Get an engineering degree. Get an MBA. Become a product manager. Coast. Oh, the good old days of product management.
Changing composition of Software teams
Software development team composition is changing in the industry. This is for two reasons:
Industry shifts like the importance of UX Design
Natural growth of the company from a startup to a small to a mid sized company
Here is how:
Separate roles for QE and Developers are being merged into a “Unified Engineering” role where there is no reason to have a QE engineer.
Project Manager role is losing importance
The importance of design has considerably increased in any scrum team or squad and also in the board room. Many software companies now have a chief design officer.
If you are lucky to have a user researcher on your squad, which is true for many large companies, you have to bring them along and support their learnings by changing the product or the design.
Designers are generally better at storytelling than “traditional” PMs. This is because they have tried and failed many times at this skill. They have better visuals to support their story and they are good at eliciting emotions from their audience.
Executives want to see a lot more before the commit resources to a project. This means more prototypes, testing prototypes, refining prototypes, etc. A lot of this work can be done without coding and can be done entirely by a designer paired up with a user researcher.
Social is an important channel to experience user angst. Do you have a “Social Media Marketing Manager” that is doing more than posting at a regular frequency? Are they routing angry customers to support or to the PM or to Eng?
Product Marketing is getting embedded into the product. Often times, product can do more to convert users than product marketing.
Customer care or CX is a key stakeholder too. Depending on the maturity of the product, you will have to make sure CX team feels like they have a seat at the table.
Product managers today have to not only work with UX designers and UX researchers, but they also have to have a point of view on design and UX of a product. They also have to understand the goals of the marketing and CX organizations.
To me a PM is not the CEO of a product. PMs are the chief consolidating officers (CCO) of their product. They have to consolidate all inputs and prioritise the actions that meet business goals. Work with UX Design to tell a story on how the team plans to solve business problems and solicit feedback from all stakeholders so that they remain committed to the success of the product or service.
So, what do PMs need to get better at?
Being a super user of the product
PMs with domain expertise do better in the long run than generalist PMs who are good at fetching data and analysing them. This is because they begin to develop deeper insights into the users and the failings of the product.
Communicating the business context
What is happening in the business? Are key stakeholders aligned on the truths for a product?
I created a “Product Truths” presentation to ensure that all stakeholders including marketing, design and engineering agreed on the facts for the business. This made down the line tradeoff discussions easier.
This should be a key document for any product roadmap discussion. Unfortunately most teams do not do this. Defining the who for the product
Who is the product for? What is the single most important target persona. Why?
This is the most important question. It drives actions from UX Design, UX Research and Product marketing teams. Sometimes, you might get this key persona from the PMM team but generally PMs are an equal stakeholder if not the driver and approver here.
Getting better at UX Design and Research
Considering the growing important of UX Design and UX Research, it is critical that product managers start to talk the language of designers and get familiar with UX research methodologies. This is a key skill to learn so that you can get the most out of your design and research team. Take courses like:
Partnering with other leaders
Make other leaders / stakeholders complicit in your success. Have them share their opinion on the business. Ask them for data that backs their insights. Be open to changing your mind. Make them feel heard.
Show them your data and share your insights. Get them to see your point of view.
Do this 1 on 1. Manage and nurture relationships.
Thus, as this HBR Article on “What it takes to be a great PM” points out, you have to be much better at EQ than in the past.
Being calm, collected and inspiring
PMs need to be better tightrope walkers.
They have to remain calm and listen to what everyone needs from the product. They have to inspire with their actions and be self aware and control their emotions, personal preferences for features and biases so that they can be of service to the business.
Persuasion
Read Robert Cialdini’s book Influence - the Psychology of persuasion. It is a fundamental book for all PMs and leaders today.
I loved this article on Fast Company on Persuasion. Here is an excerpt from it that asks us to practice simple things like:
“What if.” This phrase removes ego from the discussion and creates a safe environment for curiosity and brainstorming.
“I need your help.” This flips the roles of dominant and subordinate, engaging the other person and providing a transfer of power.
“Would it be helpful if.” This phrase shifts the focus from the problem to the solution.
Here’s an example from Nick Eubanks of SEO Nick who uses the phrase “I Need Your Help” directly in the subject line of an email. (Come to think of it, each of these three would be fun to try as email subject lines.)
There is a lot of learn and get better at.
Start now.
—Anubhavt