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PRODUCT MANAGEMENT IS NOT OPTIONAL

Rich Mironov

EL-SIG 21Aug2014

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•  Veteran  product  manager/exec/strategist  •  Business  models,  pricing,  agile  •  Organizing  product  organiza8ons  

•  HP,  Tandem,  Sybase,  6  startups    as  “product  guy”  or  CEO  

•  The  Art  of  Product  Management    •  First  Product  Camp,  first  agile    product  manager/owner  tracks  

ABOUT RICH MIRONOV

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•  Product management is about doing the right things. Engineering is about doing things right.

•  Prioritization is political and strategic as well as algorithmic

•  Symptoms of weak product management •  How Engineering can help

AGENDA

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Product Mgmt ♥︎

Engineering

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•  Delivers market-relevant whole products •  Targets segments, not individual customers •  Protects the plan but listens for surprises •  “Combines technical AND market decisions to drive

product revenue and competitive advantage”

WHAT DOES A PRODUCT MANAGER DO?

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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 & Customers Development

Marketing& Sales

Executives

Product Management

WHAT DOES A PRODUCT MANAGER DO?

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•  Drive* whole product strategy and revenue •  Make* hard trade-offs among complex choices •  Communicate and align around (current) plan

* Get the smartest people/ideas into the room * We collaborate but it’s not a democracy * Take personal responsibility for market outcomes

HOW PRODUCT MANAGERS ADD VALUE

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STARTS

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Can fill out paperwork (user stories) all day long… •  But decisions require strategy and market analysis •  Bottom-up story ranking never creates strategy

•  Need whole thoughts, coherent/cohesive products, economic justification

DELIVERABLES ARE INSUFFICIENT

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•  Building the wrong product •  Unnecessary features •  Excessive paperwork or documentation •  Partially done work (WIP) •  Task switching •  Waiting for information •  Defects

         -­‐  aIer  Mary  and  Tom  Poppendieck  *My  SWAG  

SEVEN WASTES OF SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

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•  Building the wrong product (100% waste*) •  Unnecessary features (20-50% waste*) •  Excessive paperwork or documentation •  Partially done work (WIP) •  Task switching •  Waiting for information •  Defects

         -­‐  aIer  Mary  and  Tom  Poppendieck  *My  SWAG  w w w . M I R O N O V . c o m

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Product manager or product owner? Titles don’t matter.

“Person who makes hard trade-offs about what we should BUILD and MARKET/SELL given LIMITED RESOURCES in order to deliver REVENUE”

In practice, most product owners work at the scrum/story/feature level, not the product/portfolio/revenue level

RICH’S AGILE BIAS

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•  Deep product usage experience •  Huge premium on technical chops, story writing •  No requirement for market-side experience •  No demand for

organizational “blocking” skills

•  Well aligned with “Internal IT” decision-making style

HOW DEVELOPMENT MANAGERS TYPICALLY PICK PRODUCT OWNERS

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“As  a  programmer  who  knows  nothing  about  being  a  technical  product  manager,  what  should  I  learn  before  interviewing  for  /  transi<oning  into  a  technical  product  manager  role?”  

 -­‐  Real  Quora  ques8on  to  Rich  12

"As  a  professional  race  car  driver  who  knows  nothing  about  so@ware,  what  should  I  know  before  interviewing  for  an  

enterprise  so@ware  architect  role?"  

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•  Customer/field demands always far outstrip resources •  Discard 90%+ of requests

•  Decisions are semi-quantitative •  Huge error bars on revenue impact, market

reactions, development work, support costs

•  We must constantly defend product architecture •  People and organizations matters

WHY IS PRIORITIZATION HARD?

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•  Logic and facts are not enough •  Sales teams get paid for

closing individual deals •  HIPPO

•  Responsibility without authority •  Keep the process moving

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT: INHERENTLY POLITICAL

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•  Pulls into product station every day •  From customers, sales, execs, engineers, analysts…

•  Delivers hundreds of “good ideas” each day •  One or two might be new and earthshaking

•  Always >> engineering capacity

GOOD IDEA TRAIN

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RESEARCH  /  RANK  

FEATURE REQUEST CYCLE

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SHIP  

INPUT  

PM  QUICK  SORT  

BUILD  

Customers  Sales/Prospects  Support  Execs  LeanUX  Analysts  Compe8tors  …  

~95%  

~5%  

Size,  impact,  biz  case,    goals,  tech    debt…  

“DEEP”  BACKLOG    

WIP  

TOP  OF  STACK  

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•  Japanese alternatives to “NO”

•  Product koan: "Thank you! That's a really interesting idea. Let me put it into the product backlog so we can address it when appropriate."

HUMBLY ACCEPTING INPUT

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1.  High interrupt rates 2.  Lack of problem context 3.  Unstable backlog/roadmap 4.  Missing/understaffed

product management

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS THAT LOOK LIKE ENG’G PROBLEMS

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“Is it done yet? “Who can handle this urgent fix?” “Where in the backlog is my item?” “We need to size another hot-deal feature.” “This one is really easy, probably < 10 lines of code, so can fit into the current sprint.” “Competitor A is going to announce teleportation. That can’t be hard to do, so I promised it to a customer.”

1. DEVELOPMENT INTERRUPTS

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RANDOM INTERRUPTS DRAIN PRODUCTIVITY AND MORALE

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Your product manager should buffer everything •  Except P0/system down

How you can help: •  All developers point all interrupts to

product manager •  Even (especially) executives •  Allocate time for collaborative rough-sizing

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•  “What problem are we trying to solve? Who’s the user?”

•  “I’m working on a story, but don’t know where it fits” •  “This feels like a HOW instead of a WHAT”

2. LACK OF PRODUCT CONTEXT

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Your product manager provides why, not just what •  Problem statements, personas, strategy, context…

You collaborate on solutions and trade-offs

How you can help: •  Work one issue at a time •  Trust and working agreements, not legalism •  Accept reasonable answers (there are no certainties)

WE SOLVE PROBLEMS, NOT JUST WORK ON TASKS

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Typically symptom of bigger issues •  Sales or execs overdriving product management •  Bottom-up prioritization instead of strategy •  Weak business justification/market analysis •  Excessive technical

debt

3. UNSTABLE BACKLOG/ROADMAP

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Product managers “own” roadmap/backlog… … but need lots of support

How you can help: •  Don’t make it personal •  Identify what specific work/feature

will be delayed. What will we push? •  Jointly plan for likely interrupts

ROADMAPPING IS AN ONGOING (POLITICAL) PROCESS

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Usually outside Eng direct control But huge impact on product/company Eng:PM of 10:1 or 12:1, but not 25:1 What you can do to help: •  Recognize the symptoms •  De-personalize the problem •  Escalate, escalate, escalate: demand

more (or better) product management

4. PRODUCT MANAGEMENT IS MISSING OR UNDERSTAFFED

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IMHO:    

Development  teams  should  be  rio<ng  in  the  hallways  about  

underpowered  product  management/ownership  

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•  We’re part of the same team •  Good product management boosts development

productivity, morale and revenue •  Development pays a huge price for missing/

understaffed product management •  Your product manager doesn’t expect

a thank-you (but would love one)

TAKEAWAYS

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CONTACT Rich Mironov, CEO Mironov Consulting 233 Franklin St, Suite #308 San Francisco, CA 94102

RichMironov  

@RichMironov

Rich@Mironov.com  

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