find babysitters, nannies, senior care providers, pet sitters, tutors, housekeepers and a lot more. The service has existed in the US since 2006  and has become the largest and fastest growing service used by families seeking high-quality care providers, providing a place to easily connect with hundreds of thousands of care providers, share care giving experiences and get advice. Now care.com is expanding into the UK and I will be leading the product management effort for this initiative. I am very excited to join the company given the stellar management team, sizable marketopportunity and the ability to build something up from the ground floor.

Wish me luck folks since it is going to be busy, fun and challenging!

This position reports directly to Jonathan (CEO) and is a highly visible role with great opportunities to define product management in a company that was named one of the most innovative design companies in America by Fast Company. Good luck!

Senior Product Manager, Software

Hoefler & Frere-Jones (H&FJ) is a leading digital type foundry with a body of work that includes some of the world’s most famous fonts. H&FJ works with brand leaders in every sector, developing original fonts for print, screen, and mobile applications, and licensing them through our New York office and our website www.typography.com. Our body of work includes the signature typeface of the Obama campaign, the fonts used by magazines from Wired to Martha Stewart Living, the institutional typefaces of the Whitney and Guggenheim museums, and the Hoefler Text font family that has shipped with 75,000,000 Macintoshes. A leader in the industry for more than 20 years, H&FJ’s mission is to enable people to speak in a unique voice across all channels, always with an emphasis on new and emerging technologies. It’s an objective that’s lead us to create new products and services that bring fine typography to websites, mobile apps, eBooks, and beyond.

As our first ever Product Manager, you will work closely with our senior management and engineering teams to develop product strategy and lead its execution. You will report directly to the CEO, making this a leadership role with significant visibility, accountability, and career growth potential. You will lead the enhancement of existing products, and help to develop new products and services. You must possess both business- and technical savvy, a big-picture vision, and the drive to make that vision a reality via superior execution. We’re looking for an individual who is passionate, hands-on, and willing to work collaboratively with internal stakeholders to launch successful and profitable products for the company. As an established and well-respected company, H&FJ is free from startup jitters and management fire drills. And as a small company (a team of 17) with a global reach, you’ll have a real opportunity to make a significant impact.

This is a full-time salaried position at our New York office, open to US citizens or those with authorization to work in the US.

Key Responsibilities:

While these responsibilities are what will keep you busy, H&FJ is a place for people ready to roll up their sleeves and do whatever it takes to make our products successful.

• Manage the full product life cycle for our web product offerings ranging from strategic planning to tactical execution.
• Define product strategy and product roadmap for existing and new product offerings, working very closely with the senior management team.
• Define product requirement documents for current and future products based on market research and competitive analysis.
• Drive the execution of the defined solutions by working with senior management, engineering and marketing teams.
• Develop and implement a company-wide go-to-market plan, working with all internal stakeholders to ensure successful execution and product launch.
• Help create marketing materials such as datasheets and white papers that communicate the customer benefits of our product offerings, and reflect our position as an established industry leader.

Required Qualifications:

• A BS/BA degree, preferably in a technology field.
• A minimum of 5 years of software product management experience, with at least 2 years of experience managing SaaS, or software products sold online.
• A successful track record of achieving results with minimal direction and oversight in a very fast paced environment.
• The demonstrated ability to deal with both big-picture strategic activities and detail-oriented tactical activities.
• Superior communication skills: written, verbal, and presentational.
• Ability to articulate and present problems and possible solutions to internal stakeholders.

Since you’re good at articulating and advocating your position, please write directly to Jonathan Hoefler, Founder and CEO, at hr-spm@typography.com, to explain why you’re right for H&FJ. Please include a copy of your résumé, as well as any other material that you feel is relevant.

So this time, I am at the Kochi International Airport and wanted to make a phone call letting my parents know that my flight was on time. So I ask someone where I could find a public phone (that vintage one). They point me to an Airtel desk. I walk over and tell the gentleman manning the desk that I need to make a phone call. He had a better offer for me. He asked me if I had a mobile phone on me and I did – but one without a SIM card. He offered to sell me a SIM card for 100 Indian Rupees ($2 USD) and did all the paperwork necessary in less than 5 minutes including using a digital camera to take my photo and copy of my passport. I was just WOWed, because here was a simple innovation that solved a real customer need. And I was not alone, this chap was busy with other travellers either buying new SIM cards or reloading their old prepaid SIM cards with more money. Airtel was gaining customers one at a time, but at a place where there was no competition.

