Uploaded byRich Mironov
Product vs Program/Project Management
The document outlines essential roles and responsibilities of product managers, emphasizing the distinction between product and project/program management. It discusses the need for product managers to drive market acceptance, prioritize strategic development, and make customer-focused decisions despite challenges. Additionally, it offers practical advice for supporting product managers through explicit decision-making and focusing on customer needs.
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Product vs Program/Project Management
- 1. Product Management Essentialsfor Project and Program ManagersRich MironovOctober 6, 2011
- 2. About Rich MironovVeteranproduct manager/exec/strategistBusiness models, pricing, agileOrganizing product organizations“What do customers want?”5 startups, including as CEO/founderAuthor of “The Art of Product Management” and Product Bytes blogFounded Product Camp, chaired first product stage at annual Agile conferences
- 3. Agenda3Sharing: your goodand bad experiences with product managementWhat does a product manager do, anyway?Product vs. Project/Program Management7 ways to help your product manager
- 4. Sharing Your GoodAnd Bad Product Management Experiences
- 5. Agenda5Sharing: your goodand bad experiences with product managementWhat does a product manager do, anyway?Product vs. Project/Program Management7 ways to help your product manager
- 6. What Does aProduct Manager Do?For commercial / revenue software…Drives delivery and market acceptance of whole productsTargets market segments, not individual customersSets prioritiesFor strategic internal development…Resolves competing prioritiesDrives acceptance and adoption
- 7. ProductManagementExecutivesDevelopmentWhat Does aProduct Manager Do?strategy, forecasts, commitments, roadmaps,competitive intelligencebudgets, staff,targetsmarket information, priorities,requirements, roadmaps, MRDs,personas, user stories…Field input,Market feedbackMktg & SalesMarkets & CustomerssoftwareSegmentation, messages, benefits/features, pricing, qualification, demos…
- 8. Product Mgmt PlanningHorizonsmany yearsExecStrategyyearsPortfoliomany monsProdMgrProduct2-9 monReleaseDevTeamSprint2 wkDaily
- 9. Pragmatic Marketing® FrameworkDir,Prod StrategyProd Mktg MgrTech Prod MgrBusinessPlanMarketingPlanPositioningPricingMarket ProblemsCustomer AcquisitionBuyingProcessMarket DefinitionBuy, Build or PartnerWin/Loss AnalysisCustomer RetentionBuyer PersonasDistribution StrategyProduct ProfitabilityDistinctive CompetenceProgram EffectivenessUserPersonasProduct PortfolioBusinessMarketProgramsPlanningStrategySupportReadinessBusinessMarketProgramsPlanningStrategySupportReadinessInnovationCompetitive LandscapeLaunchPlanRequire- mentsProduct RoadmapPresentations & DemosSalesProcessTechnology AssessmentThought LeadershipUseScenarios“Special”CallsCollateralLead GenerationStatus DashboardEventSupportSalesToolsReferrals & ReferencesChannelSupportChannel Training© 1993-2009 Pragmatic Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved
- 10. Nature of ProductRoleNo natural sequence for Product MgmtMust work all aspects in parallelEntire planning onionIntensely interrupt-drivenBottoms-up shapes top-down, top-down shapes bottoms-upProduct Management must provide strategy, judgment and integration as well as execution
- 11. Good product managersdrive customer-relevant decisions (choices) despite uncertainty and contradictory goals
- 12. Market Failure Modesfor Product MgrsInward-looking failure modesWeak onreal-world value: pricing, packaging, upgrades, servicemodels,discounting, competitive dynamicsDisconnected from cross-functional teams (Marketing, Sales, Support…)Trading off company-wide product strategy for product-level featuresGeneralizing from too few customersBelief in rational users and accurate ROI
- 13. “How Hard CouldIt Be?”Imagine that I create a two-day seminar for “Senior Enterprise Software Architects”Anyone can enrollWe talk about enterprise architectureAll attendees get a “Senior Enterprise Software Architect” certificateAre they senior architects?
