On March 1st, it will be exactly 5 months since I abruptly packed up my belongings in San Francisco and moved to the Big Apple. (It will also be my birthday, but more on that later.) Settling into my new surroundings has been exciting and adventurous, and re-acclimating to the city culture that I was raised in has been an interesting experience. Oh, and remembering what “cold” is — that’s been rather interesting as well!
On my morning walk to work today, it suddenly occurred to me — it won’t always be cold in New York. Obvious enough, right? Well, after having lived in California for the past six years, I’ve grown accustomed to having only one season: perpetual summer. When I moved to NYC, I arrived with the expectation of snow and sleet and rain, and although it’s actually been a lovely winter this year (apparently), it’s still been between 20 – 40 degrees every day. But not this morning.
I got a bit of a late start today (probably because I was laughing my ass off at the Comic Strip until about midnight last night). I showered, poured a cup of French drip, and put on an episode of the Simpsons to listen to as I got ready (fun fact: it was “Bart of Darkness” — such a classic). At 8:30am (about an hour later than usual), I wrapped my scarf, grabbed my leather gloves and headed out for the 3.2 mile walk to my office in Bryant Park. As I stepped out of my building, it became immediately clear that I would NOT need my gloves and scarf this morning. As I unwrapped myself from my winter essentials, I watched the sun glittering on the East River for a minute, soaking in the warm sun rays and just imagining how amazing my walk will be in a month or so, when it’s consistently lovely.
Looking forward to saying good-bye to winter wear!
When I first started walking to work back in November, I would try to go as far down 1st avenue as I could, because generally speaking, the further “in” on Manhattan you go, the busier and more crowded it gets. I’d usually get to the 59th street skycars and then start zig-zagging over to 5th ave. There’s actually a concept called “Manhattan Geometry,” because Manhattan is the only place in the world where you will walk exactly the same amount of mileage regardless of route. For instance, I will always walk exactly 3.2 miles to work no matter which streets or avenues I take. So I used to walk with the lights, figuring it was quickest. Well, that may be true, but about as month ago, I realized that I could walk through Central Park every morning if I just went straight over on 79th. Since that revelation, my morning walk has become indispensable. And now that it’s getting warmer, I have only more to look forward to!
Central Park in the morning light
I feel so grateful that I can walk to work in such a beautiful park in such an amazing city. And although I get urges to live in pretty much every neighborhood I visit here, I’m starting to think I’ll never be able to live downtown, because that will mean I won’t be able to enjoy Central Park as often! I’m looking forward to spring (and then summer!) with renewed excitement!
The goal of my basics of product management post was to help inform those who are new to product management (on a high level) what a PM is expected to deliver. Upon reflection, I realized that I should further address the issue of other departments not knowing or understanding the role of product manager, as that can deeply affect your job satisfaction. Sadly, this often results in product management being treated as a “catch-all” or an intellectual janitor — when one department makes a mess or gets in over their heads, PM is expected to come in and clean it up. This is a terrible state for any company to be in, namely because it hinders Product’s ability to be forward-thinking, and thorough in its market research.
You see, PM needs to be forward-thinking at all times — even when analyzing past and current releases, PM must be doing so in the context of the greater product strategy. When PM becomes subjugated in this manner, everyone loses. The more time the product manager is bogged down with jobs that other departments should be handling, the more future product releases will suffer. It may not be evident in the next quarter, or even the one after that…but mismanaged products tend to have far-reaching and long lasting consequences.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are not leading Product Management, then DO NOT circumvent your manager! It is their responsibility to effect this change in the organization, and bypassing them will most likely cause you to end up in hot water — or worse.
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Product Management (PM) – Those who listen to the market and articulate its problems and future needs in the form of requirements.
What does product management do?
Overview:
- Researches customer need for the product.
- Evaluates competitive situation.
- Determines how product would be sold to customers, and develops a support plan to do so.
- Sets prices for product.
- Directs development process to ensure product will meet customer needs.
- Works with sales, marketing, support, and engineering to ensure groups can meet customer needs.
- Works with marketing on marketing plan; provides information and participates in discussions.
- Post-launch, gathers intelligence about how product is being received by customers, continues to supply marketing with data, and conceptualizes new products to develop and sell.
Specific activities:
- Listens to the market and creates roadmap and future product needs in the form of requirements.
- Works hand-in-hand with product development to ensure product requirements are delivered to spec and on-time.
- Communicates roadmap to customers/market.
- Establishes overall product portfolio vision/direction, including Technology Assessment and Architecture.
- Creates and maintains business case for each product and overall portfolio.
- Initiates market research and sizes markets.
- Specifies market requirements for current and future products by conducting market research supported by on-going visits to customers and non-customers.
- Writes detailed product specifications for use by Product Development.
- Prioritizes product requirements/specifications based on business case and PD capacity.
- Maintains product family roadmap and monitors Product Development schedules.
- Serves as solution/technical expert when dealing with thought leaders, analysts, and press.
- Provides content/copy for promotional materials and sales training.
- Provides competitive product analysis.