Bottomline, you do not have to come up with game changing innovations like the iphone or the ipad, there are a lot of customers problems that can be solved via simple yet profitable innovations. In fact, I would argue that there are more incremental innovations that are equally effective than game changing ones! Agreed?

After Steve Jobs death, I have gone through many of his well known presentations of introducing the iPhone and the iPad and many other videos available on Youtube. There have been two videos that are my favorites – one of them is where he speaks about “Focus is about saying NO”. 3 minutes of your life spent watching it would be worthwhile. Watch it once, watch it twice, watch it until you keep repeating “Focus is about saying NO”.

As software product managers, every one of us is faced with the hundreds of things we could do and what others in the company want to do. But what will allow us to succeed is not by building something that does a half assed job for everyone (you will hear this being argued for under the name of flexibility) but by focusing on building something that does a kick ass job doing a few things very well. To do this however, you need organizational support – it needs to come all the way from the top – the CEO.

Thoughts? Do you agree? What have your experiences been?

Before we answer this question, let us make sure we are aligned on the role of a product manager.

In my opinion, the best spot for product management is to have it report directly to the CEO. Product is one of the most important functions in an organization because getting the right product/market fit is what brings in the revenues. So I would argue that this needs to be have a direct line to the CEO so that it is not only looked upon as a strategic function but also that it is held accountable for the company results.

Is there a second best place for product management? Every successful organization that I have worked for (B2B or B2C) has had product management report to Marketing. Marketing naturally is an external facing function that is responsible for identifying the target market, figuring out the product positioning and figuring out what will make prospects buy. There is a slight danger here of product management becoming “marketing” driven than “market” driven, but I think with the right leadership this can be avoided.

The slides shown below are my opinions on why it should not report into sales or engineering or customer support.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this via comments. Do you agree?

However, in the normal working life as a software product manager, there is typically no “I”, there is no “they”, it is always “We”. I get quite irritated when I meet such “I” specialists for whom everything is “I said this”, “I did this”. As a software product manager, there is very little that you can do which is not a group effort. Whether it

is working with your development team, your marketing team or your finance team or your product management team, your accomplishments are primarily achieved by working with others. Hence, it is typically “We” did this or “We” should do this or “I” recommend that “we” do this.

Then there are the “they” specialists – folks who refer to their employers as “they”. For example, “I” recommended this, but “they” don’t want to do it. You are far better off pitching this as – “I” am recommending this because “we” can get to X,Y and Z. You come across as a true team player in your internal and external conversations. If you do this well and if you had a primary lead on some of these accomplishments, the right people should notice the leadership role you had to play. That recognition is far better than having to promote oneselves at every possible opportunity.

This is especially important when it comes to job interviews. You want to come across as a team player and “we” is the way to go. If all you do is become an “I” specialist or “they” specialist, it does not come across well. Of course, there are instances where you have to talk about what you have accomplished, but you will still be better off if you refer to some of these with a “We”. “They” when referring to an employer is best avoided.

Agree? Let me know.

The same applies for products. Some choose to

1. Work in larger companies instead of startups because of the predictable hours and also job safety.
2. Become full time employees than being consultants because of the predictable income.
3. Buy products from established vendors than fledging startups because it is a safer bet.
4. Have caps on pay-as-you-go software packages so that they can have predictable expenses for budgetary purposes.
5. Buy software packages that have more features than they want now, because it is a safer bet to make now.
6. Buy extended product warranties because it adds predictability that if anything goes wrong during this time, they do not have to spend money.
7. Pay bills on the same day every month because it allows one to have a predictable cash flow.

In most cases, products are expected to have predictable outputs to given inputs. So, in our lives as software product managers, adding predictability to our customer’s business or personal lives could be a dimension used to enhance our products. And once you do, make sure that this is pitched to your customers – because they may not tell you that they are looking for more predictability, but I will bet you that unknowingly they do.

Makes sense? Let me know.

• It gets funded – no, can’t be because vast majority of them get seed funding.
• It gets customers – no, that can’t be it either
• It gets revenues – no, because customers could be paying for the service
• It becomes profitable – no, because even profitable companies are sometimes called startups.