This document discusses the roles of product managers and their relationship to project managers. It begins by noting that product managers and project managers often operate in disjoint communities without shared understanding. It then defines the responsibilities of product managers as driving market acceptance and success of products, while addressing competing priorities. Product managers must make decisions around what to build despite uncertainty and limited resources. The document contrasts the outward-facing concerns of product managers with the inward-facing resource allocation focus of project managers. It also discusses how agile product owners can fail to fully address market needs. The takeaways are that both roles struggle with different challenges and that we need collaboration to ship great products.

1. Product Management Essentials
For Project Managers
Rich Mironov
18 October 2016
PMI / Project Management.com

2. • Veteran product manager/software exec
• “What do customers want (to pay for)?”
• Organizing agile/lean product organizations
• Smokejumper VP Products
• 6 startups, including as CEO/founder
• “The Art of Product Management”
About Rich Mironov
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 2

3. Disjoint Communities
Product
Managers
Project and
Development Managers
Not enough overlap
or shared thinking
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 3

4. • What does a product manager do?
• Product vs. Project/Program Management
• Agile product managers and product owners
• Takeaways
Agenda
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 4

5. • Commercial software companies
• Responsible for technical delivery AND revenue results
• Scaled-up IT organizations
• At product / portfolio / strategy levels
• Usually a formal position
Our focus is on jobs-to-be-done
and skills, not titles
Where Do We Find Product Managers?
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 5

6. • For commercial / revenue software…
• Drives delivery and market acceptance of whole products
• Targets market segments, not individual customers
• For strategic internal development…
• Drives funding, acceptance and adoption
• Resolves inevitable competing priorities
What Does a Product Manager Do?
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 6

7. market information, priorities,
requirements, roadmaps, epics,
user stories, backlogs,
personas, MRDs…
product
bits
strategy, forecasts,
commitments, roadmaps,
competitive intelligence
budgets, staff,
targets
Field input,
Market feedback
Segmentation, messages,
benefits/features, pricing,
qualification, demos…
Markets &
CustomersDevelopment
Marketing
& Sales
Executives
Product
Management
What Does a Product Manager Do?
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 7

8. • Engineering demand always >> supply
• Exclusive-OR trade-offs, but AND demands
• Facts are not sufficient
• Sales teams paid to
close individual deals
• HIPPO
• Influence from market/
customer knowledge
Product Management:
Inherently Political
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 8

9. Good product managers
drive customer-relevant
decisions (choices) despite
uncertainty, resource shortages
and contradictory goals
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 9

10. • Pulls into product station every day
• From customers, sales, support, execs, engineers…
• Delivers hundreds of “good ideas” each day
• Few are new or earthshaking
Good Idea Train
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 10

11. There’s nothing more
wasteful than brilliantly
engineering a product
that doesn’t sell, or a
project that doesn’t
matter.
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 11

12. • What does a product manager do?
• Product vs. Project / Program Management
• Agile product managers and product owners
• Takeaways
Agenda
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 12

13. Disclaimers
• No role/title consistency
• Unclear division of labor
• Execs create novel organizations
• Every company is
uniquely dysfunctional
• Good teams make things work
in spite of titles and roles
Product, Project, Program?
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 13

14. • Project/Program Managers
tasked with how to deliver
• Not-so-secretly worry about
market success
• Product Managers tasked with
what to build/buy (and sequence)
• Not-so-secretly worry about delivery,
quality, completeness
One Problem,Two Viewpoints
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 14

15. • Product: more outward-facing market-visible decisions
• What BENEFITS/FEATURES are market segments demanding?
• How are we POSITIONED and PRICED versus competitors?
• WHICH must-ship feature will we DROP first?
• SALES impact of slipped dates? Commitments?
• Project: more inward-facing resource allocation decisions
• HOW should we get this done? WHO works on what?
• WHEN will it actually ship?
• Have we defined and met QUALITY goals?
• What outside RESOURCES could speed things up?
In a Perfect Organization…
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 15

16. Product managers sense the market by…
• Helping close deals
• Stacks of non-sales-cycle discussions
with customers/prospects
• Sweating price/volume forecasts
• Identifying novel (or terrible) user cases
• Walking a mile in customer’s shoes
Living The Customer’s Reality
Source:
Pragmatic Marketing
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 16

17. • What does a product manager do?
• Product vs. Project / Program Management
• Agile product managers and product owners
• Takeaways
Agenda
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 17

18. Product Managers, Product Owners
Product
Backlog
Epics &
User Stories
Release
Backlog
Epics &
User Stories
Sprint
Backlog
User Stories
Potentially
releasable
software
Software
release
Accepted
story
(“DONE”)
Review
Demo,
feedback
Retrospective
Process
improvement
1 day
Daily
Standup
Sprint: 1 to 3 weeks
No changes in duration or goal
Release
planning
Sprint
planning
Charter Release
Retrospective
Process
improvement
N
sprints
product manager focus
product owner focus
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 18

19. market information, priorities,
epics, user stories,
backlogs, personas…
product
bits
Markets &
CustomersDevelopment
Marketing
& Sales
Executives
Product
Management
‘Small p’ Product Owner
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 19

20. Commercial Product Failures
Product
Backlog
Epics &
User Stories
Release
Backlog
Epics &
User Stories
Sprint
Backlog
User Stories
Potentially
releasable
software
Software
release
Accepted
story
(“DONE”)
Review
Demo,
feedback
Retrospective
Process
improvement
1 day
Daily
Standup
Sprint: 1 to 3 weeks
No changes in duration or goal
Release
planning
Sprint
planning
Charter Release
Retrospective
Process
improvement
N
sprints
Most product failures
happen here

21. Typical Commercial Software
Company’s Development Budget
Features for
current release
50%
Quality (refactor,
test automation)
15%
Engineering
overhead, 10%
Big future bet,
5%
Sales one-offs,
non-roadmap
20%
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 21

22. • Hard to rank-order unlike items
• Where does this bug go versus minor features?
• A one-off customization versus more DevOps work?
• Instead, group similar requests
• Which two features will we put into v6.5?
• P0, P1, P2, P3…
• We can fund one audacious, long-term program:
teleportation or synthetic petroleum
Prioritizing Within Buckets
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 22

23. Product Failure Modes
Product Manager fails agile team if
• Part-time, disengaged
• Stale backlog, skimpy stories
• Pulled in too many directions
• Not buffering team interrupts
• “Build what I meant”
Product Owner fails marketplace if
• Weak on market realities
• Disconnected from Marketing,
Sales, Support, executives
• Wander from product strategy
• Confuse showcase customers
with broader market

24. 1. Product management struggles with market
success, product sufficiency and inconsistent
customer segments
2. Project management struggles with resources,
timelines and unreasonable commitments
3. Simplistic product owner role often fails to
address market complexities
4. We need to work together to ship great
products!
Takeaways
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 24

25. CONTACT
Mironov Consulting
233 Franklin St, Suite #308
San Francisco, CA 94102
RichMironov
@RichMironov
Rich@Mironov.com
w w w . M i r o n o v . c o m 25