This document provides guidance on how product managers can work effectively with engineers. It outlines that the goal is to translate product strategy into a successful product reality while building lasting relationships with engineers. It describes typical engineering organizational structures and notes the keys to success are for the product manager to provide value by establishing themselves as an expert in customers, markets and products; building a partnership with engineers by being reasonable, flexible and personable; and championing both the product and the engineering team.

1. Working effectively with Engineering
Atul Suklikar
Co-founder, VP Product Management
Softrock Systems

2. Speaker Background
 Education: BS EE, MS CS, MBA
 Oracle Corporation: 4 years in Engineering
 Siebel Systems: 6 years in Product Marketing
 Softrock Systems: 6 weeks

3. An Engineer’s Demonization of a PM Courtesy Billy Connolly
Sub-second response time
FLEXIBILITY
Usability
Huge market
Press coverage
Standards support
Features
Bugs
SENSE OF Enhancements
URGENCY Bells & whistles

4. Agenda
 The Goal
 The Context
 The Keys to Success - Provide value to Engineering
• What constitutes value?
• How do I provide it?
 Summary
 Questions and Insights

5. The Goal
 Translate Product Strategy into a successful
Product Reality
 Build lasting relationships with Engineers
 Have fun building products

6. The context
3 Possible Organizational Relationships between PM and Engineering
GM/CEO GM/CEO GM/CEO
PM ENG ENG PM
PM ENG
Typical Rare

7. Typical Engineering Structure
VP  VP of Engineering
Director Architect • Overall leadership
Manager  Directors & Managers
• Focused on delivery
Engineer Staff Engineer
 Architects
• “Big Thinker”
: Typical Progression
• Typically longest tenured
: Individual Contributor
 Staff Engineer
• “Junior” Architect
 Engineer
• Shortest tenured

8. Agenda
 The Goal
 The Context
 The Keys to Success - Provide value to Engineering
• What constitutes value?
• How do I provide it?
 Summary

9. What value can a PM provide to an Engineer?
 Be the voice of the customer
• Synthesize market requirements, customer pain-points, and competitive
landscape
 Prioritize product development
• Release themes, product features
 Guide product wins
• Sales, market perception
 Help career progression
• Product success, internal visibility, external exposure

10. How can the PM provide that value?
 Fully understand
• Customer
Expert
• Market
• Current Product
 Gain the trust by being
• Reasonable
Partner
• Flexible
• Personable
 Effectively promote
Champion
• The Product
• The Engineers

11. Value provided by the PM - Details
 Establish yourself as the Expert
 Build a Partnership
 Be a Champion

12. Establish yourself as the expert
 Areas of expertise:
• Customer
• Market
• Product
 Key parties to target
• Architects, Managers, Directors
 Who can help
• Other perceived Experts – PM, Sales, Services
• Architects

13. Building and Communicating Customer Expertise
 Familiarize yourself with customer usage
• High level knowledge about a large number of customers
• Deep knowledge about a small number of customers
 Use specific customer/prospect names and usage data in MRD use
cases and in conversations
 Have your management reiterate your stature as an expert
• In meetings, conversations, emails…
 Reinforce the perception through first-hand contact
• Appropriate Sales or Service people
• Customers

14. Building and Communicating Market Expertise
 Familiarize yourself with the competitive landscape
• High level knowledge about a large number of competitors
• Deep knowledge about a small number of competitors
 Share this information periodically with Engineering through white
papers, demos, news clippings
 Present a balanced view about their strengths and weaknesses and
how you compete against them
 Use Engineering’s help in analyzing underlying technology trends
to augment your reading
 Limited first-hand contact with Analysts

15. Building and Communicating Product Expertise
 Familiarize yourself with the existing product
• Technical training
• Install development builds frequently
• Participate in testing of the product
 Understand the architecture through conversations with Engineers
• Focus on the what as well as the why
 Reinforce the perception that you understand the product
• MRDs contain references to how things currently work
• Explaining current product behavior in joint Engineering & PM meetings
 Be balanced in your communications

16. Value provided by the PM - Details
 Establish yourself as the Expert
 Build a Partnership
 Be a Champion

17. Build a partnership
 Characteristics of a good partner
• Reasonable
• Flexible
• Personable
 Key Parties to target
• Engineer, Staff Engineer, Architect, Manager, Director
 Who can help
• Your manager
• Architects, Managers

18. Being Reasonable
 Common pitfalls
• Request 10 X the number of features that would fit in a given release
• 80% of features are marked as P1
 A better approach
• Articulate a multi-release vision for the product
• Get the Architects and Directors to embrace and own that vision
• Jointly work with them to define the delivery roadmap
 Over time, develop a feel for (crude) estimations of level of effort
 Involve Architects and Staff Engineers early in the definition
process

19. Being Flexible
 Always keep the big picture in mind
• This is a repeated interaction game – many releases, many products, many
features
 Prioritize judiciously
 Break down features into granular sub-features so that the
essential aspects are not compromised
 Entertain alternate implementations to achieve the same end goals
 If resources are insufficient, offer to make the case to management
for additional investment or reallocation

20. Being Personable
 Interact with Engineers in non-work settings
• Take your Engineering team to lunch
• Explore common interests – sports, movies, etc.
 Make it a point to get to know the (junior) Engineers well
• Drop by their office to chat about what they are working on
• Ask for demos and provide ad-hoc feedback
 Always share positive product feedback
• Forward congratulatory emails regarding sales, deployments, etc.
 Attend Engineering staff meetings on an as-needed basis
 Invite the Engineering Manager to your staff meetings

21. Value provided by the PM - Details
 Establish yourself as the Expert
 Build a Partnership
 Be a Champion

22. Be a Champion
 Things to champion
• The Product
• The Engineering team
 Key Parties to target
• Product – All
• Team – Especially Engineers, Staff Engineers, and Managers
 Who can help
• Your management

23. Champion the Product
 This is part of your normal responsibilities
 The key is to keep Engineering informed and excited
 Present a successful pitch or conference presentation to the
Engineering team
 Share favorable Product Press immediately
 Debrief the Engineering team on conference feedback
 Share clever applications of the product developed for sales deals
or by customers

24. Champion the Engineering team
 Give visibility to key accomplishments
• Especially for Engineers, Staff Engineers, and Managers
• Examples:
— An email to all of PM advertising a brand new feature acknowledging the developers
— An email to PM and Sales Management crediting developers of a particular feature
that was key to winning a deal
 Increase name awareness of the Engineers among your management
during meetings, conversations, etc.
 Nominate Engineers you work with for awards
 Recognize good work by Engineers by conveying your appreciation
to their managers and director

25. Value provided by the PM - Details
 Establish yourself as the Expert
 Build a Partnership
 Be a Champion

26. Summary
 The Goal – A successful Product Reality
 The Context & Structure
 The Keys to Success - Provide value to Engineering
 Expert
 Partner
 Champion
 Questions and Insights

27. Thank you
Atul Suklikar
asuklikar@softrocksystems.com