1
Leadership in Product Management
Ivan ChongSVPMAMay 7, 2003
2
Informatica Corporate Overview
Corporate Founded (1993); Nasdaq: INFA (1999)
Over 800 employees worldwide
Financials 2000: $154 million revenue; 147% growth
2001: $197 million revenue; 28% (YoY) growth
2002: $195 million revenue; Flat in a down economy
Partners Over 300 sales, marketing and implementation partners
Including: i2, IBM, JDE, PeopleSoft, Siebel, SAP, WebM
Products
Industry-leading solutions for deploying business analytics across the extended enterprise: - Data integration - Data Warehouses - Business Intelligence - Analytic Applications
Customers Over 1700 companies worldwide
79 of the Fortune 100 and 80%+ of Dow Jones
3
What does it take to be a Great Product Manager?
Winning in the Marketplace?
Writing great MRD’s, Functional Specs, or Product Availability Matrices?
Infinite bandwidth?
Giving great demos?
Running flawless beta programs?
4
Good is the Enemy of Great
Customer Visits/Meetings
Partner Visits/Meetings
Beta Programs
Product Requirements Documents (PRDs)
Strategic Competitive Analysis
Benchmarks
Concepts Documents
Demos
Features and Benefits Documents
Platform Availability Matrices (PAMs)
Product Presentations (PowerPoint)
Roadmaps
Technical Briefs
Release Management
Training
Industry or Partner Conferences
Usability Requirements Documents
Functional/Design Reviews
Product Marketing Coordination
Support Coordination
5
Ideas/BusinessTheory Values
EEmotional
Energy/Edge
3
C 2000 by Noel Tichy The University of MichiganTeachable Point of View and The Leadership Engine are registered trademarks of Tichy Cohen Associates
A Teachable Point Of View ™
Product Management TPOV
6
Ideas, a Product Manager’s political capital
Be the expert on
the CustomerBe the expert on
the Product
Be the expert on
the MarketBe the expert on
the EngineeringTeam
7
Be the Expert on the Customer
Study the Research Reports
Identify Customer Pain Points…do not merely relay requests
Understand the Customer Mindset What drives their decisions? What other choices do they have?
Communicate Customer Anecdotes
8
IT Headlines (from searchCIO.com)
“Tips for Legacy System Integration”
“Going offshore is the IT thing to do”
“New Code Red Variant is even more dangerous”
“When CIO’s and CEO’s disagree”
“The ‘real-time enterprise’ needs a fast network”
“Who’s responsible for security problems? – that’s right, you are”
“Forrester: CIO’s should beware the penguin stampede”
“Study gives IT in UK an ‘F’”
“IT drives productivity growth”
“ERP consolidation efforts may cost more than you think”
“Study: BI not being used intelligently”
9
Be the Expert on the Product
Install Your Product
Use Your Product
Demo Your Product
Adopt New Releases of Your Product ASAP
10
Be the Expert on the Market
Know your competitors
Know your partners
Know about other products that touch your product
Know about other products your customers use
11
Be the Expert on the Engineering Team
Stay on top of reality in the project Rely on multiple sources of information: QA, Project
Manager, Architects, Coders
Understand the Engineering mindset How are decisions really made? How much detail is needed to gain traction?
12
Ideas/BusinessTheory Values
EEmotional
Energy/Edge
3
C 2000 by Noel Tichy The University of MichiganTeachable Point of View and The Leadership Engine are registered trademarks of Tichy Cohen Associates
A Teachable Point Of View ™
Product Management TPOV
13
Operational Values
Definition Criteria under which decisions are prioritized Should encourage behavior successful to the business
Prioritization Must be able to make tough calls and be decisive on
tradeoffs
Alignment of Values Critical for Gaining Traction
14
Foundational Values
Traits of an Exceptional Leader- based loosely on Good to Great, Collins Copyright © 2001
Passionately dedicated to the success of the product Exceptional Work Ethic Quick to deflect credit when things go well Quick to take responsibility when things go poorly Display compelling modesty, are self-effacing/understated
Can you inspire those that you lead?
15
Product Management TPOV
Ideas/BusinessTheory Values
EEmotional
Energy/Edge
3
C 2000 by Noel Tichy The University of MichiganTeachable Point of View and The Leadership Engine are registered trademarks of Tichy Cohen Associates
A Teachable Point Of View ™
16
Emotional Energy and Edge
Goal: Motivate Cross Functional Team Members
Enthusiasm and Work Ethic
Vision Case for Change Vivid picture of how much better things can be Realistic roadmap for how to get there
Edge: Ability to make tough Yes/No Decisions
17
2 Teachable Points of View
1) Your Product
2) Your Responsibilities
i.e., Define your role as Product Manager, or else someone else will.
18
Example: Information Supply Chain
Product Strategy
Product Management
Engineering
aProduct
Marketing
aCorp/BrandMarketing
Sales
ProfessionalServices
Sales Support
TechnicalSupport
19
Example: Information Supply Chain
Work Proactively
Streamline Work Efforts
Educate Cross Functional Team on Breadth of Responsibilities
20
The Leadership Imperative
Not so GreatProduct Manager
GreatProduct Manager
Information Incomplete view on the situation
Information comes to you
Decisions Left out of the loop
Decisions require your input
Team Interaction Relegated to “gopher”
Do’ers come to you
Ideas/BusinessTheory
Values
EEmotional
Energy/Edge
3
21