Where are we going? And how did I get in this hand

basket? Real advice for success in your first year as a product

manager

Gwen Bender gwenb@pmcnw.org @Gwendalyn.Bender

Welcome to Product Management!

Product Management

is…

In 6 months or less you need to

Know your customer(s)

Know the value of your product

Know your market

Know your market position

Get Educated

Become BFF’s With…

Sales

If you have a sales team get to know them. Become a resource for them

Ask them what their clients want & what the current sales hurdles are

Listen in on sales calls. Ask them for their most used materials

Don’t forget about the offsite folks!

Engineering

Ask about what technical debt is hanging out there

What is the feature they’d most like to develop? What do they hate working on?

Give them some insight into what clients want & where the market is going

Integrate yourself into their process

But Make Sure You Don’t….

ò  Sales

ò  Pay to much attention when they say “the competition has better features & the prices are to high”

ò  Make them dependent on you

ò  Don’t make process exceptions unless you’re ready for them to become the rule

ò  Do respect sales is hard but call them on their bullshit

ò  Engineering

ò  Don’t get into the technical weeds unless it actually matters – your job is the what & why, not the how. You may have come from engineering but that’s not your job now

ò  Become the go between between engineering & everyone else

ò  Do find a balance between new feature development & servicing the backlog

Pay Attention to Your Environment

Growth And Transition Are Opportunities

If You Don’t Ask You Wont Get It…

…If You Ask Poorly You Also

Wont Get It

Set Your Boundaries Now

Fake it ‘til you make it!