- Monitors industry innovations and technology.
- Analyzes product performance.
- Documents product profitability and operational metrics by tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
- Maintains key industry associations, preferably participating in relevant consortiums or standards committees (or by overseeing/coordinating other company personnel that participate).
- Provides support in development of marketing communications, including sales collateral public relations, industry publications, customer correspondence, trade shows & analyst tours.
- Writes white papers and technical communiqués as needed.
- Provides content for product collateral and presentations.
Ownership:
Product Roadmap
- Product portfolio vision/direction.
- Roadmap defines:
- What we build.
- When we build it.
- Why we are building it.
- Who will be buying it.
- Why they will buy it.
Operational Metrics (Key Performance Indicators)
- Product financial performance
- Product profitability.
- Acceptance Testing
- Are product requirements meeting goals?
- Delivery
- Is product available in a timely, high quality manner after release with availability well-communicated?
- Support
- Is Product Support meeting the needs of our customers?
- Customer satisfaction (based on Net Promoter Score).
- Not responsibility of PM, but should be asking for this info on a regular basis.
Thought Leadership
- Product Management are the product champions.
- Part of their responsibility is to be looking forward.
- Out-of-the-box thinking
- Thought leaders challenge the status quo.
- Always looking for a better way.
- Maybe disruptive.
- New market opportunities
- Discuss with analysts, editors, researchers.
- Bring technical view to discussions with analysts, editors, researchers.
Technology Assessment
- Technology Assessment is both responsibility of Product Management and Product Development / Engineering
- Product Management performs Technology Assessment in order to:
- Evaluate potential acquisition.
- Relevance to market acceptance/adoption.
- New trends and opportunities.
- Product Development / Engineering performs Technology Assessment to deliver required functionality.
I remember telling myself that 2011 would be my best year yet last January 1st, and I’m looking toward 2012 with the same optimism and enthusiasm! 2010 had been a rather placid year for me, and I was ready for some action. Here are my 2011 monthly highlights:
January: Social uprising hits home — literally — as friends and family are evacuated from my hometown of el Ma’adi, Egypt. On a more positive note, I obtained a certificate in Practical Product Management from Pragmatic Marketing, Inc., and launched the Mindjet Developer Network website, as well as revamped the Developer Program. My efforts led to a 300%+ increase in membership and the development of over 15 new software add-ins.
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February: Flew out to DC to interview with a “deal-of-the-day” website giant, and ended up turning down their offer. Sometimes even when the money and the role are right, the company culture just feels wrong. In the end, I’m very glad I didn’t take the position.
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March: What can I say? March is always awesome because it’s my birthday month! This year was especially special because I drove down to Pasadena to celebrate my pal LM’s bridal shower.
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April: Drove down to LA with my BF to pick up his two best friends, and then onto Vegas for some gamblin’ and the Hoover Dam for some history to make for an epic birthday trip! [Sorry, no Vegas pics allowed! ;)]
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May: Ran Bay2Breakers and attended LM’s absolutely amazing wedding. Definitely one of the major highlights of the year.
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June: Two major product launches in one month — you can believe I hadn’t slept for at least a month. Version 1.0 of Mindjet for iOS launched on the 14th, and MindManager for Mac launched on the 23rd!
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July: Smat’s goodbye party as they head off to Germany.
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August: Traveled to the Big Apple for an interview; spent a couple of weeks exploring New England with the BF and reacquainting myself with the Atlantic.
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September: Accepted a new job in a new city; resigned for the second time in my life.
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October: Moved to NYC on the 2nd, and managed to find, sign for, and move into my new apartment on the Upper East Side within 6 days. That was intense (and quite possibly some kind of record). I also founded the very first ProductCamp San Francisco, an annual educational and networking unconference for local product management and marketing professionals, on 10/22.
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November & December: A few visits from friends and family in the area, and a LOT of exploring in my new city!
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I hope you all had just as epic of a story to tell for #Rewind2011! If not, there’s always 2012 to make up for it.
After many years of being a loyal BlackBerry user and evangelist, I am officially leaving the RIM platform for greener pastures. The reason? Because BlackBerry has simply let me down one too many times. Thus far, I’ve been the most patient and forgiving user a product could hope for — I could put up with the lack of quality apps in their app store, the horrendous — and quite frankly, embarrassing — browsing experience, and the inaccurate scrollpad, but the rapid decline in both hardware and software is absolutely inexcusable.
Now I just have to decide — am I an Android girl, or an iPhone sell-out lady?
Many people don’t realize that product management is a relatively new role in organizations. Until quite recently, different aspects of product management were performed by a myriad of functions across organizations. Business analysts, project managers, program managers, quality assurance engineers, and customer support all pulled together to fill the void and carry a product from inception to launch. But even now that “Product Manager” has become a common position in many industries (and quite the commodity for recruiters), the role remains unclear to even those who fill it. Many product managers still seem to think of product management’s role as a glorified Project Manager, or some amalgamation of User Experience, Quality Assurance and Customer Support. That’s why I’ve compiled a short-list of product management basics below as a guideline.
