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Pct2010 intro toproductmanagement
1. Introduction to
Product Management
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT:
A JOURNEY
Calum Tsang
tsangc@mie.utoronto.ca
www.productcamp.org/toronto
May 30, 2010 – Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University
2. Who is this session for?
People who are entering the field of product
management for the first time
People who’ve been thrown into the role Product
Manager and need definition
People who see a need for a product management
role in their organization and want to know what it
entails.
ProductCamp Toronto – MAY 30, 2010
3. Does this sound like you?
Do you feel like a firefighter?
Do you end up juggling some combination of
Angry “Hot site” calls
Sales demos
Design decisions
UI mockups/wireframes
Tradeshows
Bug review/triage calls
Marcom/copy reviews
Executive reporting/calming
ProductCamp Toronto – MAY 30, 2010
4. What is Product Management?
Product Management defines what we’re developing
and selling by identifying who buys the product and
their needs.
It supports the development, sales and marketing functions.
It leads the product strategy process.
Product Management is hard to define, but we’re
going to try.
ProductCamp Toronto – MAY 30, 2010
5. Most Product Managers come from
Product Managers often come from another area of
the business
Technology/Engineering
Documentation
Marketing
User Experience or Design
Sales Engineering/Account Management
What they bring in experience is their strength
eg Developer has detailed product knowledge
What makes them stumble is holding on
eg ex-Developer starts doing architecture and coding
ProductCamp Toronto – MAY 30, 2010
6. A destination for product management
Product Management is inherently intertwined with key
parts of the business:
Development
Product
Management
Sales Marketing
ProductCamp Toronto – MAY 30, 2010
7. The Interface to Development
Product Management
Represents the market to the Technology team
Defines product requirements, prioritizes their development
I get from Development
Development scheduling, costs, budgets
Product Deliverables
Process metrics like defect level trending, dev velocity
I give to Development
Development
Market Requirement Documents
Review product specifications
Develops product roadmaps Product
Agile product stories, backlog management Management
Reviews bugs/triages
Sales Marketing
Go/No Go for Release
ProductCamp Toronto – MAY 30, 2010
8. The Interface to Sales
Product Management
Represents the product to the Sales team
Supports the sales process
I get from sales
Customer requirements/pain points/desires
Regular product advisory
Time in front of customers to ask them questions
I give to sales
Sales training
Sales tools (qualification guides, configurators) Development
Guides creation of Sales process
Evangelism
Product demonstrations
Product
Not too much Management
Customer support/troubleshooting
Fruitless sales calls
Sales Marketing
ProductCamp Toronto – MAY 30, 2010
9. The Interface to Marketing
Product Management
Represents the product to the Marketing team
Positions the product in the market
I get from Product Marketing
Marketing materials for content/copy
Campaign execution
I give to Product Marketing Development
Go-to-market strategy
Customer profiles/demographics
Product
Marketing briefs/positioning documents Management
Guidance for marketing campaign Sales Marketing
Pricing analysis
ProductCamp Toronto – MAY 30, 2010
10. Product Management or Marketing?
Product Marketing
This one should be obvious
Pricing
Product Product
Strategic pricing Management Marketing
eg part of business case and profitability
should be Product Management
Tactical pricing
eg, offers/promotional, I’d say Product Development Marketing
Marketing
Promotion
That’s Marketing Product Product
Management Marketing
Placement
That’s Marketing too
ProductCamp Toronto – MAY 30, 2010
11. Product Management Ownership
While a lot of activities are interfaced with other parts of
the business, there are many activities which are alone
the responsibility of Product Management.
Ownership includes
Business case analysis
Metrics and reporting
Profitability
Technology
Market share
Customer analysis
Competitive analysis/benchmarking
Product
Win/loss analysis results for improvement Management
Product roadmap
Sales Marketing
Executive reporting
ProductCamp Toronto – MAY 30, 2010
12. Product Management is not
Project Management.
These are people focused with delivering the project on time
and budget. This is the when.
Product Architecture.
These are development oriented people who are responsible
for the overarching technology decisions. This is the how.
Product Marketing.
These are the people who will take your product to market,
outbound to the rest of the world, including pricing, campaign
and communications.
But you might do some or all of these things too.
ProductCamp Toronto – MAY 30, 2010
13. A matter of trust
The product manager requires a great deal of trust from all
parties involved and demands respect.
Technology developers
must respect your decisions
Marketing leads
must trust your market positioning and product experience
Salespeople
must trust your interaction with their customers and respect your time
Respect is a two way street
Eg Developer respects your decision—but you need to respect their
timelines
How do you earn respect?
Build a rapport
Take the time and effort to understand their side, explain your side
State the (user/market) facts
Don’t fake it
ProductCamp Toronto – MAY 30, 2010
14. I don’t work for these guys
But I took their course a few years ago and really
liked it:
Practical Product Management
Requirements that Work
PragmaticMarketing.com
ProductCamp Toronto – MAY 30, 2010
15. Discussion
How do you formalize product management
responsibilities?
How do you introduce a distinct product
management capability into an organization?
How do you convince your boss to let you be a
product manager?
How do you convince your boss that you don’t do
everything?
How do you explain to your classmates at a reunion
what exactly you do?
ProductCamp Toronto – MAY 30, 2010