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Re: Is product management being marginalized in your organization?

GeekMBA360 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:59:21 -0000

Thanks for the excellent comments, Steve! I totally agree that we product managers need to learn to say "no".

I think the "confidence" factor is huge here. Product Manager has a longer time horizon when they make decisions -- e.g. PM is concerned about how well the business will be doing 6 months, 12 months or even longer down the road. However, in sales-driven organization, it's always the last conversation someone just had with a client. Product Manager needs to have the confidences and toughness to look beyond "the potential instant gratification" and make tough calls. Sometimes, the company won't see the positive results from the PM's decision until a few months later. It's up to the PM to make the unpopular call and stick to it. Of course, this assumes the PM has done all of his homework, and is making the right decision for the business.

Re: Is product management being marginalized in your organization?

Steve Johnson — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:15:06 -0000

Good points all. It's often an issue of confidence.

Product managers should be the champions of the business of the product but, you know, just this once, I'll help out sales/development/QA/marketing/whoever. But once becomes "you did it last time" and now the product manager is stuck in tactical mode. Meanwhile, the president says "who's doing strategy" and the product manager says, "I was on sales calls and meetings so I didn't have time to do the roadmaps." And the president says, "okay, we'll get someone to do strategy so you can continue to support everyone with your product knowledge."

And now you're marginalized.

Product managers: learn to say no and know when to say yes. Going on a sales call to learn about buyer personas and the buying process? Yes. Going on the 15th sales call to the same client "because you can close the deal"--no!

The exec team needs a business leader making product decisions. Can you? If not, they'll find someone who can.