An effective product manager is responsible for accomplishing the following things:
Identifying Market Opportunity
We’re the folks who determine whether anyone actually wants to buy what the company’s selling. We determine market problems, investigate the competitive space, and thoroughly analyze industry trends. We are the folks who should be up-to-date on every single detail that could affect what our customer base wants or how it behaves.
We’re also supposed to do customer visits, prospect visits and attend industry events; generally speaking, this is where product management is least successful. Although PMs prefer to send out surveys, pore through customer emails and occasionally take a customer phone call, it’s not only their fault the profession is largely lacking in this area. Many companies are not willing to invest in gathering this (the best) kind of data. Product Managers need to attend events and spend time with current and prospective customers to find out what does and doesn’t work about the product. This is where VPs of Product need to step up and fight for the budget to allow their team to accomplish these tasks, as well as to push their team to do these visits and events on a regular basis. It’s best to set a quarterly quota of visits the team must make — it keeps ’em honest.
Defining the Product Roadmap
Product Managers must define exactly what goes into the product and at what times. We don’t technically decide when each new featureset will be released, considering Engineering determines the product RTM date and Marketing is responsible for deciding the exact GA, but we can heavily influence those dates, if need be.
We define each release to include some business and strategic opportunities, a few customer suggestions and as many bug fixes as we can squeeze in. The only problem when gathering market feedback is that everyone thinks they’re an expert, and each person’s pet peeve becomes a PRIORITY 1 MUST HAVE from their point of view, and the release is a disaster if it’s not included. Product managers must learn to hear the noise, and see the trend. And slap a few wrists.
Gathering Requirements
This is the most well-understood portion of a product manager’s role. Most people would identify writing requirements as the product manager’s domain. What they don’t see is the backend of the PM’s effort. We not only gather requirements, but we define use cases and user flows, argue business cases, and become masters in the black art of pricing.
Monitoring Product Performance
Even after release, the product manager’s job is not done. We spend a big chunk of our time tracking released products, because it gives us better insight into the subsequent releases. We follow market and customer KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to help with forecasting future releases. KPIs consist of various performance metrics, such as regional market performance, market segment consumption, % revenue from new products, % revenue from new customers, ASP (average selling price), customer usage, number of trials and subsequent rate of conversion, and renewals. All the KPIs help inform the Win/Loss analysis, which marks the beginning of another product lifecyle. And then we do it all over again. 🙂
Of course, I recognize that I am leaving out key components of product management, such as interpersonal and communication skills, leading without direct authority, managing up, growing feature backlogs, technical aptitude, and a great many other things, but I’ve touched on the four basic activities an effective product manager must perform in order to launch successful products.
The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.
– Attributed to Mark Twain
Summertime in San Francisco is something of an anomaly. Visitors come from far and wide expecting to experience some of that world-famous California sun, only to be chilled by San Francisco’s unrelenting wind and fog. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, San Francisco literally becomes a city in the clouds.
It’s interesting to see how people initially cope with this sort of unexpected season. Some people come here and pile on giant fur coats, hats and scarves. Others try to deny the weather by donning t-shirts and rocking Wayfarers. But the spirit of SF’s summer chill is definitely best instilled in our TV weatherpeople. We recently had a mini-heatwave in mid-July this year (read: it hit 75° for about three days), and the weatherlady assured her listeners that “we’ll be done with this warm weather soon — by the end of the week we’ll have our cloudy skies back.” And, yes, 75° constitutes a heat wave in SF.
You do eventually come to love the “Groundhog’s Day” effect though. While the rest of the country is struggling with scorching temps, hurricanes and unthinkable mugginess, San Fran quietly remains a steady 66°. When the whole country is fearing tornadoes and hurricanes, you realize it’s kind of nice that SF can be trusted to offer highs and lows that are within 5° of each other every single day. It may not be fun, but at least it’s reliable!
I’m very proud to announce the date for the inaugural ProductCamp San Francisco! With the help of some industry veterans, I’m hosting the very first PCamp SF at the Mindjet headquarters on Saturday, October 22nd, 2011.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with this wildly popular phenomenon, ProductCamp San Francisco is a FREE collaborative, user-organized unconference focused on Product Management and Marketing topics.
At a ProductCamp everyone participates in some way: presenting a session, leading a round table discussion or showcasing a best practice. Others help with logistics, organizing sessions, or setting up/cleaning up. This is a collaborative event designed to be a fun, rewarding and unique experience.
ProductCamps have no predetermined agenda. Sessions are chosen on the day by voting on the topics that most interest you (propose a topic).
For more information (or to sponsor or volunteer), check out our website!
Welcome to the inaugural posting of Stephanie’s blog! I will focus most posts around business and marketing topics, as well as document important events in my personal life, including my extensive travels. Think of it as an autobiography illuminated by posts following my personal interests: business, marketing, high-technology, and international relations.
23, Feb, 2012
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Tags: bart of darkness, city culture, leather gloves, perpetual summer, skycars, warm sun
