[TheMaleBrain]

What is a product manager?

As I explained to my daughter when she was 5 year old: "A product manager is the guy who says how things will look, cost, what there features will be and does nothing to actually build the product".

Another good definition from BusinessDictionary:

Quote:

"Person responsible for overseeing all activities and functions associated with a particular product or product family. Also called brand manager in case of consumer goods or services."

What do you need in order to be a product manager?

First and foremost – you have to have a great (Not good, but great) knowledge in your field of expertise. I was in telecom – I knew telecom. All good PMs know their market.

Second – you have to be a people person.
You will work with nerds (R&D), hungry wolves (Sales), cunty bitches (marketing) and little children (management).

Third – Influential personality – almost a must.
All those people have better things to do, most of the time. You will need to drive them without having formal authority. You will also need management to back you up on that.

Fourth – University/college degree.
Unless you founded your own companies or worked in the industry for several years, you must have a STEM (or related) degree. MBA will be useful in bigger corporations.

Pros

•Niche – there aren’t a lot of those. The good once are snatched so fast, their head might spin.
•Mini CEO – that's right. You are actually a CEO within the company. Minus the authority.
•You will learn to game people (See influential personality). You also work with a lot of different people and types.
•If you want to start your own company – you will know exactly how to prepare for it and most of the things to do.
•If you want to move up in the organization, you will have the reputation to show.
• Median pay – 89K$ (w/o bonuses)

Cons

•Responsibility w/o authority
•Pressure and burnout -
Due to R&D not meeting deadline (your problem), marketing demanding copy writes, management demanding sales success (your problem again) . You get the picture...
•Lack of resource – you know what needs to be done to have success. Everyone else might not be on board.
In my case, for four years I did not get any marketing budget. I did what I could, but in the end it was like a road-runner scene

•Small job market – being a niche market, also means that there are less positions available.
•Split personality – working with R&D means you use logical brain, while working with marketing means you use more emotions. Not everyone can make that transition, a few times in a day.

Career path

PMs usually start in R&D. They move to PM because they don't want to stay in "manufacturing" (Yes – R&D is the modern manufacturing position. In software for example you "manufacture" code). Another option is sales support (sales engineers) or product support (engineering/operations/tech project management).

Once you become a PM, you might grow into a senior one (meaning your product line is more important to the company) or you start to move into marketing and become Product marketing manager (If you like marketing).

From there onward you might manage a team of PMs, and then to VP Product or VP marketing eventually.

If you find the sale more interesting you can move there and pursue a sales career.

You might move back to R&D and eventually become VP R&D.

Tips for PM (Taken from a lecture I heard a few years ago from a person who became VP Product):

•Know the future – you should have contingency plans, because R&D will probably not deliver and sales will demand an early release (among other things)

•Quote yourself – He told the story of how he and his boss (the VP Product) went to AT&T and met the CTO team (AT&T was their customer).
The CTO asked what they thought about the future of <insert here>.
His boss said that the trends are something like this and that.
The CTO team was not impressed. "Why do you think so?" they asked him. And he responded: "I wrote it on my blog".
The lecturer told us he could not believe that it will be a valid argument. But they asked for a link and were impressed.
So – quote yourself. You are an expert. Make sure to publish papers and/or articles.

•Collaborate less – Yes, it may sound odd, since most of your work depends on other people.
But in order to get the job done, you will need to collaborate less, and sometimes work by yourself.

•Relax – this is the most critical one.
You know that the apocalypse is coming; you actually hear the steps of the four horseman. Sales already signed a contract with the customer (with fines on late delivery), but the R%D will be late and also will not have the full scope. And it is your fault (You are the PM).
So now what? Are you going to lose sleep over that? Hell NO!
You will make plans. And when the shit hits the fan, you will say: "I have a plan, here is what we do". Everyone will follow, because you will be the only one with an actual plan.

Anyone else who wishes to share on PMs, is highly welcome.

[Phoenix]

Interesting primer.
What tactics do you use for time-matching the sales end to the production end?

[Laner]

Thanks.

What kinds of experience would someone need in order to be hired with no prior PM experience and at an age closer to 40? Keeping in mind having a bachelors degree, product design experience, manufacturing background.

How is the startup scene changing the job field for PM's?

[TheMaleBrain]

(08-18-2015 09:07 AM)Phoenix Wrote:  

Interesting primer.
What tactics do you use for time-matching the sales end to the production end?

Phoenix
Thanks.

Tactics to be used:
1. If your product is not the main product line - look for the innovators among sales persons. Work with them.
2. You go out to meet customers (with sales) and pitch the product/release. This is done according to sale cycle (if the sale cycle is 3 month. you go out 2-3 month before the release).
3. Publish - talk to analists, the press, write on the corporate blog.
Spread the word.
4. Formal launch - in an organized corporation there will be a formal launch - an actual process with resources to help you.

[TheMaleBrain]

(08-18-2015 11:20 AM)Laner Wrote:  

Thanks.

What kinds of experience would someone need in order to be hired with no prior PM experience and at an age closer to 40? Keeping in mind having a bachelors degree, product design experience, manufacturing background.

How is the startup scene changing the job field for PM's?

Laner
It is extremly hard to be hired to a PM position from outside a company w/o prior experience. Usualy PMs are made from the ranks of the corporation.
However - if you have been in R&D working directly with PMs (e.g. System engineer), or have come from technical sales - it is optional.
Having product design experinece is good - you will need to highlight your skills of dealing with people and the organization. You will also need to show leadership skills. Getting the position will mostly depend on your experience in the specific field of the product (and how you show/demonstrate it).

As per the startup scene -
Most startups today are about s/w (a lot of apps but not all of them). The PM skills now include UI/UX and being experienced (or familiar) with agile methodology. If you have code experience - great (better than R&D experience if the product is not just s/w).
This also reduced the relevance of the PM in the startups. Startups are about R&D mostly, and PM comes when you are more established. So it is looked upon as "he wants process? we don't have time/resources for that"