Product Managers live in the nexus of business, technology, and design -- and the resulting tension can harm the PM, the products, and the business if left unchecked. This presentation focuses on how the strategies product people use to understand markets, customers, and users can also be utilized to successfully navigate life inside the workplace.

2. About me…
l 10+ years
Web, mobile
PM by
accident
l
l

3. Product management “welcome wagon”

4. PM functions
Applications inside
the company
Examples

5. What does a Product Manager do?

6. Product Managers define
the right stuff to make.

7. Product Managers
understand the big picture

8. Ask relevant questions

9. Get inside customers’ minds

10. Anticipate the future

11. Seek effective
elegant
customer-oriented solutions
to problems that matter

12. Collaborate
cross-
functionally
with people
who don’t
naturally see
eye-to-eye

13. Business
DesignTechnology

14. Organizational and relational
challenges abound

15. Paralyzed, disengaged, lost

16. Swallowed by other groups

17. Ripped apart by politics

19. You can balance
these competing interests.

20. 1. Big picture
2. Relevant questions
3. Inside their minds
4. Anticipate future
5. Solving problems that matter
6. Collaboration

21. There’s always Plan B

22. Big Picture - Corporate

23. Relevant Questions –
By Department

24. Inside Their Minds –
By Stakeholder

25. Anticipate the future

26. Repeat: Solving Problems
That Matter
Solving Problems That Matter

27. Me YouUs

29. A Little Tension Is Required

30. Real Life Examples

31. Sales to Product
“We’re failing because of you…”

32. Engineering to Product
“We’ve got this; you manage JIRA…”

33. CEO to Product
“Stop doing this; do that instead…”

34. Market Understanding + Internal Understanding
Honest Storytelling
Success =

36. ChristopherCummings.com
Visit Product Management
Meets Pop Culture at
Follow me on Twitter
@chriscummings01

37. All images
copyright
and
trademark
their
respective
owners.