- 14. Agenda14Participants: your goodand bad experiences with product managementWhat does a product manager do, anyway?Product vs. Project/Program Management7 ways to help your product manager
- 15. Product, Project, Program?DisclaimerNorole/title consistencyExecs create organizationsUnclear division of laborEach tech company uniquely dysfunctionalGood teams make things work regardless of titles or roles
- 16. In My Opinion…ProductManagement: more outward-facing market-visible decisionsWhat FEATURES are market segments demanding?WHICH must-ship feature will we drop first? SALES impact of slipped dates? Commitments?How are we POSITIONED and PRICED versus competitors? Project/Program Management: more inward-facing resource allocation decisionsHOW 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?
- 17. It’s About CustomerRealitiesProduct managers stay in touch by…Helping close dealsTrading off conflictingcommitmentsIntervening with complex customer problemsSweating price/volume forecasts Anchoring opinions with lots of first person customer/field inputSource:Pragmatic Marketing
- 18. One Problem, TwoViewpointsTwo sides of the problem:Product Managers tasked with what to build (and when)Not-so-secretly worries about delivery, quality, completenessProject/Program Managers tasked with how to deliverNot-so-secretly worries about market success
- 19. Agenda19Participants: your goodand bad experiences with product managementWhat does a product manager do, anyway?Product vs. Project/Program Management7 ways to help product managers
- 20. 7 Good Waysto Help Product MgrsPush for explicit decisions and trade-offsAsk about use cases and customer problemsDon’t demand uber-technical product managersNot every sub-feature gets its own ROI Expect product managers to translate features into customer-relevant benefitsAsk about forecasts, shipments and revenueChannel your inner Product Manager
- 21.
- 22. Product Management Essentialsfor Project and Program ManagersRich MironovOctober 6, 2011
Editor's Notes
- #5 Who has PMs? Who doesn’t?Where does PM report up through?What distinguishes good PMs from weak in your org?Categories: technical skills; org power; reporting path; customer knowledge; work products; who’s driving/deciding?; title confusion…
- #11 No natural sequence for PMMust work all aspects in parallelPlanning onion as simultaneous equationBottoms-Up Shapes Top-DownCustomer visits inform market viewCompetitive price points drive business modelFeature complexity shapes release planTop-Down Shapes Bottoms-UpMarket segmentation determines customer selection and benefitsProduct strategy drives backlogProduct Management provides strategy, judgment and integration as well as executionOwning market success is an unbounded problem
- #12 Earn your pay on days when you make decisions, not just oversee processes
- #13 Balanced focus between what markets/segments want and what development team can deliver
- #14 Experiential component that’s not well taught or certified. Contrasts with PMI PMP. No governing authority, no rating system other than personal references.Program/project managers see the resource/marshaling part of the product role, but not always the selling/organizational/outbound part.Dev consistently wants to promote good engineers into product roles. Mostly they lack relevant field experience, organizational savvy, customer skills, ability to handle uncertainty.
- #16 Valley does not check with me before assigning roles, titles or work mix
- #17 Essential question: who worries about market acceptance? Sales targets? Competition?
- #19 Not cleanly divided. Good PMs and PgMs are intertwined.
- #21 Ask about use cases and customer problemsVs. wanting PMs to settle internal technical/architecture disputesDon’t demand PMs as technical as you areYou have architects and senior devs to be the most technicalNot every user story gets its own ROI Not every field, button, featurelet can be independently justified. Customer-relevant value may roll up dozens of small bits.Expect PMs to translate features into customer-relevant benefitsThey have to turn your how-it-works into a sales team’s why-you-careAsk about forecasts, shipments and revenueShows you care about the business as well as the tech, and you’ll learn somethingQUIETLY sit in on some customer meetingsIf you talk out of turn, you won’t get invited back.Channel your inner Product ManagerOnce in a while, pretend you’re the PM and consider how you’d think through whole product issues. WWPMD?