PT Toronto #21: Mitchell Gillespie (Director of Product Management at Wave HQ) shares his talk “Get out of the way! The Product Manager's Identity Crisis."

2. Get out of the way!
The Product Manager's Identity Crisis
Mitchell Gillespie
Director of Product Management

3. Get out of the way!
MY Product Management Identity Crisis
Mitchell Gillespie
Director of Product Management

4. 4 years @
Wave HQ
2 years @
Street Contxt
2 years @
BrainStation
Present @
Wave HQ
Product Manager
Head of Product
Lead Educator
Product Management
Director of Product
Management
Oh, and… we’re hiring PMs at WaveHQ!

8. Call-out & Caveats

9. Call-out: I’m standing on the shoulders of Giants

10. Caveat: I will not suggest my learning as a framework
I will not put yet
another framework here…..

11. Caveat: I will provide all source materials
I will not put yet
another framework here…..

12. Caveat: I’m will not present immediate remedies

13. Caveat: My position is a running thought exercise

14. Position: I consistently approach my PM work
with one question

15. “How can I get out of the way?”

16. “How can I get out of the way?”
My PM identity
crisis
How I motivate
others
Playbook’s
I’ve followed
Wave HQ
Examples

17. My PM identity crisis

19. UX
Tech
Business
“Product management is
the intersection between
business, technology and
user experience.”
“A good product manager
must be experienced in at
least one, passionate about
all three, and conversant
with practitioners in all.”
~ Martin Eriksson
“You are here”

20. Growth
Sales
Operations
& Risk
Engineering
Support /
Success
Product
Design
Executives
Marketing

21. Growth
Sales
Operations
& Risk
Engineering
Support /
Success
Product
Design
Executives
Marketing

22. Product Owner
Scrum Master
Delivery Team
● Empowering product vision & roadmap
● Understanding customer needs
● Manage product backlog
● Participate in scrum ceremonies
● Review product demos before shipping
● Planning releases & announcements

23. Product Owner
Scrum Master
Delivery Team
● Empowering product vision & roadmap
● Understanding customer needs
● Manage product backlog
● Participate in scrum ceremonies
● Review product demos before shipping
● Planning releases & announcements

24. The Overworked PM
The Underpowered PM
The Partial PMs
The Distant PM

25. Big Takeaway: Don’t know if they’re building right thing

26. Problem
Unknown
Solution
Unknown
Eric Ries, The Lean Startup & Steve Blank, 4 Steps to Epiphany

27. Problem
Unknown
Solution
Unknown
Eric Ries, The Lean Startup & Steve Blank, 4 Steps to Epiphany

29. Problem
Am I focusing my
role (i.e. time) on
the things?
Solution
Is my time spent on X
effective?
Is my peers time
spent on X effective?
Eric Ries, The Lean Startup & Steve Blank, 4 Steps to Epiphany

30. “What should I spend my time on?”
“Where can I make the most impact?”

31. I recently got asked about the most common pitfall that
trips up entrepreneurs. Top on my list is: Falling in love
with your solution.
Product managers should not focus on designing solutions – they
should focus on defining and prioritising problems. Focusing on
the problem instead of the solution has a ton of benefits
Curiosity. Curiosity about our customers and end-users. Curiosity
to get to the bottom of unexpected behavior. Curiosity when an
experiment or feature didn’t have the intended impact.

32. I recently got asked about the most common pitfall that
trips up entrepreneurs. Top on my list is: Falling in love
with your solution.
Product managers should not focus on designing solutions – they
should focus on defining and prioritising problems. Focusing on
the problem instead of the solution has a ton of benefits
Curiosity. Curiosity about our customers and end-users. Curiosity
to get to the bottom of unexpected behavior. Curiosity when an
experiment or feature didn’t have the intended impact.

33. I want to make the most impact with my time,
Other areas must progress without me………..

35. I want to make the most impact with my time,
I need to let other area progress without me………..
“What are others motivated by?”
“In general, what are others more skilled at?”

36. My journey to understand how to
motivate others

37. Caveat: Some are naturally motivated

38. 3 factors lead to better personal
performance & personal satisfaction

39. 3 factors lead to better personal
performance & personal satisfaction
Purpose
Mastery
Autonomy

40. 3 factors lead to better personal
performance & personal satisfaction
Purpose
Mastery
Autonomy

41. Vision
“Any individual on my
team knows how their
work directly contributes to
achieving the company’s
vision.”
Strategy
“Any individual on my
team can explain the
rationale behind why
we’re approaching the
goal the way we are”
Brandon Chu, Shopify

42. Ash Maurya, Scaling Lean

43. 3 factors lead to better personal
performance & personal satisfaction
Purpose
Mastery
Autonomy

45. Supportive learning
community
Get clear on
what failure really is
Take responsibility for what you
can control; forgive what you can’t

46. 3 factors lead to better personal
performance & personal satisfaction
Purpose
Mastery
Autonomy

48. 3 factors lead to better personal
performance & personal satisfaction
Purpose
Mastery
Autonomy

50. “I want to focus on specific areas, I
have an understanding to motivate
peers”
“How can I tactically get others
focused on area that don’t need my
attention?”

51. Playbook’s I’ve followed

52. Promote participation in Problem Discovery
Empower ownership of Solution Discovery & Delivery

54. Keep sharing insightful storiesConsistently sharing insightful stories

56. Keep sharing insightful stories
Select specific, impactful, and repeatable
narratives with data

59. Keep sharing insightful storiesMake everyone the voice of the CustomerMake everyone the Voice of the Customer

60. Growth
Sales
Operations
& Risk
Engineering
Support /
Success
Product
Design
Executives
Marketing

61. Keep sharing insightful storiesMake everyone the voice of the CustomerEmbrace “Learn Fast” instead of only “Deliver Fast”

62. Teresa Torres, ProductTalk.org

63. Some things we’re doing a Wave HQ

64. Keep sharing insightful storiesMake everyone the voice of the CustomerAutonomous Triage
Engineering
Lead
Scrum Master
Delivery Team

65. Keep sharing insightful storiesMake everyone the voice of the CustomerCollective & continuous interviewing

66. Keep sharing insightful storiesMake everyone the voice of the CustomerCentralized Customer Intelligence

67. Keep sharing insightful storiesMake everyone the voice of the CustomerCentralized Customer Intelligence
Qualitative
Feedback
Segmentation
Data

68. Keep sharing insightful storiesMake everyone the voice of the CustomerCentralized Customer Intelligence
Nomnom.it
CODE: CUSTOMERDRIVEN2018

69. Keep sharing insightful storiesMake everyone the voice of the Customer
Product Owner
Scrum Master
Delivery Team
Transferred traditional Product Owner
responsibilities on most Agile/Scrum teams

70. Keep sharing insightful storiesMake everyone the voice of the Customer
Transferred traditional Product Owner
responsibilities on most Scrum teams
Engineering
Lead
Scrum Master
Delivery Team
PM
Engineer
Lead
Scrum Master
Delivery Team
Designer

71. Sharing a Story of Peer

73. Closing Thoughts

76. “How can I get out of the way?”

77. Fun thought for my next talk...

78. In 10-15 years, will Product
Management be a role that still
exists in digital product startups?

79. Thank You