Presented at Product Camp LA 2014 - What makes a Product Manager truly successful? Being able to manage relationships – whether it be with senior executives and business stakeholders in inception or with the Technology team members in implementation. How does an organization take the ideas from the business stakeholders and deliver technical solutions? Conway’s Law states that “organizations which design systems … are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.” If Conway’s Law is true, improving the flows of communication could be the most effective approach to improving the design of the system. Human relationships are defined by communication. We’ll explore some challenges and techniques to deliberately improve the communication structures.

1. Leadership is
Managing Relationships
Lisa Winter

2. About Lisa
Lisa Winter is a connector &
relationship manager – a Product
Management consultant with nearly
two decades of managing enterprisewide, complex online products and
projects.
In addition to the Fortune 500, she’s
worked with multiple technology
start-ups from the start of the
dotcom era to boom and subsequent
bust. Leveraging her network of
relationships from the North Bay to
Silicon Valley, she now focuses on
building a community for
entrepreneurship and startups.
She loves user advocacy, code and
design, and product management.

3. What I’m Passionate About
• Delivering the ultimate user experience by
building products which truly serve the
customer
• Building community and seeing the kind of
giving and sharing that makes SF/Silicon Valley
the extraordinary place it has been for years

4. Corporate Clients
*Partial client list
**Trademarks used here as those of their respective owner entities

5. Startups & Community

6. Conway’s Law
“Organizations which design systems are constrained to
produce designs which are copies of the communication
structures of these organizations”

7. Classic Communication Breakdown
Root Causes
• Organizational Structures
– Silos
– Matrix Management/
Responsibility without Authority
• Human Factors & Team Dynamics
– Egos & Politics
• Ignorance/Poor Practice
– Lack of Empowered Product Management
– Not keeping Customer value foremost

8. Truly Classic

9. Communication Failure Points
Communication failures…
– within the Business
– within Technology
– between Business & Technology
– between the Business & Customers/Users
– between Technology & Customers/Users
Failures to get everyone on the same page

10. Communication Spaces &
the Role of the Product Manager

11. The Business Side
Sales
Marketing
Finance
Legal
HR
Business Operations
Product Design

12. The Technology Side
Help Desk
Technical
Communications
Systems Admin
DBAs
Infrastructure
Dev Ops
Business Analysts
IT Project Managers
Web Developers
IT Operations

13. Customers/Users
The customer is the ultimate arbiter of value,
according to Lean principles
Anything which doesn’t add value from the
customer’s perspective is waste (muda in Japanese)

14. Disconnect between
Business & Technology Case Study
• Problem
– New Business goals (expand current product suite
and offerings) require non-trivial platform re-writes
and tools upgrades; funding issues
• Approach
– Translate and bridge viewpoints
• Outcome
– Funded and successful

15. Disconnect within Technology
Case Study
• Problem
– Non-Co-located Development Team Turf War
• Approach
– Get all stakeholders to the table; making the
solution to the problem a team effort
• Outcome
– Successful release of product suite

16. Disconnect between
Organization & Customers/Users Case Study
• Problem
– Engineering thinks that they understand the Customer/
User; Sales knows what the Customer wants
• Approach
– Partner with both Engineering and Sales by being the true
Voice of the Customer and the proxy for the User
• Outcome
– If successful – More demand/sales; increased market share
– If not – Overall failure; loss of market share

17. Keys to Successful Product Outcomes
• Being the Voice of the Customer
• Owning the Customer Experience
• Aligning product roadmap with Technology
considerations, using a blend of strategy and
tactics
• Practicing leadership by example

18. Communication Tips for
Successful Product Outcomes
• Communicating upward, downward, and laterally –
keep the vision present and alive
• Listening skills are paramount
• Empathy and tolerance work to bridge disparate
points of view
• Authenticity and integrity are key to getting buy-in
• You can either be right or be in relationship

19. Q&A
?

20. Thank You
Andrew Clay Shafer – https://twitter.com/littleidea/
Doug May - http://intuedge.net/
Rich Mironov - http://www.mironov.com/

21. Contact
Lisa Winter
lisaw1@gmail.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/lisawinter/
https://twitter.com/lisaw1/
https://www.facebook.com/lwinter.pmp
https://angel.co/lisaw1

22. References
• Conway’s Law on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law
• Exploring the Duality between Product and
Organizational Architectures: A Test of the
“Mirroring” Hypothesis - MacCormack, Rusnak,
and Baldwin
http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/
08-039_1861e507-1dc1-4602-85b8-90d71559d85b.pdf
• Left and Right Brain User Personas - Kevin Simler
http://kevinsimler.quora.com/Left-and-Right-Brain-User-Personas